Longest weekend ever

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Hi everyone!

Sorry I missed out on last weekend's blog post... Not much happened last week, so it was much easier to procrastinate writing a post. Last weekend most of the girls went to Taipei for the weekend, although KC and I hung out in Taichung, due to lack of both funds and interest. On Friday night we made our way back to Fung Jia night market, which was actually more fun with just the two of us. I'm finding that lots of things are actually easier and more fun to do with fewer people. When there is a large group, so much time is lost trying to please everyone, but with only two it is much easier to simply detour into whichever stores catch your fancy. We ended up in a lot of clothing and bag shops, as KC was looking for shirts/pants and I was looking for a new bag (and managed to find one, yay). Getting back to campus was a bit of an adventure, though, as we couldn't find a bus heading back to Tunghai University. We probably stood at the bus stop for about an hour and asked at least eight bus drivers if they were going to the school. Most of the bus drivers responded 「沒有」, however there was one who just looked at me and closed the doors in my face before driving off. Very surprising, as Taiwanese people tend to be very friendly and willing to help. We made it back okay though, so I would call the night a success.

Because most of the group were headed to Taipei, Molly laoshi gave them the task of taking pictures of places they went and being able to talk about their experiences. However, since KC and I stayed at school, she told us to go see the cows and to take pictures of the three most beautiful places on campus, which we spent Saturday afternoon doing. I hadn't seen the cows before, but seeing them up close made me realize how awkwardly shaped they are. Can you believe I haven't seen cows up close before? They have cute faces, it's true, but their back ends are so boxy looking and awkward, especially compared to horses. I also recently read an article somewhere about how in order for milk cows to continuously produce milk, they must be kept more or less constantly pregnant, and most of the time artificial insemination is pretty common to do that. The pregnancy is because like with any animal, the milk is the body's way to prepare to feed the calf. Although I like milk, that thought does kind of wig me out a bit. Anyways, we saw the cows and headed back to the lake, the church, and the mall (of campus; it is a very long, green path that is surrounded by trees and is very very pretty). On the way to the church we made a detour to go by the girl's dorm, where we could have been living. When Sun laoshi told us that it is surrounded by a concrete wall topped with broken glass and barbed wire, she wasn't kidding. It does seem like overkill to me but if that's what makes the girls feel safe, then why not, I guess.

On Monday we all headed down to Kenting, which is a very VERY touristy area. There are lots of beaches and resorts, and Yu laoshi remarked that most of the people there were visitors from mainland China (as well as quite a few 外國人 wàiguó rén - foreigners). She said that while she can't tell just by looking at people, she can tell from their accent when they speak, something that I noticed myself the other day. Mainland Mandarin sounds a bit sharper than Taiwanese Mandarin to me. For example with the word 因為 yīnwèi - because, Taiwanese will pronounce the second part with a "w" sound, whereas mainlanders will pronounce it more as a "v" sound. Anyways, Kenting is the southernmost region of Taiwan, and it took us about two and a half hours total (45 min by HSR, 1.5 hrs by car) to get there. It was well worth the trip, though, as we packed tons of fun activities into our three days there.

Monday was what we have dubbed "redneck day." We first went to a beautiful cliff where we took lots of pictures of the ocean. The area reminded KC and I of Hawaii, as it was pretty mountainous and green, but still had the beautiful sea right there. After we all took our photos, we headed across the road to ride ATVs. I'd never ridden an ATV before, but it was actually really fun. We were all laughing about how had we done the same thing in the US, we would have had to sign tons of paperwork first, and do some sort of how-to course, and wear helmets and padding or something. As it was, we just kind of got onto the ATVs and without any real instruction (we all had to figure out how to make the things go forward on our own), we were off. During our ride we saw a Sika deer, which according to Wikipedia originate from Japan, although there are subspecies found in China and Taiwan. The Taiwanese version is only found in Kenting national park, and there are only 200 left. Wiki also states that they were extinct in the wild for a while until reintroduction efforts were made by the zoos. As a side-note, these deer canter the same way as horses! Anyways, we rode the ATVs down to a track where we got to go around and around as fast as we wanted. It was so much fun! KC drove on the way back, and we had a moment of excitement where she drove right off the path and into the grass. Whereas when Sarah and Trini ran off the path earlier and the tour guide guy had to stop and maneuver them back to the path, KC just kept going and steered us over the little bamboo posts back to the path. Oops 😉

After our ATV fun, we went to a shooting range (see why we dubbed it 'redneck day' now?) to try our hands at skeet shooting, which is DEFINITELY not something I would have done on my own. Guns freak me out, not going to lie... But it was actually a pretty cool experience, especially since the guy trying to explain to me how to use the gun couldn't speak English, and my Chinese is still that of a beginner's. I managed to hit the first shot though, which was exciting, although I most definitely missed more than I actually hit. I also think I had the rifle positioned wrong on my shoulder for most of the time, so I ended up with a bruise, which is sad. It was really great when a line of ducks casually walked across the shooting range, though. I guess they just live around there, but they were very nonchalant about walking across the field even though people were still firing the guns. Yu laoshi made a joke about hitting one for our dinner, which seemed so out of character for her that we all had to laugh. Although it was an interesting experience and I had fun, I don't think I will ever actively seek out a firing range ever again... However, the place we went to was kind of behind some sort of military base/training area, so as we were driving there we passed a bunch of people in uniforms, and we even saw a line of tanks, which was another thing I'd never seen in person before. We passed this one guy in uniform who was standing by the side of the road casually talking on his pink flip phone, though, which was kind of hilarious. Also for some reason the base area was swarming with cows, who were all just hanging out, no fences in sight. It was a very strange area, that's for sure.

On Tuesday we began the day at an activity beach. It wasn't made of nice sand, but was more of a reef area. Five of us (one of the girls has a broken hand and the other chose not to participate) did some snorkeling, which I haven't done in years, but I was pleasantly surprised at how many fish we saw. There were so many people in the area that I figured the fish would have been scared off, but I saw a few different schools of fish and one of those fish that looks like Gill from Finding Nemo. then did some fun inner tube type water activities. I'm not exactly sure what they were called, but the first two were like giant floating chairs, and we all sat in various places on them and held on for dear life as we were dragged behind a jet ski. After those, we rode on a banana boat (where the guy purposely tipped us at the end), and then we split up to ride behind him on the jet ski. For the jet ski, because we had five people we split it into a group of two and a group of three. I was in the group of three, and I ended up at the very back, which was... intense. We were going so fast that after each bump in the water I could feel everyone kind of slipping backwards on the seat, until it reached the point where I wasn't even really sitting on anything, but trying to keep a desperate grip on my classmate in front of me with my hands and on the seat/body of the jet ski with my thighs. At the end of the ride, the guy was swerving the jet ski so sharply that I just kind of gave in to the inevitable and let myself slip off the back. I was surprised when the girl in front of me also let go a short time later, though. Overall, all of the rides were both terrifying and a total blast. My eyes, nose, and throat were definitely burning from the salt water by the end but it was so worth it. We then went to rinse off and ate lunch before heading to another beach. This one was much more of the touristy beach (evident from the many 外國人 we saw there), with the softer sand and beautifully blue water. Apparently, some of the beach scenes of Life of Pi were shot on this beach, which I can definitely believe, because many of the pictures I took looked more like desktop stock photos than a real-life place. One of the things that really impressed me was the dedication of some of the Asian tourists to get the perfect picture. There were many girls in white, flowy dresses (quickly turning brown along the bottom from the sand), and quite a few girls who actually brought their phones out to the water as they tried to take the perfect selfie, posing in the waves. I feel like those attempts to take the perfect photo would make time at the beach stressful, rather than relaxing (as it should be).

Wednesday, our last day in Kenting, was very very hot. We first went into part of the national park, where we walked a long trail through a picturesque tunnel of greenery, before reaching a lighthouse. Since we were so close to the ocean there was a sea breeze, which I thought made the weather bearable, although I was alone in that sentiment. The lighthouse itself was amazingly white, and very picturesque. Again, lots of 中國人 tourists taking photos. After the lighthouse, we traveled down to the southernmost point of Taiwan. The path down to the dedicated tourist spot was very pretty, and there was a lot of 木漏れ日（こもれび or komorebi), which is a Japanese word for the sunlight that filters through the trees (one of my personal favorite Japanese words). However, because everyone was so hot, Yu laoshi decided to cut our touristy activities short and brought us to a very famous shaved ice place, where we got a GIANT bowl of shaved ice that we all shared. It was sooo good! It was also nice because it was topped with lots of different fruits, and the fruits here are to die for.

Today (Wednesday), we only had two hours of class in the morning, as the Chinese Language Center brought in a guy to teach us how to make 龍鬚糖 lóng xū táng - Dragon whiskers candy. I'm not super fond of the candy (which is made of malt sugar and some sort of starch), but it was fun and really easy to make! Granted, they had all of the ingredients ready for us, and it was just a matter of stretching the sugar and folding it in half a bunch, but still, it was very amusing. It was also nice not having a full day of class right after getting back from our super relaxing field trip.

Okay, that's all for now (sorry about the ridiculously long post)! I probably won't post this weekend, as I don't expect anything major to happen between then and now, but I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your summers!

Talk to you soon!

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