Anyway, host family 3, gonna wrap this up, then tear through a week next blog post, then probably finish the rest in the U.S. (whenever I get back, bastard typhoon Goni heading our way this weekend, we'll see what happens)
And yes, this blog post in going to be in English, I promise I'll start writing them in Chinese again, just takes so damn long lol.
Picture splatter!
Breakfast. These little things are called 粽子 Zong Zi. They are super popular during the dragon boat festival. You can also freeze them and keep em around for a while. Very tasty, as everything is here. 
After breakfast bike ride
Really like this shot from Matt lol.
豆花.... my love.... I could eat this all day every day
Stuck at a coffee shop waiting out the rain, pretty good place to be stuck!
Rode a little bit more than decided to hang out in this temple because the rain picked up a little more
So went and got some ice cream at this old Japanese sugarcane setup. They changed it to a tourist area to display some of the history.
Afterwards had another delicious meal. The sausage on the right might be my favorite thing to eat here, it's so crazy sweet, I love it.
Went to a place where they sell and show you how Chinese medicine evolved and is made now. Got some smokey plum juice and little small chewy thingies that make your throat feel better.
Learned a couple sweet Chinese idioms on this trip. Arlong taught us "良藥苦口" which means the more bitter the medicine the better it is for you, and "望梅止渴" which I don't entirely understand but there's an interesting story behind it (which sorry if I re-tell poorly). Basically some soldiers were marching and we're uber thirsty but had ran out of water. In an attempt to revive the spirit of his troops, the general head dude told his troops that some plum trees were right up the next hill and they will be able to quench their thirst. I'm not sure if the plums were actually there or not, but the internet is telling me that the chengyu states: "Even if there is only a fantasy or an illusion , so long as it shows a ray of hope , it still urges you on in pursuit of the glimmer without letup" - ichacha.net.
Then we went to Arling's parents place. Her mom makes dried mango, probably the best thing ever. She gave Matt and I both a thing of it and like 12 mangoes each (plus a knife to cut them hehe)
It didn't look like the rain was going anywhere, so we headed out again to eat... mango ice cream!
Sam is smiling!
Afterwards we went to a hot spring! It was up this crazy beautiful mountain area, I tried to take some pictures but it was raining too hard.
The hot spring was a little awkward at first because I'm not too keen on getting naked in front of people, but it was a slow day and there were only like 3 other people there besides us, so it was super chill and I actually enjoyed it a lot. We went to Guanziling 關子嶺 which is apparently one of the only three "muddy hot springs" in the whole world. I think this is my "wo dad brought his phone in here" face.
After hot spring, well you guessed it, dinner time!
The Last Supper
After that the family took us back to Tainan and back to school. I am so thankful for this experience, and it is one that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I really do feel like I got to experience more of real Taiwanese culture than other TUSA students.
Anyway, finally got this post out. Next post will be a few days wrapped into one, so I might be able to get semi-caught up-ish.
謝謝大家！
