Criss-crossing the city of Taipei turned out to be an excellent way to spend a long Memorial Day weekend. A welcome getaway from the everyday and a much needed escape from the mainland. With 4 nights and 4 days in Taipei we barely scratched the surface. We left planning return trips to check out a few sights we missed this time around and even get out of the city to the coast.
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| our first night loving taipei food! |
We were slowed down a little by R's recent knee injury (wherein we don't actually know what he did or when just that his knee hurts). You would barely notice his limp, but it does change the pace of life. He has been trying to keep off it as much as he can, which isn't much in Asia. So we were forced to skip out on all the great hiking suggestions we received. "Next time, next time," we said. My biggest disappointment was that the gondola that takes you from the Taipei Zoo up into the tea plantations on the mountside of MaoKong was out of service for the last half of May for repairs. "Next time, next time."
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| street corner literally covered in plants near the liberal arts university |
And there has to be a next time. Because Taiwan is an amazing place to visit (and probably to live?). We caught ourselves turning off the main streets to peer down alleyways and marvel at the tropical plant life spilling over balconies. Everything was clean- remember all my tales of caution about Asian bathrooms? Put an asterisk by Taiwan. No squatties, impecably clean, always had paper, hand soap. I know, you're not super interested in this difference in bathrooms across Asia, but if you live on the mainland you'll raise an eyebrow at this. People were orderly and laidback and just happy living their lives.
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| alleyway in the middle of the city- the photo can't quite capture how tropical and alive the city felt |
We knew going into this trip that we ran the risk of comparing Shenyang and Taipei endlessly, and it was hard to keep from differentiating mostly due to sheer delight. Oh- they line up for the subway cars, huh. Oh, they wear seatbelts in the taxis, huh. Hey, where's all the trash? How many people are going to stop and ask in perfect English if they can help us find our way?
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| night marketing |
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| another alleyway |
Try as we might, thoughts of what living in Taipei could be like kept creeping in. I guess that's going to be the new normal when we travel now. Especially to international cities, it will be hard to escape thoughts of what being assigned there would look like for us. I think that's one element I love about this foreign service life. The dreaming and the adventure of what may come.
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| the line was around the block for the radish cakes but R waited |
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| fried radish cakes- SO AMAZING, only $0.85 & well worth the wait! |
We took time together at a couple tea houses to spend the afternoons thinking through our values. This is a practice that we've really embraced. It started 2 years ago over Memorial Day weekend in a little cabin near the Nantahala National Forest in Graham County, NC. We write down separately things we want to be true of our lives over the next 5 years, and then discuss them and merge our lists roughly ordering them by degree of importance.
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| R considers our tea options |
In the years since the inaugural list, we basically review our first set of values, thank God for how he's worked in and through those values and make amendments as to where we feel like he's leading us to next. We try to cover all grounds- spiritual, professional, relational, financial, physical health, even our passions and interests with delving into hospitality, stewardship, and focus in the community and local church.
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| starting off our values discussion with a little tea pick me up at a quaint tea house |
That first run at our values was really what set us up to follow the Lord into the foreign service. We looked at where we'd been and threw the nets open wide about where we might go. When the opportunity came we knew it was in line with what we'd been praying about.
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| taipei! |
So if you're wondering what we did sight-seeing wise in Taipei, check out my next post. I'll give you a sneak peek the answer is mostly eat, which is why I'll spare you the minute by minute play by play and instead make a few recommendations as to what we'd do again and what we'd skip. Hope you enjoyed the long weekend!
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