Dana: Best day EVER!!!!!

So today started out great with a breakfast I loved. It was special K and drinkable wheat yogurt. The yogurt was amazing, but sppecial K here tastes way different. Its more like wheaties. I didn't have a spoon(they didn't realize cereal is eaten in milk/yogurt) so I didn't eat very much special K.

We rode the bus (Kareoke included) to this park by the sea shore. On the way, we saw these people in all black with black and white flags. It was a funeral for a gang leader and the people were the gang members. We only glimpsed them, so it wasn't scary or anything, just interesting that everyone was aware of who they were and what was happening. I always thought gangs were less public. At the park, we took a boat accross the harbor. We ate in this fishmarket area that had the food already prepared. I had fried eel and fried sweet potatoes. Yum! Then we found ice cream bars for 20 NT Dollars (Thats like 75 cents ish) They were buy one get one free! We then went to a set of streets with TONS of shops. Hunter, the Taiwanese teacher in charge of us set us up into two groups and gave us a photo scavenger hunt. He allowed us to go off by ourselves as long as we stayed together. We were so enthralled by shopping that our group forgot about the scavenger hunt (the other group got all the photos). I got a foot tall mango ice cream cone for 10 NT dollars (32 cents). It is officially my favorite food. We walked around for awhile and came accross a Turkish ice cream shop. Our hosts were explaining what it was, and they said it was "Turkey Ice cream" It had us freaked out until I realized it was Turkish ice cream. The guy selling it was hilarious. Check out the facebook video to see him flirting with us. I got some ice cream, and it was so odd. It was sort of gummy. Someone got video of it partially falling out of my mouth because I wasn't expecting it to be so resistant. Then it started raining really hard (it has been raining on and off since I have been here) So we went to a soup restaurant where I had fish ball soup (like meat balls but with fish). It tasted okay, but the fishballs were hard to chew because they were big (we didn't have knives) I've been having that problem alot. something will taste good but I will choke eating it because it will be too gummy to chew or to big of a bite. We also ate this noodle dish that tasted exactly like refried beans, but in noodle form. It wasn't bad, but difficult to get used to. We gave the taiwanese students sour patch kids. They obviously don't eat sour food very often, because most of them couldn't hangle the sour taste. We were wondering what their reaction would be to warheads if just Sour Patch kids are too strong. The shopping area we were in was crowded and our hopsts said it is the place where the pickpockets hang out. I was so grateful that I had my money pouch that I wear inder my shirt. I always used to thing my grandma was weird for wearing hers everywhere, but now I understand. Its really nice not having to always watch your wallet. Plus juggling the camera in the pouring rain would have made keeping an eye on my backpack impossible.

speaking of my camera, I am proud to say, I walked through POURING rain most of the day and didn't get it wet. This morning, I made a zip lock bag water cover for it, so that only the lens is exposed. Then today when it rained really hard I wrapped my ponch around it. At the begining of the day I didn't have an umbrella (they are hard to hold while taking pictures, so I declined carols offer to borrow one). By noon, the $3 umbrellas started looking really appealing, so I finally gave in and bought one. I was so glad I did. About 30 seconds after I purchased it, It started raining herder than ever before.

Before we left, we met the other group at the subway station. There were some guys break dancing. Some of us took pictures with them. Then someone, I think it was page, said we should do our dance for them. The guys (except Dustin) thought it was an awful idea, but us girls were all for it. DANCE OFF! No, I am not kidding. We did a dance off in a Taiwanese train station. Half the train station stopped to watch. And yes, our dance style was Texas line dance. We also did a few other dance moves, but they won hands down. We knew they would, but it was fun anyway. We knew we were embarassing ourselves, but we figured that everyone stares at us anyway, why not have fun and make staring at us interesting? that dance off basically rocked my world. I cannot express how happy I am that we did it.

When I got home, my mom inststed I take a shower so I wouldn't be cold. My feet were the only things that were really wet, but she was adiment. Winnie said she was afraid I would get sick. My family is always worried about me being cold and asking me if I need a jacket. I don't understand why they think I would be cold. True, it is raining, but it is still warm, and there is very little air conditioning. I finally found out why my mom is so preoccupied with me being cold. At dinner, she had iced tea, and she fished all the ice out of it. I asked Winnie why, and she said that lots of people in taiwan believe women shouldn't eat cold things or be cold because it effects their reproductive systems and causes infertility. Hear that Mr. Murry? Keeping your classroom ice cold is hurting your female students! It is sort of an old wives tale I guess, so there are lots of women who don't each ice cream or iced beverages.

Before dinner, they took me to a nail salon. I'm going to be blunt here. The nail salons in the US stink. In reference to both quality and smell. The first thing I noticed was that the nail salon smelled flowery, not like acetone. Second, they are much gentler with your nails. Third, the overall quality and attention to detail is much better here. This means doing your nails takes 3 hours. I wanted these sparkly red fake nails that Winnie has, but they are gel nails, not acrylic. Gel nails have to go on the real nail, not tips, so my nails were too short. The lady didn't realize that until she had taken my acrylic nails off. Because of that, she painted my nails and put acrylic bows on them for free. I will go back at the end of the trip when my nails are longer to get the gel nails.

For dinner we had spagetti, Taiwanese style. I had Thai spagetti, which was really good. My family was super worried about it being to spicy, and they expected me to have to trade meals with them. They were flabbergasted when I ate it. It was definately spicy, but not unmanageable. It was very good. I explained to them that I love Cajun and Mexican food, which are both spicy. I'm not quite sure they understand what Cajun is. They may know a lot about texas, but we need to send some students from Louisianna here!

More lessons: Winnie and Carol say that most people in Taiwan would be embarassed to have foreigner stay with them. They wanted to make sure my family would be okay with it before Winnie and carol came to stay. I can't imagine being embarrased by having a foreign guest. The idea didn't even occur to me. It just shows how different out culture is. Winnie was surprised to here that she wouldn't stick out at all in Plano. I also learned that my family does indeed have family time, just more outside the house. They mostly eat dinner out. They also have a sitting area that I missed before where they hang out in the evenings. I am really getting aclimated to the culture here.


Overall it was an epic day.