Hopped on the bus at 9am for a full days worth of awesomeness. 美國人 off to wreck some stuff. The second picture is our tour guide Richard. He talked about how much he loves the U.S. and named himself Richard after one of Elizabeth Taylor's husbands. He is also in love with Demi Moore. This guy was a lot of fun. We took two buses around to the places and without a doubt ours was better :P
Our first destination was the An Ping Warehouse. Originally a warehouse for the British trading company Tait & Co, was used during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan but I believe abandoned after they left. I'm not 100% sure on the history, but rumor has it this all started from one Banyan tree. These trees are everywhere in Tainan and super beautiful. I'm just going to splatter a lot of pictures for you all to marvel at. The tree grows by dropping little strings from the top that burrow into whatever and then make new trunks. It's kinda the coolest thing ever.
My roommate and his language partner William. William is a super rad dude and I'm glad to call him a friend. He also speaks Taiwanese! 他很聰明!
Walking around on our way to An Ping Fort or Fort Zeelandia to the Dutch. Going to photo-splatter then comment at the end.
Rockin tower we'll go into.
So the Dutch constructed this fort between 1624 and 1634 to rule over the Western area of Taiwan after some fruitless dealings with Ming Dynasty China. They were there for 38 years until this dude named Zheng Cheng Gong (also the name of my college Cheng Gong University) came over from China and kicked the Dutch out not-so-peacefully like. In 1644 the Ming Dynasty in China changed into the Qing Dynasty (I'm not 100% on the circumstances, Chinese history is super intense) and Zheng Cheng Gong was a Ming revivalist who after a couple successful battles went over to Taiwan to boot the Dutch out and establish an area to launch attacks against the Qing Dynasty. Unfortunately he died in 1681 then in 1683 the island was taken under Qing Dynasty rule until 1895 when the Japanese took the island and controlled it for 50 years until the end of WWII.
Super brief surface level examination of history. One could dedicate a lifetime to the study of Chinese and Taiwanese history. I really should do more reading into the matter.
颱風美國人
Side note: Got to teach a couple Taiwanese girls how to do the bun I rock, it was pretty magical. So far I've gotten way more compliments on it than dislikes, in fact I think only one guy thought it was silly to use a chopstick. Still looking for some sweet hair sticks though.
Super brief surface level examination of history. One could dedicate a lifetime to the study of Chinese and Taiwanese history. I really should do more reading into the matter.
颱風美國人
Side note: Got to teach a couple Taiwanese girls how to do the bun I rock, it was pretty magical. So far I've gotten way more compliments on it than dislikes, in fact I think only one guy thought it was silly to use a chopstick. Still looking for some sweet hair sticks though.
After that we walked around this street market area. Going to photo-splatter again.
Coffin Toast. Not exactly sure what it is, but could definitely be a good band name. After being thoroughly sunburned we all packed in the buses and headed off to lunch were I eat something that was looking back at me.
Finally got to eat some fresh seafood! It was super tasty. I didn't end up eating the shrimp, it looked so messy, though I was impressed by one Taiwaneses student that was able to disassemble the critter using chopsticks. My chopstick skills are getting better for sure, but not that good yet.
Then we head off for the lagoon where they harvest oysters
Somehow we all fit on the boat and didn't bring it down. They even let us get off on this little island. We weren't going to be able to at first because there had recently been a fire and you'll see in a minute, but fortunately we were able to. I can't remember the exact number of miles, but it isn't too far from Mainland China.
Paradise found
I believe the pictures speak for themselves. I've seen the ocean in San Fransisco but this was the most intimate I've gotten with it.
After the beach they took us to eat freshly caught oysters! My first time for these little dudes, quite tasty! Trying to be vegetarian over here would have been so difficult.
The chef roasted these little babies with a flamethrower type device. It was quite manly.
A new super highway in construction that will span nearly the entire west side of Taiwan from Kaohsiung to Taipei. Perfectly framed by the bus curtains :D
JingZaiJiao Salt Field. They don't actually harvest salt from here anymore because it's cheaper to import it than pay labor cost heh but keep it up for tourists
The dude that took this picture for us was actually from L.A. and started speaking English to me haha. Poor Daniel had to mention that he was American too, everyone over here thinks he's Chinese at first. I'm so sunburned at this point.
The adventure isn't over yet! Now we go to dinner and eat more amazing seafood!
So I finally asked and found out that the little plate is for scraps that you don't eat. I was really confused about this, because I would eat something kinda soup-y and have a little residue in the bottom of my bowl that would affect the flavor of the next dish. You can just pour it out on the little dish!
Also they didn't de-bone this fish unlike the other place. I found this out the hard way after chewing some crunchy fish... Then William warned me lol. I got a little paranoid imagining little fish bones piercing through my intestines and stomach lining but I'm here writing this now so it can't have been too bad. You can see the spine of the fish on the plate there. William pulled it out of the fish with his chopsticks like a beast. The fish was super tasty but man is spitting out little bones and being careful before you bite into anything a chore. I still didn't get brave enough to de-head some shrimpies.
OK, so at this point my phone died because I took too many pictures. This is probably going to be one of the most picture heavy blog posts I write haha. The next few are going to be a little more reflective, this was just a super fun trip. Finally warmed up to a couple Americans and am making some friends. As much as I wanted to avoid contact with 美國人, realistically I need help being a stranger in a strange land with a horrible grasp of the language. There's definitely something to be said for confidence in numbers. It's also a lot easier to open up in class just being afraid of the language and not of my classmates haha.
Last but not least, karaoke bus! This one Taiwanese student rocked it hard. All the songs were in Chinese but randomly had an English chorus where everyone would get really loud for like 2 sentences, it was painful and amazing at the same time, much like life. The karaoke bus is a reflection of life itself.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pictures! And remember:
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