Lantern Festival and the 20-Meter Serpent

Last year, you probably would have considered our experience at Lantern Festival to be a bit less than ideal.     Yeaaa. That’s Dan holding our blazing sky lantern, completely obliterating his dream of finally getting a pony.  He’s still waiting for Santa to...
Padangbai Barong Dance: An Exorcism Ceremony

Padangbai Barong Dance: An Exorcism Ceremony

We weren’t expecting to see spiritual warfare when we went to Padangbai. Our main purpose for visiting the small fishing village was actually just to check out the action below the water: reef sharks, manta rays, turtles, and general ocean scenes seemingly taken...

October in Taiwan: A Review in 31 Pictures

Call me unoriginal, but I love the month of October. Dan asked me to be his girlfriend six Octobers ago; he proposed a lifetime together only two back. Octobers bring things like the state fair and deep-fried snicker bars, pumpkin spiced everything, and the perfect...

Taiwan’s Boat Burning Festival, 2012

Sometimes it gets a bit easy to forget that we are expats, living halfway across the world from “the peak of good living” (otherwise known as Apex, N.C.). People always seem surprised when I say that, probably assuming that the whole not-speaking-Chinese thing might...