Snail Hunting! UPDATE

As you may already know, after a rain shower Matthew and I will go for a walk and look for snails. I have already posted about this particular hobby, but unfortunately I was not able to post any photos of the gargantuan snails here because we lost all our photos when Matthew's tablet broke. Alas, I have an impressive snail for your viewing. Enjoy!

I am not sure, but we seem to find many snails near dead ones; possibly eating them. I am unfamilair with snails, but apparently there are some species that will eat dead ones, but in most cases snails will eat the shells of other dead snails as it is a high source of calcium. In this picture there was only one snail and what we believed to be an empty shell.

I Want to See the Sea!

Before we bought our motorcycle, Matthew had asked me where the first place I wanted to visit was. My answer? The sea! Unfortunately, I did not get my wish as it was not the first destination. In fact, after owning the motorcycle for more than a month, did I finally get my wish. The sea is not that far from where we live; only about a 20 minute drive westward.

I can certainly tell you that I never tire of any source of water. I just find it so relaxing. We headed there in mid-afternoon and stayed until after sunset. Almost everywhere on the coast you can find tons of oyster farms, the same as what we had seen in Chiayi on our bike tour.

There was a huge wall between the sea and the land. On the one side is the South China Sea with the oyster farms, and on the other side is a bunch of farm land.

Part of the wall has been renovated and now serves as a beautiful walkway inaccessible to scooters and other two wheeled vehicles. They put up barricades and stairs which is necessary. People here drive wherever they want, on the wrong side of the road, down bicycle paths, etc. So I was a bit impressed that they had built the pathway at the top of the wall without any ramp; it's unlikely someone will try to drive their vehicles going up stairs. The pathway seems to be very long (I'm not sure where it ends) and runs directly alongside the coastline so you always have a view of the sea.

We didn't really do anything while we were there. Just explored and enjoyed the view and the sea breeze.

We noticed what looked to be a road, but it was inaccessible to us when we were there. It turns out it is a road used by the oyster farmers. When the tide is low, they can drive out to their farms and collect their oysters. We also saw lots of small crabs in the sand, which is what you see in the last picture; all the unevenness in the sand are small rocks, sea shells, and small crabs.

Damn I Miss Bread

So, it has been awhile. And in that time I have learned to make bread. It may be hard to believe but there is no such thing as real bread here. All the bread I could find, whether I bought it from a grocery store or went to an actual bakery, all tasted like they have been steamed; with a sort of cake-like texture. Everything is sweet here as well.

It's hard to believe how crazy some cravings are when you just miss some tastes of home. But this is bread we're talking about. I was getting sick and tired of eating already sweetened bread with some jam on it that sometimes just tasted like it was rotten. Sometimes you just want to eat some delicious, straight up plain white bread, but that doesn't exist here. They always put stuff in things. A few times Matthew and I bought a loaf of bread which we thought was plain, because the exterior had no indication of anything in it. But once we cut into it we discovered the hidden items. Once we bought a loaf that ended up having red beans inside. Another time there was some kind of cream filling but it wasn't good. And even another time it ended up being raisin bread which was probably one of the better tasting loafs.

We discovered that there is a Costco in Taichung, which is about 1.5 hours away, and my Canadian membership works there. However, they as well don't have any good bread, unless we wanted to buy Wonder Bread, but that wasn't exactly what our cravings were for. Although I did manage to get some delicious peanut butter while I was there, yay!

Anyway, after scavanging around to find the ingredients, Matthew and I baked our first loaf of bread earlier this month. Now it is an occurrence that happens a few times a week.

After having done this numerous times, Matthew and I taught my co-workers how to make bread. There were some who were successful and some whose bread turned out to be rock hard, and others who never managed to even get the texture of the dough right. Either way, it was pretty fun.

Biker Gang Tour

A few weekends ago Matthew and I joined a small group of bikers and went cruising down south. We were the most pathetic bikers of the group. It's mostly because we have the most gutless bike. We own a 2010 150cc Hartford (a Taiwanese bike, built in Taichung). It can barely do 105km/hour, and the fastest speed we seem to get out of it with me as a passenger is about 90-95km/hour (and that's not going uphill).

There were two other foreigners in the group, one who lives in town, Lehi, (a fellow Canadian who used to have my job, but now owns a school) and who owns a massive motorcyle that can go a couple hundred kilometers per hour. There were some Taiwanese guys, about three others with their girlfriends, and they all have the same bike as Lehi. During our little tour, that group of bikers took the highways, but Matthew and I, and the other foreigner, named Mark (from England), took the small back roads. The highways in Taiwan are restricted to cars and motorcycles above 550cc. Mark own a scooter, but even so, he had suped his scooter out, so it can easily do 120km/h and it kicks our motorcycle's ass every time. (Yes, it seems a bit silly but people do that here. There are more scooters than anything, and mostly when you see a suped up scooter, it belong to some teenagers; they can get their license at 18 years of age).

It's always a bit weird when going anywhere with a group of people; it's hard to all agree on things. During the entire ride down and back, we were with Mark and took the smaller back roads. Even though he has a suped up scooter, it still isn't allowed on the highways. They have a system that makes it easy to identify the motorcycles that are allowed on highways from the ones that aren't. All cars are allowed on the highways, and they will all have a white license plate. The scooters and motorcycles, however, are not. Most scooters and our motorcycle has a white license plate, but we are excluded from using the highways. If the motorcycle/scooter has a red license plate, it means that it is above the 550cc mark, and therefore, is allowed to drive on the highways. This year they have introduced something new. There is a yellow license plate for two wheeled vehicles (scooters & motorcycles). They are given to anything above 250cc but below 550cc. This is where is gets a bit tricky. These yellow plate vehicles are allowed on only some of the highways as not all the Taiwanese cities have recognized them in their laws yet. This new plate was only introduce earlier this year, so I am sure it will take some time for the adjustment. You may also see green license plates, but those are old and have been phased out, but not everyone has gotten rid or changed them on their scooters, so you still see them from time to time. I am unsure what the green ones represents. Like I said, tricky.

 Lehi and the group of three Taiwanese guys all have the exact same motorcycle, just with different paint jobs.

 

You can see the red license plate.

 

The scooter on the left belongs to Mark, and you can see the back end of our motorcycle. We're pretty puny compared to those giants over there on the right.
 
Taking the highways saves an enormous amount of time, and I can't say that I actually prefer taking the regular roads; it's not like you get a better view than the highways. The highways here are pretty state of the art. They are all way above ground, so it's like you're driving in air. However, they do have a ton of tolls, which gets to be pretty annoying so I guess that is one complaint, but as a motorcyclist I don't have to deal with them.

We drove all the way down to Chiayi County, along the coast. It was beautiful. Sometimes you forget how fantastic looking at the blue sky and lush green trees can be. There isn't anything better than seeing those scenes while on a motorcycle; the wind in your face, the smell of nature. It's not the same with the windows rolled down in a car; you can't get the feeling of being part of it all while sitting in a car; you have barriers around you. I have seen a lot of windmills in Taiwan; Matthew and I have spotted them on our drive to Taichung, north from where we live, and on this particular drive. Driving past them I realized how small I am and wondered what kind of a feat it would be the install one.

We saw strange wooden posts in the sea down in Chiayi, and it turns out they were oyster farms. Apparently, the farmers walk along the scaffolds and just pick up the nets and check whether they caught any oysters or not; or wehter they are ready for harvesting. No one seemed to know exactly how it all works, so I will be forced to do some research. I'm not sure how effective the whole process is, but there were lots of them there, and oysters are super popular all over Taiwan. You can buy them everywhere!

After this we all headed to a restaurant nearby and had some lunch. We were a pretty big group and got our own private room in the restaurant. We let the others order and just tried everything. They brought the food to the table and placed it on a huge lazy susan (it was about as big as the table itself) and everything is communal. As you can imagine, there were plenty of oyster dishes that day. After lunch we split up from the group of Taiwanese bikers, and us foreigners all headed to some other town where they have huge celebrations every Sunday. I thought is was a little bit ridiculous. The Taiwanese absolutely love their firecrackers and fireworks. I think it's stupid actually. They love them so much they will lightup fireworks in broad daylight, even though you can barely see them. I am not one for traditions as I mostly think they are ridiculous, especially when we have learned that they don't serve a real purpose and happen to be bad for the environment (maybe I like science too much). The Taiwanese aren't actually different from the Chinese, their religion and traditional practices are the same, and I just think it makes no sense. I do realized that I am biased, having no religion and not believing in any kind of afterlife, I do not feel the need to pray or to participate in any actions related to these practices. If a relative dies, you are supposed to leave food at their graves (or in the case of praying to a god at a temple), and you are also supposed to burn this fake paper money, so that the specific god or your relative will have money to spend in heaven. The temples smell horrible most of the time as so much paper is being burned daily. These Sunday celebrations are no different. They lay our firecrackers on the ground and just light them. There aren't any barricades or anything like that; it's just, light them wherever you want, aiming them whichever direction you want. We didn't spend much time there. It's just a place crowded with people and it's loud and more abnoxious than interesting.We all escaped the noise and heat to visit a nearby Temple in a garden.

Even though the temple was not very far from all the chaos, it was very peaceful and serene. It wasn't busy at all, but that might have been because you needed to make a donation in order to enter, but I can certainly say it was worth it.

The smoke you see is from all the firecrackers that were being lit. This is the view from the temple built on top of a man-made cliff.

 I like architecture and have this weird obsession with staircases, vaulted ceilings, and hallways.

The temple is now used more or less as a museum; the Cultural and Historical Museum of Nankunshen Daitein Temple. It had quite a collection of seashells, and objects made from seashells.

It was a hot sunny day; Lehi is a pretty big guy and Mark had gotten some pretty serious sunburns. So we decided to relax in some shade and recouperate for a bit. Matthew himself burns quite easily, and even though he re-applied sunscreen multiple times that day, you couldn't tell. He was pretty red; it peeled, but it was nothing compared to Mark. Perhaps I can be thankful for my mixed heritage as I don't burn easily; or maybe it's because of my grotesque fear of skin cancer and looking like leather face by the time I'm 35 that I have a habitual nature to lather on sunscreen like it's the essence that gives me life. Either way I don't think it matters, as long as I don't have to go through that kind of agony.

We spent about an hour or so there, just chatting and learning lots about Taiwan from two foreigners' perspectives; they have both been here fore quite some time (married wit children). It was now pretty much mid-afternoon, so we decided we should start heading back. We walked down the paved path flanked by fresh blooming flowers on either side of the white painted wooden fence, until we came to a water wheel; we stopped there for a brief time as Lehi's youngest, Jacob, was getting tired. Here I felt a bit out of place while the three men discussed their highschool sweethearts. One mentioned how he had recently seen her, and how fat she has gotten, and how many kids she had, each with a different father. All the men are about the same age, and since there is a rather big gap between myself and them; I didn't have any stories like that to share. I did hope however, that I would not become like one of their stories because it just sounds depressing; and yes, I am so vain and shallow that I do not want to get fat either.

When we got back down to our bikes, most people were leaving the celebrations. It had been a long day in the sun, and driving all over the place on a motorcycle is exhausting. We were taking our time getting back home, but Lehi had to break away from the group as his son was falling asleep. Obviously that is a bit problematic on a motorcycle, so they took the highway and sped home. By the time we got home, darkness was just beginning to befall us. Matthew and I went out for a simple but yummy meal and headed home for a great night's sleep.

Motorcycle Touring Here We Come

After all the paperwork hell and everyone medling in our affairs, we finally have a motorcycle. We picked it up last week and took it for a quick drive; it was a very nice night. It is a 2010 Hartford 150cc. It was previously owned by a girl who barely rode it, only 2,200km on it, and it has never been in an accident.

On the following Sunday we drove it to Taichung city, about two hours away (but it took us a bit more than that because we didn't quite know the roads), to meet some potential tutoring jobs for Matthew. My butt was pretty sore by the time we got there. I got to stretch my legs and visit the 24 hour pet shop. There was a little piggy I liked, but she's not there anymore (or at least not that day).

The ride back was better, we tried to avoid the downtown areas through all the cities. They have weird rules here, and unless you have a motorcycle that is over 500cc, you cannot drive on any highways or something. They have a difference between highways, expressways, freeways, and on some of them two wheeled vehicles are allowed and all the rest they are not; it's confusing. So we pretty much avoid all "fast" roads that are 100km or more. So, obviously it takes us more time than a car to get somewhere, but motorcycles are just more fun.

We got home, and my legs were temporarily shaped like the motorcycle or like having sat on a horse for too long. It will take some getting used to. We parked the motorcycle near the seafood restaurant, we had been parking it there since getting it. There is no parking at our place, people park their vehicles against the wall, but it is a small alley and nothing to protect the bike from the rain. We had seen other people park their bikes and scooters around the corner by the restaurant. But on Tuesday after leaving for work, it was gone. We talked to our housemates and my employer, they said people don't tow your vehicle in this town, so it must have been stolen. I thought to myself, "Oh damn. People know we are foreigners, and they know we just bought a motorcycle and as they are more expensive, someone just took it. We've only owned it for four days. You have got to be kidding me!" Turns out, someone at the restaurant moved all of the bikes and scooters that were parked there, but they deliberately put ours in the park across the street. It took Matthew a while to find it as none of us thought to look for it in a park. I was just about to go to the police station to file a report. How stupid would I have looked.

Now we park the bike a lot farther than where we live so it can stay out of the rain. We'll just have to get some exercise before hopping on it for a ride anytime. But at least this way we know it won't be in someone's way.

Wet Walks

Monsoon season has been going on, and will continue until the end of June. Matthew and I have a picked up a new hobby. After a fresh rainfall we go out for a walk and we look for snails. It sounds weird, I know. It was initiated when we went out for a walk and happen to stumble upon a ton of snails just hanging around on the side of the road near some foliage. It was kind of interesting watching them slowing move along the street, or how they panick and shrivel back into their shells when you get too close.

Eventually, we started actively looking for them after it had rained. It's pretty fun, if you can believe it. There are certain spots they like to hang around, and some of them are so ginormous it's crazy. Sometimes we find slugs as well, but at first glance they look like snails who are missing their shells, and the other only difference are the antennae eyeball things that the snails have; they don't exist on the slugs. But they are the same colour as each other. Once, there was a worm nearby, Matthew had flipped the slug over using a leaf to see the underneath. Then he flipped it back over and it landed ontop of the worm. The worm died! He flipped the slug back over and you could see some weird little leg things that grab the worm and all of a sudden it stopped moving. Matthew is terrible.

We saw a huge snail, I swear it was the king snail of their massive colony of one hundred or so (I am not sure about there living habits; I don't think they have colonies like ants though). It was crossing the street, and Matthew wanted to know how powerful their suction grip to the ground was so he tried to pick it up. It didn't work. They suction their bodies to the ground pretty well. I am sure it is possible to remove them, but if Matthew pulled any harder he might have seriously injured or killed the snail. So he left it at that.

We have also found very tiny snails that are so small you mistake them for tiny stones or gravel. Only upon a closer look do you realize they are snails. We took a bicycle path on our walk one night and I heard some crunching noises. I just had to turn on the light on my phone. And to my horror, I was stepping on those tiny little helpless snails! There were thousands of them along the pathway; it was insane! I think I murdered so many of them on that walk I can't possibly redeem my soul. Too bad. But those little suckers can move fast! It's impressive, but unfortunately they just can't move fast enough to get out of the way of a giant foot coming down.

I had some pictures, they were on Matthew's tablet but it broke and we have lost them. The next time is rains I shall go out searching and post some pictures.

Paperwork Hell

Hey everyone!

Sorry, it's been a long time, but not much exciting has happened. Mostly, I've been doing paperwork. I have a work visa! Woot woot! My ARC is in, I got it yesterday.

Ok so, I had to travel to Taichung to apply for a visa with my boss. He didn't seem to know anything about the process and it felt a bit sketch. Matthew and I were in the city earlier that day looking to buy a helmet for myself (for our future means of transportation). We go to the government buidling to meet my employer, who was late because his car couldn't start. Apparently he had left the lights on so his battery was dead. Matthew and I were at a cafe across the street waiting, and he finally shows, but he doesn't want to turn off his car, so Matthew had to sit in it and wait. The coffee shop owner didn't understand me when I explained I wanted my coffee to go (I'm not sure if that was even an option as I didn't see take out cups anywhere). My employer wanted me to sit and drink my coffee. I pretty much poured it straight down my throat because I thought I should be at the visa office in person for the application process.

I'll admit, I have some serious trust issues and I essentially don't trust anyone and I get super annoyed when people expect me to hand over my passport to them. Anyway, I finished the coffee and ran into the building looking for him. There was some online form we were supposed to fill out prior to going to the office and it was just ridiculous. Luckily I have a lot of useless information stored in my memory bank or I would have been screwed. Some of the questions they asedk in the online form is just so pointless and something that I am sure most people would need to contact a third party to get.

We fill the online form out, they print it out for us, I fork over a ton of cash and they kept my passport. This came as a surprise to me becuase I have never in my life had to give my passport to someone else. My employer thinks it's totally fine, but he also told me that they would keep my passport for the whole year. I pretty much told him if that was the law I am quitting the job and leaving. I am not giving my passport to someone for a year; that would mean that I would not be allowed to leave this country for the whole year. I don't trust anyone, not even governments. He tried to explain to me that they need to keep my passport to issue my work visa (which is a sticker). It just came as a surprise because other places I have dealt with just mails it to you or you pick it up at the office; I have never been asked to fork over my passport. When it was ready, they even let my employer pick it up; they will just hand over your passport to someone else apparently. I'm not saying I don't trust my employer (I do have my passport after all), but it seems like it would be pretty easy to steal passports from foreigners working here.

Anyway, my work visa and ARC is finally here, but the headache isn't over yet. After you receive your ARC, you must apply for your health card, which is another annoying paperwork nightmare. The reason this is all a nightmare is because Matthew and I have put some money down on a motorcycle. People here like to be very helpful, but it gets to the point where they just end up medling in your business, and I'm someone who really doesn't like help.

Matthew saw a motorcycle he fell in love with. You cannot own a vehicle in Taiwan unless you are a resident, which with my ARC gives me that status. The motorcycle we have our eyes on is on cosignment. We talked to the employees one night and they told us to put some money down to reserve it. The owner wasn't around and this turned out to be a mistake. Matthew wanted to give him all the cash for the motorcycle and just wait to trransfer the paperwork in our name. I thought this was a horrible idea (never trust a Chinaman they say). Thankfully, other locals told us the same thing and Matthew changed his mind. The owner has been harrassing us, and my employer got involved and gave his number to the shop owner, and everyone is calling everyone and everyone else is telling us what to do; it's just ridiculous.

Now that my ARC is here things can finally get done. Actually, the ARC got to the office, and people here like to open my mail, my employer took my ARC card and gave it to the shop owner. So, hopefully no government officials come by asking for any proof of my legal status because I don't have any. A work visa isn't good enough here, it needs to be used in conjunction with the ARC as proof.

My employer was also convinced that we can't get a motorcycle without a health card, but to be honest, most of his 'information' has been wrong. Nowhere that I read, nor any foreigners I know have confirmed any of his knowledge. The shop owner said that we should be able to pick up the bike and my ARC either Thursday or Friday night, and I don't have a health card so I guess it isn't necessary. It's too bad it's the monsoon season now, because a great escape from this little town would be nice.