Hey everyone! I know that it has been awhile! However, I am having a blast in Taiwan. Enjoying my study, the food, and the people. Here is a look into what I have been doing over the past couple of days.

Museums 

Recently I have been to two museums. The 2-28 Peace Park and the National Taiwan Museum. 

The 2-28 Peace Prak is a commemorative park and museum that tells the story of the beginning of democracy in Taiwan. It all started after some brutality from the government and police that activists took control of a radio station. They broadcasted news of the events to all of Taiwan.  This led to social upheaval. Afterwards many more people were killed in what they call "White Terror."  However, afterwards people formed together to start a new political party and democracy started in Taiwan. 

Here are some pictures of the park and museum

The sign to the museum. It is called 2-28 because that is the day thee radio broadcasts started.

The monument in the middle of the park.

                                     

There are cool stepping stones under the monument on water that leads to a....

 fountain!

It is supposed to represent peace. 

Also in the park was a cool pagoda and some cool hedges.

The inside of the museum was cool. I jusr don't take alot of pictures because I don't' want to be a complete tourist. 

The National Museum was interesting but not as big as I was expecting. It had four main exhibits. One about the traditional Chinese women's wear: the Qipao, one about the aboriginal tribes, one about the different ecosystems of Taiwan, and one about fossils. Here are just a few pictures.

The museum entrance

Qipao exhibit

I knew it! 

The office of the president is located close to the museum.

Shandao Temple

Recently I went to Buddhist temple number 3, Shandao temple or 善導寺

 It is a newer temple built during the Japanese occupation period. It was also very different form the other temples. It was so nice on the outside. I at first thought it was a fancy hotel. 

It was different from the other temples because it had a more serious feel. Also, there was no one there when I went. It had a very interesting feel.

When you go in there is a huge hall with balconies. there is dim lighting. It has marble floor. There are  rows of chairs running along the side wall. There is a large empty space in the middle with just  a small, square incense table. Along the back wall are three huge golden Buddha statues.

I was scared to go in at first because no one was in there. I went in though and stood in awe. I was started because I noticed a priest walking silently up on the balcony. He later came down and spoke with me a little about the temple.  I really enjoyed seeing the more Japanese Buddhism form.

Other Fun

Last week I went to 深坑, Shen Keng, with some friends. It is a small town outside of Taipei know for it's market and 臭豆腐, stinky tofu.  So I had stinky tofu, black soybean ice cream, and other delicious food. Sadly, I didn't take my camera. Here is just one picture

Spider man! He is really good at Karaoke and personal selling as well!

I also went to the Taipei Zoo with a friend. Here are some pictures of my favorite animals there.

Cool hippo playground

Koala bear

Lazy panda.

Two types of penguins.

More Food

As everyone has suggested, I have continued to try the delicious food. Recently I went to one of Taiwan's most famous restaurant.




Din Tai Fung is a restaurant known for it's high quality, delicious dumplings. It gets visitors from many different countries. Some are even famous. tom Cruise came last month. The waitresses are all multi-lingual, the service is good, and the food is delicious.

It was very croded. We had to wait 45 minutes to be seated.

Our reservation number.

The Taiwanese version of the Pillsbury Dough Boy? No, its  the dumpling mascot of the restaurant. Not sure if he has a name. What do you think he should be named? 

We had some delicious dumplings and a soy bean loaf. It was good! we had pork dumplings and shrimp and  squash. Yummy!

 

My roommate insisted on taking a picture mid chew.

Chinese sponge cake.

Sticky rice cake with organge peel and beans.

Afterwards we went to a fancy ice cream shop.

Also, I really love the pastries here. I ate them probably too much.



Anyway, thanks for all your support and suggestions. I will try to post more regularly.

Dragon Boat, Super Man, 行天宮, and the Street of the Fortune Tellers

Hey everybody! It has been awhile! I hope that everyone is doing well. I enjoy hearing from you through emails and comments. Please continue to share your thoughts and suggestions concerning my stay in Taiwan.

Dragon Boat Festival 端午節

This Wednesday was the Dragon Boat Festival. Classes were cancelled. Tuesday in class they also brought us a special treat.

These are rice dumplings or 粽子. 粽子 consists of rice filling wrapped in bamboo leaves and tied together with twine. They are delicious. They have different kinds of mushrooms, pork, beans, and water chestnuts. 

They are traditionally eaten at the time of the Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the great Chu Dynasty poet, 屈原, Qu Yuan, who lived during the Warring States Period circa 340 BC. He was sent to exile where he wrote poetry. Also, he committed suicide by drowning himself in a river because his state was overthrown. He did this on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. 

Many traditions arose from this story. It is said that in order to prevent the fish from eating his body the locals raced out on boats and threw in the river bamboo triangles full of rice. So, for this reason people today do dragon boat races and eat 粽子 or zhongzi to celebrate his life/death.

I did not do the traditional Dragon Boat Festival activities. I ate the rice dumplings but instead of going to the boat races I went to see Man of Steel, which came out the 12th in Taiwan.

Superman 超人

Don't worry. No spoilers here for those who have not yet seen the movie. I will just say that I liked it. It was fun because I got to go to a Taiwanese mall, which was huge! It also had fun restaurants and stores I had never heard of, such as Ireland Potato. It was a very nice mall and almost felt more fancy than American malls I have been to (which I haven't been to that many.)

A fancy fountain in the mall

A view of the city below from the 10th floor of the mall

行天宮, XingTian Temple

Today I made another venture to a temple. This one was much busier and regulated. There were temple patrons, women in blue robes, guiding people to make their offerings. This temple was also particularly interesting because it is the temple for businessmen. I guess I went to the right place.

Once again, I only took pictures outside. It was funny because there was a very young American couple there. They got in trouble for taking pictures inside and the girl had to be escorted out by a guard, She almost walked up to the idols where only the patrons could go. A guard had to run over and get her.

Anyway, the other interesting point about this temple is that it is really new. It was built in 1967. It commemorates a Han Dynasty general, Guan Yu circa 219. He was said to be gifted at finance and strategy, so businessmen love him. I saw a few people in nice suits there today.

The cravings, figures, and writings on the outside of the temple were very impressive. I really should learn more about photography so my pictures can do the subjects justice.

there were also two koi ponds with the biggest koi fish that I had ever seen.

So, it was a pretty cool place to go and I learned about another important tradition and folk religion of Taiwan.

The subway station by the temple. 

The Street of the Fortune Tellers

So, just to preface, it is not actually a street. It is much cooler. It is an underground pass full of booths of people that read fortunes, or in Chinese 算命先生. It really had a very cool feel to it. Very urban, yet ancient. Also mystical. I did not know if I should take pictures so I discretely only took one.

It's not a very good picture but if you look to the left of the picture, that is where all the booths are. The underground tunnel consisted of at least two big tunnels and several smaller ones. I din't get my fortune

read because I decided if I was going to go have my fortune told I would want to go with someone who could tell me what they were saying. A lot of the people in the area only speak Taiwanese or Hakka. 

I also ventured to shops around the area that specialized in Chinese medicine and religious objects. I found a store that I found particularly interesting and somewhat funny.

This was outside the shop on the sidewalk. I found it mostly funny because it reminded me of Uncle Garth and his sayings about feet.

So, basically the concept is if your feet is taking care of and massaged it will positively affect other areas of your body. each area of your body is controlled/affected by a certain area of your foot, hence the foot map. I stood outside examining the map for awhile when the shopkeeper came out to talk to me. I was so close to getting my feet worked on. I didn't however because I wasn't sure if they used needles or not. 

Random Wanderings

So, I have been making lots of friends lately. All of them are Chinese which is great for improving my speaking and listening abilities. I met one student who will be attending BYU in the fall to sing opera. They took me to the fancy piano rooms at the school of music at my university. So, I practice the piano a bit but mostly listened to them play and sing.

Also, they sell Lemon Honey here. I drink it almost everyday. It is so good. You can see it in the bottom picture.

i also started my calligraphy class this week. My teacher is very skilled. During our first class he showed us the different brushes and parers and made a poster for each of us. Here is the one he made me:

It means prosperity. I really like it and am excited to be learning how to be artistic and maybe be able to write like this as well.

Another random picture. There are 711's everywhere here. They are slightly different from the ones in America. Take for example this quick serve station.

I thought it was interesting how they adapted their business model to the culture, I still have yet to go to Pizza Hut, Burger King, McDonalds, and other American businesses to see how they have adapted.

Coming Soon

In my exploring of the city I randomly came across this view.

In the distant, foggy sky you can see the Taipei 101. It is not far from my school and I plan on going there soon. 

thanks for all you comments and support! Please suggest any activities that you think I should do will in Taiwan.