Maria in Taiwan: February 2011

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Birthday Bash!

After starting the semester with a 6-day school week (cruel, right?), I threw myself a good, ol' fashioned KTV birthday party!

With Kelly's help, we reserved the VIP room for 4 hours at Luodong's swankiest KTV joint -- which included a private KTV room and unlimited access to the 24-hour buffet.

This was the first time this many of the Yilan ETAs had gotten together to KTV and it was A BLAST!! Several LETs and Taiwanese friends were also in attendance, making it all that much more fun!

It was probably some of the most fun I've had ever and totally renewed my deep and passionate love of karaoke.

They totally practice this at home...

You go, Glen Coco!

Get dooown!

Lantern Festival 2011

Last week, a few of us made the epic journey (really, it was pretty nuts!) up into the mountains for the annual lantern festival.

From what I understand, the lantern festival marks the last day of the Lunar New Year celebrations. People buy or make their own lanterns, write their hopes and wishes for the new year on the outside, attach a stack of gasoline-soaked paper money to the inside, then light and release! If your lantern makes it to the sky, your wishes will come true! Sadly, not all the lanterns make it -- some end up exploding into flames!

The entire night was incredibly surreal - red lanterns floating away into the misty night sky. I've never felt more like I was in an anime movie. This festival has been my favorite so far, definitely a "must-see" if you're ever in Taiwan!

So surreal and beautiful

Attaching the paper money to our lantern

It was packed!

Our lantern made it!

Others weren't so lucky....

Is this real life?

Vacation part 2/3: Thailand

The day after returning from Taroko, five Yilan ETAs and I exchanged our "business casual" weekend attire for shorts and T-shirts and headed out to Thailand!

This was my third trip to the Kingdom of Smiles, having been a Rotary Exchange Student there in 2004-2005 and returning for a brief visit in 2009. It felt awesome not only to return to the sunshine and delicious food but to be able to show off the country to my friends.

After spending a day seeing the Bangkok sites, our group split up -- while four kids flew north to Chiang Mai, and I hopped on a plane south to the beach!

We did a 3-day snorkeling trip on the Similan Islands, a protected National Park made up of seven islands in the Andaman Sea. We saw barracudas and hairy chicken crabs!

After a night in Phuket, we flew back to Bangkok and hopped on a bus to visit my old host family in Rayong. We stayed a night on Koh Samet, the small island off the coast of Rayong, and then bounced back north to the ruins of Ayudthaya, Thailand's ancient capital.

We spent our last day doing absolutely nothing except sitting poolside, reading and sipping margarita coolers.

My favorite food - Somtam!!

How many people can YOU fit in a tuktuk?

Boat tour of Bangkok

Dante's new friends

Similan Islands

We stayed in these tents

No durian and no doing it in this cab!

Host Mom, Pom, and host sisters!

Vacation part 1/3: Taroko

I'm finally back at school after a wonderful 3-week, 3-part vacation.

Part 1: Taroko

To kick off the winter break, the entire Taiwan Fulbright crew made our way to Taroko Gorge in Hualien, Taiwan. Hualien's an hour south of Yilan by train and had been previously visited by most of the Yilan ETAs (myself not included for obvious reasons, namely pure laziness) when they ran the Taroko Gorge Half-Marathon earlier this year.

Taroko Gorge is nicknamed the "Grand Canyon of Taiwan" and is one of the must-see places on the island. To top off the natural beauty, we were there on official Fulbright business -- meaning that we got the 5-star treatment all weekend long.