More misc. sights (& last blog)

Today is my last day in Taiwan, so this will be my last blog.

Before you see pictures of more miscellaneous sights, I want to update you on the typhoon. As you may have seen in the news, Typhoon Morakot (means "Emerald" in Thai) caused extensive damage in the south of Taiwan. The excessive rains caused the worst flooding in 50 years in Taiwan - in one area, a hotel famous for it's hot springs fell into a river and, in another area, a whole village disappeared. However, other than some fallen tree branches and some cabin fever, everything is OK in Taipei.

So, now for some last pictures...as I've walked around these past couple of days, it's struck me that I'll miss all of the sights that have become somewhat commonplace for me these past two months. As a result, I've been taking more pictures. :)

This is the typical sidewalk here - the side closest to the building is covered and the part closest to the street isn't. Usually, scooters only ride on the uncovered part when parking, but sometimes they go under the covered part, too. When walking (and especially biking) inTaipei, you always have to be on guard!



In the plaza near my apartment, people do all sorts of things - walk, sit and talk, practice tai chi, aerobics, etc. In this covered alcove area, many people play badminton in the mornings, evenings, and weekends.



I've seen these horns at random places throughout my time here. Actually, I hear it first and then it takes a minute to locate it. They play recordings of what one Taiwanese person told me is like propaganda for Falong Gong or a group like that...they're explanation wasn't really clear, so I didn't fully understand. Yet, it's interesting. This one was hanging outside of a drug store.



This is along the street that I take to the University. It's some kind of Buddhist temple/prayer place. There are usually a lot of shoes on the rack outside, and not many people visible inside, so I imagine there's some sort of upstairs hall.








This dog grooming shop is also along my route to school. They are usually still working when I come home from class around 9. I've noticed that people here work very hard and long hours...probably no different than in the U.S., but the difference here is that work life is more visible because people aren't in cars, far from offices, shops, etc.



This is another of the stores I see along my route to school. I was always curious what they sold or did...it looked so nice that I thought maybe it had something to do with the Buddhist temple/prayer hall down the street. So, finally yesterday, I asked...they sell beef jerky! Much nicer than the American roadside versions, huh?



I took this picture along the route to school, too (outside of a fancy steak restaurant), but it could have been anywhere. Inside or outside almost all stores, restaurants, etc. are bins for umbrellas. People carry umbrellas everyday here, whether it's raining or sunny...and they use them to protect themselves from both types of weather!



This is a Chinese medicine pharmacy store that also appears to sell miscellaneous other things. It's typical of small, family-owned Taiwanese stores. The owner usually sits and watches a small TV in the corner while waiting for customers.



On Sunday, I went back to the Shihlin night market (where I went with the Taiwanese friends last week). This time, I went alone, just to buy more souvenirs. I was impressed by how well I could navigate and understand things there, having already been taught what everything was by my friends. As a result, I was more daring and spoke more Chinese than I normally do while out shopping. (During my first weeks here, when I tried talking to non-English speakers in Chinese, I had some bad experiences, so I think since then, I've avoided it more than I maybe should have.) Also, because I know I'm leaving soon, I was more daring in asking if it was OK to take pictures.

As I exited the metro, a delicious sweet smell drew me to this store. They were selling the egg cakes that you can find almost everywhere in Taipei. It's basically sweet, spongy dough - kind of like a small warm cake. You can get them plain or with various fillings (sweet red bean, black sesame paste, cheese, cream cheese, etc.). Most are hand poured, but this store had a machine that did the work. The first nozzle appeared to dispense dough and the second one some kind of cream filling. The little boy reminded me of Itai watching the pizza makers at Costco. :)



I've seen roasted corn a few times, and I've been wanting to try it, but the times I saw it, either I wasn't hungry or I was in a car with people and it wasn't possible to stop. This time, I was especially attracted to the corn because they put a special, spicy brown sauce with sesame seeds. I tried it and it was indeed tasty!



Here's a picture of the Indian roti stand that I enjoyed so much last week:



This stand sold another version of the egg cakes...one that I tasted for the first time on Sunday and I like much better. The one on the left side is like two small pancakes with black sesame paste layered inside. I was most curious about the one in the middle that looks like a sponge. I tried one and it was very tasty...a little sweet, but not too much, with a slightly chewy, spongy texture.



This stand sells a ball made of dough (it looked like an egg and flour mixture) and various meats and veggies. Kind of like a Taiwanese-style casserole. :) I saw the stand last week, and my friends told me what was in it, but on Sunday night, I got to see the guy making them. I found it amazing how he got everything to roll into a ball:





Here's another example of the types of foods at the night market. I've also seen many street vendors selling these around the city. Much of the food sold by street vendors is deep fried.



A part of the night market I didn't see last week was a fairly large area that sold the cutest kittens and puppies. I spent quite a bit of time watching them:









I've seen numerous t-shirts in English here. They usually have funny wordings, like "Top Girl Me" or "Cheer You Up" or "Imaginable, lovable sheep." I imagine it would be the same sense of strangeness that Chinese or Japanese speakers would feel when seeing their language's characters used in our English images.

Misc. sights

The crowds in the MRT (subway):



These boxes are everywhere - they're a place where you can "donate" your receipts to various charities. All receipts are in the same format here, each with a unique number. Apparently, the government holds a lottery every two months and if your receipt number matches, then you win money. (It's to encourage people to shop at stores that provide legal receipts...and for the stores to be legal and pay taxes, I imagine!) Depending on how many numbers match, you can win the equivalent of $6 to $60,000. (One of my friends said she used to save receipts, but after repeatedly spending hours looking through them for matching numbers and not winning anything, she decided it wasn't worth saving them.)



These nice cherry stands are often open on street corners. I love cherries, but I figured they must be expensive, so I didn't look closely until one night, I decided to give it a try. Indeed, I was right...It was a little late and I was tired, so I didn't realize until after I paid and left that the 300NT for my small batch of cherries was the equivalent of $9. When I got home, I counted 30 cherries in the box...so, 30 cents each! They were certainly tasty, though, and I made them last. :)



Bike seats for kids:



These bikes with the little wheels are really popular here - I imagine they're expensive, though, because I've never seen one locked up on the sidewalk (since I now know from experience what can happen to bikes locked up outside):



Mochi, a desert made of sticky rice dough that is wrapped around various flavors (such as ground peanut or black sesame seed powder), is very popular here. Often, there are women on the sidewalk selling them:



This is the entrance to the best girls' high school in Taipei. Schools are ranked here, as are students, based on high school entrance exams - and they are admitted to schools according to their rank. Most of the top schools are single sex, so there's also a First boys' high school.



Trees supported in a park:



Paper money is burned in these red containers on sidewalks outside of homes and businesses on holidays, including moon days (full moon and new moon). It's something to do with keeping bad spirits away...and according to one Taiwanese friend, only done by people who believe in that sort of thing. Near the burning paper container (or in place of it) is often an offering table with fruit on it and burning incense.



This vendor was selling ice cream in front of the university one afternoon. However, to attract attention, a loud recording was playing from the speaker (on the lower left side), while he napped in the driver's seat:



I went to the largest night market in the city the other night. There were all kinds of food, drink, clothes, shoes, hair stuff, etc. The booth that had the longest line was this one for enormous fried chicken breasts. (On the other hand, I was thrilled to find a stand next to it that sold vegetarian Indian curry wrapped in a roti...there was no line there...)



The post office:

Trip to Hualien (east coast of Taiwan) - long post

Last week, I spent a few days in Hualien, a county on the east coast of Taiwan known for it's beautiful mountains and coastline. It was a two hour trip from Taipei on the high speed train. I visited a good friend of Sherry Field's (one of my dissertation advisors) from her time in the doctoral program at UT. He and his wife both completed their PhDs at UT and they teach at a University in Hualien, both in Education...conversation with them was very interesting for me and very enjoyable!

It was wonderful to be in a more rural area with scenic views everywhere and fabulous hosts to show me around. So, this was my vacation within my vacation! :)

Hualien is known for its stones, especially rose stone, so on the first day, we visited the stone museum. The most prized rose stones look like paintings (however, from the outside, they're just plain black rock, so, as my host Shawn said, one cut can determine if the owner is wealthy or poor):





The first night, we also walked along the ocean...Shawn said that one of the reasons for Taiwan's original name, Formosa (meaning "beautiful island" in Portuguese, the first European settlers) was because the mountains rise from the ocean:





The next morning, we visited Shawn and Shufen's University:





In the afternoon, we visited the Tzu Chi Academy. Tzu Chi is a Buddhist Compassion Relief Foundation; I didn't know about it before meeting Shawn. However, after learning about them, I am amazed at all they do, as well as the fact that their activities aren't very well-known. (For more information, look at: http://www.us.tzuchi.org/usa/home.nsf/about/index and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzu_Chi) They even have branches in the U.S., including Austin and Houston. I would like to be involved with some of their projects and also donate money. Shawn said they show all of their financials very clearly on their website, accounting for every donation, and they don't use donations to live on - instead, they grow vegetables and produce and sell bean powders (a very popular breakfst drink here!) and candles. The buildings at the Academy were very simple and we were given a tour by one of the office staff who spoke English, so it didn't seem appropriate to take pictures. I did, however, take this nice one of their lotus pond:



That night, we saw aboriginal dancing:








The next day, I took a bus tour of Taroko Gorge, the most popular sight in Taiwan. In the 1950s, a central cross-island highway was built through it, so it's very accessible by cars and buses. I guess Shawn knew that the tour would be all in Chinese, so he arranged for an English speaking tour guide to accompany me. So, there I was on the bus with my own personal tour guide!

The views were spectacular:



We walked through what's known as the tunnel of nine turns and, through that area, we had to wear hard hats in case rock fell:



In another area, there was a beautiful structure built on the side of the hill, which we walked to from where the bus stopped. It was built as a shrine for the men who built the highway and for those who had died during construction:



My last day in Hualien, I went river trekking with Alicia, one of Shawn's colleagues at the University. It was just me and her family (her husband and two kids). The area is protected, so the week before my trip, she had to get my passport number to fill out an application for us to go. Then, the morning of the trip, we had to stop at a police station to pick up the permit. At the entrance of the park, they gave the permit to the guards. Alicia said they only allow 300 people a day into the area. While trekking, we saw other groups, but they were all professionally organized through a tour company.

There's no trail next to the river, so to go up, we hiked in the river (it was very cold, but the sun was hot enough to balance it out):



We made it to this pool...



...where we ate lunch...



...which was a complete surprise to me, as one who is accustomed to the standard American sandwich and chips on day trips. They had packed bottles of water, a little burner stove, a can of butane, and a big pot to make noodles...complete with greens, mushrooms, and eggs (and a side bowl of pork)! Wow! (And, after we ate, she pulled out another pot to boil water for coffee and cocoa!)



Before I went to Hualien, Shawn said they had river trekking shoes that I could borrow. So, my mom and I were trying to figure out what they would be like. The bottoms were made of some kind of hard foam-like material - they gripped the rocks so well that walking was easy once I became more trusting of the shoes! :)