Last week my family came to visit me in Taiwan, which was truly awesome. We all took a vacation to some places around the island, ate foods of total deliciousness, and generally had a good time.
Also, upon reflection, I’ve now reached the point of more-time-abroad-than-ever before in my life. I don’t think I’ve really felt homesick or culture-shock frustrated yet, and it doesn’t feel like I will be any time soon. I have a feeling that this opportunity to see all of my family here in Taiwan has also helped “recharge” my batteries. We didn’t do anything even reminiscent of a traditional American Thanksgiving, (which is my favorite holiday), but I am still feeling good about being here.
Sunrise on Alishan. The sunrise was cloudy, but still beautiful. Check out the lenticular clouds draped over the mountain peaks (which include Yushan – the tallest mountain in Taiwan).
The landscape of Kending is composed of dark, craggy, porous rocks. Most of my family members assumed that this was volcanic but it’s actually much more interesting: these hard, porous rocks are actually recent uplift of fringing reefs from of the island.
See, these rocks? They were made by coral.
It was really spectacular to get to walk, not swim, around in old coral reefs that have been overgrown with trees. I now appreciate the size to which these communities can create physical structures. Sure, I’ve seen limestone deposits before and swum around a coral reef before, but this was something in between a living coral reef and a fairly homogenous-looking band of limestone in a sequence. I have a much better sense of scale when I can walk around something, (not being much of a swimmer), so walking around on these uplifted reefs I realized just how big they can be. The transformation of ocean-to-land was also impressive – where there had been an ocean, now there is a forest, literally growing on the skeleton of the former aquatic community. Both of these aspects, the true massiveness of the coral reef to begin with, and the transformation into a forest are a testament to the role of biology in shaping the earth’s surface.
Nautiluses are awesome! Living fossils and all that. Here is a bunch from the Kending aquarium – which is the best aquarium I have ever been too. I would say that it’s a “must see” if you ever come to Taiwan and are on the southern tip of the island.
2 thoughts on “Turkey day, sans turkey”
Marci Lu
Hi Harmony,
Happy Thanksgiving to you and the rest of the family. If it helps, we also had “Turkey day, sans Turkey.” On Thanksgiving, David, the boys and I woke up early and joined 10,000 other runners in a local road race (10k for David; 2 miles for the rest of us). Then we came home and started making fabulous sides – pureed sweet potato with sherry, roasted beets, garlic mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, cranberry relish, etc. The only issue was the mistiming of cooking the Turkey. Needless to say, we enjoyed the full Turkey meal the following day! I gave Mama and Papa some lasagna to complement the sides, which really is the best part anyway.
Lotsa love,
Marci
Hi Marci – sounds like fun! A good preface to Thanksgiving is definitely getting out for some exercise. When we gather in MA, various Lu’s like to go out and join in the local “fun run” – but it was never anything on the scale of 10,000 runners… As for food, I agree that side dishes are pretty much the best part. This year we went to a hotpot restaurant and called it Thanksgiving. You could probably argue that hotpot is also all ‘side dishes’ too… Anyway, glad to hear that you had a good holiday and got to see Mama and Papa!
Hi Harmony,
Happy Thanksgiving to you and the rest of the family. If it helps, we also had “Turkey day, sans Turkey.” On Thanksgiving, David, the boys and I woke up early and joined 10,000 other runners in a local road race (10k for David; 2 miles for the rest of us). Then we came home and started making fabulous sides – pureed sweet potato with sherry, roasted beets, garlic mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, cranberry relish, etc. The only issue was the mistiming of cooking the Turkey. Needless to say, we enjoyed the full Turkey meal the following day! I gave Mama and Papa some lasagna to complement the sides, which really is the best part anyway.
Lotsa love,
Marci
Hi Marci – sounds like fun! A good preface to Thanksgiving is definitely getting out for some exercise. When we gather in MA, various Lu’s like to go out and join in the local “fun run” – but it was never anything on the scale of 10,000 runners… As for food, I agree that side dishes are pretty much the best part. This year we went to a hotpot restaurant and called it Thanksgiving. You could probably argue that hotpot is also all ‘side dishes’ too… Anyway, glad to hear that you had a good holiday and got to see Mama and Papa!