A Poem

Found this on a Taiwan blog somewhere...




Go placidly amid the night markets and the cram schools and remember

what peace there may be in pearl milk tea.

As far as possible, be on good terms with your neighbors, even if they threaten to take you to

court for cussing them out in the lobby that day.

Surround yourself

with that which is pleasant on Isla Formosa, and don’t let the dengue

fever mosquitoes bite you.

Always plan on good sunny weather, but don’t

forget to carry a fold-up umbrella in your backpack, just in case.

Be pure and clean 24/7, take a shower in the morning or night, whichever

time frame pleases you, and drink only that which comes in a bottle.

In other words: don’t drink the tap water!

Taste of the cho dofu, the frog legs and the slimy snails, and learn

to use your chopsticks with aplomb.

Watch your New Taiwan Dollars

appreciate or fall flat on their faces, and think of the all the money

you have earned (and hopefully, saved) during your time here. When

it’s time to return home, you will know it. Until then, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Beef noodles? Go for it? Oyster omletters? Do it. The Mazu Pilgrimmage

From Taichung to Hsinkang? Go on it.

As for Kenting, make a beeline for that southern mecca whenever you

can, because as you know, you only live once and Taiwan is your chance

of a lifetime. Sure, there’s Lukang and Guifen and Green Island and Peitou’s famous hot springs

(with ”special services” provided), but you’ve got to make your own

itinerary for the island and then stick to it.

Are you counting the days till you go home? Then you’re in the wrong place.

Take the ferry from Keelung, fly out to Orchid Island or a book a seat

on the narrow-guage train to Alishan (when it re-opens!) and never say

there’s nothing to write home about on this never-out-of-surprises subtropical island.

Betel nut beauties got you excited? Snap some photos surreptitiously with your

cellphone camera, but watch out for gangster interference in case you get too close. You’ve been warned.

Find work as a buxiban teacher, an expat businessman or a Ph.D.

professor, and don’t forget to file your income taxes on the appointed day.

Even if you are a dunce, do your best to learn some Chinese while

you’re here, and it wouldn’t hurt to pick up some Hakka and Hoklo, too.

As for the Aborigines who were here first, get to know them as the wonderful people they are

and treat them as your brothers and sisters. They are the real

Formosans, from 10,000 years ago and more.

And they have stories to tell, stories to tell. Beheadings? Believe it.

As for the Japanese Colonial Period (1895 to 1945), for better or

worse, they came, they went, they conquered. Can you say “chotto matte”? Or “kukei” or massaji”?

Just don’t ask the ”comfort women” what they know. It wasn’t all fun and games in those days.

Far away, but too close, there are the Chicoms, as you know, and they

got 1200 missiles aimed right at Taipei and Taichung. Ignore the

bastards, if you can, for surely they are on the wrong side of history and someday they will

see their empire collapse.

Remember this always, all ye who toil here:

Taiwan is a free, democratic, soverign nation, and that’s why the

politicians can stage knock-em-down fights on TV and get away with it.

This is Taiwan. You lived it. [Congratulations?]

———————————————-

Purportedly a message found in a PET bottle wafting down the elevator shaft
of Taipei 101

COPYRIGHT (c) 2008 – by ”expatnonymous”

A Stranger Day: A Walk in the Clouds

To those of you who don't know the "walk in the clouds" reference, it is a 1995 Keanu Reeves film.  To those of you who do get the reference, Hi Madeleine!

This past Sunday I had a fun and exciting day trip to Yangmingshan with - who else? - a few total strangers.  How did this happen, you ask?  Becca (not a stranger) and I had briefly met this med student named James (stranger) last week.  James then invited us to meet up with him and some of his med school friends (strangers) for an hour or so.  They were all extremely nice and friendly, from all over the world, and it was a lot of fun talking to them, however briefly.  It was here that I met Francois and Coralie (strangers), who invited me/us to join them on a trip to Yangmingshan, a National Park in the north of Taipei which offers hikes and scenery for all.  Becca already had weekend plans to travel to the South of Taiwan, so she declined.  I hesitated only briefly to consider the probabilities of kidnapping, rape, murder, etc. by these potentially dangerous people before accepting.  We met up on Sunday morning where Francois and Coralie introduced me to another med student, Natasha (stranger), and we all spent the day together.  At the end of the day, with promises to meet up in the future and do more things together, I said goodbye to Francois, Coralie, and Natasha (friends).

We met up at 8:45 (meaning, I woke up at 6:45... yikes) and bought sandwiches for later.  Francois and Coralie are both from France, which was great because I have been wanting someone to practice my French with for years without success.  Natasha is from England.  The three of them are all medical students doing a rotation for something like 8 weeks in Taiwan.  Being with them was funny and strange for a few reasons: for one, they've only been here 3 weeks, so I was the experienced, knowledgeable old-timer.  I also think this was the first time in my life that my Chinese was the best (or maybe tied with Natasha's) in the group, being the only one who has ever taken any formal lessons.  This was such a reversal from the rest of my time here, where I am typically the most helpless and ignorant of all us helpless and ignorant American exchange students.

After arriving, we decided on a trail that involved going to Qixing peak, the tallest point in the park.  Now, for some reason, every hike I have seen in Taiwan so far is just made up of stairs.  I hate it!  Stairs are boring and hard and so obviously man-made that I feel like they really change an outdoorsy "nature" hike into a workout you could do at a department store.  Alas!  I continually reminded myself of this article that I recently read to make myself feel better.  And these stairs were tough.  We had to stop every few minutes, out of breath, sometimes with the pretense of photographing something along the trail or admiring the view.  The hike was about two and a half kilometers, but was so steep and difficult that it took us an hour and a half or so.  The trailside plants/scenery was beautiful - My favorite part of Taipei is that it can be a big urban center but still have mountains in and around the city.  Where we were, I couldn't hear any cars or city sounds - just birds chirping and the panting of my companions (and me).

As we hiked, the stairs grew steeper and steeper, narrower and narrower, windier (\ˈwīn-dē\) and windier, and more and more slippery. After the first kilometer I thought for sure I wouldn't make it and would have to stay behind to meet the group on their way down. However, we persevered, and continued on. At some point, as we started reaching higher elevations, we got higher and the trees got lower so we could look beyond them to see the vast expanse of... nothing. We had hiked straight into a cloud. Although we were all disappointed to miss the view that we were supposed to be seeing, we agreed that the foggy mist was equally beautiful in a different way. It definitely made the whole experience more mysterious and magical. The childhood fantasy of bouncing on a cloud became our reality. After much sweat and struggle, we reached the top of Qixing peak where we celebrated with a rest and our sandwiches.

Triumphant!

The supposed view

... the actual view

But we weren't done there!  Rejuvenated by our sandwiches, we decided to continue down a longer path which would take us to the East Qixing peak, then some visitor center that started with an L, then another spot with hot springs (the name of which changed with every sign or map we consulted), all to get to the waterfall trail where we could pass Jyuansih waterfall and then return.  That added a total of something like 8-10 kilometers, but mostly downhill or flat.  As we set out, walking downhill through the cloud turned out to be even more visually striking than walking up it...

A wind blew and suddenly we could see!  And lo and behold, there was a road!

It's hard to say whether the difference was our elevation or just the passing of time, but at some point we emerged from the clouds and came back down to Earth.  The hike to the waterfall was definitely less strenuous, and the flatter path let us appreciate some of the plants and animals around us a little more.  Anyway, it was beautiful, and a great time, and definitely a really good workout!

Silly mirror pic of me, Francois, Natasha, and Coralie

Exhausted after something like 6 hours of hiking, we took the bus back to Shilin where we decided to hang out and roam the night market.  We stopped at a cafe to recharge and kill time before the night market started up.  They grilled me (excuse the pun) on what delicious foods I'd eaten since getting here, and we all excitedly shared stories about our favorite Taiwanese delicacies: papaya milk, mochi, black sesame (on EVERYTHING), this ice cream/crepe thing (more on that later), steamed buns, and red bean cakes.  They praised the grilled octopus, and I enthusiastically recommended dou hua, a coconut milk and taro ball dessert, the little purple eggplants, and stinky tofu (what a change from the first time I tasted it!).  One of the things I really loved most about hanging out with my new friends is that they reminded me of what it felt like three weeks in to my time here.  I know this sounds ridiculous - I have only been here 2 1/2 months - but I did feel like being around them re-ignited the spark and excitement of trying new things every day, and trying to fit as many adventures in as possible.  It also put my own time here in perspective - I don't have much longer, and I'm afraid I'm getting too comfortable!  It feels too much like just living in a dorm and going to school.  And, extending that, my time in college is really running out - just one year left! - and that is all a limited adventure in itself!  So, I am going to try to remember that as much as possible while I'm here, as well as in life in general.

At Shilin night market we steered pretty clear of the clothing and accessory shops and stayed single-mindedly focused on food.  Coralie and Francois got their first order of stinky tofu - which they seemed to tolerate decently well - and I got myself a spicy order as well.  It really is amazing how my opinions of stinky tofu have turned around - I now actively seek it out to eat!  Stinky though it may be, it makes regular tofu seem a little boring.  We also got some typical night market buns - stuffed with pork, crispy on the bottom, totally delicious.  And they had the ice cream thing I was talking about earlier.  I don't know the name of it, but it is so so tasty!  It's basically a thin crepe (cold) with a pile of peanut brittle shavings on top, and then two or three scoops of sorbet, and wrapped up.  Sometimes they add cilantro - last time I got without, this time I got with.  I think the cilantro adds an interesting flavor, and it's not bad, but I'm not sure it's my preference.

By the end of our tour of the food stalls, I think we were all pretty stuffed.  And tired.  And happy.  We took the MRT back to Taipei Main Station, where I transferred to the blue line and they headed home, with promises to meet up again in the future.  Then, on my MRT ride home, I dropped something and the boy walking behind me (stranger) picked it up and started a conversation.  He was very friendly and we chatted for a while about Taiwan and my time here.  As soon as he got off at his stop, I sat down, and the woman next to me (stranger) confessed that she had been listening in and wanted to wish me the best here in Taiwan.  As I mentioned - never have I had a strangerer day!

In other news, I am trying to remember to post about all the interesting notes on the culture here, so I will stick them in whenever I remember.  For one thing, almost all sandwiches have a thin layer of peanut butter on them.  The first time I encountered this I was really surprised - ham, lettuce, tomato, cheese, mayo, and ... peanut butter??  But it adds a nice sweetness that I quite like.  Since then I've seen in on egg sandwiches and chicken burgers, too.  Also, remember my complaint about the overuse of umbrellas?  Well, I didn't mention (since we had only had about one sunny day at that point) that Taiwanese people also use umbrellas in the sun!  Talk about overkill.  But seriously, it's really interesting how different the views on skin tone are here.  In America everyone wants to be tan; here, everyone avoids getting tan as much as possible.  In America, they sell sunless tanner/bronzer; here, they - no joke - sell body whitening cream!  Kind of crazy.  Also, the cyber cafes here are a little different than in America... they are high-class with luxury seating in row after row, and people (adolescent boys) go there for 10 hours at a time and play video games all night.  At least they look like they're having fun...

One thing that I definitely noticed in the first few days of being here that I don't think I've commented on yet is the table manners. Basically, there are none. During family-style meals it is common and accepted to stand up, reach alllll the way across the table (over people's plates and communal dishes) and use your personal chopsticks to grab something out of a far away dish. And since most of the meat has bones, you are expected to disgustingly spit out whatever bones and gristle you encounter, sometimes straight onto the table! If anyone notices me doing this when I get back to the US, please kindly slap me out of it. Also, remember how I mentioned how everyone makes fun of Bejing accents? Well, I forgot to say that Taiwanese people also seem to really hate Chinese tourists! They love western foreigners, but all seem to be unmistakably distainful of tourists from China. When I told my roommate that I had been in the Taipei 101 area, she scoffed, "Ohh... there must have been a lot of... Chinese tourists." And every time we talk about going to any sight-seeing type location, a Taiwanese student is sure to say how full of Chinese tourists it is bound to be. Anyway, I was recently talking about this to an American friend, and then I just came across this Taiwan travel blog. It is run by a tour guide who seems very friendly, and who lays out a number of day trips full of photos and advice. Under one photo of a group of people milling around the south shore was this caption: "The Chinese tourists entered a prohibited area. They ignored the warning from me and their tour guide. They didn't care about or obey the laws. They just did whatever they wanted to do. There were some incidences which happened to some of Chinese visitors in the pasts because of their ignorance. For example, a few people were washed away by unpredictable waves which is very common on the coast of Taiwan. They were warned before they visited these places. But their ignorance got them in trouble. " This really cracked me up. At least people seem to like Americans well enough!

Other than Sunday at Yangminshan, things have been pretty much the same as usual - some class, some food, some going out, some staying in. I did stay out late enough one night that I walked back up the mountain to my dorm as the sun was rising - that was nice. Yesterday and today involved trips to the hospital to get a physical exam required of all exchange students. Last week was my Chinese midterm, so there was studying, as well as Emily and Gene's birthday festivities, so there was celebrating (with all-you-can-eat Thai food!). Tomorrow is the beginning of the Rice finals period, which is really weird for me, since I won't even have a midterm for one of my classes until May 10. I hear my friends back at Rice talking about the school year ending, summer starting, becoming seniors (or even graduating), but I still have two months left before I even start to think about that stuff!

Anyway, I have an assignment due later tonight that I am somewhat less than prepared for... I guess nothing really is different here after all. :)

Exciting Week of Travel... and unexciting week following

Hey! Sorry.  It's been a while.  Last time I gave a little preview of my travels, but in case you forgot, they will be recounted in vivid detail (and vivid-er photos) here.

Sunday, April 1 was the final day of the big Mazu Pilgrimage.  In attendance were me, three other CIEE students, a few CIEE ambassadors, a bunch of graduate tutors that are somehow linked to CIEE but I'm not sure exactly how, April, Naomi, and Vina (who did CIEE last semester) and her roommate, Betty.  We took the train to 大甲 (dajia) where the streets were packed with thousands of visitors.

For a while we watched a parade where Gods and dragons would come by.  We then took a look inside the temple, which was beautiful.  It was very hot, and very smokey from incense, but the temple itself was beautifully carved and decorated, and most of all, it was really cool for me to see all the people there to whom this obviously meant so much.  There were little kids, young people, old people -- all walks of life.

I got some lucky charms - including one to ward off zombies - and blessed them/shooed away their bad spirits by circling them three times over the burning incense.  I was even approached by a cameraman who asked me to say a few sentences in Chinese for the camera!  Eventually Betty, Vina and I all got filmed (for being American)... so keep an eye out for when we get famous!

Again, the temple was beautiful.  There is a life-size solid jade statue of Mazu, a gold statue of Mazu, many more statues and carvings and adornments, and then a full room of free literature for visitors!  I grabbed a couple of easy-looking books, including one that has beautifully done illustrations on every page that, I later found out, depict different stages of hell.  On one page someone is having his eyeballs taken out, on another someone is being stabbed with spears as his legs are being chopped off.  It's pretty gruesome stuff.  But I swear, from a quick glance, it is a very beautiful book.  Watch how it deteriorates:

We then went outside to wait for the official Mazu to return to the temple.  It was a big party the whole time - different groups of people walking by and performing, or carrying floats of different gods, and firecrackers going the whole time.  Tons of people were there!  Everyone wanted to see:

The firecrackers were sometimes set off in long chains of them that extended 10 or 20 feet.  It was very smokey and I had to shake the debris from my hair.  Plus, sometimes it got pretty loud... not everyone could take it so well.

As the evening wore on, things got more and more intense.  Apparently, this year Mazu was (luckily for us) returning much earlier than usual.  Sometimes she doesn't get back until 10 pm or so, but today she was nearing us at only 7.  So most of the CIEE students headed back for their train, but Vina, Betty, April, and I (all of whom were to spend the next day in Taichung together) stayed to wait for Mazu.  The fire cracker explosions got bigger and bigger and more and more intense...

and this was the point where the whole night started to feel a lot less like a party and a lot more like the apocalypse.  April asked whether we would like to have Mazu walk over us.  Some die-hard Mazu fans line up in the middle of the street and when she approaches they kneel down and the pilgrims march the statue over the line of people.  We all hesitated and then figured, well, hell, why not.  If we're going to be here, why not go all-out, right?  So we tried to get in line right in front of us, but they were backed up until a big line of firecrackers, and no one could stand there.  We walked back farther.  Eventually we squeezed our way into a line and stood there peacefully for a couple of minutes, thinking, "that wasn't so hard!"  Soon people in front of us started telling us to back up, so everyone lazily walked back a few yards and then stopped again. Not long after, we all had to back up again.  Pretty soon we were walking back constantly at a slow rate.  But walking turned into bustling and shoving and pushing.  And at some point, everyone had to clear the street, so once the line needed to be re-formed, all hell broke loose.  The two tidy rows of people disintegrated into a giant mob, grabbing and shoving and competing for the precious space that Mazu would bless.  And then the cries to back the line up grew more and more urgent until people were yelling in each other's faces and everyone was getting stepped on and trying merely to stay upright as we moved in one solid wave, backwards, as fast as we could, but not fast enough.  I think it crossed all of our minds that death by stampede was becoming an increasingly realistic possibility.  Finally, at some point, I knew I had had it.  Our group dropped out and went to the side of the road to spectate rather than participate.  And I am so glad we did.  Mazu really was close by at that point, but the final scramble of everyone trying to get in that line and kneel down looked really awful.  The whole thing was unbelievably intense - and I don't mean in a profound, spiritual way.  I mean in an action-thriller movie way.  I have often joked with my sister that, in movies, the international symbol for chaos and anarchy is garbage cans lit on fire.  Well, Madeleine: 

Yeah.  After Mazu passed us things chilled out a lot, but we took a "we survived" picture to congratulate ourselves.

Vina, me, Betty: We made it!

We then headed to the free dinner provided for all the visitors, which we lovingly called "the refugee tent".  I think we were all exhausted physically and otherwise from the day's events, so we took an extremely crowded train to April's house in Taichung, indulged in some stinky tofu, refreshing orange tea, and sun cakes, and headed to bed.

The next day was full and busy.  We all - Vina, Betty, April, Pam (her sister), and April's parents - piled into the family van and drove to qingjing mountain (or something like that) where we saw gorgeous views the whole way up and the weather looked like it was going to be about perfect.  We stopped for photos at this Old England hotel - apparently a very, very expensive one - that is designed to look like it's from... well, old England.  

April, Vina, me, Betty, Pam

We headed to this spring festival of flowers, where we all took hundreds of pictures of different types of flowers.  I'll spare you the whole bunch, but here are a few:

April, Betty, April's parents, me, Vina

April and me!

While we were in the greenhouse part of the garden place, the weather took a turn and it became quite foggy...

--- on second thought, very foggy.  Where I am standing you're supposed to be able to see at least 6 different mountain tops in the distance.  But the fog made the place beautiful in a more mysterious way, and it was a lot of fun.  We saw flowers, peach blossoms, tasted teas and farm products, I had my first tea egg, and I bought a jar of peach preserves.  They also had a hedge maze which we did half of before taking a shortcut out of there.  Anyway, it was a beautiful way to spend the day.

We then went to another little swiss garden which was full of windmills and pinwheels and a lake with audacious ducks, where we took more and more photos.  (For the record, between everyone's separate cameras, there are probably over 2000 pictures of my trip to Taichung.  I am not even exaggerating.  We took a whole lot of pictures and I am trying to narrow down to the interesting ones.)  There was even a surprise water show!

April, Vina, Pam, me, Betty...  but i'm sure you can recognize everyone by now

We drove back to Taichung and ate some traditional delicacy that was like a large, glutinous, meatball, and then we sent Vina and Betty back to Taipei on a bus.  That night, Pam, April, and their mother took me to the major night market in Taichung where we strolled, nibbled on some 小吃 (xiao chi - literally, small eats, referring to snack-like street food sold at nightmarkets), and tired ourselves out so that sleep came easily.

The next morning, I had my first ride on the back of April's scooter!  It was fun, and not nearly as scary as I expected (probably because we were only going around the corner and no faster than 20 miles an hour).  I am not sure I can keep exactly straight all our adventures of the day, but hopefully I can remember all the essentials.  We started off at this extreme discount/wholesale store, where apparently all the vendors at nightmarkets go to buy their merchandise.  The price tags are written in a secret code with two prices on them - the one you can buy it at, and the one you should sell it at.  It's usually about half as much, although I know I've seen some of the stuff there for more expensive than even the highest prices they listed.  I got a bunch of stuff - a few pairs of earrings, a bag, a cell phone case, two headbands, and a bottle of perfume all for about $12 US.  What a deal!  I will never be able to pay full prices again.  Then we went to a fun touristy spot in Taichung called the rainbow village, where an ex-soldier painted crazy animals and people all over his house.  It was of course, another great photo opportunity, and a lot of fun to see.

The newest addition - on the far right, Jeremy Lin!  April and Pam's cousin!

We then briefly stopped by this high spot where you can see the entire city of Taichung.  It was really cool and a great place to be in nice weather.

... and then we scurried to Tunghai University campus to see Luce Memorial Chapel, designed by IM Pei.  The campus turned out to be stunning, with lots of interesting trees, Japanese-style architecture, and a good floral smell perpetually in the air.  Here's the chapel at sunset:

...and here's a blurry me posing with some pretty orange flowers 

After grabbing dinner, we put me on a bus back to Taipei, overloaded with new purchases, gifts, photos (obviously) and of course, LIFELONG MEMORIES :)  The Wang family was amazingly gracious and generous the whole time I was there - I can't imagine a kinder group of people!  I hope one day I can host them all in the US to pay them back for everything they did for me.

It was Tuesday night that I got back to Taipei, so I spent Wednesday taking a day of rest (soo unconventional that way) and then Thursday morning we set out for Kenting!  Luckily, we didn't take nearly as many pictures in Kenting so I will have forgotten much more of it and this should go a little faster.

We took the High Speed Rail there - and man, was it high speed!  The trip from Taipei to Gaoshung, which takes something like 6 hours by regular bus, was only an hour and a half!  And there was lots of leg room.  Other than that, the trip was unremarkable, and we arrived in Gaoshung in time for lunch, and then we rented the car that would transport us (thanks to Kohan, who graciously drove us around the whole time) to Kenting.  We settled into our hotel which turned out to be just a five minute walk from the beach, and then we went to explore the beach!  We didn't stay there for very long, however, before heading to the street selling snacks and souvenirs to eat street food and browse around.  I was definitely struck by how similar the souvenirs for sale were to any beachy town in the US - bracelets braided from string, loose beachy dresses, sea glass jewelry, etc etc.  Anyway, here we all are:  Kohan and Afore are ambassadors (Taiwanese students) with CIEE, Mahalia did CIEE at NCCU last semester but is now at National Taiwan University, and Victor is one of Avalon's classmates from Spain.  The rest of us are just regular CIEE American students.

The Kenting Gang - Kohan, Victor, Mahalia, me, Grace, Avalon, Emily, and Afore

Later that night we headed to Spring Scream, the big, five-day outdoor music festival.  We hadn't bought tickets for it in hopes that we could score some cheaper one-day tickets from scalpers outside the door (as opposed to being forced to buy a five-day pass), but unfortunately, we had no luck.  So instead we all sat on the beach and told ghost stories and jokes, and I think we all had a nice time.

The next day we took a look at a few spots for sightseeing - this was the first one:

Then we headed to a park with a famous lighthouse, and we strolled through there.

View from the lighthouse

At the exit of the park there were a number of touristy booths that we spent a while looking at, and one of them had (not for sale) - a pig on a leash!  He was so cute and friendly and I got to pet him, and his nose was all wiggly...  it was amazing.

蘋果 - Apple, the pig.

Emily and I also shared a drink of coconut water straight from the coconut, which then turned into a fun (for me) game of trying to get the inside coconut out... successfully!  It was delicious.  When we tried to leave the park, we encountered a little difficulty... 

our car was surrounded on all sides by tour buses!  I guess that's what we get for parking in the wrong section.  Luckily, after a few minutes of waiting, the bus driver of the bus in front of us returned and let us out.  Anyway, after that we went and did go-karts (although I elected not to participate, so I became the photographer).  Next we went to a really nice beach with much softer sand than the last beach.  It was just starting to rain, so we thought we might just peek our heads in, but then the group decided to go on an inflatable water ride, since we'll be getting wet either way.  So we changed into our swim suits, rented an umbrella on the beach, and did the ride.  It turned out to be a lot of fun, even though I fell off and it was oh, just a little embarrassing.  But the weather cleared up and skies were blue and we all lounged happily in the water for a while, which might be my favorite part of the trip.  It was peaceful and beautiful and good to be with good people.

Immediately after the beach we started the drive to Gaoshung, where we were to spend that night and following day.  We got in on the late side but still had time to check out the huge and impressive night market and then lounge and chat by the Love River (oh yeah) that runs through the city.  And I do believe while there we grew to love each other a little more, if only platonically.  After getting back to the hotel, some of the gang fell asleep and the rest of us played hotseat, a game where you alternate who is on the "hotseat", and everyone can ask them questions - about life, themselves, their past, etc.  I think we all had fun getting insights into each other and ourselves, with questions asked ranging from "what quality do you like most about yourself?" to "what is the best trip you've ever been on?" to "do you believe in God?"

The next day we had to find a place to store our luggage after returning the car and checking out of the hotel but before our 8 pm train back.  This turned out to be rather complicated - we schlepped our stuff across the city and went to a big stadium/arena that had a number of storage lockers.  However, that same day there were several meet-and-greets with celebrities (including SHOW, a popstar that some people have been going crazy for, and Jiro, my favorite character on the Taiwanese show I've been watching, as well as a member of the band Fahrenheit - both of whom we saw from afar!) so all the lockers were taken.  At least, on the first floor.  So we went to the second floor and hunted around until we found another spot with storage lockers - also all taken.  Finally, on the eighth floor, we finally found some empty lockers and dumped our stuff off to start our day.  We went to an art park with a lot of sculptures and shops selling artists' works, and spent a while there.  Then we headed to the banana pier (don't ask) and enjoyed tea by the water while chatting and playing games.  We went back to get our stuff and eat dinner, and had a very exciting last half hour in the city as we dashed to not miss our expensive train, but made it with several minutes to spare.

I have a few pictures from the trip but I feel like this entry has been overloaded with pictures, so I'll just share my favorite one, from one of the main subway stations in Gaoshung:

Anyway, we returned to Taipei safely and happily on Saturday the 21st and it was a very nice trip.

Since then, things have been pretty laid back for me.  I got some stuff with my visa figured out, which took several hours on Monday and then several more hours on Friday.  On Wednesday I found out some sad news - our family cat of 14 years, Volt, died.  His health had been deteriorating and so we all knew it was coming, but this was still an extremely sad moment.  I grew up with him.  We played together as kittens, racing up the stairs and sharing ice pops lick by lick, and whenever in my life I have felt sad or lonely, he's the guy to go to for snuggles.  He slept in my bed pretty much every night I was at home for the past 14 years.  He lived a long life, full of love, but we'll sure miss him.  

Hate to be a downer, but that definitely had an impact on my week.

Anyway, I have my first midterm this next week.  It's for Chinese class and for the oral part of the exam I need to perform the song 童話... I am not a singer!  I don't think I'll be graded on vocal quality so much as Chinese pronunciation... but maybe that's wishful thinking.

Okay!  I'm off!  Will update again soon!