Day 3 - Nantou to Alishan

This was a very tiring day. Because there were no buses that went from Nantou to Alishan, we had to take a bus from Nantou to Chiayi, another bus from Chiayi to Taichung, and another bus from Taichung to Alishan National Park. By the time we got to our hotel, it was 3pm. We were hungry and anxious to see some sights, but by the time we put our stuff in our rooms, got dinner, and bought souvenirs, it was too dark to walk around the park. That night, we watched Final Destination 2, which became one of our ongoing inside jokes for the trip.

There were only two street food stands in Alishan. Three people in the group opted for minced meat rice and noodles.

A view of the visitor center

Another view of the visitor center and bus station

The rest of us five decided to have a six-course meal at a nearby restaurant. We had hotpot, 麻婆 tofu, chinese broccoli, beef and veggies, and deer. Deer doesn't taste good.

My first hotpot experience in Taiwan. 

How Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village Was Disneyland

We love Tomorrowland

This looks nothing like 'Astro Orbiter'

We were pretty excited to ride Space Mountain. But there was no sparkling lights, no air conditioning, no music, and we could even see all of the metal poles and electric cords that made the ride work. A frightening experience...final Destination by fake Space Mountain.

If only there were small children running around singing Taiwan's national anthem...

I concluded that the ride is a combination of two rides: (Pirates of the) Caribbean Splash (Mountain)

Day 2 - Taichung to Nantou

One of the best parts of our trip was that breakfast was included at every hotel we stayed at. So right away, we saved at least an hour each day by not having to look for food in the morning. This breakfast was delicious. MMM! We had an all-you-can-eat breakfast of porridge with assorted goodies, toast with jam or chocolate, juices, pastas, chicken filets, cereals, and sautéed beef.

From there, we took taxis to the bus station and bought tickets to Nantou! There we stayed at Apollo Hotel. It was definitely not as bad as I thought it would be, considering it was in the middle of nowhere. After we left our luggage in the room, we bought package tickets from the bus station that included tickets to Puli and back, gondola rides, and shuttle bus tickets. When we arrived in Puli, there was a sign that said "Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village." Well, there was nothing really 'aboriginal' or 'culture' or 'village' about it. It was a garden/house/amusement park/national park/bus stop. It seemed like they tried to shove as many things into one and succeeded. We went on some rides, walked around, and ate lunch in the 'amusement park' area, and then rode the gondolas to Sun Moon Lake. Afterwards, we retraced our steps, rode the shuttle bus home, and made it back to our hotel in time for dinner.

We were excited to learn about Taiwan's aboriginals and culture. We were slightly disappointed.

It was so beautiful on this side of the park. There were lots of flowers and a fountain in this area. I don't understand why there's a house(?) there.

By far one of the scariest rides of my life. I'm beginning to think that Taiwan does not have as many rules and regulations for these types of things. We dropped at an alarming rate.

The aboriginals and I

The front gate 

Amusement park food is terrible regardless of where you go. Mush with mush and some watered-down soup.

The other side of the mountain looked like this. This is Sun Moon Lake minus the sun.

Weee! Our gondola ride was so fun! I've come to the conclusion that I'm afraid of small heights. Not afraid of being in a gondola or Taipei 101, but frightened by standing on high steps and being on someone's shoulders.

Some of the girls had gotten changed into bathing suits when we heard we were going to a lake. It ended up not being that type of lake.

The view of the gardens in the evening

Day 1 - Taipei to Taichung

I dislike waking up early. But we all decided that we'd be better off meeting at 5am on Saturday morning. From there the 8 of us rode the subway to Taipei Main Station and bought tickets for a three-hour ride to Taichung. All of us slept on the bus ride even though we had our own TVs in front of our seats. When we got out of the tour bus, we were BLOWN AWAY by the heat. It was at least 15 degrees (Fahrenheit) hotter than it had been in Taipei. So much for my long sleeved shirt and down jacket.

There wasn't much to do in Taichung, so we got settled in the hotel and took naps. This particular night we had two people to a hotel room, so it was the most comfortable and enjoyable night of the trip. After our naps, we took taxis to Taichung's most famous night market: Feng Jia 夜市. A friend that we met at NTU was there to visit his family, so he took us to the better parts. This night market had the most variety of foods, the most stands, and by far, the most people. There was a particular point where we didn't move a single step for 2 minutes. This night market was also geared towards a younger crowd, so there were plenty of fried chicken, ice cream, crepes, and onion pancake stands.

The first day was essentially a pit stop. We weren't there to see anything in particular, and there was nothing of historical value that we wanted to see. Other than having the best bus, the best room, and the best night market, it was the least exciting city of the trip.

Our beautiful leather bus seats

One of my friends took us to a relatively famous noodle shop. His father is very good friends with the owner, and he owns four separate stands/restaurants in Taichung. He treated us to his specialty!

One of the strangest things I've seen in Taiwan: a tree growing on the top/side/edge of a 13 story building. We all tried to come up with the most creative story in regards to how it got there.

Our beautiful hotel room with a mattress not made of foam

The only issue with the bathroom was that the door was basically see-through ;)

TV! TV! TV! We watched The Bourne Identity and I was happy.

Feng Jia 夜市。One of the least crowded areas of the night market.

The wait for a sausage within a sausage was over 20 minutes long. No thank you!

Calligraphy Lesson

Three friends and I went to an International Student club event held in the Global Lounge this evening. They had a master of calligraphy who had been practicing and learning calligraphy for 20 years. They had homemade milk tea, tiramisu, mango cake, and brownie bites for refreshments, and started off the event with a small lesson on the history of calligraphy. Afterwards, he taught us the basic strokes and we were able to practice before we made our own Chinese fans. They gave out fans for prizes and also let us take home fans that the master had written on. It was a lot of fun, and we were able to meet some of the local NTU students as well. And as a side note, the calligrapher was the funniest person I've met since I've been here. The combination of his accent, his word choice, his dress (a traditional Chinese shirt), and his attitude was hilarious.

The master wrote out our school's name 

I asked the calligrapher to write 'Taiwan' for me, so I could write it on my fan. He wrote it in both Kaishu (regular style) and Caosu (running style).

After much practicing, I decided to simply trace his characters so that my fan would look nice. I signed my Chinese name in the left-hand corner.

They handed out some of the fans that the master had done. I wanted this one the second I saw it. It says: "Kaohsiung welcomes you." Represent!

They had a series of poems and phrases on the overhead, and if you could find the fan that matched the poem or phrase, you got to take it home. Flieg mit mir is "fly with me" in German. 

I was able to match the phrase with the fan, and won this beauty. It was definitely a match made in heaven. I guessed a German phrase correctly and won my Taiwanese fan. 

Being Practical

For the most part, my weekdays here can get repetitive. It's not at all boring or unexciting for me, but it doesn't make for very good reading material.

It rained for the first time in a very long time on Wednesday. It just so happened that my aunt and cousin came to Taipei that day, so the weather wasn't very good during their time here. We still went to Raohe night market at the Houshanpi MRT station, but didn't stay long because it was difficult walking in the rain.   There's a good possibility I'll be able to see the two of them again when we go to southern Taiwan for spring break.

On Friday, a friend received a text from her sister that said: "You have 20 minutes, get to higher ground now!" We had been eating lunch at the time, and had no idea what to think of the text. We ignored it because we noticed the 'locals' were not running for higher ground. But after we had finished and gotten dessert as well, we all went back to the dorms to read online reports. Some people were unfazed by the tsunami warnings (especially since we are very far from the coast and in 14 floor buildings), but a friend came to my room because they were concerned. Apparently the waves were much smaller than expected, but everyone agreed that it was good to hear that people were concerned for us.

Since today was the first day that it stopped raining, we went out to eat and shopped in the Taipei Main Station underground mall. They had plenty of inexpensive merchandise and snacks. The best part of the night was when I found the coffee bread that I had been looking for for the past three years. Mom and I had stumbled upon a small shop in Kaohsiung when walking to a department store and I had loved it! But we ran out of time to go again during that trip, and unfortunately, the store most likely closed, because we were never able to find it. So, when a friend had said that they had eaten the best bread, a bread with a crisp coffee topping and buttery inside, I knew that it was the same bread. It's not the same store, but the concept and TASTE are the same.

My beloved bread! I love unhealthy things.

My favorite midnight snacks are my peas. I bought the original flavor and wasabi. I mix the two together so I won't have plain by itself, nor an overwhelming amount of wasabi spice at once. 

I was cleaning my room the other day, and decided to wipe down the bed frame that my mattress and blankets are on. When I took the mattress off, I noticed that mold was starting to grow on the bamboo mattress. The dorm administration e-mailed us warnings about mold on our clothes and belongings, but I never expected mold to grow on my bed. I separated the bamboo portion from the rest and washed it down with bathroom cleaner in the shower. I consider myself to be a clean person, so I knew that if I had mold, other students probably did too. Sure enough, about 80% of us found mold. However, mine was minor in comparison. At least we know now to be even more careful about moisture.

My moldy mattress

The banana and chocolate crepe my aunt bought me at Raohe night market

My dinner from tonight: minced meat spinach and minced meat rice

A Country Getaway

I was fortunate enough to go on a trip this past Sunday! A couple of kids in another program planned the event, and we were all going to go to an old mining town called 九份 (Jiufen) on the northeastern side of Taiwan. They decided that we would begin the trip at 10:30am and stay until night so we could see the view of the harbor when it was lit up.

So on the day of, the 12 of us took the MRT to Taipei Main Station, and from there, we bought tickets for a 40 minute long train ride to 瑞芳 (Ruifang). While most of us thought the train would have empty seats, we were surprised to find that the train was designed more like a subway. And extremely packed! We squeezed our way onto the train and remained standing the entire time. When we arrived, we got onto a bus that took us up the mountain to the town. From there, we walked down the alleys and streets to find good snacks and desserts. Several of us bought souvenirs and trinkets, but didn't see anything big that was worth buying. The area was relatively crowded because it was a weekend, but also because several Japanese tour buses were touring the town as well. We were all very drained by the end of the day, and since this particular train had front-facing and comfortable seats, the majority of us fell asleep on the train ride home.

Looking at a map of how far we had traveled 

The view was terrible when we first arrived, and even though it was still fascinating to see, we were hoping to see more as the fog lifted

The alleys were very narrow, and because there were so many people, it was even more difficult navigating through the streets. We were still able to see all of the delicious snacks. One of the most popular ones was their 肉圓 (gelatinous meat balls) 

We ate lunch at a stand that was big enough to fit all 12 of us. They served beef noodle soup and various rice dishes. Mine was an herbal pork chop with 4 sides (pickled cucumbers, tofu, fish cake, and seaweed ties). Even though the pork chop was not my favorite, it was all for under $2!

Taiwan has recently become popular for this odd dessert. They take a tortilla-like wrapping and place peanut&molasses shavings on it, followed by peanut ice cream and cilantro. The cilantro is often the ingredient that makes people second guess the so-called "dessert." For 35NT, it was worth the try.

Conclusion: Not good. I enjoyed the actual wrapping, which was sweeter than I had originally thought. The peanut ice cream was good, and the peanut&molasses shavings were delicious! But the cilantro made me gag. Cilantro belongs in my tacos.

Another view of the alleys

Later on, we got a better view of the harbor, but the fog was not cooperating

I would still consider the place to be beautiful. I'll have to consider purchasing some property in the near future ;)

I later learned that Jiufen is also known for its tea and tea sessions. We wanted to have a session in one of the houses, but apparently the setting is more intimate and not suitable for groups of 12. In addition, it was probably a little bit too sophisticated for our taste, because the cost of tea leaves started at $20 and went upwards from there.

One of the only indicators that this town was once housing for gold miners.

A wood carving of men mining for gold

We had seen this temple from far away on the bus ride up to Jiufen. A lot of the members of our group wanted to visit it and take pictures from inside. 

My delicious dinner! I love Taiwanese sausage because it's sweet, and I love rice sausage because it's simple yet delightful. However, when you put the sweet sausage inside the rice sausage, add a little oyster sauce, and make a hot dog...perfection. 

I have an odd tendency of saying "I love you" to my food. It's not intentional and I don't know if I mean it, but it might indicate that I can't get enough of the food here. It will be very hard to go back to American food...

In the CLD program, there are a lot of international students. We had four students from Germany, one student from Austria, one students from Georgia, and one student from England with us. When we were trying to explain to them what the peanut wrap consisted of, they had no idea what cilantro was. We told them that it was green and frequently seen in Mexican food, but they insisted that we were describing coriander. Fact: The U.S. is one of the only countries to call the leaves of the coriander plant, cilantro.