I was sitting in the living room in the early morning with the balcony door open and I heard an odd sound. When I stepped outside I realized it was raining. It happens so infrequently I'd forgotten what it sounds like! Maybe it will wash away some of the smog.

Boy, do I like my yoga evenings. It took me going halfway around the world to finally take a class and realize what I've been missing. Priscilla is a little sprite of a South African woman in her early thirties and we are a class of 5 or 6 mostly middle-aged creaky teachers from America. She manages to work our tails off without letting us actually hurt ourselves. I feel wonderfully stretched out and a little bit achy by the time I crawl into bed and then wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and limber. It's like magic.

Today I feel like there are enough signs around the city to confirm that there has been a shift in the seasons. Here's how I know winter has arrived in Taiwan:
1. Christmas decorations at the mall. There's even a tree up at school. I'll take a picture tomorrow. It's pretty cute in a tacky, tinsel-ly way.
2. The corn in the 1st grade garden was harvested and eaten today.
3. It's dark enough during our morning commute that the street lights haven't blinked off yet.
4. The thermometer has been dipping into the 60's during the nighttime.
5. I've started counting the number of days until we fly back to the states for winter break!

It was so chilly this evening that I actually wore socks with my sandals when we went for a bike ride. I'm not quite ready to make the leap to wearing long pants - no need to be hasty in making that change. I think our bodies will be in for a major shock when our plane arrives at Bradley in three weeks!

The school is in the typical pre-winter break frenzy. Christmas parties, musical performances, end-of-term exams. Good thing we had a long weekend to rest up for the final push.

Why, you may be asking, do I have all those receipts strewn across the table? Because it's time to check the receipt lottery, of course! And what is the receipt lottery? It's the Taiwan government's way of ensuring that merchants pay their taxes. They've given the consumer an incentive to demand a receipt for their purchases which means the transaction goes into the books, not under the table.

Here's how it works: Every receipt has an eight digit number printed on it and every other month three of those numbers are randomly drawn. You can win anywhere from NT$200 to NT$10,000,000, which sounds like a lot until you divide by 30 and realize it's less than US$7 to US$300,000. Still more than pocket change though!

So I dutifully save all my receipts, where they pile up in the desk drawer until the end of the odd numbered months. Then I sort them, cross my fingers and hope that I've got a match. And guess what?! Out of the 50 or so receipts I had two NT$200 winners!

Yes, the one on the left did come from pizza hut. What can I say, you can't watch football without pizza. And now I get to go down to the post office and collect my winnings. Maybe I'll treat my colleagues to a round of bubble tea!

So we are back in Kaohsiung. Back to the crowds. Back to the noise. Back to the smog. And yet.... There are wonders to discover, even here.

We went for a walk to pay our electric and phone bills at the 7-11 and take a stroll around the turtle pond at Aozhidi Park. By the way, how cool is that, being able to pay your bills at the convenience store. No postage, no figuring out the Chinese websites, and there's a 7-11 on nearly every corner. Talk about a convenience store!

After the bills were paid we headed across the street but a flash of brilliant blue caught our attention and we went to investigate. There's a meadow next to the park and there were a couple dozen people with the most beautiful birds I've ever seen, all out getting their macaws and parrots a little exercise and social time. Unfortunately, we didn't bring our cameras but it turns out this group of bird owners comes out every Sunday afternoon to fly their birds. We'll be out of town next Sunday, on a hike along the eastern coast, but we'll be back at the bird meadow in two weeks, cameras in hand.

Day two at Taroko Gorge has been spectacular. We had an amazing breakfast at the hotel - both western and Chinese cuisine so with my croissant I also had steamed chestnuts and fish soup - and set off for a day of hiking. There's only one road and a rushing river you can either see or hear from just about everywhere, so there's no worry about getting lost.

We found a trail that paralleled the road but at a higher elevation.

The trail signs said to watch out for poisonous snakes and giant wasps but all we saw were lots of butterflies and incredible views. It's hard to tell from this photo but the trail is about halfway up the cliff between the road and the top of picture. It hugs the edge of the cliff and looks straight down about a thousand feet to the river below. A nerve-wracking experience but well worth it.

The trail also had a little tunnel, just like the roadway has all along the gorge. But most of the time it looked just like this:

Along the way we also saw a suspension bridge. Lee ventured partway across but you're supposed to get a park permit to hike that particular trail so I was spared having to follow him. I did, however, take his picture.

We also took each other's pictures at the lions guarding one of the roadway bridges.

We only visited a short section of the park and plan to come back as often as possible. It's simply beautiful.

As you all dig out from the snow storm we flew out of Kaohsiung to beautiful Hualien, Taiwan and took a taxi up into the mountains to Taroko Gorge. We're staying at the lovely Silk Place, a little resort-style hotel nestled in the valley between two rivers halfway up the gorge. It's beautiful.

We went on a hike up to a nearby temple across the river from the hotel.

Since this is a regular weekday in the off-season there were no crowds, although we did see quite a few tour buses on the road up into the gorge. I guess those folks just do a drive-by visit and don't do much walking.

Up at the temple we came across a woman offering up tofu, for a small donation.

It was delicious! We also saw a lot of gorgeous flowers, including poinsettias.

Back at the hotel, we found the rooftop pool and hot tubs. We'll be spending more time up there.

Enjoy your turkey and stuffing today!