Reawakening

I know it has been ages since my last post. That is because my blogsite went entirely Chinese! My last posting, entered in English was thoughtfully translated for me! Lucky for me, I have a son with more technical ability than his mother. At least, currently, I am back to English entry screens.

The problem is, I am so far behind on things I want to talk about...Maybe consecutive will be the best approach.

Three weekends ago, I went to Kaoshung. My roommate is from there and goes home about every other weekend. There appears to be a romantic interest there that encourages her devotion to her home. Anyway, her mother wanted to meet me and I was game, especially since we could get a ride from her sister who lives nearby.

Trust Sophie to have arranged a whole itinerary. We were dropped off at the famous Lotus Lake, in the northern part of the city. This is really more of a pond and is artificial, having been dug by hand in the 1950s. Around the lake there are an assortment of pretty temples, pagodas and parks and since it is very close to the thriving, modern downtown area it is neat to see the juxtaposition up close. After visiting a few of these, her boyfriend came and picked us up in his car and we drove to the beach -- Kaoshung is Taiwan's major port so obviously is located on the Taiwan Straits. Just north of the harbor is a lovely beach/park area which generates all the power it needs with windmills. Apparently this big open area is pretty much always windy and that day was having a kite festival which was fun to watch. There is a seashell museum, an attractive beach once you get used to the black sand (Taiwan IS volcanic, don't forget).
Then we went to a neat night market which had a temple having some sort of celebration -- very showy -- then had a fish snack, rode a ferry across the harbor. It's very busy, I counted 18 big ships lined up on Saturday afternooon waiting for entry to an unloading dock.

Then back into the city where we had dinner in a nice restaurant, then home to Sophie's house. I met her family who are very nice and quite charming once they got over the "Omigod, there is a foreignor in my house", mode. Her Dad is a carpenter and they live up over his shop. Her brother works with him. Mom is a very nice lady and we had fun one-upping each other with pictures of our grandchildren.

Sunday we went to Costco -- yes Costco. It was just like my favorite one in Alexandria except for the clothes. Similar to their American cousin, they had millions of pairs of jeans but none over size 8! I was able to buy a bunch of American foodstuffs, especially soup and spaghetti sauce and Peppridge Farm cookies. I also bought more comfortable pillows -- these people sleep on stones and I had had a stiff neck since I got here. It was really nice to be able to buy some stuff that I could have gotten closer to home, but have major difficulty transporting on a bicycle.

After Costco, we took a walk along the Love River which runs through the city and eventually widens into the port. Apparently it used to be really odorous but major civic effort has cleaned it up and now they are developing a lovely "Riverwalk" type area. It's not finished but is already very nice. Then we had a great lunch ar Sophie's and then home early to beat the traffic, which truly is horrendous.

All in all a really nice weekend but there is so much to see there that I am sure I will be going back again. It's probably the most cosmopolitan of the places I've been because of the influence of the port. There are many foreign businesses there -- from many countries -- and great restaurants. There is even Smokey Joe's Ribs!