Holiday Trip South

Hi Again,

This is another quick blog to talk about my holiday between classes. I start my next semester in the middle of the second book tomorrow. I hope I like my new teacher. If not I have every intention of changing. I will not stay if I have any doubts. Some of my friends did not get along with there teachers and our learning experiences were like night and day. It's important that your class is like a family I believe in order to learn together well. My class this past semester was great and I'm going to miss that.

As for the places I went to. I started in one National Park 楊明山 near 台北 Taibei and ended in another National Park 太魯閣 near Hualien 花蓮。

The first day in 楊明山was exhausting but beautiful hike up the mountain. Kristyna wanted to go to the very top but my lungs where starting to give out and I haven't built up my endurance entirely so I said lets turn here and we went left along the easier road that went to the clearing instead of the steep climb upwards to the top. We "plan" to go back for the Cherry Blossoms and Azaleas that come out in the springtime. It's a very popular place. While we hiked a fast pace, we passed many elderly people with back packs that held a stereo blasting old Chinese classical music or something relaxing... Not am radio Mom. Haha! They had very nice hiking sticks and they were steadily making the climb. I had to take breaks because Kristyna was zooming up the mountainside. I would have taken my time on my own. At least I'm not sore anymore because of Judo. My legs are feeling fine. But I want to have more stamina. Anyway, as we reached one marked point of our climb one of the many stray dogs that we see everywhere took a liking to us. Kristyna was not happy about it but it was funny because the dog specifically followed her. It was a cute dog and I find it sad that most stray dogs are the typical black short haired, pointy eared dogs that owners decide to leave on the side of the road. They look well fed for the most part, so I believe they survive for some time but I am nonetheless heartbroken that it's always the same breed. The fluffy little lap dogs are mostly favored with the families and are normally decked out in ridiculous clothing.

About half way back down the mountain the dog stopped following us so we headed home. I was exhausted and still coughing from my cold. I didn't feel like getting up early the next day...

The next day, I did get up early. We found a bank that finally allowed me to take out some money. It has been frustrating looking for atms now that my scholarship has ended. Our plan was to wake up and make the train, which we did. We made the train and once there we were met with locals wanting our service. So we so happened to stay in the first hotel that the worker there showed us. He walked us to the hotel and showed us different rooms for options. I hesitated because it was the first hotel we checked. However, we were tired and the place was decent for the price so we stayed for 600 NT for two in one room with a bath. After dropping off our things in the hotel and setting out we found a buffet for lunch, which is always the cheapest when eating out. I ordered my food and the lady at the register asked me if I knew where I was pointing to my shirt with a map of Taiwan. I pointed to Hualian. And then she asked me from where I had come and I told her Taipei and pointed there. She was really excited that I could talk to her in Chinese and it made me smile. We sat down to eat and at the table next to us a business man was eating. He mentioned to us to get some of the soup behind us and later offered us paper napkins. We ended up talking for awhile and he was impressed with our Chinese. And that was the beginning of our adventure around Hualian with our tour guide for the day. He was very kind to us and drove us to the beach and all of the best sites to see the ocean since we planned to walk he insisted to drive us. He laughed saying we couldn't possibly walk and that the buses are not like in Taipei, where they barely ever come by and are never on time. As the day went on, we wondered if he was an important official with nothing better to do at the time. He had been to countries all over Europe and then he mentioned visiting Hartford, CT. Which shocked me because nobody knows Connecticut and definitely not Hartford in Taiwan. They know NY, so that is where I always say I'm near.

The next day we got on the hotel's tour bus to 太魯閣. At very good price we were brought to the most famous areas of Taiwan's most famous National Park with lunch included. We were happy about this because the gorge is very long and there was no way for us to see it all on foot within a day. So we were dropped off at areas that we could explore and take pictures before going to the next destination. We had our bags with us on the bus and the tour guide dropped us off at the train station afterwards so we could go straight to Taipei. I will remember the place we ate for lunch because it was a gemstone and jewelery shop with a restaurant in the back. The food was typical Taiwanese but for the first time I found everything to be very savory and yummy. I can never compare my mothers food to anything at a restaurant but I finally had something satisfying. And because we were in a gem shop, they owners gave us a demonstration of the inner qualities they believe in Jade and coral and everything in between. As part of one demo, I tried a small sip of sake and then after dipping this particular rock into the cup to try it again. He told me it would taste lighter, like water. I believe it tasted light probably because I was tasting it off of the stone instead of out of the cup. Afterwards, a lady showed us how to check for real Jade. She demonstrated with a strand of human hair wrapped over the gem. She proceeded to burn it with a lighter but it didn't burn. She tried again on a replica of a Jade stone and the hair snapped in two and a piece of the gem stone also broke apart. After some more talking she told us there was a discount of 60% for our group and she seemed to have me pinned down as her next buyer. I was not happy but tried to be polite. I didn't want to spend money. So we bargained in Chinese for a good while ~mainly me saying sorry, it's pretty but I can't buy anything. She acted sympathetic to me being a student and poor so we set the price down on a sapphire ring that I am happy with... The part I enjoyed was talking in Chinese about money. She was impressed by that too. But it seemed unfair that she didn't pin down the German girl on our tour. The Malaysian men had no interest so it was Kristyna and I that walked out with jewelry.