THE SUNNY SOUTH

This past weekend, Phil and I headed down to the southern tip of the island for some fun in the sun! We stayed with our friends, Andi and Peter, down there and had an absolutely wonderful time! Andi and Peter both went to Concordia in Moorhead and before coming to Taiwan, Peter had met a Taiwanese guy named Wade who at one point was an exchange student at a high school in Fargo and who now goes to NDSU. It’s a small world!

Wade is back in Taiwan for the summer, visiting his friends and family. So, he came down and hung out with us all weekend too. It was fun to have him around and so weird to have a house full of people on an island in the Western Pacific Ocean who were all very familiar with the Fargo-Moorhead area. :)

Andi and Peter leave Taiwan this coming Saturday. So, this past weekend was their last chance to visit some of their favorite places, eat at some of their favorite restaurants and hang out with some of the people they’ll be leaving behind. Phil and I were lucky enough to tag along for the ride!

On Saturday, we took a hike alongside a river to a relatively remote area where we were able to cliff jump into the base of a waterfall! The setting was absolutely beautiful. It was probably one of the coolest experiences we’ve had here! It was pretty surreal! We were lucky enough to do some snorkeling on Saturday as well. And, on Sunday, we just took it easy and hung out at the beautiful Baisha Beach.

A few miscellaneous things to note about the weekend...

-- Phil tried grilled chicken heart!

-- Phil and I were able to rent an awesome scooter for the weekend. In terms of scooters, it was probably one of the most sporty/macho ones out there. (The guy we rented from was all out of scooters at his shop, so we’re pretty sure the scooter he let us take was his own...we saw him riding a bicycle Saturday night...people here are so nice!) Wade ended up going to a different scooter shop and got a pink scooter with flowers on it...it looked pretty cute next to ours! :)

-- We were able to capture some video of true Taiwanese KTV in action. A lot of times people go out and do KTV for fun or it’s done at parties and celebrations, but often it’s done just the way you’ll see in the video...while people are relaxing in their shops or homes.