December Time in Taiwan

We had a successful Thanksgiving here in Taiwan. Hope yours was as enjoyable. Funny how having the US off during last week actually made things "normal" around here for work load!

Pictures of our Thanksgiving meal are up. Sarah did an AWESOME job with the turkey, stuffing, pumpkin bars, green bean casserole, and I threw in the Garlic Mashed Potatoes for extra leftover potentials. We also added some photos of "Thanksgiving #2" which was Friday night at our friend Matt and Tara's house up in northern Taipei. The more food the better right? And you'll see pictures of Chai (of course) and her BFF who lives next door - ChaCha. ChaCha is a funny dog that loves wearing outfits around town. He seriously has at least 10 different outfits he cycles through. The best part about ChaCha is that he rides a scooter around (with his parents driving of course) but to protect his eyes, he wears goggles!!!! Seriously - you have to see the pictures to fully appreciate it:) He wears them without any hassle..... most dogs would hate even trying it!

Saturday was another beautiful day here in Taipei. I actually wore pants for most of the day as the temperatures were in the 60s, but the winter coats, stocking hats, and winter gloves were out for a lot of the local Taiwanese! We saw a lot of Holiday decorations already up, with more to come I'm sure. While we didn't see the nuts out shopping at 5am (you know who you are!), there were still a lot of folks out enjoying some special prices. And yes, they have elevator Christmas music playing in most of the shopping areas.

Sunday we headed to Jiaosi on the East Coast of Taiwan for some HOT SPRINGS!!! This was a pretty amazing experience! There are plenty of natural hot springs areas all over Taiwan. We're on the underwater volcano circle thingy in Eastern Asia which allows the water to pass through the underground volcanic action and heat it up. So when it gets to the surface, it's nice and warm:) The private park that we went to cost about $6 for entrance fees and had tons of different hot tub areas to experience. We started out with a "room temperature" pool which was full of tiny fish. When you put your feet in, the fish pull the bacteria and dead skin off of your feet. Then we headed to a series of tubs at 40+ degrees (Celsius of course... that's 104 degrees F for the US folks) but each had a different additive to help keep the skin nice and clean. Rose, milk, wine, lavender, some green thingy that looked like a tub full of Gaterade..... they also had a large area that was full of all kind of massage pressure jets. Those felt REALLY good on the back. So yeah, we left there feeling quite rejuvinated! Then we headed to an "Eat to Die" (All you can eat) Hot Pot place that was also very inexpensive! Then a 2 hour train ride back to Taipei to wrap up the weekend. Unfortunately they do not allow cameras inside the park so we don't have much to share from this experience. But for any future visitors while we're here in Taiwan, consider it a new regular stop during a visit!

BCS shows again how ineffective it is.... Oklahoma plays in the Big12 Title Game despite losing to Texas who is a close #3.... Doubt we could see a UT/OU rematch for the BCS title game, I think that if there was an 8 team playoff, we'd see that matchup. Don't forget Texas Tech is 11-1 and probably won't even get to a BCS game! Throw Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, USC, Penn State, Boise State, Texas Tech, and even a 2 loss Florida (after this weekend) in there to see what happens. Iowa State seems to have ended up in the top 10 list for ESPN's "Bottom 10" for another season. Notre Dame finished worse than us somehow though;)

Anyway - enjoy your Monday! HAPPY DECEMBER!!!!