Pray for Japan

March 11, 2011 an 8.9 earthquake followed by a Tsunami struck Japan. As of now people are scrambling about with the hype over the Nuclear Power Plant having collapsed. Fortunately, the radio activity has gone down considerably since the first day of impact when the concrete building gave in. The news reports that the pressure in the tanks should be under control under the next few days and they advise us not to expose our skin and what not. My friend's boyfriend wanted her to by iodine to protect herself in case there was an issue. We went to several health product stores and pharmacies but didn't find iodine tablets. So I am not sure where I would buy any in case the issue did arise.

As for the small island called Taiwan that most people don't know exist or confuse with Thailand if they aren't savvy with their geography the distance between us and Tokyo is close enough to be affected not only physically but also mentally. Many friends and family members of Taiwanese residents and exchange students live in Tokyo and the eastern half of Japan where the Tsunami hit. Most of us spent the past two or three days calling, texting, checking facebook posts to check that friends and family in Japan were not affected. One of my friends told me her house in Tokyo is very messy from the huge tremors and fortunately still standing. I heard from a friend that a friend of a friend's house got swept under from the Tsunami. So as you may guess, we in Taiwan wish to help our neighbor as much as we can.

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=13&f_SUB_ID=104&f_ART_ID=306891

News reporters came to the Mandarin Training Center (MTC) at NTNU yesterday to report the activities going on for the fundraiser to donate for Japan. I was folding paper cranes 紙鶴 today during my free time going in and out of MTC and the volunteer coordinator called out to me in Chinese asking where I was from (to see what languages I could speak and if I wished to help out volunteering to sell these cranes in the night market I live next to this Friday. I emailed my Taiwanese students to tell them I would like to change dates to help out on Friday and they immediately asked me if they could come assist too. Everyone here is stepping in without hesitation. I read in the above article that over 11,000 NTD (370 USD) was raised in the first day.

On a side note, I was buying dinner tonight at the night market and after I ordered a girl waiting for her order standing off to the side of the food stand started talking to me saying, "你會說中文啊！” "You can speak Chinese!" We spoke for 10 minutes back and forth. She's my age and is taking her last credits at the same university for some design program (didn't know that word in Chinese). She works full time so she looked embarrassed for a second that she hadn't graduated yet. Every once in awhile she would interject saying "你說得很好啊！“ "You speak so well!" She admitted she always was shy talking to a random English speaker but saw that I could speak Chinese so I am the first American she has spoken with. And so our conversation ended with exchanging numbers and of course a picture! The Taiwanese girl way of making fast friends it seems. I've had two of these photos now, not including random people just asking for a quick photo before running away. She texted me in English right after sawing she was so happy to have met me. She had told me she could write it better than speak. It ended with a possibility of meeting to talk again.

Taiwan has Touched My Heart

I just finished winter break and will be starting book three tomorrow of Mandarin Chinese. I am happy to say I will have my teacher from the first semester again at 10:20 which is perfect because these next 10 weeks there are sign ups for students to join the dragon boat racing crew with morning practice from 6:30-7:30 and I plan to join. They plan on having three teams race at the end and I want to be on the water. I believe it will help with my judo too since they don't meet everyday and I don't get that intensive exercise often.

I want to share a selection of some of my favorite photos between myself and my 11 friends who went on vacation together to the middle section of Taiwan which has some of the most beautiful sights you will ever see. We had planned this trip for a good three days before leaving and when I went with a few friends two days before we planned to leave to buy our tickets to go from Taibei to Sun Moon Lake we found that buses were completely booked. So we instantly, reversed the trip route to the opposite order starting with Chiayi 嘉義 on Saturday morning at 9 am since no one seemed to be going in that direction and from Chiayi we worked our way back up to Taibei. From Chiayi we took another bus early Sunday to get to Alishan. Our plan had been to rent bikes and drive up there to see the sunrise over the mountain tops because the view is spectacular at dawn. It was a great thought but we were too tired from the night before at the night market and in the park. We had eaten dinner at our friends uncle's restaurant for a really good deal with a great assortment of food before going to the night market and the park. The park reminded me of home because it was so green and unlike most city parks. The only difference from home would be that there was a group of elderly people practicing their Taichi on a platform while kids were playing soccer. We were sitting on a hill hanging out and some kids came over to us and we started talking in Chinese. They ended up talking about Judo somehow which led to the boys daring one of their crew to compete against me. haha! They were funny because they were all scared and tried to act like tough guys by saying they weren't that good but that they weren't scared either. Nothing ended up happening with that. We ended up playing frisbee with the boys though for a bit until one of our friends' cousins drove over on their bike to bring us to a bar to hang out before getting ready for the next day.

We woke up around 5:30am on Sunday to take the bus up the mountains into Alishan 阿裡山 and it was a gorgeous ride. Everytime I opened my eyes from my nap I tried to take a picture or two of the tropical vegetation on the slopes. They reminded me of the Dominican Republic when I was in Naranjito. We had had unusually warm weather so far and as we climbed the mountain, I felt like bundling up. As I had prepared for the cold mountains, I had packed plenty of warm wear. But unfortunately I didn't use any or it for more than half the trip. At the top of the mountain the sun beat down and we all stripped down to t-shirts. The mountain of Alishan is known for it's spectacular mountain views and sea of clouds in the morning. Moreover, they have a famous train ride that takes you through the mountains but it was put out of service after the Typhoon that had hit Taiwan in the fall season so we had taken the bus instead. We did get to take another train once we got to the visitors center that led us to the top. We also got to take a hike through a trail of trees that put me into the elven wood in the Lord of the Rings. Some trees dated back to 2000 years old. They were all marked and some were named for their peculiar shapes.

From Alishan we thought we would have to take another bus back to Chiayi in order to work our way into the middle from the coast towards Sun Moon Lake. Their are no direct bus lines that go between the two. BUT we were 12 and just so happened to come across drivers doing their private business driving vans with groups of tourists. We were able to get a van from there straight to our hostel in Sun Moon Lake with out the round about bus route. Plus, the nice driver stopped for us to take pictures of 玉山 or Jade Mountain. It's the tallest Mountain in Taiwan and is taller than MT Fuji in Japan. We saw snow on the peaks of Jade Mountain and we passed several monkeys (Saruu in Japanese 猴子 in Chinese) chilling on the rocks around the side of the road.

We stayed in Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 for two nights and two full days. We visited the night market for our dinner and had breakfast at the hostel. The first morning we spent on bikes going around the lake. Again, none of us prepared for the hot weather so we found the bike riding to be really hard and hilly. We first went to see the famous pagoda beside the lake up on a huge hill and then from there we tried finding the pier where we could go kayaking. It just so happened that there were a ton of piers and the first one only had big tour boats. We asked about the others because the maps didn't mark out the one we wanted. We were told to go back around to the opposite side so after some debating we took our bikes on a hikers trail to make a short cut of the trip. As we started, many tourists shook their heads and said we couldn't do it. I asked them in Chinese if it we could get through or was it a just a matter of the intensity. They said we could pass through but we would be exhausted. They were right! I was dead exhausted but we made cut the bike trail in half by going that way. The boys helped the girls carry the bikes up the parts with stairs so we made it alright. We ended up going and returning the bikes to the hostel's bike stand and renting battery powered bikes instead that would last 24 hours. We had to change the bikes pretty often because they ran out of battery quick but it was worth the switch from bike riding. In this manner we found another pier were the captain 船長 refused to rent out her kayaks to use because of the 'waves' that were supposedly very dangerous from the tourist boats and offered to take us on a bigger boat. We ended up taking up her offer the next day although we thought we would do the kayaks since it would be more fun. It was still fun being on the boat but we all agreed that the Taiwanese are overly cautious in situations that we would never consider to be a problem. There were really no waves on the lake. We spent most of our time getting around the lake on the battery powered bikes and the only thing we didn't get to do that we wanted to was ride the fast gondolas up the mountains. It was fine though because we still got many scenic views from the Pagoda, Temple and the boat.

Tuesday afternoon we took taxis from Sun Moon Lake to Taizhong 台中 only because the taxis were about the same price as a bus and they would bring us to two spots in the city that we wanted to go see before taking a bus back to Taibei. At Taizhong we went to see the biggest Buddha in Taiwan and bigger than the one in Hong Kong. After quickly taking pictures of the grounds we got back in the taxis to go to the city and the biggest night market in Taiwan. At the night market we had an array of different foods for dinner. Walking from stall to stall trying each other's 點心 snacks. They have a plethora of new tastes in Taizhong that I haven't seen in Taibei. I tried black tea mixed with mango ice cream, shrimp flavored fried cakes, the usual favorite onion cake with bacon 蔥餅, fresh strawberries 草莓，flan, toast with chocolate filling etc. The night market at Sun Moon Lake also had great 小籠包 and 日式南瓜包 (Japanese Style squash with meat and cheese and spices in a bun)。 In fact I waited in a long line for the last one which was well worth the wait. It was fun trying so many new local foods for a cheap dinner. That pretty much ended our vacation as we took a bus from their to Taibei and home.

兔年快樂！！！Happy Year of the Rabbit!!!

Happy New Years!! It is the year of the Rabbit and it is the most celebrated holiday here in Taiwan! The decorations are all red and gold with rabbits painted everywhere and sellers sporting rabbit ears to attract people's attention. I had a double celebration of my birthday as well with some people who weren't sick and some that were, hadn't left the country or weren't busy with their family's at home. It ended up being just a few of us but I had 7 different languages song to me to the Happy Birthday tune which I really enjoyed (Mongolian,Japanese( which is really English but with an accent),Czech, Korean, Spanish, English and Chinese :)
The plan had been to go ice skating but I was contending with a holiday that makes the city virtually a ghost town. For real, the MRT was empty the streets were near empty and most everyone was inside their homes or outside the city back in their hometowns. The ice skating ultimately failed so we ate pizza hut outside the Taipei arena and then returned to my room to watch a movie on my computer and play a popular card game I learned here. 大二 (big two) I rescheduled the ice skating because I still would like to go. The day started out at Mister Donuts with my Korean friend who made me laugh the whole day with his crazy stories in mixed Chinese and English (somewhat limited but his hand motions make up for the rest) and feel better about nothing working out the way I had hoped. He had been out all night and was celebrating with me so I was happy he had come in the end.


As for the New Years...


I had friends from here explain all of the traditions and the way the Taiwanese would celebrate. I fortunately got invited to participate with the cousin of my recent Taiwanese friend. He he wasn't there celebrating with us because he was at his family's but Amy and I were together with the extended family. I had met the cousin before one time going out to the night market but this was the first time alone with her and her family but it wasn't awkward in any way. They prepared three special vegetarian dishes for Amy to eat and they kept offering more food afraid that I wasn't full or wouldn't find the dishes to be tasty or lavish enough. I was really happy because the grandmother kept doing the customary giving food to give others to eat and she kept cleaning shrimp and giving it to me to eat. I just so happened to not like having any blood on or around the shrimp and they noticed me trying to clean it out so they started throwing them into the center of the table's hot pot to cook it out so I would eat it. They explained the various dishes to me and the meaning behind each. The first dish was like gelatin and so sticky and was brown with green onions. The cousin, Grace, is her English name and her older sister both don't care for the taste so they kept suggesting the grandmother to give me the bowl with the smallest portion size in case I also didn't care for the taste. I actually, really liked it! I also tried a jelly fish or medusa dish which I learned is called 水母 （the characters for water and mother). I didn't get the name for the jelly, sticky dish because they said there was no name. I learned the texture is called QQ'd which is squishy. The significance of the dish is bringing friendship and goodness to your heart for the new year as everything else does that they do for the new year. The main dish was the hot pot in the center. It is a customary style of cooking I notice. The most common New Year's dish is called 佛跳墻 (Buddha jumps over the wall) After eating the family cleared the main space of the apartment and took the 10NTD coins off the rim of the stone fire pit that had been heating from the fire at our feet while eating. They gave out one coin to each member, for bringing good luck and then started handing out 紅包 to the younger people which were the cousins, Amy and I. They gave Amy and I each three different ones so we were 300 NTD richer that night. It's customary for the people who aren't yet working a full time job to receive a red envelope with money. The grandmother seemed attached to me and kept telling us that their family was truly a great place to practice our Chinese. They kept welcoming us back to practice and to help Grace in return who they 'criticized' slightly for not being up to the same speed. I felt they wanted their daughter to be also up to the same level and were hoping for us to work hard together. They all followed us out their door to wave goodbye to us with us promising to come back to visit.

The only thing I didn't get the chance to do was go to temple with my friend who invited me to eat with his cousin's family. He wanted to bring me so I could see how the people say "byebye" to all the evil and welcome the good for the new year. That day he had taken Amy and I around the special Markets that are open for a few days before the start of the Chinese New Years for family's to stock up on food to celebrate. Jill joined us to go to the hot springs that evening. We ended up getting back too late from Beitou, the four of us. We were there to relax in the hot springs and begin my birthday because the two of them would be with family celebrating on my birthday. The funny part about this time was the small tub we shared had to be manually controlled with the water level so it would gurgle in really loud noises that made us all laugh. Amy and I made it a new experience for our Taiwanese friends who told us they never ate and listened to music before while soaking.

香港, 九龍和澳門 Hong Kong，Kowloon and Macau

I landed an hour earlier than scheduled in Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan. Apparently there were technical difficulties with my flight and was cancelled. Thanks to my friend Samson who showed me around his territory in Hong Kong, I was able to get home earlier rather than later. My phone didn't have internet service while overseas so I didn't get the notice of the cancellation but Samson suggested we check in at the Hong Kong Airport Express Train Station before I headed to the airport. If I wanted I could drop of my luggage there and continue walking around the city before taking the express train straight to the airport. Since of the earlier time however, I decided to leave Samson at that time to head to customs and all the mayhem involved in boarding a plane. As I was going through the process twice in three days not including going through customs twice on Saturday to get into and out of Macau by Ferry. All of this made me extremely tired and more vulnerable to the cold I had been keeping at a moderate hum. It peaked on the flight over to Hong Kong because of the air pressure, so the doctors meds were useless... 頭褲子放屁 (take off your pants to fart) as they say for useless things that either make no sense or do nothing to help the situation. I like to use this phrase my language exchange taught me quite often.

Looking back to Friday evening when I landed I found my way rather easily compared to the first time in Taoyuan Airport, the Hong Kong Airport is so modern and international in every aspect. I had fun teaching myself new words related to boarding a plane and a ferry, later on. The first time in Hong Kong, I had been there for a lay over before going on to Taiwan, so this time I was looking for the Express Train to the other islands. I found it no problem and perfunctorily chose HK as my final destination. Opps! I had forgotten that my hotel was in Kowloon right on the edge of the Harbor in between Hong Kong and Kowloon. When I boarded the train I asked the lady beside me, first in English, if this ticket would work for Kowloon. However, she started waving her hands at me. I realized she wasn't one of the Hong Kong residents and started asking in Mandarin. She looked relieved and she said she also just came from Taibei for her first time and didn't know the system. She imagined there wouldn't be a problem but that I would probably lose the extra money for getting off sooner. I was also relieved to here it might just work. She was pleased with my Mandarin and starting giving me a suggestion which went over my head. She noticed and explained differently, that also went over my head. I was a little nervous because I was still thinking of getting to the hotel and I ended up nodding in understanding instead of bothering her to explain again. She parted first with a happy goodbye. That was the last friendly person I randomly talked too. Hong Kong people are not like the Taiwanese in the least! I don't want to speak for all in general because generalizations are often inaccurate but this has some foundation. I never felt comfortable asking people around Hong Kong and Macau while staying there. Samson even has to agree. He kept talking about it himself after a lady ran into me at Temple Street Night Market he said that's what the Mainland Chinese are like. They don't care about your space and won't apologize because you are a number. I got a taste and my suspicions have been confirmed. I really believe that if you aren't looking for upper class business work and glamor you will agree with me that Taiwan is a great alternative to HK or China for learning Mandarin and enjoying the culture.

Otherwise, I enjoyed it for what it was, a tourist attraction. It's not a place to live. Samson told me he is tired of the place and will be moving to Australia in February so I wish him the best in that friendly country!

Well as for the more cheerful side, I got to my hotel and almost cried. Feeling as sick as I was, the comfort of a nice bed and a hot bath was so wonderful. I really was thankful for everything that eased my nerves after traveling. I got a call on my phone and it was my sister's boss we were supposed to go to dinner. So I got ready in a jiffy, the bath would have to wait for after. I went with him to a local Hong Kong dinning place in the mall near the hotel that was his personal favorite. I let him order and we talked about all kinds of things. It was almost strange seeing someone familiar from western hemisphere now overseas, especially after so many months apart.

These things kept me a little more sane in the unknown territory while not feeling myself. I am again very grateful for everything. After dinner, we walked along the harbor on a sidewalk called "Walk with the Stars" which was neat because it had hand prints of all the famous Chinese actors and artists. The highlight was the statue of Bruce Lee. The night scape is also very gorgeous. I had a pivotal talk with my sister's boss, who I'm not naming just out of respect for his identity. He and I talked about things in the future that I've been trying hard to figure out now. One of them is, will I stay in Taiwan? Is this were I wish to live? I have been thinking about it for awhile and believe I am discovering this now. Things come and go but right now I don't want to let go. That's how I feel and what I will discover after filling out another scholarship for the masters program here.

The New Year 跨年

First I have to apologize that I haven't updated recently for many reasons but at last I am sitting in front of my computer and mainly wish to share some beautiful pictures from the New Year! As all of you are already aware. My time in Taiwan would have ended in December but among some of the many reasons for my staying, witnessing a New Year and Chinese New Year in Asia was along the top of the list. New Years is like Christmas and so I wanted to experience the hype that is the biggest holiday in this area of the world. This year especially was important for Taiwan because it celebrated 100 years as the ROC or Republic of China. The mastermind of the main show was the same who had worked on the Beijing 2008 Olympics according to my teacher. The neat effects included a spiraling effect of fireworks zipping up and down the side of Taipei 101 as well as fireworks bursting to form 100 in the sky. Not only one area of the city was celebrating with fireworks. The Taipei Flora Expo also had it's own show of fireworks as well as other areas of the city. From the vantage point at the rooftop of Ayaka's apartment building my friends' and I could see everything, plus, here's the best part, not deal with the crowds! A record number of people had gathered around the second tallest building of the world so it took hours to return home for some of my friends who had chosen to go straight to the site. It might have been worth the crowds if it wasn't a record freezing night to top it off. I wanted to share a picture of my Japanese friend Ayaka's toilet from her apartment. I made a joke of saying, if the room became too crowded with people, which she kept worrying about, I would gladly go sit on the toilet. It's Japanese style and has a warm setting. It's with out a doubt the most comfortable toilet ever when it's cold!

Before the fireworks started we called Rick, who had returned to Australia when I was supposed to go back. He had already been celebrating with friends so in his usual good humor he greeted us, "Greetings from the future!" It was special for us to celebrate with Rick so we had him on skype and took turns saying random things for him to guess who was talking at the time. He scored 100% He ended talking to us again later while he was trying to find a Taxi and talking about how he missed Taipei's convenient taxi service. (There is always plenty around)

The night ended around 3am for us as people slowly filtered out. Amy and I walked home, a few blocks away. We have no regrets about our moving to a closer area.
Please enjoy the photos! I took a lot of the fireworks but it's hard for them to come in clearly and these are my favorites.

聖誕節 and Everything in between

Hello!
I'm sorry it has been so long. I have had many affairs to attend to and now I'm enjoying my new room, a five minute walk from my school. It is truly a blessing to be so close. I marvel every time I can walk to the metro without waiting in the cold 20 plus mins for a bus that has no set schedule. Now that it's colder, I had to admit, the wait was less bearable. I still need to pay the new landlord the rest of the deposit. Thankfully, I had a random subbing position for 10 hours teaching English to two classes. The money helped me a bundle. I believe God had a hand in arranging for the meeting with myself and the lady who arranged the subbing position. I felt that way the most when on my way to see the school to learn the curriculum. I passed for the first time in Taiwan the scene of the Nativity. Christmas is all commercialized and secular here unless you are near a church. So seeing this on my way to my destination in the metro gave me hope to my lousy week and the stress of finding a new place to live. Now that I have a new place I'm focusing on buying tickets to Hong Kong in order to "renew" my visa, which is another pain that I never had to deal with in Spain. Here they require you to visit the immigration office every 3 months or so to get your visa extended. I have already gone there twice because they didn't extend it fully when I hadn't yet paid tuition for the following semester to continue my studies. In order to keep my visa from expiring I must go outside the country and re-enter it. That will automatically reset the days for another 2 extensions. It is the most convenient and least stressful manner for me. Otherwise going for a Resident Visa would be another boatload of work.

Well, as for my Christmas. It was standard for being away from home. I went on Friday evening with my friend to attend church. I got to see a Christmas concert and hear Latin, English and Chinese song. My friend sang "Holy Night" in Japanese and I sang it in English. Although she doesn't attend mass, she is that special that she would go with me just so I wouldn't be alone. She is definitely a special friend. Christmas day, my friends arranged for a Christmas picnic that went indoors because of the rain. All week it was sunny and warm until Christmas! We enjoyed ourselves for lunch and then we got donuts from Mister Donut and went to a nice coffee shop near my friends' apartment. We talked and played cards into the evening before I went home to pack for the move.

I have my language exchange partner to thank for helping find a nice price for a short walk away from school. We found this place within two days. It is great knowing people who live here for sure. I find that people are often stunned by the rapid pace that I'm learning Chinese. It's not rocket science. I just hang out less and less around English speakers and more and more with my Taiwanese and other friends who don't speak English often or well and must use Chinese.
Since I'm not so thrilled by my new teacher this semester, I find it all the more important to do my best where I can outside of it with my friends and the people I meet.

Today, I don't want to forget to look more into the spiced milk tea I drank at the Indian Restaurant near my new place. I ordered the tea 印度奶茶 which just translates to Indian milk tea and it was amazing! The spices and milk blended made it creamy and yummier than any latte. I asked the waiter about what was put in it. My Japanese friends' language exchange partner was there to help us but I didn't get the answer I wanted. We just found out it had spices in it. I want to know how it was made so I plan on going back with a list of spices translated to ask what they used.

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.