My calligraphy is much better after having bought two specific items at the stationary store: butter lion pencils and a hippo pencil sharpener.  Now I can erase my mistakes!  I just don’t understand why the United States cannot sell cute things.

My butter lion pencil has sheep-pigs all over it and says, “Surrounded by butter lion, immersed in the marvels of life.”  Solid yellow is about as creative as America gets.  Borrrringgg.

Speaking of cute things at the stationary store, my tutor brought me some adorable stickers at our session on Friday.  These are about to cover my Chinese workbook.  Look out, world.

Okay, now onto the rest of my Friday.  After my 1:1 tutor session and group class, where we went over sentences with the word “dōu” or “both,” I went to a class on the urban development and historical architectures of Tainan.  The lecturer spoke about several buildings we saw on our tour of Tainan a couple weeks ago, including the Dutch Chi-Kan Tower.  He described the influences in chronological order:

1. Dutch
2. Spanish
3. Koxinga
4. Qing Dynasty
5. Japanese
6. KMT
7. DPP

Chi-Kan Tower was built in 1653, and Fort Zeelandia was built in 1634.  Up until 1791 under the Qing Dynasty, it was illegal to build city walls, but in 1791, Tainan was formed by the stone and brick walls they built around it.  It had eight gates.

After class, I went to tai chi, which is always relaxing.  Although, there are a lot of mosquitos.  I always find myself breaking pose to smack one.

Then a bunch of us went to a baseball game.

Pre-baseball mango was necessary though.

The Uni Lions (Tainan’s home team) faced the Rhinos.  The Lions lost by a lot.  But it was a great time.  And I got a Lions hat!  Now I can say I’m a Lion’s girl.  What I’ve always wanted in life.

The stadium was a lot smaller than an American stadium, but there were a lot of similarities between American and Taiwanese baseball culture.   There were blown up pictures of baseball players on the outside of the stadium, and fans were called down to play little games on the field in between innings.  They even had a kiss cam!  And, of course, the teams’ mascots walked around.  I got a bag of spicy puff chips from the lion.  There weren’t as many people at the game as I expected there to be, but it was pretty nice because we had a lot of space and could spread out our stuff.  The language partners all said that Saturday was a busier day for baseball.

The next day, I slept until noon, a much needed rest.  And then I went to a craft market where vendors were selling handmade goods.  There, I met up with Sonia and she brought me pineapple cake!  (A negotiation made on facebook earlier that day.)  I think I’ve already mentioned pineapple cake in a prior post, but pineapple cake, like the steamed egg, deserves to be mentioned twice.  I will truly miss it back in the United States.  The rectangular pastry comes individually wrapped, immediately breaking into crumbs when you reach the sweet, pineapple jam inside.  Thanks, Sonia!  Then, back to Funny House, the mecca of board games.