As I was taking a picture of the "cool tree" below........I was suddenly surrounded by about 20 guys with really big.....cameras! A photo shoot of some model had started right beside me. As I walked away, I realized I was missing a good photo op myself so went back to capture the moment! Picture this scene, with me unknowingly right in the middle, trying to get the best angle of the nice tree. haha!

This is the picture I was taking as the photo shoot slowly surrounded me. When I took the picture, the model was a few feet away from me and there was mad "snapping" of cameras taking place. They seemed oblivious to my prescence. Maybe they thought I was handsome enough to be included in their pictures. Maybe not. Anyways, this was in Taichung Park. A beautiful park right in the middle of the city. Many cool trees, a big lake and lots of places to sit and relax. 

Post-Jazz Festival drinks... take a close look t my very content expression... oh my.

Parents can't help but bring their small children over to see the foreign folk... (Jazz Festival)

The very busy Jade Market. You can find just about any chinese treasure you could imagine here.

We stumbled on an unexpected tea party at the Jade market.

Metropolitan Park

Metropolitan Park is a massive park about half an hour from our place. On a smog free day you can get a beautiful day of the city... unfortunately on this day it was too smoggy for views.

Mark contemplating his decision to come to Taiwan at Metropolitan Park.

More metro-park.

Mark's Soccer Team

Taichung United after a long tournament weekend. We played 8 games in two days and were definitely hurting by then end. Our team only let in 1 goal the whole time but we unfortunately lost 1-0 in the finals to The Taipei Animals. There are 4 tournamens in Taiwan a year. The fall cup is in Taichung, the winter cup is down south in Kaoshiung, the spring cup is in Tainan and the summer cup is up north in Taipei. Our team participates in each tournament as well as playing games every Sunday afternoon with various teams.

Jazzy Days

Megan, Jenn, Me and Shannon at the Jazz festival.

Dakeng Scenic Area. Lots of paths up the mountains for fabulous hiking and scooter rides. This is only about a 20 minute ride from our place. It was wild (and fabulous) to find out that we could escape the craziness so easily.

Hot Springs and Nearly Naked Things...

Visit to a Hot Spring-Water Park close to our house that had some unexpected entertainment...

We walked from the hot springs to the back of the waterpark side and found a show about to start. We waited back stage a couple minutes and saw girls dressed like they were ready to do the can-can minus their skirts... they did a series of little dances each one witha a different bum bearing outfit. In between the girl to the right would come out and do some crazy hula hoop and balancing tricks. They hilarious part was that counting the two of us there might have been half a dozen people (including kids) watching. Apparently they had a six month contract and did this little performance everyday...

The view of the waterpark. The hot springs are on the other side of the stage.

PAY DAY!

Our first pay day... ohhh yaaa!