movement

As my legs ache and I can barely move, I'm thinking how fortunate I am to find myself in this city.  It's a lovely place, the air is filled with the fragrant flowers of the betel nut palms, and tonight I actually saw stars.  Stars!  I can't remember the last time I saw stars in Taiwan, certainly not in Hsinchu.

Feeling slightly like a grandma, I rode the bike my boss donated to me (it even has a basket, which actually is pretty useful) all over the city this weekend.  Most of the time I didn't know where I was going but I still ended up exactly where I needed to be.  Yesterday I just rode, felt instinct guiding me.  And I ended up at a beautiful Buddhist monastery called Lingyen Mountain Temple.  The scenery there was quite breathaking; even moreso were the kind monks that greeted me with happiness radiating from their faces.  I spent some time walking around the grounds listening to the hundred or so monks chanting as they knelt in the great hall in prayer.  The sound of their uplifted voices brought tears to my eyes and I could barely pull myself away; however it started to thunder and I figured I'd better get going before I got caught on the country roads in the downpour.

 I completed round two today, driving almost 3 hours around most of the city.  I'd wanted to go to Sun Moon Lake for the swimming festival but after walking all the way to the bus station none of the buses were running there and the taxi drivers refused to take me due to the traffic flow.  So I decided to just hop back onto the grandma bike.   I traveled around the perimeter of the city and ended up in some tiny little village complete with fields of water bamboo and stinky smelling swamp water.  At one point I drove down a rocky trail and a pack of wild dogs came out of nowhere, proceeding to scare the crap out of me as they chased after the bike.  These dogs were nothing like the friendly stray I encountered on my walk this morning.  This beautiful dog wouldn't leave me alone.:) A picture of the friendly pup:

  Back to my adventure:

  I escaped onto another road, but first I had to get off the bike, cross over a stinky swamp puddle and push through some weeds (my pants had all these burr-like things stuck in them and ever since I've been really itchy) and roll forward with slight trepidation as I continued to hear dogs bark nearby.  I went further into the little village.

People there looked at me like I was another life form; I plan on going back with a scooter in the near future.  The smells of the flowers were amazing and I got to witness a lot of the locals hard at work in their fields.

Random images from my bike ride today:

Tonight I'm feeling like I'm moving closer than ever to my calling.  As I rode the bike today, peace filled my heart as I reflected on how lucky I am to have this experience.  I don't know what's going to happen over the coming months but whatever the case, this has been magical.  I'm seeing things I once only dreamt of.  If these dreams came true, perhaps others will as well.