Ready Steady Go

Another busy start to the week, and also the first day it hasn't rained in awhile. It didn't rain Sunday while I was in Tainan though, either. Speaking of which, Tainan was a very interesting trip. Experienced the luxury of THSR (and the ample legroom was indeed luxurious), arrived in ChiaYi in an hour and a half, and got into the car with my Dad, aunt, and grandmother, just in time for lunch. We ate in Tainan at this amazing noodle place, and then went off to explore. Stops included the Museum of Taiwanese Literature, located in Tainan's old City Hall; a Confucius Temple; Mazu Temple (sea goddess); GuanGong Temple (war god)...

See a pattern?

Oh, and it justed started raining again. Spoke (rather, typed...) too soon. I posted an invitation to start a hiking group at ShiDa's Mandarin Center, but who knows if I'll get any interest at all...

Hopefully the rain won't dissuade people from hiking (and, by the way, hiking in the rain isn't quite as bad as it sounds!), but there's the upcoming Dragonboat Festival to consider anyway. Might be awhile before any kind of hike gets organized, if at all. Ah, well. I keep my hopes up!

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Pictures from Saturday in Tainan:

The noodle place in Tainan (of which the name escapes me, as most Chinese restaurant names do) has a unique cooking method. Very cool!

Big tree in the Confucius Temple

Incense sticks burning in Mazu Temple

I love the carvings and reliefs on these temples! I believe this was at Mazu Temple as well. I took a lot of photos of temple decoration.

Trackback

It's been an eventful week and a day. I've been to Tainan, been to a mountain, been to many aunts' houses, been on the metro, been in stores, been to a hot spring, been in restaurants galore, been fed as if America has starved me since birth.

I've also been welcomed by the island's personal escort of mosquitoes, accompanying me everywhere I go. I've been itchy since I stepped off the plane. I've been so itchy that my relatives are worried I am having an allergic reaction to something, seafood perhaps. But because of the aforementioned feeding marathon, it could very well be anything. I've never had an allergic reaction to anything but mango, and then only around my mouth (and for which I gladly suffer for the delights of the sweet sweet fruit), so I am similarly clueless. My money is still on the mosquitoes.

I've been adjusting to a culture that is as vastly different from mine as any other American's, despite my outward appearance (though opening my mouth is enough to show the difference).

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I'm stopping the backtracking here, because every time I stop save as a draft, another day passes that I feel the need to update. Suffice to say, I am having a grand ol' time.