Chinese New Years (part four) Trip to TaiChung

I went on a trip to Taichung with my host family.

On the way their my host mother bought this lunch for me. It's so perfectly Taiwanese.

This was my favorite. Fried Chicken, egg, ham, cheese, Taiwanese mayo, small bean sprouts. Soooo good.

"zha ji zan min zhi"

Milk tea.

"nai cha"

Scallion pancake wrapped around egg.

"Dan bing"

Three hour car drive.

We went to their friend's house. Their house was really beautiful and they kept giving me food. I really felt welcomed. At one point, I decided I wanted to get my camera from the car. My host mother also wanted to get hers. We are rather joint by our love of taking pictures. But we got really distracted by their neighbor's yard. You see, they had a garden and looked just so picture perfect Taiwanese. So even though we said we'd only be gone for a minute, we ended up disappearing for over an hour. XD My host mother is so funny like that. I really enjoyed it. So we went into the neighbor's yard and took a bunch of pictures. And then the person who lived there came and my host mother befriended her and we took pictures sitting on their bench. Which was beautiful. After that we went on a walk and found more picture perfect spots.  

Christmas Tree like flower pot. 

This was the friend's house.

Taichung isn't city, it's the countryside.

The first time I ever saw things growing other than tomatoes and corn. 

Cabbage. 

I love this. It's so hard to believe it's a real place.

Wow.

Lettuce. 

A Taipei girl in the country. 

Again, the family's home. So beautiful.

It seems like every Taiwanese family has one of these super cool tea sets. When I get married it's also my goal to have.  

After talking and eating lunch with the family, we went with the daughters to their University, which is so beautiful, married couples take pictures there. 

BUT, I cannot upload photos because the wifi isn't working on my phone lately, for some weird reason. So please wait until I find I way to solve the problem.

Chinese New Years! (Part three) 台中！Taichung!

So I did I a lot calligraphy during Chinese New Year Vacation. It was cool because my host grandfather came and practiced with me.  I will put more pictures up for this later.

Anyway, this character: Fu meaning fortune. Was my calligraphy goal. Because around this time of year, people hang this upside down on their doors to invite fortune into their homes. I want to give it to my host family.

These are my brushes. 

The next day we went to a Thai restaurant. I asked my host mother why we were eating Thai food on Chinese New Years and she said it was because we eat Chinese food all year and today is a special day. XD

But it was cool because I had never eaten Thai food before. 

It's a famous restaurant.

ANYWAY, that same day we went to a temple. Those of you who have talked to me off the computer will know, I LOVE going to temples. 

I told my host father I had never burned paper money and wanted to try. He seemed really happy that I took interest. He's very knowledgeable about Buddhism. So we donated some money, took some paper money and took some incense. We went around the temple praying at every alter and then I asked a question to the gods, and then I burned paper money. I love doing stuff like this. It's so cool. And it makes me feel so peaceful. 

You burn paper money for your relatives that are no longer with you. So that they will have money and be able to be happy where they are. And you burn money to thank the gods you prayed to. 

It just such a beautiful, healthy place to spend time at. 

You burn the money in here

This is the paper money

To light the incense.

I turned it on for you!

I love this picture.

People give food to their departed relatives and the gods.

ceiling

My host father found these things on a table and gave them to me. More about that later.