Life: My Final Frontier

It's a little bittersweet, as I'm here, on my last night at Dailin Elementary School. I know I think I took the first week for granted. I love the people here very much. They're all so very kind and welcoming and I feel that I would definitely want to come back. At least to show my family what a wonderful and beautiful place it is.

Our Closing Ceremony performance for Class A consisted of "Hokey Pokey", "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Walking Through The Jungle" (which was adorable, as my personal little nightmare was the cutest little lion I ever saw.)

Another one of my children was the POLAR BEAR and drew this fearsome beast for his mask.

I got so many notes and cards from my kids today, as well as an entire box of tai yang bing all to myself (don't worry mom, I'll save one for you). 

We went out to eat traditional Chinese / Taiwanese food tonight in the town and went out for snow ice afterwards. One of the teachers offered to give a ride back on her motor-scooter... and you know I can't say no to a good STRONG breeze.

The typhoon left the boys' dorm in bad shape and their things were ruined. Nothing like coming home from a wonderful weekend to find that your things are wet and dirty from mud and water.

The girls decided to help with mopping up some of the muddy water while the boys figured out where they were going to be staying for the next week.

Luckily for the girls, our dormitory wasn't nearly so bad, and in any case, our things would have been safe, thanks to higher (?) elevation and also to my brilliant idea of keeping our things elevated and in the wardrobe. 

In an effort to keep us safe during Typhoon Solik this past weekend, the school officials decided to take us to Taichung City, an hour away, for the weekend.

Comparable to Taipei, Taichung City is very crowded and bustling with shops, vendors, night markets, and people. It was a very relaxing and pleasant weekend thanks to our counselors and teachers, despite the typhoon. 

Unfortunately, in the wet (typhoon) conditions, I didn't want to risk my expensive electronic equipment and opted out of taking my phone out except for emergencies. We stayed in a very comfortable room on the second floor of a China Youth Corps Hostel. 

This weekend, we watched Despicable Me 2, went shopping at the night market in Taichung, had Shabu Shabu, had lemon tea, went GoKart racing, shot BB sniper rifle, BB semi-automatic rifle, BB hand gun, and went to Summit Resort in the mountains.

I now have the utmost respect for teachers now. Especially foreign language teachers. And elementary school teachers. I've only done this for two days, and I'm already dead tired, "migrained" and ready to throw rocks at some of these kids. Does that make me a bad person?

Haha. My kids are afraid of me. They don't talk to me a lot. I guess it's because I have a mean streak when they "get out of line". Getting out of line meaning they have sass. Boy, do they have a lot of sass. They ask my why I can speak Mandarin even though I have brown hair. It's a pretty intense does of culture shock for me, I guess. Because at least in Taipei, they've seen foreigners before. Now I'm starting to know how it felt for my dad when we were in China together, and everyone liked to stare.

The weather here is pretty predictable. It just varies a bit when it comes to what time exactly it starts. Oftentimes the mornings are gorgeous and bright and sunny with a nice breeze. Then in the afternoon it gets a little cloudy and overcast. When it hits about 2-3 o'clock, it starts to pour.

I'll try to keep this post short and sweet. Seeing as how I don't think I'll ever have a good enough connection to even post anything after today.

On day 6, Friday, my aunt's friend wanted to take me out to dinner with my family. It's a LITTLE awkward, but it was nice to see old face and free food… and free dessert. 

Day 7 was a late night, as we started a Japanese horror movie at midnight. Something about a little girl who wanted her mom but drowned in a water tank.  And talking to my parents. Hi Mom and Dad! I'm glad you're keeping up with the blog. It was a late night. During the day however, we started off with an early visit to a karaoke place that has all of English, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, and Filipino songs. Although it was a five hour gig, it seemed to go by too quickly. You know how it is, with music and food and the people you love nearby, time seems to fly. After karaoke, we went to Taipei Main Station's back alley to look for souvenirs and gifts for family and friends back home. 

Today was a different day. My aunt made and bought a lunch of lu rou fan, cong xing çai, and zhu jiao. It was quietly melancholy the whole day. However, it was filled with good food and good people, so I have no complaints.

It's almost a different story when it comes to Youth Center. It's nice. And it's air conditioned. But it's not like OCAC Tamkang. Nothing close to it.

Finally, I've caught up on my blogging. I also made sure to take some cooler pictures today, seeing as my pictures the past few days have been more than a little lacking in description and excitement. I made sure to get all the tourist-y pictures that any foreigner would be glad to reference.

After five days of running around like a madwoman, shopping and spending lord knows how much (too much) money, it was nice to spend the morning at home in my uncle's apartment. It was a heat-stroke-inducing 95 Fahrenheit all day, so I guess it was a great day to stay in--until night time came.

I spent the morning and much of the afternoon with Yvonne, my cousin's dog, and Pewdiepie's, the famous YouTuber's, videos. However, 5 o'clock came around and that meant it was time for the vampire to come out of her cave.

It's a short bus ride to Wu Fen Pu from my cousin's house, the outdoor fashion district/shopping center. I'll be honest, it was sort of hard to look at all the adorable clothes that were for sale--and way too small for me and way too cute for me. I am always dressed either one of two ways, elegant/classy or quietly uncaring/simple. Take that to mean: I wear dresses or shorts and a t-shirt. I have never tried on a blouse in Taiwan that looked good on me. Although I have to admit, it was hard not to look. 

I mentioned how large Taipei Main Station and Xi Men Ding are right? Well Wu Fen Pu feels smaller, by a lot. Probably because there are so many stores and boutiques and vendors that the mind is slightly overwhelmed by so many things happening all at once. At one point, there were people trying to help a fallen baby bird back up to its nest above an air conditioning unit. At another, a corgi tethered to a rail inside a menswear boutique looked like it was going to hump my leg (but it was S'CUTE). After a failed attempt at shopping, I really only bought jewelry, and it was for my friends back home, we decided to make the short trip over to Raohe Night Market.

Business as usual, Raohe Jie was packed. PACKED. So much so that I had that unfamiliar sensation of being herded like cattle to slaughter. However, today's reason for coming to Raohe wasn't for sightseeing and tourist-y pictures (although, I have plenty of those:

It was to eat Teppanyaki.

And enjoy it, I did.

I also got to see a man make tiny pancakes:

And I drank 印度茶 made by this guy:

After the miserably failed attempt to go to Formosa Fun Coast on Tuesday, we tried it again, at 8AM. Generally, in America, this isn't even early, but for someone that went to bed at 1AM the night before checking social media (blech, I know, I need to disconnect once in awhile), I was just a tad sleepy.

The bus ride to Shuang Lian Station takes about fifteen minutes from my Uncle's home. From there, it takes a good hour to get to GuanDu Station on the usually crowded Red Line. The bus stop, which is just a short walk after taking a right outside of the Metro Station, has quite a few people waiting there already. You know you're in the Taipei countryside when everywhere Taiwanese is being spoken. In order to get to Formosa Fun Coast, you must wait for bus R22, or 紅22. It's about a half hour bus ride from the Station, to the top of the hill, the Water park itself. All in all, it takes about two hours to reach Formosa Fun Coast.

(One of the attractions, good for people of all ages, young and old)

Despite it being hot to an almost unholy temperature, the fact that you're at a water park makes it just a little more bearable. According to some important people, somewhere on the internet, Formosa has a water slide that takes twenty minutes to go through, but I think they're actually talking about the Lazy River, because the coolest ride they had was called Journey of Sky Pond. It's essentially a series of several slides connected by small "ponds". There are other slides, and all are extremely fun, and fast, and the lines are relatively short in June.

(Park Map in Chinese and English)

Despite it being so very out of the way and tucked into the Taipei GuanDu countryside, it's actually quite the tourist attraction and I saw a lot of 外國人 (I don't count... well, are you still a tourist if you've been to a water park more than once?)

Fun Fact: Formosa Fun Coast also boasts a large array of Taiwanese gangsters, at least, that's what they looked like with their shirts off and backs exposed. I'm talking a full-on back and half-sleeve tattoo of anything from dragons to phoenixes to I don't even know what. And no one in Taiwan is good at subtlety. 

Essentially: I got quite a few stares, probably because I wasn't wearing a little "modesty skirt", more probably because I look white.

(Din Tai Fung 小豆沙包)

The morning started out like any other, with Chinese pancake with egg, or 蛋餅, and an outside air temperature of 80+ Fahrenheit. Good lord, does it get hot over here, and quickly. Claire, my cousin, says that that's the reason why a vast majority of stores and shops open late, and stay open until even later--because it's too damn hot to really do anything during the day. I wholeheartedly agree.

The intention was to go to Formosa Fun Coast, or 八仙水上樂園 that afternoon. But that didn't en up happening, seeing as, in June, the park opens at 9AM and closes at 5PM. We got there at 3.

In the end, we decided to make my annual trip to Xi Men Ding (西門町): essentially the "Harajuku" District of Taiwan. It's a short, one metro stop distance from Taipei Main Station and attracts many hundreds of thousands of people, young and old, native and foreign. The buildings creep up high above your head and hundreds of shops and residential buildings line every street around this large center.

Here, you'll find everything from clothes brought to Taiwan from Japan and Korea to Japanese mochi being sold on a street cart, from an alley that is entirely devoted to piercings and tattoos to department stores and Toilet-Themed Restaurants. There are hip hop dancers, street performers, girls with "Free Hugs" signs, and more than a few frequenters of the Taiwan "clubbing" nightlife.

You'll find American brands like Starbucks, KFC, McDonalds, or Roxy in giant three to four story bistros and boutiques with plenty of sitting or standing room. You'll even find Japaneses brands like UNIQLO or Sushi Express, Canada's Roots, or even German Brands that I don't dare try to write or pronounce. All in all, to experience Xi Men Ding is to experience the loud randomness and quiet nuances of all different walks of Taipei life.

So, you could be asking, what exactly did YOU do there? Well, do you know that toilet themed restaurant I was talking about? It turns out, that it's a pretty popular, tourist-y destination at Xi Men, so of course, I went and took plenty of pictures.

(The Store Front)

(The Store Business Card and one of the toilet Seats that you can sit on)

(House Specialty Modern Toilet Curry Chicken) I would not necessarily recommend ordering this, although they said that a lot of people do. It's not amazing, it's not delicious, it's only passable as actual food. Instead, I would highly recommend the Thai Pepper Chicken--it wasn't even that spicy but the flavor is amazing. And although I didn't manage to order their special ice creams, I did get the one that came with the meal:

(A cute number, vanilla and chocolate ice cream in a tiny little urinal.)

So the past few days have been quite eventful, to say the least! Let's start off with Monday. 

I love the movie theaters in Taipei. The seats are huge, the screens are huge, the people are relatively tiny, and they don't laugh at the same things that I do. Okay, maybe that's not the greatest thing. BUT! Watching Furious 6 with my Aunt was pretty exciting. I had no idea that she liked action movies.  And the twist at the end is pretty exciting, it gets me amped for the seventh installment even though I have only watched the first and now the last ones.

Afterwards, since it was her day off, my aunt wanted to take me shopping. But two days of DongChu in a row can get pretty dull -- despite, you know, the fact that everything new is a short walk away from wherever you're currently standing. So, it was off to 台北車站 or, Taipei Main Station, or, Taipei Railway Station--which, by the way, does not translate specifically at all either way you call it. 

Taipei Main Station is home to what seems like thousands of small vendors and stores all about three arm-lenghths long, the building itself is the connecting point to many of the different lines in Taiwan for many different forms of transportation. Although Wikipedia claims that it's 825 Meters (.5 miles) long, it seems to go on forever.  When you think it ends, it just moved over a little bit. I'll just say it in four words: "The place is HUGE."