The Art of Commitment 承諾的藝術

Mark was looking with some uncertainty at the "horse" on the card. The first part of his name in Chinese is "Ma" which means "horse," so he knows how to write that character...or at least he thought he did.

"Honey, look at the legs on this horse," he said, handing the card to Ping. "They seem to go the wrong direction. Are they supposed to go forward or backward?"

Half Empty/Half Full 半空還是半滿

Sketch: Trees at the Beitou Library

As we’ve written about our adventures, we’ve gotten inquiries along the lines of “is everything really ideal over there in Taiwan?”

Gods On Patrol - Beitou Da BaiBai （北投大拜拜-媽祖遶境）

The dragon always follows the beautiful pearl
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_dance).
For a split second, it turned and faced us!

Imagine that every year the gods are obliged to "go out on patrol." They come out of the temples, walk the alleys and stroll down the main streets of town to sweep away any lingering misfortune or evil, and to spread peace, prosperity and generosity. Here in Beitou 北投, they do it for real. We just happened to stumble upon it!

Awesome Day! - Part One: The Hike 超讚的一天

Some days are awesome from beginning to end. This was one of them. We hoped to see the Pingxi 平溪 (pronounced "Ping-She") Sky Lamp Festival, We also hoped to squeeze in a hike because this area of Taiwan recalls the famous Chinese landscape paintings with towering peaks. We did both! This is Part One of that awesome day.

"You Can't Bye-Bye With A Buddha Head" 拜拜雙意

Happy Chinese New Year!

Welcome to the Year of the Dragon!

We went from the rabbit to the dragon in one fell swoop. (One wonders what became of the rabbit!)

This is our first Chinese New Year in Taiwan. It's all new to Mark. For Ping, it's pretty much the first Chinese New Year as an adult in Asia, so in some ways it's all new to her, too.

This Is Our Trail Head 登山口

The sun came through the window this morning. What?? The SUN??? Yes, this was unexpected, considering that the forecast called for rainrainrainrainrain this week. One of the reasons why we chose to be independent from the corporate world was so we could do what mattered to us when it was possible. In other words, we can take advantage of the sun when it actually appears! Today turned out to be a great day.

Election Day for Mark and Ping 選舉日

Did you know you can change the government, get groceries and get lost all in the same day? You have to start early.

We got up at about 6:00 on Saturday, Jan. 14th, because it was Taiwan's Election Day. (Ping was voting for herself, of course. As you know, we won in a landslide--see previous post!)