Christmas Day in Taiwan

Today is Christmas so first let me wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope everyone is enjoying it with their friends and family. We wish we could spend it with our families but at least we have the both of us to spend it together, because I know we are a family of our own.

Yep, the first Christmas of this new family of Jay and Allie. So let me share our memorable Christmas day. It all started around 3 a.m. when I awoke to a loud clash of windows rattling and the bed shaking, no it was not Santa, unless he stole all our presents, but it was an earthquake. This one was actualy something that we could feel and hear, unlike the one in Peru. I awoke and turned to Allie and tried to wake her up to make sure I was not dreaming but if anyone knows Allie she is a hard person to wake up. In the morning I told her about the earthquake and how much noice it made and her words were, "why didn't you wake me up." I told her, "for one, I did tried to wake you up, and second if an earthquake shaking our aparment and making a sound of a train coming through our apartment did not wake you up then nothing will."








After waking up and getting ready for our day we jumped on our motorcycle (the scooter) and took off for the mountains of Taichung called Dakeng. We drove to a hiking trail about one hour from our apartment. The trail starts by a boy scout camp in the mountains. It really is a boy scout camp, who would of known that the boy scouts are a world wide phenomenon. The trail basicaly goes up a mountain allowing you to get a great view of Taichung, which is a lot bigger than we thought. The trail was not too tough but it is the first trail that I have been on that you never touch the ground. Really from the first step until the last you are walking on logs that are about two feet off the ground and put together like a ladder. It made the trail a lot harder than normal. This picture below of Allie and I on the scooter. Yes I am the scooter driver and the photographer all in one. If you notice I am holding the camera with my left hand the hand that also holds the back break. The right hand is on the throddle, plus we are going down a mountain so if my smile is not perfect as Allie;s happy waving picture I am sorry I will try harder next time.








After the hike we kept driving around the mountains untill we popped out by a beautiful golf course right outside of the city. We drove around for about thirty minutes hoping we were going the right way, and of course the man compass was right and we ended up heading directly home. We cleaned up and went out to a great steak place that we found last week. It was amazing (not amazing just for Taiwan but for an American steak house). After a great Christmas dinner we met some friends at one of thier apartments for a few glasses of wine and some stories. It was not like hanging out with the family, but at least these people understand what Christmas is about, and that they are in the same boat as us. Before we came home we did have to stop by a lonely friend and give her a gift. So we stopped by our down stairs neighbors apartment and gave a bowl of milk to Drama, the cat that we are watching for a week. Drama is not really a cat but a kitten. She loved the milk that we brought and showed her affection with a couple of bites to our fingures and some scratches to our arms.

It was a really nice Christmas Day, their are some traditions that we have started and some that were fun but that we will leave here in Taiwan for the people that take our place:)








To everyone Merry Christmas, Allie and I miss you all and wish we could be at home for another Christmas Day! We want to hear about your Christmas Day stories too, so please put them on the guest book, it will make us feel like we were there.

We attached some pictures of things we saw today and finally Allie got a picture of a parrot on a scooter, WOW!