Well let’s just start off with: I’m blogging from the floor today.  I fell asleep writing this post.  But that is no indication of the exciting things you are about to read, I promise.  It was probably more of an indication of how fun karaoke was last night, but again, that is a story for another post.

It typhooned outside today.  “Typhooned” is a past tense verb, born into the English language approximately 5 seconds ago for the purpose of describing this weather.  The thunder actually set off car alarms.  The loudest blow was far and away the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard.  I actually screamed.  Jessica captured this wicked lighting—

Sort of looks like a 5-year-old took a white crayon to the sky.

So today is the first day I stayed in for dinner— but no worries.  I’m about to eat the mango I got from a fruit store.  I bought three mangos, a banana, and a dragonfruit (火龙果).  In Mandarin the symbols literally mean “fire” (火), “dragon” (龙), “fruit” (果).  Pretty cool since it kind of looks like a puff of fire from a dragon.  Tammy told me it’s like a red kiwi.  I haven’t gotten a chance to eat it yet.  Five pieces of fruit for 60 NT (2 dollars).  What a deal!

Fresh fruit is a meal you can never go wrong with here.  Especially mango.  I finally bought a little bowl to eat my mango in.  Initially, I had to eat it in the plastic bag I bought it in because I had nothing else!  So much for thinking ahead.

Okay, okay, so let me tell you a little bit about Saturday and the all-day trip around Tainan historical and ecological sites.  First we started outside the Chinese Language Center and our tour guide talked a little bit about this famous type of tree in the Banyan Garden.

She said no one wants to plant one of these trees in their garden because the roots are very strong and will keep growing, letting nothing stand in its path.  “It will destroy your house!” she said.  It grows a thin, twiggy material from its branches, much like hair, and when the tips are yellow, you know it’s still alive.

Then we went to a Confucius Temple.  You had to step over this thing to get in the entrance.

Our tour guide said that it was because when you step over it, you bend your knee, and it shows honor to the gods.  With our student IDs, we all got in free.  It was pretty cool to see all the relics.  One was a wine glass shaped like an elephant.

   

Many entrance ways to temples will have four columns and three walkways.  You are never supposed to go through the middle, because that one is for the gods.  Clearly the people in this photo never got the memo.  I feel sorry for them.

After that, we headed over to the National Museum of Taiwan Literature.  On the way we saw a firehouse.  Weird that it says “119” instead of “911.”

Inside the Museum of Taiwan Literature, there were these cool statues of mothers and their children.  You could press the baby’s head and listen to the mother speaking.  Pressing the baby’s head also made the people listening to their mothers look pretty silly.

Here’s the poetry room.  I wish I had more time to explore this area.  It reminded me a little bit of the scene in Tangled with all of the lanterns..

Immediately after the poetry room, there was a video of an old puppet show playing.

And there were a bunch of seahorses all over the place, because that was the museum’s symbol.

After that, we went to Koxinga’s Shrine.  In simple terms, the shrine is build to honor Cheng Cheng Kung, who was the pioneer of Taiwan and the person who the university I’m attending (National Cheng Kung University) was named after.  Read the fuller history here.  It’s short and interesting; I recommend it.

  

After that, we had free time for lunch!  I had a steamed rice bowl.

It tasted a little like oatmeal, so I added some garlic to spice it up a bit.  Garlic is the best.  So was the mango drink they had there for 30 NT, 1 dollar.

They had all these mugs of different American cities.  Then just the entire state of Ohio?  Haha.

After lunch we watched a street vendor write George’s name in boiled sugar.  The vendor was extremely artistic with the sugar.  He had his Masters degree from a prestigious British university and spoke great English.  We had a fun time talking to him.

  

Then Tammy and I split mango shaved ice.

Tell me the menu doesn’t impress you.. (click to enlarge)

Then we went to Chi Kan Tower, which was built by the Dutch and was surrendered to Koxinga.  The last picture is the god of literature.

   

And finally, we went on the Chiku Lagoon Cruise.  We rode a boat across an oyster farm to get to a small island.

 

Oyster farmers hang oysters on bamboo platforms (pictured first), and new oysters naturally grow off of them.  On the boat, they cooked fresh oysters on a little grill and handed them out.  Fresh oysters for everyone!

   

The beach was everyone’s favorite part of the day, I think.  The water was warm, and we took a ton of pictures.

      

A crab almost ran into the back of my legs, too.

Then we had another amazing meal, with several courses, in a similar style of the welcome dinner— lots of dishes meant to be shared by the table.  I tried pig’s heart!  It didn’t have much flavor, but it was really chewy.

     

After weekend one, I’m feeling very good about my decision to accept TUSA..