Golf in Taiwan??

Sunday was a free day for the team, which really means, many of our guests try to plan things with us.  Bryan was lucky enough to be asked to play golf in the morning by AG Manpower.  His son Brian also went in order to translate.  They headed out at 5am to a course that was about an hour away.  When they arrived, Bryan noticed that all of the employees were dressed in uniform.  This is something that is very prevalent in Taiwan.  Many of the rotary clubs have uniforms, as well as many business including banks. 

A temple near the first tee.  A place to pray for good luck on the course?

No range balls or warm up, just step up to the first tee.  First swing since October!!!

Our foursome.  That is AG Manpower to my left.  Perhaps the nicest man I have ever met.  After the round I asked his son Brian to let him know how appreciative I was for taking me golfing and he said that it was his pleasure to ask me to come along.  He also wants to play again next time we are in the Taipei area.

Bryan and Brian!!

My own personal ID card for the day.  Unfortunately they would not let me keep this as a souvenir.  In the top left in blue ink is my name in Chinese.

Each group had their own caddy and one golf cart with 2 rows of seats.  I asked earlier in the round for a picture with our caddy and she declined saying she was too ugly for pictures and that she only takes them with her husband.  Later in the round on a difficult par 3, I said if I hit the green on this shot, you have to take your picture with me.  As you can see, I hit the green, and she was still a little reluctant.  She was a little shy, but very nice and very funny!

What a great day on the golf course.  I was a little rusty at first, but warmed up and made an eagle on the par 5 16th, and a birdie on the par 5 18th.  If anyone reading this knows Herman Menke, please tell him I am on the board with 1 birdie in 2011 and that he is lucky I made my ten footer for eagle!!!!

After golf, I was invited to a wedding by Brian and his dad.  A lot of the rotarians were there and were very surprised to see me in attendance.  I felt like the guest of honor which has been a common theme since the day we arrived. 

The Bride and Groom walk down the aisle together.

A toast by District Governor Victor

After arriving home from the wedding, I ran into Whitney and Lauren in the lobby.  They were about to take the train to do some shopping so I joined them.  We returned back to the hotel at around 6 because I needed to get ready for dinner.  My host brother, who happens to be one of the few people in Taiwan that likes to eat steak, invited me to dinner at a steakhouse near the hotel.  It was so nice to taste Fillet Mignon again.  The steak was excellent!!!  What a day.  Could you ask for anything more. 

Stay tuned for more updates.  We are trying to catch up.  Our Taroko National Park visit will be up soon.  Prepare for lots of amazing pictures.

Taroko National Park

We are now in Hualien!  Yesterday, we took a day-trip to Taroko National Park.  Our pictures do not seem to do justice to the amazing experience, but here are some shots to give you a taste of our day:

 Watch out for falling rocks!

 Whitney's favorite spot.

Just a little too tall...

Whitney admiring the scenery

Last group shot of the day!

 Derek

 Lauren

 Whitney

Fred

Bryan

More to come later...

Sightseeing on Saturday

On Saturday, we spent the entire day sightseeing around Taipei with our Rotary hosts. We started at the Li Mei Shu Memorial Gallery, which is an art gallery about 30 minutes outside of Taipei. The whole muesum features the original drawings and paintings from one of Taiwan's most famous artists. And of course, because everything on our trip exceeds our expectations, it was only natural that our tour guide was Lin Mei Shu's son! The paintings were incredibly life-like and the stories our tour guide told about his dad's work were inspiring. Below is a photo of our tour guide and his wife, who is also the model for the painting behind. How cute are they?

Our tour group

In addition to being a painter, Li Mei Shu also helped design the temple around the corner from the gallery. A short walk around the block put us at the gates of our first Taiwanese temple. When visiting the great cathedrals of Europe there are no words or photos that can describe the beauty of the detailed craftsmanship...the same goes for the temples of Taiwan. Nothing can compare to being there and seeing the details, but here are a couple photos from our visit...

Group photo 

Whitney with the guard dog

Lauren and the "Pink Ladies" Rotary Club (all female RC)

Bryan in one of the bridge cupolas

Temple

Fred in mid-prayer, which really means that he just said a prayer and dropped two Chinese wood pieces to the ground. How the pieces land determines how the gods will respond to the prayer. Very ancient ritual!

Inside the temple

Temple alter

Our entourage for the day

Following another mystery food lunch, we headed to the a Ceramic Museum and were given a lesson on the history, technique and art of the Taiwanese ceramic industry, which has been a part of the culture for ages. After the museum, we drove a short distance to the ceramics shopping district and our first stop was the Ying Ko Ceramics Museum, where we got the chance to create our own bowl from clay. Check out the serious artists below.

Pottery experts

Bryan's bowl (sorry it is upside down!)

We enjoyed another interesting array of food for dinner at a seafood restaurant. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves and several other members of our host Rotary clubs joined us for dinner. Among them were Fashion, Gift, Banker and Tiffany.

 Boys table

Ladies table

After two nights in with our host families, we were dropped off at a hotel to enjoy two nights on our own (sort of). Once back at the hotel, we finally had a chance to be alone together as a group. We shared a beer in the lobby bar and recapped the past three days. Needless to say, our experiences in Taiwan make some great stories! We can't wait to share them with our friends and family when we return.

Sunday was our first 'official' day off and no day off would be complete without a little fun. Stay tuned for more posts from Taiwan...

Apology

To all of our followers, we apologize for not keeping up with this blog.  Our schedule is extremely full and tiring.  In some cases, we also do not have access to the internet.  Keep checking back as more posts will come in the next few days.  We have moved from Taipei city to Hualien City on the east coast.  Tomorrow is all day at Taroko National Park.  We are very excited!!!!

A day with Al and May

On Friday March 18th, Bryan and Lauren went on their first vocational visit.  The first stop was UBS bank where we were treated to a presentation about the company.  When we arrived, we were offered tea and coffee and our hosts were shocked to find out that some Americans do not drink coffee!!!!  When Bryan turned down tea as well, they guessed that he was Mormon!  We had a little break so Al and May took us to the National Martyrs Memorial.  We then proceeded to an investment company call KGI Investments where we ate lunch in their cafeteria with the president of the company, Mark Wei.  He invited us to his office where we met both of his assistants and he gave us a special bottle of 40 year old Chinese vodka.  We stayed for a short time as Mark was preparing to leave the country.  He was headed to New York of all places to speak at a conference. 

After our visits, Al and May showed us some of Taipei City.  Our first stop was a huge ferris wheel that Lauren was not too crazy about.  It was very slow moving and also very high for excellent views of the city.  Then it was on to the famous Taipei 101.  In 2006, this building was ranked #1 in three categories for building size including the worlds tallest.  It has since been passed by Burj Khalifa in Dubai.  This building was incredible, and we went to the observation deck on the 89th floor in the fastest elevator we have ever been on.  It travels from the 5th floor to the 89th floor in 37 seconds.  Our ears were popping on the way up.  There are 2 elevators in the building and each one cost 2.5 million dollars to construct.  The building has a huge shopping mall on the lower floors as well as offices and the Taiwan Stock Exchange.  There are also many restaurants.  At dinner with May and Al, Bryan decided to try some of the Chinese he had learned.  Unfortunately because Chinese is a tonal language, he intended to say "the food is good", but instead said "I am very angry"  Our Taiwanese hosts thought this was quite comical, as did Lauren.  We then traveled back to our host family's homes and went right to sleep as we were exhausted from the long day. 

                                                        National Martyrs Memorial

                                            
                                                                      Taipei 101

                                                       Our view from the 89th floor!!

We made it....

Welcome to Taiwan!

So after a solid 24 hour flight, we finally made it to Taiwan and were greeted by a group of very enthusiastic Rotarians. The moment we walked out of the terminal we heard, "Lauren", "Bryan", "Fred", "Derek", "Whitney"! A banner with our photo and 'Welcome to Taiwan' gave our hosts away among the gathered group. Roses, photos and smiles made us feel like we were right at home.

We met our host families at the airport but were whisked away to The Grand Forward Hotel for the night, which was a beautiful hotel to get re-charged after our journey. When we arrived at the hotel, we figured we would just head to bed, but our hosts treated us to an amazing, authentic Taiwanese bbq at a restaurant around the corner. It was, to us, the best way to start the trip.

The 'bbq' was unlike a bbq in the US--no burgers, but there definitely was beer! With no shoes on we climbed into our seats and ate until our hearts content. Each table had had two coal grills with an attached vent for grilling and a flame for boiling what turned out to be a delicious milk stew filled with meats and veggies. Everything from pork to chicken to beef, we grilled it! Our hosts toasted us almost as many times as we brought our chopsticks to our mouth. Even though we didn't return to our rooms until after midnight, we can't think of a better way to start our adventure! Good food, good drinks and great company....

On to our 'official' Day 1. Stay tuned...

At the Syracuse airport before our big adventure! We are all smiling since we changed our connection to Hong Kong instead of Tokyo. We ended up traveling over the North Pole...

Connecting in Hong Kong!  

Authentic Taiwanese BBQ

Our new friends  

Chef Bryan

Orientation Weekend

Sunday, 09 January, 2011
Orientation Weekend has flown by. A light snow is falling. Good weather to travel home to Morris, NY. The team members: Bryan, Whitney and Laura just headed out to Delhi, Cooperstown and Ithaca, respectively.

We four went from being practically strangers to being a team over this weekend.

Terry Donlick welcomed us to her Bed and Breakfast home. The "kitchen crew" of Margaret, Rose and Hannah prepared delicious, nutricious and fun food to nourish body and soul. Our presenters gave of their time and talents and we soaked up GSE information like sponges.

District Governor Orville Wright was present, looking stern, much like a young Woodrow Wilson. The difference between the two is that Wilson was kind of a "stick in the mud" and Orv is as dryly clever and witty as anyone you will ever meet!
I am so happy to get to know my team members. They are, to a person, brilliant, funny, talented and most of all grateful for this opportunity. Much like a string quartet, we are not playing the same notes, but we are, without doubt, on the same sheet of music. And, even with only three days of rehearsal, we are in harmony.

PS We lost Laura due to a vocational change. I spent a couple of days thinking that the trip was off, sadly. Commitee Chair Terry came through in a very big way! Not only did she find a third, but a fourth. The best part is that she was able to find two real quality individuals. Welcome Derek and Lauren. We are now a quintet!