Best Bali picture Shana forgot to post

Bali Hai is calling! Part 1: The Beach

We arrived in Bali the Saturday before Christmas and were pleasantly surprised that they were all decorated for Christmas. This is the tree in the lobby of our hotel.


Right outside our room was a small temple where the employees made offerings each day. A priest will choose locations where offerings must be made each day. There were about a dozen of these sites around the hotel grounds, but this one was the most grand. The gold fabric draped around the temple is meant to symbolize fortune.

Teddy loved playing with Daddy in the pool. He had a great time in his little float and doing cannonballs with Daddy's help.

The grounds to our hotel was so lush and beautiful. We felt like we were in the show South Pacific. This is the view from the pool to the hotel restaurant at sunset.

Teddy loved the fresh flowers at each meal so he decided to wear them in his hair.

At the beach, Teddy and Michael loved playing in the sand...although Teddy hated the ocean and the waves.

This is the boys at the beach for dinner. We had an amazing seafood dinner cooked right out on the beach. Teddy did more sleeping than eating while at the beach but we all had a great time.

Our next chapter: Ubud - the cultural center of Bali.

Bali, here we come!

We are leaving today for a week. Merry Christmas to everyone.

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Oh Christmas Tree!

Surprisingly, it wasn't hard to find a Christmas tree in Taiwan...as long as you like a silver mini-tree with colored blinky lights! It isn't quite like the ones we grew up with, but its pretty darn cool. Merry Christmas!

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Makeup, please!

Teddy is getting ready for his New Balance photo shoot.

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Christmas in Taiwan

TAS has done a great job of bringing the holiday spirit to Taiwan. A group of students came to the college counseling office yesterday to sing Christmas carols. There isn't snow or a wreath on every door, but it feels a little bit more like home every day.

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Teddy is sick

Teddy has an Adeno Virus which means fever, cold, ear infection, and tonsilitis. Poor little guy. Good thing we live in Asia where they take sickness very seriously! I was able to buy Teddy a cute little monkey shaped hospital mask so he doesn't pass his illness on. I just wish he would keep it on his face.

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Is That English?

Am I supposed to know from the picture that this is the girl's bathroom? What is that?

Those poor girls!

Do they mean a medical condition or a sledge hammer?

We are thinking of putting this sign up on our front door!

I love that the last two "animal states" aren't even animals.

What the heck does this even mean?

I have no idea about this one!

Puli and Sun Moon Lake

We had a lovely long weekend in Puli and Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan. We first took a bus to Puli and visited the Shaoxing Winery. We thought it was funny that Shaoxing is Mandarin for "caution." We have heard that you should definitely use caution when drinking this wine!

Don't you just love the little cartoon created to promote wine production to children!



We then walked to a very cook paper making factory. They make all of their paper by hand and we enjoyed learning about the process from our English speaking guide.



We then took another bus to Sun Moon Lake, which is a beautiful fresh water lake with crystal blue water.



We took a boat cruise in the morning to learn a little more about the lake. Too bad nobody told us it was only in Chinese! We still had a good time. Teddy loved wearing his "cool guy" sunglasses and hanging with Daddy.



We walked to a peacock sanctuary that was established to promote tourism at Sun Moon Lake. We saw about 50 peacocks and other birds. This one was the only one to flash his feathers!



We have visited many temples all over Taiwan and Teddy has learned that dragons play a central role in many of the folk tales. Here is Teddy showing his dragon face to one of the dragons at a temple at Sun Moon Lake.



We then traveled to a pagoda overlooking the lake. It was fun to visit but Shana was very afraid inside - very steep stairs and a lingering fear of earthquakes!

Pagoda Madness

It's our last day at Sun Moon Lake. We walked up to this beautiful Pagoda which was built by CKS in honor of his mother. More to come about our trip when we get home.

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Sun Moon Lake

We traveled by subway, high speed train, and bus to get to this honeymoon hot spot. More to come as we explore Taiwan's largest fresh water lake tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Thanksgiving, Asian style!

We enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with our friends at TAS tonight. There was turkey, mashed potatoes, and apple pie - all of the classics! While it certainly didn't feel like home, we had a good time.

Shana has embraced the Asian tradition of giving the peace sign in pictures!

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Doctors Office

Going in for a check up. The first indication that this would be a bumpy road is my instruction information (pictured). The next obstacle, trying to get an accurate height reading when all of the nurses are a foot too short. I have a feeling that this is going to be a long day!

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US Baby Catalog Shoot!

Our baby is a star!!!

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Getting ready to go out...

...I don't think so!

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Teddy got new sunglasses today!

Seriously, how cute is my child?

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Something that made me smile today!

There are tons of English spelling mistakes around town. This one made me chuckle. I'm thinking about starting a consulting firm to fix all of the mistakes. I could be so rich!

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Taipei Children's Art Museum

We stumbled upon the most amazing children's museum in our neighborhood this weekend! The Taipei Children's Art Museum was absolutely amazing and made us think of the City Museum in St. Louis. The theme was Impressionism and the museum was set up so children could literally step inside impressionist paintings.








We all had an amazing time and we stayed until closing time. We all want to go back soon because there is so much more to explore!

Halloween 2010

Teddy traded his cowboy costume for something a little simpler for trick-or-treating, an elephant costume. Many of the American School families met in the Tien Mou Park to trick-or-treat last Saturday night. Teddy got quite a lot of candy!



We went to a great costume party after dropping Teddy off with Sue, our amazing babysitter. I'm dressed as a flapper and Michael is dressed as a pirate!

Teddy went poopie on the potty!

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Food Fair at TAS

Food Fair at TAS is a huge fund raising event put on by the PTA. All of the student groups sponsor game or food booths to raise money for their clubs and, since we are an international school, parents of the different cultural organization cook food. We had curry, samosas, cookies, and a ton of other wonderful things.

Teddy loved all of the carnival games including two fishing games!




There was also a tiny train for Teddy. Of course, he loved it!

Halloween at Pieria

Yesterday was Teddy's Halloween Party day at his school, Pieria. We were invited to the party in the morning and the kids got to go trick-or-treating in the afternoon. Teddy is dressed as a cowboy on a horse. He loves his costume!


Teddy and his best friend, Daniel, got to do a lot of hanging out during the party. Teddy decided to give him a big hug right after the costume fashion show. How cute!

What's Cooking? Sweet and sour fish soup

I had lunch at a great Vietnamese restaurant. One of the few vegetarian options was fish soup. It was delicious but the biggest challenge was eating soup with chop sticks. I was told to tackle it with both hands - chop sticks in one hand and a spoon in the other. It's totally acceptable to slurp and be messy. Must be why I look so strange!

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What's Cooking? Fried Spring Roll

MEA wanted to know what we are eating in Taiwan. What great timing since I just took a cooking class. These are filled with chicken, bamboo shoots, black mushrooms, shallots, and spices. Fried to perfection and topped off with a ketchup, soy sauce and sugar sauce.

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Wulai

This past Sunday we traveled to Wulai, a rural aboriginal town in southern Taipei county. It was a bit like "planes, trains and automobiles" to get there as we walked to the MRT station, took the MRT to the end of the line, caught a bus to get to the city, hiked along the river, caught a gondola to the top of the mountain, and walked the rest of the way up.



Here we are hiking along the river to get to the gondola. While we are dressed in hiking clothing, I love to see Taiwanese tourists wearing high heals and wearing sweaters. I couldn't have done this in anything but sneakers and we were all drenched in sweat by the time we reached the top. Oddly enough, the name of the town derives from the aboriginal phrase "qilux ulay" meaning hot and poisonous.



This is the view of the waterfall from inside the gondola. According to our guide book, this is the highest waterfall in Taiwan.



We expected to find nothing but forest and hiking trails but, once we reached the top, we were surprised to find a resort village. There is a hotel, swimming pool, playground, hiking trails, and a beer garden (although we didn't partake). It seems like a fun place to stay but it was REALLY difficult to get there. Here is the boating pond.



Michael and Teddy crossing a stream next to the pirate ship and the playground. Very strange!



After taking the gondola back down, we opted to ride on the tiny train, as Teddy called it, instead of walking. Teddy is into anything involving trains so this was a big hit.