8-12 Teaching, Students in my second class crowded the computer to play the online version of TKO. There were probably 12-15 of them around the computer.
12 Meeting & Lunch : We had my favorite fish today MmMmMmMmM!
1-2:30 Jade Market Part II : Gifts bought here are going to be Christmas gifts because they were SUPER nice.
While I was there this very kind lady gave me a smiling Buddah for good luck and money. It was completely free. She kept looking for her husband but wanted to give it to me because she said that she had worked 24 years in Taipei, Tinan, and Kaohsiung and that I was very pretty and she wanted me to have it.
7-9 pm Yoga (Wish me luck! Aparently the leader is as flexible as a jellyfish!)
8-12 Teaching 12-1 Lunch Meeting 1-3 Morgan and I wandered about near campus and explored some of the safe looking alleys and shops near school. Then I went back to the office to check email and chat with friends.
4 pm MODERN TOILET! (see next entry)
7 pm Met Jane for dinner before her next meeting with the team captain of the French life saving team. She is very cute when she tells me about her frustrations about life. She and I shared about our lives then she had to rush off to her meeting. I hope to have many quick dinners with Jane in the last few days we have left. She is very sweet and fun.
I am was very excited about this restaurant! It is very silly but it was worth the laughs and pictures we took. The premise of the restaurant is that you sit on toilets, eat out of toilets, and drink out of them too! I can only begin to describe the humorous situations that ensued upon arrival, so here are a few photos.
Cathy and I ordered ice cream and had no idea we could have all split one! My awesome cold cranberry tea came in the bed pan Mimi is so perplexed over here:
This Saturday and Sunday we were in Taipei. We saw everything! It was super fun, but really tiring. I am so glad I got to see all that we did see. The program director Helen and her husband Michael played tour guide this weekend and fearlessly navigated the group of 12 all around Taipei.
7:40 amMeet at the train station
8:00 am High Speed rail departs, leaving Amy (still on MRT), Michael and Sunny (to wait)
9:30 amArrive Taipei, wait for rest of the group
10:20 amMRT to Chang-Kei Check memorial
11:15 amArrive memorial, changing of the guard
12:15 amLeave memorial
1:00 pmExplore train station looking for food – Hong Kong style food
2:00 pm Youth Hotel Owned by the government (very nice!)
3:00 pmleave for National Palace museum
6:30 pmleave museum in a bus, eat open flame hot pot (very hot, very yummy)
8:00 pmOldest and largest Taipei night market
9:00 pmwalk to hotel
10:00 pmshowered and sound asleep
SUNDAY
8:00 am wake up dress
9:45 amleave hotel (15 mins behind schedule)
10:00 amMRT to Taipei 101
12:30 amleave Taipei 101 for Handicraft Mart
2:15 pmleave handicraft market
3:00 pmwander about the train station – find food
3:40 pmleave Taipei and eat on the train
5:30 pmarrive in Kaohsiung
At 6:30 pmhost family takes us to dinner at a very nice Restaurant called Hansin's. It was Hong Kong style (see earlier entry) and we ate and ate and ate some more. So much food and so yummy! We tired a little of everything!
Although the tower is called Taipei 101, the observation deck is on the 88th floor. We had a chance to ride the fastest elevator in the world and take some awesome photos:
Okay. I must say that upon partaking of this cuisine for the first time, as a westerner, I was quite shocked that a restaurant would serve food cold. However the more I thought about it the more it made sense in this time and place.
Hong Kong style is when food is brought to you on a rolling cart or tray and then unwrapped and handed directly to you. However it is served in the state that it appears to you. For example: the dumplings were on a steamer cart while the broccoli was not. Therefor the Broccli was cold and the dumplings (amazing, best dumplings yet) hot.
For dessert a familiar face made an appearance! FLAN! However, not being much a FLAN fan i decided to try something new and had the grey concotion in the first bowl on the tray. It was had a sweet undertone and hundreds of tiny rice balls floating in in. It was sweet enough but not sickly like many American treats.
First stop The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. We were awed at the space allowed for this monument in the midst of such a large city. We took pictures in awe and humor:
Most importantly, we stayed for the changing of the gaurd. These guys are intense!
They remain motionless at arms for hours and an attendant comes to wipe their sweat and adjust their uniforms.
We are stayed in a very nice youth hotel! Because the hotel was across the street from The Grand Hotel, first impressions gave a lot to be desired. However, we loved our stay. The rooms had the three things every American hopes for: cold room, clean sheets, and hot water.
After we checked in we went to one of the oldest, biggest, busiest and smelliest night markets I have seen. There were thousands of people swarming this tiny block! The noise alone would have made most people turn and run, but here in Taiwan shopping is quite the hobby!
FRIDAY Week 2! The realization that the trip is almost half over is starting to set in. I am very sad to be leaving a place that I may never return is breaking my heart. Today's itinerary is as follows:
8-12 Teaching 12-1 Meeting 1-4 KTV! Karaoke Taiwanese style! This place looked more like a grand hotel than a Karaoke joint! You rent an entire room with a huge projector and then you punch in the number for the song you would like to sing. You are seated most comfortably on a couch facing the screen and there is no public embarrassment! The theme is good times and fun!
Although I did not personally make it to the opening ceremony of the World Games the buzz around the city is phenomenal! The buses are free, students are missing class left and right for performances, there have been two or three practice rounds of fireworks, and the list goes on! The excitement of being in the same city as the world games is palpable in the air! There are murals and posters everywhere, not to mention the increase in the number of foreigners we have seen on the subway(MRT)!
Here is one student in her world games uniform, ready for a preformance later today: One more day of teaching/testing then on to Taipei!
MONDAY School Reporting day so class started later than usual. These late mornings are really nice every now and again. No class till 10:00 am
7:30 Traditional Chinese Market : I asked my host mother to take me grocery shopping with her but she said we could not do it all in one stop like Americans do. She suggested that this morning she would go to a market that it was easy to park at. This market still had plenty of things to offer my western senses. Let me tell you something, I was expecting smells and sounds, but let me tell you this market was very well kept and clean. I would have eaten anything from there (once it had been properly cooked of course). And eat it we did. We had the very fish we bought for dinner, eye ball and all! Yum yum!
9:30 School to prepare for the classes
12 Lunch at HOT POT! WOOOO! (See hot pot entry)
2:30 pm Adventure to change American Express Travelers checks : FAIL. Absolute FAIL. The office was guarded by a security person who did not speak any English and would not let me into the office to speak to anyone in English. Banks etc do close at 3 pm so there is a good chance the office was closed and we had a technical fail. At any rate there was a beautiful cloudy view of the 85 floor building here in Kaohsiung.
This morning it was a school reporting day so we did not have to be at school until 10:00am. This was really a nice treat because we usually have class starting at 8:10am. I opted, however, to go with my host mother to a traditional Chinese market.
Vegetables! Mostly gourds and the like - the bumpy ones are quite bitter - I know from experience. Its no zucchini!
Pig Face:
Piggy foot!
One of the nicest sales people at 7:30 in the morning!
Fish heads anyone?
Here is a video of some of the fish still breathing!
THURSDAY 8-12 School; Here our students taught us how to make Muahchi. SO YUMMY! If you have enough sugar. I had to show my surprise at the taste to two classes. I might be a much better actor than I thought. :) Here our students Nose, Michael Jackson, Cassie, Yuki, and Susan show us hands on:
12-2 Meeting: Planning for next week and tomorrow's assessment 2-4 Internet Cafe, more like WOW's Taiwanese Lingya District Headquarters! This place was really nice but there was not wifi like I had hoped but this worked out better. I could charge my laptop, transfer pictures to my jump drive, write blog entries, and check email! I should really look into getting a desktop in Tally.... I could super computer all the time!
Here is a picture that looks a bit to much like the author photo that appears on the back page of every non-fiction book. Here the author sits with her trip adviser as the prepare the day's blog entry... I could just see it.
4-9 Stationary store, bookstore, sporting goods store 9ish Yummy Chinese food from a Mom & Pop. You know it is got to be good if 1. you are the only white person there and 2. there is no English spoken behind the counter! It was so yummy! We ate vegetarian today because it was what worked for us. Bedtime!
8-12 am Teaching 12-1 pm Meeting 2-4 pm Wandering and hanging out near central park. We took the afternoon off to hang out and chill. We got to know each other over coffee and cake.
Tiramisu is just not the same here:
We were at the restaurant long enough the manager gave us a free soft peanut brittle. Amazing!
Here is the Central Park MRT station! It is so pretty! Flowers and huge floating shoes!
Formosa Blvd Station - Dome of Light
On the way back from the MRT I rode on the back of Jane's scooter. She is such a good driver! Shhh! I was not supposed to ride on any scooters! The engines are much smaller and are not capable of going quite as fast as US scooters, which is better with the city traffic.
7:00 pm Fireworks! Our first since the fourth! I was so glad to see them! We were so close to them! We could almost smell the gun powder! McDonalds and Night Market goodness!
I am a recent graduate of the Florida State University. I am starting school in the fall to get my PhD in Pharmacognosy in the bold and beautiful city of Chicago!
While I was there this very kind lady gave me a smiling Buddah for good luck and money. It was completely free. She kept looking for her husband but wanted to give it to me because she said that she had worked 24 years in Taipei, Tinan, and Kaohsiung and that I was very pretty and she wanted me to have it.
