We're coming Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The trip has been an incredible experience.  Learning about a new culture has been very fulfilling and interesting.  We are so excited to get back to New York and see all of our friends and families.  Thank you to all who followed us on this journey and to those who commented on our blog.  We hope you all enjoyed this as much as we did posting it.  

See you all soon!!!!!

Free Time on Sunday

The team enjoyed a little free time on sunday while the district conference was finiching up.  It was a much needed rest day.  In the afternoon, Bryan, Lauren and Whitney decided to take a cab to a theater and shopping district. 

We decided to watch some tradtitional Taiwanese theater so we chose Limitless with Bradley Cooper and Robert DiNero!!

We of course saw someone with a pet raccoon!!!!!  This was evidently strange here as well as most people were just as amazed as we were.  We also saw someintereting rims!!

FInally, we decided to continue our free time with some traditional taiwanese cuisine as shown below!!!!

Chinese Traditional Wish Lanterns

On Tuesday afternoon, we headed to a small old mining town located in the mountains north of Taipei City. The village is home of the traditional Chinese Lanterns and is where thousands of locals and tourisst flock to send their wishes into the skies. All of our team members had a chance to visit this town earlier in the trip, except for Bryan but this visit was more special than the first as we had the entire village to ourselves. Here are a couple of photos from our visit.

Chinese Lantern Town

Lantern shops

Pin Hsi Old House Restaurant. The owner is the founder of the Chinese Lantern tradition in this area. Our translator, Alrene, is the in bottom right corner. 

Lauren and Arlene

Lanterns for sale

After dinner, we were able to decorate our own lanterns and launch them in to the sky. 

Check out Bryan and Whitney's lantern.

Lighting of the lanterns

Bryan and Whitney's lantern just prior to take-off

Watch as Lauren and Derek's lantern takes flight. (Sorry the video changes orientation halfway through)

More children in Taiwan

Derek with Cutey and Harrison.  The police badge has been a big hit with everyone in Taiwan.

A kiss goodbye in Ilan for Bryan. 

Play ball!

On Friday night, Bryan and Whitney experienced our national pastime in Taiwan with a trip to a professional baseball game. With the help of Richard Wang, of the Chinese Baseball Professional Baseball League, they headed 45 minutes south on the high speed railway and found themselves sitting behind home plate as the Brother Elephants battled the Uni-President Lions. Although the experience was very different than a Major League game in the States (think college level), they enjoy a taste of home.

Some major differences between baseball in Taiwan and the States are,
-no assigned seats!
-tickets are $10 (even behind home plate)
-night market fare (dumplings) replaces ballpark fare
-12 innings maximum and the game is called a 'tie'
-4 teams in the league instead of 30!
-cheerleading and band section for each team
-maximum salary for a ballplayer is $300,000 (US dollars), minimum salary is $30,000 (US dollars)
-free agency is being introduced this year

Team buses parked right in front of the main entrance of the stadium

Stadium concourse 

Unfortunately, the beer vendor 'forgot' to show up but it was a BYOB baseball game!

Brother Elephants warm up

First pitch!

An American pitcher, John Halama started for the Lions

Elephant dugout and fan section. 

There were about 3000 people at the game.

Richard Wang and Whitney! 

Richard lived and worked in Boston for 10 years and is a die-hard Red Sox fan!

View from the upper deck

Bryan and Whitney during the 7th inning

Even though we had to leave before the end of the game, Richard made sure we knew the score of the game as soon as it was over. Elephants beat the Lions, 5-4!

A shout out to Brad for helping make this experience happen from Cooperstown! And all to Tim and Jim at the HOF who helped prep Whitney about Taiwan baseball prior to her trip! Thank you!

Taipei International Flora Expo

One of the biggest tourist attractions in Taipei right now is the International Flora Expo. The Expo, presented by the Taiwan government has been open since November and is projected to attract over 8 million people before it closes on April 25th. On Friday, our Rotarian hosts treated us to a VIP tour, which helped us avoid the lines and the other 68,000 people that were in the Expo at the same time. Because the Expo is so large, we did not have a chance to visit the entire thing but here are some highlights of our visit.

Team at the entrance to the Flora Expo

Yu Yu, our tour guide showing us what bookshelves will look like in the future. By growing your own lettuce under natural sunlight that is brought in through special pipes from your roof, you'll be able to have dinner without leaving the couch!

Expo entourage

Orchids

Team inside the "Green" Pavilion, which was an entire building made from recycled bottles. Look close at the wall behind us to see the individual bottles. 

A topiary whale with the Rotary International logo made our of flowers in the background. 

Rotary International is one of the presenting partners of the Flora Expo.

2011 is the year of the rabbit in Taiwan.  This artist sculpted a bonzai tree in the shape of a rabbit as it grew. Can you see him??

Chang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

In 1946 a civil war in mainland China broke out between the nationalist party and the communists.  The nationalist party was led by Chang Kai Shek.  As his position weakened and his party lost the war, he fled to the island of Taiwan where he led a government in exile for 25 years until he passed away in 1975.  Shek is seen as the founding president of Taiwan and is memorialized in this museum.

The massive entry gates to the Freedom Plaza

The courtyard was lined by two huge buildings.  One was used for theater performances while the other hosted musical performances.

The national flag lines the entrance to the museum

Chang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

A views from the steps of the memorial

The museum was filled with many artifacts including portraits, clothing, furniture vehicles and paintings of the great president.

Chang Kai Shek with President Franklin D Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1943.