Okay, so I’m a little behind on blogging.  I’ve been practicing two dance routines for the farewell banquet, writing and editing sections for the yearbook, studying for a midterm we have coming up, and chilling with my host family.  This program keeps you non-stop busy.  But I love it.

Plus, it’s good practice for writing at odd hours, which every journalism major needs to get accustomed to.  I just have to live under the assumption that it’s my civic duty to tell people at home what I’m doing, and that’s enough of a motivating factor for me.  And again, it’s practice for when it is actually my civic duty to tell people at home what the world is doing.

So, Taipei.  We went there two weekends ago.  This late reporting would never fly in journalism, but then again, once I have a job, I would never be in the circumstance of taking classes from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day.  So I forgive myself.

I got on the charter bus with the giant pillow TUSA provided us on the first day we got here.  Everyone made fun of me.  “You brought your whole pillow?!”  “Why did you bring your pillow?”  “I brought a neck pillow.”  Blah blah blah.  Then, after everyone was exhausted and couldn’t get in a comfortable position, at the first rest stop everyone was super jealous of my pillow and wish they brought theirs.  That is karma at its finest.  I slept almost every time we got in the bus over the two-day trip.  Take that, haters.

Somewhere in and out of sleep, we stopped at a traditional Hakka Chinese restaurant for lunch.

And since you’re now reading my posts out of order, yes, this is the heritage of my host dad!  The food came out in several courses, family style, shared on a giant lazy susan.  My personal favorite was the pork with bamboo chutes (photo number 3).

         

After lunch, we had another long bus trip to the Yingge Ceramics Museum where we saw all kinds of beautiful pottery and ceramics.  Our tour guide discussed the different ways to fire clay to create various textures and colors.

And there were some models of kilns along the way:

And surprise!  Ceramics too:

And (actual surprise), toilets:

The museum was pristine, with sleek modern art decorating the outside.  And a reflecting pool.

On the way back to the bus, I found some squid kites in the sky.  How cool is that?

Once again, we were on the bus to a new destination.  This time it was Shiding Old Street.  Our tour guide led us to an active temple, and then we were on our own.  Mass chaos.  Incense was burning, smoke dissipating into the air in front of dragons carved into the temple’s pillars.

 

People were praying, tourists were taking pictures, a ceremony in which another god was paying a visit to this temple’s god ensued in front of the building— firecrackers, vibrant costumes, and the rhythmic beating of a drum.  I have never experienced an environment quite like this.

Once we escaped the lively temple, we shopped on Shiding Old Street.  There were several vendors, selling things like Chinese fans, fried squid, calligraphy tools, tea sets.  I got a plum popsicle.  The person I bought it from gave it to me in a plastic bag.  I quickly understood why once it started melting all over the place in about five seconds.  Still worth it.

We could always find our tour guide with this fish sock.

After that, we went to Taipei 101, which was formerly the tallest building in the world.

Inside, there were all sorts of high end shops.  Dior, Louis Vuitton, Coco Chanel.  We filed into a line to take pictures in front of a green screen, which then filed into a line to the elevator.

Classic picture of a too expensive picture:

Though there were 101 floors, we were only able to go up to 89.  The higher floors are exclusive to elite members.  The view was incredible.  Especially at sunset.

There was all kinds of shiny, expensive things in Taipei 101:

And a giant inflatable heart that self proclaims Taiwan as the heart of Asia:

On the 88th floor there was a giant damper to protect the building from typhoons and earthquakes.

At the shop, you could find little toys made out of this damper with 101 turned into a face— the 1s being eyes, and the 0 being a mouth.  There were also all kinds of beautiful, coral sculptures on the 88th floor.

 

Then we took the bus to our hotel, where we were greeted with a disgusting bug.  We actually called the desk to kill it for us.  That poor woman… you could tell she was afraid of it too.

After a quick stop to drop off our things, we went to the night market.  I got some spicy chicken and a mango yogurt drink.  I’m going to miss these meals when I get home.  I didn’t think the chicken was that spicy until I ran out of my drink.  Thankfully, Elizabeth pitied me and lent me some of her water.

The yogurt in the drink was a Japanese yogurt called Yakult.  So naturally, I got some Yakult at “Club 7/11” on the way back to the hotel.  It comes in a cute little bottle!

The next morning we went to the Lin Family Mansion and Garden, which was sort of like a botanical garden, but way cooler since it was the home of an ancient rich family.

   

They used to host concerts in this room for only a few people:

And they had these giant pots for water in case there was a fire.

Their estate even had a little bridge over a pond for viewing the moon.  Our tour guide talked about the moon festival here, where people will appreciate the moon and eat moon cakes.  It usually takes place in early autumn.

For lunch we all went to an all-you-can-eat hot pot place.  I was shocked to see pigs in a blanket on the buffet line.  But the scallion pancakes were definitely the thing I ate the most of.  Thumbs up for this place.

 

After lunch we went to the National Palace Museum.  It was incredible.

 

Unfortunately, a lot of people know that it’s incredible, so it was crowded, and we had to wait in line to even enter certain rooms.  But the room I was most impressed by didn’t have gigantic artifacts made of gold.  It held the tiniest, and most intricate displays.  I wish I was able to take photos.  Instead I stole some off the Taiwanese government’s website for this post.  Yay for attribution!

There was a Chinese boat carved out of the pit of an olive.  And a dragon boat carved out of ivory.  Both needed a magnifying glass in the display to enlarge their intricate features.  And there was a basket, just covered in ivory carvings.  Our tour guide told us to guess what it was used for.  Someone guessed an urn.  I had no idea.

It was a lunch box.  The emperor’s lunch box. The most average, everyday thing, turned into a masterpiece, now viewed in a glass case by millions of people.  I wish I could watch him take out his food and eat it right there in front of me.  History is unbelievable sometimes.  I love imagining what it would be like.

We rode the bus home as the sun set in a blazing sea of orange.  It was a great weekend.