'Corn Soup Day' ; 2013 Hot Air Balloon Fiesta with my lovely friends:D

We had our fifth training lesson with ‘Corn Soup’, a sweet couple today. Corn is the wife and Soup is the husband. I was so touched when they told us that they have been together since they were still in university. Today’s lesson was slightly different as they used to introduce this place--Jhihben National Forest Recreation Area through story telling.

**The most interesting part of today’s briefing**

We met two families from Tainan before we headed into the forest so ‘Corn Soup’ invited them to go together with us. During the rest time, we had the chance to share our feelings and everything about ourselves to them. We talked about our hometown, Malaysia and Indonesia as well as our life in Taiwan. Okay, so we have new friends now and going to meet them again in Tainan soon :D

The briefing ended at about 12pm and ‘Corn Soup’ brought us to their house to have lunch. They bought lunch box for us on the way home. The lunch box in Taiwan is so different from Malaysia’s. How I wish I could have something like that in Malaysia! After lunch, they brought us to an organic farm. I really love the environment there but I’m so sorry for being troublesome. I just couldn’t control myself from the fear of dogs.

Then we went to a famous coffee shop to have coffee. As I’m not a coffee-lover, I tried only mocha but not the pure coffee. The coffee shop was so crowded when we arrived and it was like an oasis in desert as there were no other shops along the road.

It was about 4pm when we left the coffee shop. ‘Corn Soup’ then brought us to the Hot Air Balloon Festival at LuYe. We were so happy that we finally had the chance to get there! Thanks Corn Soup! It’s really hard to describe the environment there! So let photos do the talk! :P

During the Q&A session with friends from Tainan

 Vira. Me. JinYee

 My jump shot! 

 Taitung is so awesome!!

 So grateful to have both of them here:D

 This was so delicious!! Fried calamari:DDDD

Stay young! Stay happy! Live your dream! 

Leanne

A truly memorable day (:

We had our forth training lesson today and it's so impressive! First let me introduce our teacher of the day! He is a nature-lover. He has a great affection for birds. He loves photography. He is witty. He is Teacher Lee李建和老師. We had a lot of fun together with him.
He showed us photos of animals taken by him and introduced them accordingly. We learned a lot from him about animals especially birds and also our responsible to protect the natural environment! It's really great to know Teacher Lee as he's so funny and the way he talks could be a source of inspiration in life.
The most interesting part about the briefing----a Maroon Oriole spotted on the tree! Lucky me(:

Maroon Oriole

He then brought us to a beach to see and take photos of crabs. The beach was so beautiful but sadly we saw quite a lot of rubbish there! Please save the Earth everyone! :)

A crab. Photo taken by Teacher Lee.

Before going back home, we had vegetarian hot pot for dinner together with Teacher Lee. It was so delicious! Hope to go there again hahaha:p 

My cheesy hot pot! 

Leanne

Tulan Mountain

Hi guys and gals! I'm going to share about my day in Tulan Mountain:D

Kaikai actually planned to bring us to Tulan Mountain in the first week we arrived in Taitung. Unfortunately, however, the plan was cancelled due to typhoon:( Then in the second week, we were also supposed to go there with all the children in the third summer camp. Three of us were so excited for that but you know things always turn out contrary to the way we wish. Second typhoon came and all the outdoor activities were forced to cancel. Why so many typhoon??

Okay I should stop complaining about typhoon and back to the topic ^^

So our third plan went on smoothly and we had already back from Tulan Mountain! 

We met Kaikai at the office at about 9.30am after 

our yummy breakfast. Kaikai was so kind to us as she had already prepared everything for us including a walking stick, jacket, raincoat and rice ball for lunch. For your information, Tulan  mountain is the highest coastal mountain in Taitung and it's about 40 minutes of driving distance from Taitung city. 

YES! I'm ready!!!! So excited to start our journey! 

It was so foggy in the forest.

 Vira and I with our walking sticks:D

 We were already so sweaty after half an hour!

 Kaikai and I. We reached our destination- Puyuma after two hours.
We didn't get to the mountain top as it was too foggy.

Me! :)

A special phenomenon:D The branches are twisting all around.

A blooming flower! :D

Leanne

Barbeque Dinner

Yesterday there was nothing so special at morning, day, or even afternoon. But suddenly we had a good news in evening. Yijie invited us to dinner! And most important is this is barbeque night! First time for having such a barbeque dinner in Taitung. She picked us up at 7PM. We bought some fruits there. But they asked us to take it back. Huhuhu so kind! They cooked a lot of foods. Pork, beef, snail, vegetables, pumpkin, and many others. They also drank Taiwan beer and I tried it for the first time. Hahahaha so bitter, man! I can not imagine the taste before. Well, the beef was nice. I got my own. Only for me! Hahahahaha feel bad but to be honest I can not eat pork. After ate together, took pictures, and have a great chatting Yijie brought us to very beautiful tea cafe or restaurant. Sounds like that. The places was so beautiful. But honestly there were lot of dogs -_- again! Even Yijie brought her dog named Candy at her car. Leanne was so shock at that moment! Hahahaha. She is my partner to yelling out over dog! When we went to the cafe, Yijie’s sister and the family also been there. They have two cute kids! Girl and boy. The girl is so cheerful and the boy is so cute! They loved to playing around with us and the dog. After enjoyed the time, we went back home around 11PM. Nice night! And when we were on the way back home the lil girl fell asleep in my arm, so cute baby! Love that night alot. Thanks Yijie :-)

Regards, Vira :-*