Tainan

The majority of the following entry was written two weeks ago although I just finished it this evening. Updates about my weekend in Taipei and the holidays are coming soon, I promise!
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This weekend Shana's host family (Tai, Jenny, and their son Nemo) took us to Tainan, their hometown. We left on Saturday around 4 pm to make the hour drive from Kaohsiung to Tainan. Dan, Katie, Dani, Shana, and I piled in the van with Tai, and Jenny drove Nemo. When we got there we checked in at the youth hostel, the four girls staying in a dorm style room, and Dan with his own single.

We started out immediately to explore the city's famous architecture, but ended up taking a detour to try some of the equally famous local specialty dishes. We had something that was a little like fried rice, but is probably better described as shrimp sauce rice, and duck egg soup at the first restaurant. After eating we walked to a nearby temple, and Tai told us about visiting this temple as a child. He got sick often and his grandfather would take him to pray to the five ancestral gods for good health. He goes back whenever he is in Tainan to visit the gods and express his gratitude. It was really cool to be in a place that he has such a strong connection to. Tai and Jenny explained the process of praying to the gods (and believe me, it is a process), and told me to give it a try. On the front table are two wooden half moons that are used to help ask the gods questions. I had to think of a question I wanted answered, and then throw down the pieces. You must do this until you successfully throw the pieces so that one lands face up and the other face down three times in a row. If you throw the pieces so that they both land face up or face down, you start the process again. Each time you must randomly choose a random numbered stick from a stand in front. When you have successfully completed your three times, you know that this number points you in the direction of your answer. You then go to choose a card from the cubby with the number that matches your stick. Each card has a short poem printed on each that is then the answer to your question. The first few times I threw the pieces, they landed face up side by side. I immediately worried that this was bad news, but Tai and Jenny assured me that it was to resemble a smile because the gods thought I was funny and cute (I think they might have been saying this to make me feel better). It took me about seven or so tries until I finally drew the proper stick--lucky no. 12. Tai helped me read the poem first, and then Jenny and I pondered what it could mean in terms of what I asked. We decided that the overall tone and message was quite good, although it's hard to determine just exactly how things will play out.

After I completed my praying, we moved over to the "disappearing turtle." The large stone turtle is filled with water that is believed to cure illnesses and make you more youthful and beautiful. Tai gave us each a bit to put on our faces and we moved on to the next god who deals with matters concerning love. Many engaged couples will go to pray for a happy future together, writing their names and birthdays on a heart-shaped slip of paper that they then hang in front of the god's shrine. You can also make a donation to the temple and take a pink heart keychain that wishes you kinship and love.

After our temple visit, we moved on to find other things to eat, and stumpled upon a very interesting snack shop. We were all very confused because the main picture showed that the shops sold different flavors of corn on the cob--curry, peanut, cocounut, meat, etc.--but also that they somehow made corn on the cob sandwiches. It turns out that was represented on the sign by real corn on the cob topped with meat or fruit and chocolate was actually a sandwich made out of a waffle batter cone in the shape of corn on the cob. Shana and I split a sandwich filled with fresh banana and chocolate.

After our corn on the cob sandwiches we continued our walk around the city. We took a quick peek in a candy shop that had a large Santa Claus outside that shook his hips from side to side and danced to hip hop music when you walked past him. Highly amused, we continued walking down the quaint city streets and found ourselves in the midst of some amazing street art. The first piece was a 3D blueprint of an old house. This particular piece of art was created from one of the many buildings along the street that was cut in half during the expansion of the main avenue. Some beams protruded from the blue painted walls, and white accents highlighted which rooms would have been the bathroom, kitchen, etc. After taking a bunch of pictures, we continued down the street past many murals, one of which was an amazing portrayal of everyday life among the common people. We reached a little ally with beautiful warm glowing lights and green plants standing in front of the clean and elegant doorways of the old houses, many of which had been rented out by university students. The first people we met there were a group of students who advocate animal rights and were showing a documentary they made about stray animals in Taiwan. The next house we entered was an art gallery, a sort of work in progress, which was being renovated by a few students. The front room showcased many smaller paintings that appeared to be painted on something resembling driftwood, while the back served as a workshop. The middle room housed a sink built by one of the students himself, and bohemian style tables with small clear vases and candles. In the back of the house, one woman used thin nails to make sheep's wool into many adorable keychains, while the male students worked on distressing a small wooden chest. The roof of the house was gone, so when I looked up I found the moon above me, I felt that I was standing in the middle of ancient ruins.

We continued walking down the alley as it grew smaller, passing a ridiculously cool gnarled looking tree, a vase of orchids, and eerie abandoned apartments. We crossed the street to see the lightning and thunder temple. I'm pretty sure Tai and Jenny shared some great information with everyone, but I was totally in my own world snapping photos that evening, and I didn't hear a word about it. Cold from hours of walking around in the chilly night air, we made our way to the bus stop and then headed back to the hostel. After we said goodnight to Shana's host parents, we tried to sneak out to make a run for snacks. We felt awful because they had taken us to eat what is translated as eel, but really resembles what Dani wonderful termed "water snake." It's chewy and yucky looking, and it is cooked in this crazy sweet, smokey sauce that is just no good. We tried to eat as much as we could, but I have found that I can't control my facial expressions very well (as most of you know), and we had to give in. Tai and Jenny were very nice about it, and made sure to ask us for the rest of the weekend if we could eat things before they gave it to us. I got hot bubble tea to warm myself up, and then we stopped at 7-11 for oreos and milk. We went back to the hostel, Dan came over to the girls' room and we watched one of the four channels available to us. It turned out to be a crazy Taiwanese game show where one of the contestants had to use English to give indirect clues to another contestant who would then try to say the Chinese idiom. A few of them had really poor English, so the clues were especially funny and unrelated, and we just couldn't stop laughing. We decided to create our own version, thinking of silly English phrases and trying to make one another guess the correct term using indirect clues given in Chinese. It was a great sleepover party, and we all tried to turn in before too long so that we could get up the next morning at 8am for the temple parade.

Tai greeted us with breakfast the next morning, sticking to sandwiches and Taiwanese style hamburgers along with coffee and orange juice after the eel delicacy dinner crashed and burned. We made our way through the crowd to the front of the temple to watch the traditional dances and many offerings made. The male and female god and goddess were presented in front of the opening to the temple and the alter, along with inscents and red sashes tied around them for good luck. Four men peformed a lion dance, and a group of women played instruments and gave an amazing performance heavily influeced by gymnastics. I managed to shoot quite a bit of the parade with my camera, and I will try to upload the video here for you to watch. One of the most interesting things I have found about temple parades here, is the vast difference between what constitues worshipping in Taiwan and in the U.S. Many people in Taiwan are Buddhist. They eat vegetarian for a certain number of days each month, visit temples to pray, etc. Some say they are Buddhist, very much in the same way that many people in the U.S. say they are Christian--by culture if not strict religious observation. Going to church (in my own experience) tends to be more sacred, more solemn. In Taiwan, however, it is not uncommon to see men chewing bettle nuts (similar to chewing tobacco) or smoking while participating in ceremonies here, nor is it uncommon to see people talking on their cell phones and chatting with friends. Anyway, when I get it posted, take a look at the video, and see what you think.

After the parade, we walked over to Confucius Temple, one of the most famous places in Tainan. It was actually established as a school to prepare young boys and men for the imperial examinations, and is not what you would normally envision when you think of a temple. In more modern times it has been used as a place for both the young and elderly to practice Taiwanese, as it is not officially taught in schools. The architecture is beautiful, and the buildings are surrounded by large trees, a pretty pond, and large grassy squares. The architecture and the blue sky with white fluffly cloouds reminded me a little of visting palaces and museums in Beijing. On the roof of one of the traditional style buldings phoenix and dragons, symbols of good luck and prosperity, had been added to hide scholarly works during the Qin Dynasty when the Emperor sought to burn all classical texts. Inside we saw the names of all scholars who had succeesful in the examination and had since passed on. We saw the alters on which offerings were made, and rooms filled with traditional instruments and garb used in the ceremonies. On our way out of that section of the temple, we wrote our wishes related to academic success on little strips of paper and hang them with the many others on a board.

The temple grounds also house a Japanese martial arts studio, and we were able to watch a few of the students spar one another. After taking a few pictures and watching them practice, we headed down to a grassy area, and Nemo demonstrated his karate forms for us. Jenny gave us a demonstration as well--the whole family takes karate lessons together :).


After visiting the temple we crossed the street and ate Danzi Noodles for lunch. The noodles are another local delicacy of Tainan, made popular when a strong stormed wrecked all of the local fishing boats, and fisherman turned to selling these noodles as a way to earn enough money to live. After lunch we walked down the street to Zhai Men (literally, narrow door), a coffee house with an entrance just wide enough for one person to walk through. Once you enter the alley, you walk a few feet to an open doorway that takes you up two flights of steep stone stairs to the coffee shop located on the second floor. There is a rooftop terrace covered in ivy and other plants, and inside old wooden floors and relics and memorabilia from classic American eras. Tables line the windows on the wall facing the main street, and on small table between two windows sat guest books filled with poems, doodles, and artwork from past customers. Tai bought us all delicious iced coffees, and we walked along a small market browsing the stands. Shana found a really adorable coin purse, Dani and Katie bought these amazing slip ons with cute elephants, giraffes, and other animals on them, Jenny bought these handmade, scented mini cupcakes for us each to take home as a little souvenir (I think mine is chocolate banana), and Tai payed money for us each to try our luck at picking a prize from a little tray of covered squares. As we left the market the song "Don't Wanna" from the movie Cape No. 7 was playing, and Shana and I sang along as we strolled down another alley toward our next destination.

We arrived at the most beautiful park near a visitor's center. It was very quiet and peaceful, and it felt miles and miles away from Kaohsiung and our everyday normal routine. Shana and I ventured off to climb through the rock formations, and soon, we had climbed up the front of the rocks and were posing for silly pictures. We popped out of holes, showed off our muscles, jumped off of rocks, and quacked at ducks (ok...I was the only one who actually quacked at them). We sat for a while in front of the pond, watching the water reflect off of the building just across the other side. When we had sat for a while and needed to move on, we stopped in the center to buy sweets to take back as gifts for our co-teachers.

Before we began the drive back home we stopped in at a local temple and took a quick look in the literature museum. We stopped at a famous fruit stand for all kinds of fruit, my favorite of which is fresh sliced tomatoes with a ginger and soy sauce paste, and pudding. Full and happy, we started back for Kaohsiung. It was such a wonderful trip and it really got me excited about exploring other parts of Taiwan. There are many places that I have said I want to go to, but I haven't yet taken the initiative to plan outings to these places. After seeing how beautiful Tainan is, I want to make sure that I have plenty of time to see these places and go back again before my time here is through.