第二十六個星期：Learning More Taiwanese History

smhanes88
Mar 2, 2017
5 min read

星期三：Today I went back to my old host family's house again. We mostly just talked and ate, though in the afternoon my old host mom had to go out and run errands, so my host sister and her friend taught me some card games and just hung out which was fun. It was really nice to see them one more time since my host mom was moving the next day, though she said they should be back again before I go back to the U.S.

星期四：After class today a few of us went out to get soup dumplings together before heading over to the iEARN office where we all had meetings to discuss what we wanted to do for our final projects. None of us were very excited about this because we just finished the last one, it's quite a lot of work, and it means we have to go back to the U. S. soon.

(eating delicious dumplings)

(saw this building with the Kaohsiung city logo by the iEARN office)

星期五：Today after class Heather, Becca, and I went out to see Moana. We first went to get some sort of real Tex-Mex, then went around the central park area where there are lots of stores popular with young people since they're all really cheap. We also went through the park itself and found this outdoor art exhibit that was a bunch of painted teddy bear statues representing different community organizations in Kaohsiung, which was cute. We then went to see the movie itself and it was so cute!

(giving the international bear a hug)

(the park was really pretty with all the flowers)

星期六：Today we left for our February cultural trip to Tainan. Since it’s less than an hour away, we had a lot of time to see the city. We first when to the Chimei museum; it’s a giant European style art/anthropology museum that is entirely made from this one famous business man’s collection, which is insane because the museum is giant. We spent two hours there, and, while we saw a lot, we barely scratched the surface. Inside is everything from a real stuffed polar bear, to ancient Mongol weapons, to a Stradivarius violin, all owned by one guy. It was also weird because it really felt like we had been transported to the middle of Europe.

From there we headed into the main city where we ate lunch outside of the old Anping Dutch fort as the surrounding streets are all markets. Tainan is famous for having amazing food, so I took the opportunity to try some street snacks. After lunch we all met up and actually visited the Anping Fort, which was where the Dutch first set up their colony in Taiwan until they were kicked off during a war a few years later. We then visited the Anping Tree House which I had been to before. It’s not a tree house in the traditional sense, but was an old British warehouse that, once abandoned, was completely overgrown by trees.

In the afternoon we visited a salt shop as Tainan used to have a big salt industry. At the shop they had 365 kinds of naturally dyed salt in really nice colors. Each one was assigned a date and a fortune; I found the one for my birthday and it said I have a big emotional world and artistic mind.

We then had free time for the rest of the afternoon. After discovering an artsy antique-y street by our hotel, some of us decided to head out and try more of Tainan’s food. We went to two restaurants and a night market and by the end of the night I had eaten turkey rice, some famous noodles, and a soup made with day lilies. While walking to all the places we also got to see a lot more of the city which was fun.

Unfortunately for Becca, Heather, and me, we apparently ate either too much or too many different things because the three of us ended up pretty sick that night.

(Chimei Museum)

(temple by Anping)

(eating some street food with Anthony, Kripa, and Jenny)

(Anping Dutch Fort)

(NSLI-Y kids, Jenny, Kripa, Doris, and Heather's host parents at Anping)

(in front of the tree house)

(another group pic, taken at the tree house)

(we were trying to be models but then the guys made us laugh)

(dyed salt at the salt shop)

(the insanity of the night market)

(day lily soup)

星期天：After a rough night, we got back up early in the morning to see the sights as there is not time for sickness while in Tainan. We first went to Tainan’s courthouse from when Tainan was the capital of Taiwan. It has now been converted into a museum, and we all had fun trying out jail cells and such. I also fulfilled my fourth grade dream when I got to put on a judge’s robe and bang a gavel.

From there we visited the first department store in Taiwan. It was opened under Japanese occupation, was bombed by Americans during WWII, and has only been recently renovated to how it would have looked when first opened. We also stopped by the Literature museum to take pictures, though didn’t actually go in. We then went to the Confucius temple and ancient school. It was my first time in a Confucius, not Buddhist temple, and it was pretty different. It was much less extravagant, didn’t have any statues, and was full of calligraphy pieces that showed Confucius’ philosophy of learning.

After finishing at the temple, I went with the NSLI-Y girls to visit Chihkan Tower, also known as Fort Provintia, another place left from the Dutch period. It was really pretty and we spent most of our time there taking artsy pictures.

For our last stop in Tainan, we visited the Narrow Door Café. You literally have to squeeze through a one-foot crack in a wall to get to the entrance. Once inside it’s really cute and is full of people’s journal entries and books. We went to make a certain kind of Hakka tea where you grind sesame and peanuts with tea powder to make a sweet tea.

Overall I really enjoyed Tainan because it is so full of Taiwanese history and culture, it’s in fact known as both the cultural and food capital of Taiwan.