Taipei: We're Locals Now

Where I watched the Royal Wedding. The taxis here have TV's for each person in the cab, even the driver! Now that's scary... 

One of our class dinners consisted of eating about 20 different traditional dishes and ending our digestion in soaking in some natural hot springs.  Swimming caps mandatory, swim suits optional. 

Taiwan National University of Art's campus cow, of course. They are used as lawn mowers and moved around campus whenever the grass needs some trimming. There are also about 20 campus dogs running around, one even came to class with us one day!

One of the most famous temples in Taipei. It is known for helping lovers find each other. You always know when you pass a temple because incense is constantly burning from the meditators.

The meditation ceremony for any person needing a prayer.

One of the newest and most ornate temples we visited. All of the temples are considered to always be under construction, since there can always be more ways to honor the Gods through adding more ornate beauty on to each pole, siding, room, ceiling, and roof. 

My favorite picture from the trip, a beggar in the street blocking traffic. 

Walking through a shopping area, a massively loud and explosive ceremony began in the street. There were fireworks and drummers and Gods dancing through the street passing out candy. 

A traditional Hakkan "tea" we made by crushing poppy seeds, green tea leaves, peanuts,  and various other ingredients to make this chunky concoction. After 2 hours of grinding, my arms were definitely sore the next day.

A few kids I befriended while they curiously watched our class hoola-hooping and playing with various traditional Taiwanese toys.

Venturing into the modern ceramics museum, the last stop on a culturally packed day trip around the city.

Taipei: And the "Classes" Begin

A huge part of our everyday life is riding the metro. A solid half of our days are dedicated to getting around the huge city of Taipei, especially between our campus and where we're staying. (Yes, we are taking classes, I swear!)

As a culture class, we went to a traditional tea ceremony where we smelled different teas, learned all about each type of tea, and learned how to drink and pray over the tea we drink.

Yeah, the tea was dang good. 

Each street has a type of store it specializes in. This particular street had Chinese medicine ingredients. It was amazing to see all the different, complicated types of ingredients that go into healing naturally. In this picture, there were different flowers to brew in tea.

Shark fin was everywhere! Who knows what that does.... or even how they got it.. eeek!

A typical day in kung fu class. After we learn a series of moves, we have to perform it to the class. Our campus overlooks the city, and we have class outside everyday.

Working on our calligraphy takes up a big portion of our time. We have to do 4-6 sheets per day and perfect each stoke. It looks easy, but is actually very intricate and hard. Each quiver of the hand shows up in your stoke, which can ruin the whole character.

Another cultural class was going to see a puppet show and puppet museum. The puppeteer showed us his hand movements outside of the puppets mask and it was literally like his hand was dancing. The incredible isolation of each of his hand muscles to create another life form was stunning. I never knew that puppetry is considered such an art form! Its pretty sad that it is nearly obsolete now, especially with how much culture and tradition it holds in asian culture.

The "Ugly Room" in the puppet museum.

There are temples all over the city to pray to various different Gods. The temples are extremely ornate and positioned between ugly industrial buildings. This temple in particular is known for blossoming love. Over 3000 successful marriages are said to have started from this temple.

Just a parting photo for you, delish, right!?

Taipei: Weekend 1

After 2 days of plane travel and a moth-ball invested taxi ride, we finally arrived at our destination.

Our "student activity center" specializes in egg comforters. Taiwanese people are quite infatuated with hard boiled eggs. At every 7-eleven (yes, they have 7-elevens and they are EVERYWHERE) they have a whole vat of eggs floating in vinegar.

The 101, at one point was the tallest building in the world. It is more than twice as tall as all of the other buildings on Taipei's horizon.

Other than the intense fishy-tasting food that follows us everywhere, the toilets were another culture shock. They are built into the ground, and you have to squat over them in order to do your business. Quite a different experience.

This artist greeted us on our hike up to the monasteries in the jungle next to our hotel. He was very excited to get his picture taken.

The view of Taipei on top of the jungle mountain. 

The series of tree-fort like monasteries each had a different feel to it. There were many shrine, prayer based huts that had statues of Gods with incense as a part of the ceremonial prayers. Being easter, I partook in a little prayer and incense lighting myself. The other areas of the monastery included multiple karaoke stations singing traditional Taiwanese songs. The songs could be heard from all over the mountain, combining together to create a rather overwhelming feeling.

In the exercise part of the monastery, Taiwanese people were bench pressing, doing monkey bars and hoola hooping. One of the men I was hoola hooping with taught me some different hand motions to combine the hoola hooping with tai chi. "Thirty Six!" he kept repeating showing me the different movements to copy 36 times. Here, I've realized how powerful a smile can be in making a friend, and is ubiquitous in any culture. The only Mandarin words I have figured out are "shi shi" and "ne hou" (thank you and hello), so nodding and smiling definitely goes a long way.

Up in the monastery, there were some men selling fruit. We found a little hut and had a wonderful fruit lunch picnic! The pineapple here is some of the best I've ever had. Although still haven't figured out a way to eat it without being completely sticky by the end.

Vaseline skin lightening lotion in a 7-eleven. I was shocked to see it under such a brand name, and find it so bizarre how people aways want to be some idealized person no matter how unhealthy it may be.

We wanted these typical tourist hats too badly. Unfortunately waaay to hard to travel with. We are quite styling though...

In old town Taipei. Fishing in the river tributary.

The streets are always packed with people and vespas trying to make their way through. The street venders are a big aspect here, selling anything from hello kitty to cow livers. Nearly everything is translated into English which definitely makes getting around on the subway easier. However, we seem to be the only English speaking non-Taiwanese people here. Its pretty neat being the minority for a change!

The street food is always quite a treat. Shark fins, fish balls, and livers all included! They wash the majority of their vegetables and cut their meat right on the street floor, which is a little scary to think about. Haven't gotten sick yet! Knock on wood...

The Flora Exhibition was going on the first weekend we arrived. It is a huge deal here, advertised everywhere, and considered almost an olympics with how much tourism it brings in. Our first assignment for class was to visit the exhibition. Miss Robin here is smelling the finer things in life, which is definitely encouraged in our meditation class.

With all the crowds, smells, and beautiful surroundings, my senses were completely stimulated. The crowds were the main aspect of the Flora Exhibit that stood out. Every parade, musical performance, or cultural performance was a fight to get to the front of the show. From afar, it seems like a colony of ants all in harmony; perfectly coordinated to ease their way through the masses. This is especially evident when observing a crowded Metro station, with all the people moving on and off the tram.

Umbrellas are mainly used here to keep away the sun. It seems as if every Taiwanese person has an umbrella and a camera in hand.

Even the children are avid photographers. They've been conditioned since the beginning to capture every single memory!

With all the cameras around, everyone was taking photos of the same thing. The uniformity of the photos was at first annoying, but is actually quite bonding. Every person that experienced the Flora Exhibition had the same bit of memories tucked away in their photo library.