481 Days in 臺灣

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And Only 37 To Go!!

This blog is a large conglomeration of photos we never got around to posting this past year. Read the photo titles and captions for the entertaining saga known as Claire and Brian's Stupendously Spectacular Taiwanese Travel Adventure Extravaganza.

We did a lot of things in Taiwan-including work!! We came here as ESL teachers, but by the beginning of 2010, we had figured out a new direction for our lives. By the end of January 2010, we had pointed ourselves in that new direction and set off running. Well...we couldn't exactly run because we had a contract...and, we still needed to save some more money...and, we really weren't as good at Chinese as we wanted to be. But we did have a plan and it was in motion!

Claire and I started doing online volunteer work with two separate Indian organizations at the end of January. We were connected with them through Ashoka, a wonderful organization. What kind of work you ask? Businessy type stuff, you know. Claire has mostly worked on grant writing and researching, while I have done a lot of informational writing and some simple brochure and report layout/design work.

Now it's almost August. Our last day of teaching is August 31st. From Taiwan, we will head to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a few days of exploration and relaxation and then on to Shillong, India. We will spend around six weeks volunteering on-site with the NGO I have been working with since January (Impulse NGO Network). After that...possibly some more traveling in India and the surrounding countries and finally...back to the land of milk and honey (the USA). We'll be back by December at the latest.

In the meantime, there will be more blogs on countries other than Taiwan. We've got a cool new camera too, so hopefully our pictures will improve 😊

If you'd like a little further info on this new direction, Claire and I have started a wee lil' website that will explain many a thing to you. It's at www.SocialPartnerships.org

Check it out. We'll be doing some blogging there too, so you may want to follow us there as well.

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Photos

Claire and a fish
the fish is not real

Taoism?
I should really know more about this, but I don't. I think there's a good mix of Taoism with the older local stuff. I do know there are a lot of gods, they all have birthdays, and they light off tons of fireworks for them!

Temple 2
The temples are interesting. Many of them will be for certain gods although other gods will make appearances. You can go to a certain temple for certain things, like if you need to pray for money

Spirit Money
Spirit money is burned all the time. You know it's an important religious holiday when you wake up in the morning smelling burning paper.

Temple
I believe Tainan is about the oldest city in Taiwan. It's where the Dutch originally came in the 1600s. It does have the oldest temples in Taiwan. This is why there is a huge walking tour consisting mostly of temples

Spirit Money 2
So each person has a trash can looking thing to burn spirit money in at home. But the temple has huge thingies for money burning. Sometimes you have to burn a lot. The money gets queued up, and a dude shovels it in the furnace. It was hot back here!

Claire and Eric in Tainan
So many temples. Where to go?

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This was a booth at the Lantern Festival in Chiayi City.

The Lantern Festival 2010
This festival is held in a different Taiwanese city each year. This year it was our cities first time and they went all out!

Vita and Carol
Taiwanese love to take self portraits. I love to take pictures of people taking their own picture.