These adorable Taiwanese students spend their nights having to learn English. I spent my night teaching them while wearing really stunning footwear. When I first walked up to the school all of the students were standing outside and said, "Welcome to our school." Each of them then had to introduce themselves to me in English. When the teacher tried to urge her toddler niece to do so, she started crying, and (in Chinese) screamed that she was scared of the "ghost." I'm in need of a tan, or something.
Traditional indigo dying. It smells absolutely terrible. However the results really are beautiful.
The Skybridge. (Un-pictured: The largest spider I've ever seen in my life)
A gorgeous rice field. This was the day I went to a cultural village. I went to a pottery factory, went on a tour of the facilities, then made pottery. I managed to get clay all over myself. Then, on my bike ride to the rice field I went through the thickest cloud of soot I had ever seen. Good thing I went straight to a dinner afterwards. I was a mess, but a very happy one.
This is a pineapple wearing a hat. Umbrellas, hats, sunscreen and even veils are used by Taiwanese women to make sure their skin is protected from the sun. (My favorite is the raincoat + visor combination.) Their fruit gets the same treatment. Each city in Taiwan has to have a certain number of "products." Two of the most common are tea and pineapple cakes.
I didn't want to get in trouble with the teacher for disturbing class, so I took a early morning picture. The girl pictured in front was my host. She was so adorable. I brought her and her family a few gifts and in return got more gifts and a pile of food that could have kept me alive for weeks. The first night she took me to meet all of her family and each one asked for a picture with me. On subsequent nights we did a variety of things. She showed me one of her assignments for English class-- a hour long movie about a boy who had four girlfriends and their subsequent revenge. It featured a really well executed choreographed hip hop dance number along with lines such as, "Sorry I can't abide your childish behavior" and "All of the girls are evil things." Another night we went to a night market. We played some games like archery, and a ring toss thing (at which I dominated.) As always, I got asked for many pictures but after one was given free chicken. That was just the type of thing that happened so frequently that I no longer considered it to be strange.
In Taiwan I generally ate more than everyone else. This was because I was both really excited I could finally use chopsticks and I couldn't contribute to the conversation. Therefore, I'd eat. Then I'd get served more food, then I'd eat some more. Then after feeling rather sick, I'd try to convince the people feeding me to please not give me any more food, while also assuring them that I loved the food... because of guilt and politeness I gained weight. (But of the problems to have, this wasn't a big one.) My last night at the home I guess I had not eaten enough Chinese food to satisfy my host mother. Having woken up at 5 am, by the time she came into my room at 11 pm I had wet hair, was in pajamas, without contacts or glasses (mine had broken) and was fast asleep. She woke me up and told me to come downstairs (but in Chinese.) I dutifully went. Downstairs there was a mountain of Japanese food (all for me), and of course some relative who wanted to take a picture with me. I didn't eat enough... which considering there were 7 containers of sushi, was understandable.
In the morning-- tired, sick and questioning what everyone was going to do with pictures of me I went back to school. On my way to the school assembly I was told I was giving a speech... to all of the students, teachers and staff. Thank you Hamilton for having that go alright. The principle of the school gave me a towel, but he held it at a weird height so when I went to reach to accept it he put it around my neck, thus creating one heck of an awkward interaction. I sort of did a weird bow, shook his hand and then (wait for it) had our picture taken. If there's one thing this trip is teaching me it's how to better accept some things will just be awkward.
My friend and I on the top of Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world. Unfortunately, it was cloudy when we went... so there wasn't the opportunity for pictures. This bamboo shaped icon was still amazing. The elevator that takes you up to the 89th floor takes all of 37 seconds.
Cliffs in the East. I would later whitewater raft down a nearby river to the pacific ocean (not exactly by choice.) For someone who doesn't like them, I went on a shocking number of boats in Taiwan. In order to get the rafts to go in the right direction, men in motorized rafts would ram our rafts. The problem was, they would actually go on top of the raft crushing the person on that side. Guess who was in prime location for this to happen to her every single time... and I didn't understand the warning if there was one, I would just suddenly have my face on the ground and a raft on my back. I now know how useless leadership skills are if you don't speak a common language. I was the only person who knew how to swim, how to paddle or knew English. No one else seemed concerned about the fact that people were being thrown from boats while there were large boulders and cliffs all around us. In fact, for most of the time I was one of three paddling while the others started water fights with neighboring boats. The only part of the introduction that was in English was about how the rafting today was going to be "very, VERY dangerous due to Typhoon!"
I now have an idea of how I would act in a life or death situation, because that is what this felt like. It didn't help that after we were done, once we took showers, within two minutes all of the girls had gorgeous dry, shining straight hair while mine looked like a comfy home for birds. If I sound bitter it's probably because I still am at least a little bit.
However, I'd take a dragon boat any day. This one was fun-- plus I got to wear a cool hat.
This is for you Roddy. This is the center of the city of Chiayi (I believe.) Right in the middle is a baseball player surrounded by a fountain. Just giving you remodeling ideas.
