Rocking that *International* Paradise

When we found out G-Money wouldn't be able to come with us to Taroko Gorge in Taiwan, I decided to follow up on a contact.  My friend Christy remembered a couch surfing host who takes people into the national park, and so I asked for his name and sent him a message to see if he would want to meet up with us.  He said yes, so at 9:30am, we stood waiting at the park entrance for a stranger to walk up and greet us with a huge smile.  Dylan had arrived. We got into Dylan's blissfully cool, air conditioned car, and he took us to our first stop: the Shakadang Trail.  For about an hour, we walked at a brisk pace along a smooth, flat path with a rock outcrop cut out above our heads from the rock.  It was our first excursion into the gorge, and it was magnificent.  The trail ended at the river, and while Dylan let us go ahead and explore, he was busy buying us a small gift. When we returned to the path, he presented each of us with a hand-woven aboriginal brac...

New Year’s Resolution: Blog more.  Once a week.  I got this.  But that means finding time (making time) to actually write.  Even when my time, like this week, was filled with me complaining about how many research papers I had to read and grade.   But there’s always time to write. The weekend before last was a treat for me (you see, I’m backtracking; I missed one weekend’s post).  I spent it entirely in the city, but I was busy.   (I mean, busy enough that when a friend invited me to a gorgeous beach house for the weekend, I didn’t even question whether re-ordering my schedule might be a possibility--and I love the beach).   On Saturday morning, Kelly picked up 5 of us, all ladies, and we visited the textile museum in zone 10 of Guatemala City.  I’d heard great things about Museo Ixchel, but I’d never actually gone.  (Admittedly, museums are not generally my cup of tea).  Kelly had snagged us a great deal on the price for...

For a long time now, Karina and Jin (a teacher/neighbor originally from China) had been talking about getting a group together so Jin could teach us how to make a few Chinese dishes.  The day finally came this weekend.   On Saturday morning, Karina, Jin, Karen, and I took off at 10:30am to go shopping for ingredients. Our first stop was the Chinese store.  Watching Jin walk in, it was like watching a kid in a candy shop.  It was like she was home.  She was ecstatic to see all of the ingredients.  “Look how great those mushrooms look!”  “Ooh, with those noodles you could make…”  “This is my favorite brand of soy sauce!”  It was great, and just following her around was a lesson in Chinese cuisine, though I’ll remember none of it in the future.   From there, we went to zone 7. By this time, we were getting hungry, so we went to Jin’s favorite Korean restaurant.  Pro tip: if you want the best service at a Korean restaurant ...

“So what do you think?  Mini or full adventure?” Chris asked me via messenger on Thursday afternoon.  Before I knew Chris would be in town this weekend, I had already made plans with my co-workers for Saturday evening.  But an adventure with Chris is something no one should pass up when given the chance. Full adventure was the obvious choice.  I backed out of my Saturday plans, and Chris and I left that morning bound for Mixco Viejo to be followed by a surprise which I only knew entailed a road/village that Chris had never been to.  We left the city and wound up the hills, through an area Chris calls the furniture capital of Guatemala, towards San Juan Sacatepequez.    The views were simply stunning.  The skies were clear, and we pulled over to take a few photos of Guatemala City spread out in the distance.  As our road curved over ridges, the view on either side of the truck kept changing.  With sweeping valley...