第七個星期：Our First "Normal" Week

smhanes88
Oct 11, 2016
8 min read

星期二：This week, after almost two months here, is finally going to be our first week with our “normal” schedule (though it’s not so normal at this point). This is because the past weeks have all involved orientations, typhoons, holidays, holiday make-up days, or a combination of multiple things.

After 12, I’m finished with my classes on Tuesday, but every other week I’ll have a meeting with our RD Kripa to pretty much just talk about life and how everything’s going. So Kripa and I met up and found a nice breakfast place to eat at where I got some delicious coconut toast and a scallion and potato pancake.

After that, I decided to check out the Kaohsiung Central Library. I’d been before but only saw the roof garden, so I wanted to see some of the other eight stories; I was going to try and find some children’s books to see if I could read any, but I got lost in the huge building so just picked out a nice desk by a window and did my homework. It was also pretty entertaining because it seemed like I was the only person in the whole library who was actually awake.

From there I had a few hours to kill as some of us had decided to meet for dinner, and I was too far away from my house to consider going back, so I walked around my favorite stationary store, 9x9, then just wandered around.

I ended up stumbling across a really nice street market that is apparently known for being the place all the teens in Kaohsiung come to shop and hang out because everything is super cheap. I walked through most all the shops and ended up buying a pair of overalls because they’re very much in vogue here, and also stopped by a juice stand to get some passion fruit juice.

After a while of that, I met up with Kripa, Anthony, Pablo, Mackenzie, and Becca and we all headed to get…Tex-Mex! While none of us had super high expectations, we were all ready for some Mexican food and had had this restaurant, Pancho’s, recommended by both Jenny and the internet. I ordered a quesadilla, and it was actually pretty good for being in Taiwan; the restaurant also had a very Tex-Mex vibe which I appreciated. From there we were still in the mood for more Mexican food, so Anthony and I shared some churros from a stand in the street market.

(book statue at the library)

(apparently we can never handle group photos - us as Pancho's)

星期三：Today I finally had my first session with my two tutors; they helped me a lot with grammar, and, when we finished that, we just talked for about a half hour. They’re both so nice, and I’m glad I’ll get to hang out with them every week.

After that, I went to find the choir (which involved a lot of getting lost), and we sang at the freshmen’s welcoming ceremony. It was actually pretty fun to watch, a priest gave a little sermon, a bunch of administrators talked, and then the freshmen were each presented with a certificate. The best part, though, was that, for each of the six languages that the students can learn, there was an orientation group, and they each had to perform a cheer and dance routine in front of everyone in their target language. Also, at the end, the choir director, who was also the MC, was telling all the freshmen how to join the choir, and he pointed to me and was like, “Look! We even have a foreign friend!”

星期四：After class today, I joined the choir for their first official meeting. After going through the schedule and introducing ourselves, we just had a little pizza party and played a bunch of games. It was pretty fun, and I hope that I’ll soon get to be friends with the other members.

Also, my host mom really likes to make crafts, so she sewed me an adorable hedgehog pencil case, which was so sweet, and gave it to me today.

(hedgehog pencil case from my host mom)

星期五：In the afternoon today, Becca, Anthony, and I decided to volunteer and a high school where we helped out in an English class. We each had prepared a presentation about our hometowns and presented them in a mix of English and Chinese. Then, the Taiwanese students gave presentations in English about different sights in Kaohsiung we could visit. We then played a game where in groups we had to take turns describing and guessing both Chinese and English vocab words that were in our presentations. We then had a little time to visit with the students, which mostly involved them asking if we had boyfriends or girlfriends, especially towards Anthony, who, at least the girls in my group, all thought was ridiculously handsome. At the end, they gifted us all with water bottles, keychains, chocolate, postcards, and bubble tea, which was super nice.

In the evening, my host family took me to see Aihe, the main river in Kaohsiung. In the day, it mostly just looks like a dirty canal, but at night, with all the city lights, it's pretty nice. We ate some traditional Taiwanese pork and rice and traditional shave ice, and then took a nice walk down the river.

(loving Kaohsiung and my new overalls)

(Aihe - the Love River - at night)

星期六：Today it was raining really hard, but my family was determined to still go out and travel, which I really appreciated. We started the day off by visiting a grilled cheese place that I’d actually been wanting to go to for a while. I got a very hipster and delicious rainbow grilled cheese sandwich (the cheese had apparently been dyed by different vegetables). We then drove to Tainan where we first visited an old British trading site that is now famous because the warehouse is entirely overgrown by giant trees. Then we went to a street market where we got fried chicken, squid with noodles, and the most delicious pineapple tea.

After our short visit in Tainan, we drove up into the mountains to visit Guan Zi Ling. We first stopped at a really old temple that apparently usually has a good view, but it was too rainy. It was still a really peaceful place, though, as traditional Buddhist chants were playing along with a gong, and my host mother showed me a rock that was the spot of a famous Buddhist fable about greed. Apparently the rock had a small hole that gave out rice, so the townspeople thought if they made it bigger, more rice would come, but, instead, the rice stopped once they became too greedy and widened the hole.

We then continued up the mountain to a very schnazzy mountain-villa-like hotel that held some famous mud hot springs. It turned out to be a whole spa experience, which was something I’ve never done before and was definitely relaxing. We first soaked in a mud hot spring for a while, then got out, completely covered ourselves in volcanic mud, let it dry, then washed it off. My host mom and I then headed to try out a mud face mask and an apple face mask. While waiting for each to dry, we got to try out a bunch of different massage and foot sauna chairs. After that, we tried out a few different essential oil hot springs (no longer natural hot springs, only the mud ones are real) and an herbal hot spring that I thought was like swimming in a giant vat of tea. Last, but definitely not least, we got to do the thing where you stick your feet in a pool of little fish and they eat of the dead skin. I’m already super ticklish, but then, for some reason, all the fish decided that my feet were better than everyone else’s and came over to me. Everyone else in the pool found it very entertaining watching the foreign girl struggle to keep her feet in the pool.

After finishing up with the hot springs, we ate dinner at a really good roast chicken restaurant, then headed home.

(the delicious rainbow grilled cheese)

(British warehouse covered in trees)

(the rock from the Buddhist story)

(couldn't take pictures a the spa, but here's an outdoor hot spring that's famous because it has fire shooting out of the rocks)

星期天：It was still raining this morning, but we once again decided to brave it and head out. We first went to a small town near the ocean that is famous for black-faced spoonbill birds (of which we saw none), an old doctor that helped cure Taiwan’s outbreak of black foot disease in the 1950s because of arsenic poisoning in water, sea salt flats, and, now, art murals and statues all around town. We walked around a little museum talking about the town’s famous things, then headed into the rain to see the different murals and statues. After finishing with that, we drove out to see the salt fields where they would dry out the sea salt (the salt business doesn’t actually exist anymore, and it was the last one in Taiwan). We also bought a cookie thing from a vender by the fields; you can only get it in Tainan, and it’s a giant hollow round cookie that you have to break open by hitting it really hard, and the inside is coated in warm black sugar.

We then headed to a town called Jiayi where we ate at a fish market and I finally got to try Taiwan’s famous oyster omelet, which was good but had a very weird texture, so I’m not sure if I liked it or not, but my host mom said it’s her favorite thing to eat, so I’m glad I tried it. After lunch, we visited a wedding church that is super famous because it’s for some reason shaped like a giant high heeled shoe (no idea why, but it definitely seemed very Taiwanese).

We then decided to start the drive back home as we were all getting pretty worn out, but, on the way back, we went through Tainan and stopped at the largest temple there. My host mom stayed in the car to rest, so I went in with my host dad and he tried to explain to me what everything was in the temple and the meanings of all the statues and artwork. While most of it I couldn’t really understand, the temple seemed really interesting so I appreciated his efforts. The temple really was huge, and it honestly was the most beautiful place I’ve been so far as every inch was covered in gorgeous art, though I don’t have many pictures as most places it wouldn’t have been very culturally sensitive to take any. There were also different flower gardens, rock gardens, fish ponds, pagodas, and music was playing and incense was burning everywhere.

After leaving there and driving for a while more, we came across a little stand that sold a version of the cookie I’d had at the salt flats. These were softer and flaky and so good, I had another with the black sugar and then one with a sweet peanut filling.