The Misty Forests of Alishan

We took a ton of pictures while we were hiking the mountain trails. It was breathtaking!! These are some of the best shots.

A 2000 year old tree!

Mountain Railroad Train to Alishan

I love my camera! I have a setting called "children at play" so I can take moving pictures. All of these scenic pictures were taken out of the train window. I would just hold the camera up to the window and randomly take pictures. It was gorgeous there!! I saw a palm tree forest! I have seen palm trees before - but a palm tree forest is quite different!

The train ride lasts about 3 1/2 hours, you go through about 59 tunnels and 30 bridges. This is when we went through a tunnel and all the lights on the train went out too. We had to take the picture a couple of times because you couldn't see your hand in front of your face!

One of the 59 tunnels. We had to get up three hours earlier than when the train left to get tickets. We got to sit in the first car, so we could take pictures outside of the windows. The rest of the windows don't open.

As you know I get pretty car sick....good thing they had barf bags....or maybe they were garbage bags???

This is one of my favorites. I took a lot of these to try and get a good one with the red tree in it.

This is pretty interesting. Both DeAnna and I got seats that were our birthdays. She sat in car 1 seat 6 and I was in car 1 seat 4.

Alishan is know for its misty atmosphere. You actually get high enough to be above the clouds. I have pictures of that for later. There is always a "sea of clouds."

Hotel and Dinner in Alishan

This is the typical bathroom in the hotels here. Although, this one had a large red bucket. We weren't quite sure what it was for......this was our best guess.....or

I guess you could take a bath - I have no idea!!

Look closely and you will see why it is difficult to eat in Taiwan. Imagine trying to order something when there isn't any English. You have to be one brave soul to risk just pointing and hoping for something without guts.

This is flower soup. Those are literally flowers we saw lining some of the walkways. It was actually pretty good.

This is your basic Chinese meal. Cabbage, which is really good, rice and noodles. I actually loved it! Or my tastes are changing, who knows!

Chaiyi - First Day of Alishan Trip

Our hotel in Chaiyi. You can't really tell, but this room is really small.

Let's take a vote. Who thinks I should definitely get one of these teddy bear hair clips...? We had to strategically take this picture. We were in McDonald's and we faked taking a picture of each other and zoomed in to get a good shot of the clip!

You won't believe this, but here I am drinking hot chocolate in Taiwan of all places. They turn the AC on really high here. We had a three hour wait for our train so we had breakfast and hung out. They play classical music in the McDonald's here so it's more like hanging out in a Barnes and Noble.

You know you've hit an all time low when McDonald's pancakes are the best thing you've ever tasted! I have never been more excited in my life!

At the train station waiting to head on to Alishan!

I'm Famous!

We went back to the silky ice cream place for Sarah's birthday. Mom, wouldn't you love having this ice cream shaver in the house?!

I want to let you all know that you are now related to a celebrity in Taiwan. Yes, this is my picture posted at the ice cream shop from the first bike ride we took at the beginning of the semester!

They asked for our autographs. Pretty cool!!

MK Trip to Sanee

Today we went with the morning kindergarten classes on a field trip to Sanee. We went to an authentic Taiwanese cake factory. It was so much fun seeing the kids interact outside of school. I didn't have to worry about teaching them. I could just play and have fun with them. I especially loved seeing the kids with their families. We made little toy trains and made cakes from this weird powder and molds. They served some great noodles for lunch. Finally, something I can eat without dying. I'm getting pretty good at using chopsticks!

It was the cutest thing to see a 3-year old using chopsticks. I can't believe they can use them that young!

Koala was teaching me how to do the cake molds.

The wooden trains.

Tainon Trip

Going completely against my new policy of no singles things, I went on the singles trip to Tainon. It was a great way to get a ride to all the cool spots! The first place was kind of boring, but afterwards we went to this incredible tree house. The trees had completely overgrown the entire place. Even I had to duck under the doorways!

The Ferry Ride

So, we really got sick on the ferry ride over to Green Island. You all know how car sick I get. Well, I about died on the ferry ride. So on the way back to the mainland we decided it would be better to ride on the top of the boat with the fresh air. As you can see in the pictures we got completely soaked! I would have to say it was the most memorable part of the entire trip! At first we thought it was just a light ocean spray until we hit a wave and it came over the top and drenched us and all our stuff. Then we spent the next hour trying to hold our luggage and not fall or get our eyes full of salt water.