Ironically, it was this time last year that I missed my
first weekly update, and here I am, for only the second time in over a year,
trying to fit two weeks of adventure into a few short paragraphs. The first vital update, which is also my
excuse for my tardiness, is that I still have no internet in my apartment. The funny thing I have been discovering about
the internet is that its importance has changed so much in our everyday lives,
and while I can’t remember not having it in my house as a child, I can remember
using dial-up connections and essentially only using it for school and
e-mail. Then the age of social
networking happened, and everyone was using Xanga, or MySpace, or eventually
Facebook, and staying in contact with people wasn’t just easy anymore, it was
second nature. Most people can sit down
at a computer and without even realizing it, Facebook has been typed into the
search bar. Plus, now with smart phones,
most people never miss a message, they are constantly in contact with the
world. Have you gotten the chance to
really experience not having that connection lately? I would have guessed that I would be fine
without it, but to be honest, right now it is really accentuating the distance
between the US and Taiwan for me right now, which is upsetting me a bit. One of the things that has made living abroad
so easy has been being able to talk to friends and family on a regular basis,
but compensating for the time distance, and accounting for the limited number
of establishments with free WiFi around Taiwan, communication has been
exceptionally difficult this month. The
other thing that is upsetting is the helplessness of not being able to fix the
situation for myself. I’m quite certain
there must be an easy solution, whether it is through calling my internet
service provider, or through calling my router’s help line, but I don’t have
the Chinese required to do either, and don’t have access to a translator due to
the lack of internet in the fist place, so I feel stuck. This weekend I have sent my routers (yes, I
have two) off with some of the TA’s from my school, so hopefully they can help
me with some solutions soon, I’ve got my fingers crossed.
Enough about that, let’s talk Taiwan. One of the main family holidays around here,
which falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month,
occurs around this time every year. It
goes by several names including Mid-Autumn Festival and Moon Festival, and is
celebrated with moon cakes and barbecues outside of every storefront. Moon cakes are a traditional dessert item
year-round in Taiwan, but during this season they fill every bakery. A moon cake is a slightly flakey dessert
pastry filled with red bean paste and a sweetened egg yolk, and while you are
thinking it sounds like something you wouldn’t enjoy, you are probably
right. They appear to be an acquired
taste, and while I have pleasantly smiled my way through many of them this
year, I have only had one that I thought was really good.
After celebrating the eve of moon festival with a school
barbeque and an all-night karaoke session, a few friends and I hopped on a
plane and travelled to the near-by island of Penghu. Penghu, also called the Pescadores, is an
archipelago owned by Taiwan along its west coast. The archipelago is made up of three main inter-connected
islands: Penghu, Baisha, and Xiyu and 61 other small islands (most of which are
uninhabited). It has been colonized by
many countries for its strategic placement in the Taiwan Straights, but now it
is primarily a tourist location, particularly for those interested in
watersports due to being one of the windiest places in Taiwan. We only had a few days to explore the
islands, but luckily due to their size we managed to visit most of the main
attractions, and didn’t let the fact that a super-typhoon was blowing across
Taiwan slow us down. That’s right, while
strong winds and rains were a constant threat, we were out on scooters, driving
across inter-island bridges as waves splashed over us. The whole thing sounds much riskier in words
that it was in reality however.
The sites of Penghu are mostly beach or temple related. On our first travel day we scooted through
all three of the main islands and saw a vast number of temples along the
way. The most unique of these temples
(though I never learned its name) had a green turtle sanctuary in the
basement. Green turtles are celebrated
in Taiwan as a symbol of longevity, and this temple has a coral-wonderland in
the basement with pools for several huge turtles to swim around in. I’ve never seen anything like it. Another unique temple was the Baoan Temple,
home of the Tongliang Banyan, estimated to be more than 200 (and in some guesses
more than 300) years old, this tree has now dropped roots all over an adjoining
courtyard. Also included in the day’s
site-seeing was an abandoned military fort and a lighthouse, but I would say
the biggest accomplishment were the two new foods I get to add to my “I’ve
eaten that” list. I don’t think most
people will think it too shocking, but I ate cactus fruit and cactus fruit ice cream, but it makes the
list because I can’t imagine most people will get to try it. Cactus fruit is an almost unnaturally red
color that when eaten on its own will dye your tongue red, but the ice cream,
while being that same color, doesn’t change the color of your mouth. When looking at it, one would guess the ice
cream will be either very tart or very sweet because of its dark color, but it
doesn’t have an overpowering flavor, still, I would gladly eat it again. The accomplishment, in terms of food
consumption, was eating live sea urchin.
The sea urchin is served already halved, but the meat needs to be
scraped from the inside ‘shell’ while avoiding the outside spikes. The consistency of the meat is slimy, grainy,
and not very filling, but the flavor isn’t too bad (especially for someone who
eats sushi as often as I do), so unlike the ice cream, I don’t think I will put
this on my recommendation list. The
second day of travel was more of a beach day, though the weather was appropriate
enough to actually enjoy the water (in fact, on one beach we were stopped by
the coast guards for prancing around on the beach in swimsuits without
attempting to swim at all). We were able
to watch some kite surfers on one beach who were literally flying over the
waves. The benefit of the weather is it
kept us moving from location to location so we could see several beaches, a
temple, and a ‘blow hole’ (a hole in a rock that when the waves hit it produce
a blow-hole similar to a whale), but nicer weather would have allowed us to
properly enjoy each location.
 |
| Posing with a plate of sea urchin sashimi |
 |
| The coral-wonderland, home to the green turtles |
 |
| Look carefully, there are 'soldiers' all over this fort. |
 |
| Jumping for joy - excited to be in Penghu |
We got back to Changhua late Sunday night, and I went
through a fairly normal week. Lots of
classes, lots of sleep, lots of Chinese, you know the routine. I felt really busy this week, but I don’t
really know why. I had a presentation,
and I did some planning for our upcoming student showcase, but overall my
workweek was pretty easy. Maybe it was
just a side-effect of the slight cold I appear to be getting. Hopefully my nice, relaxing weekend will
rejuvenate me for next week. Saturday
morning started with a drive to Taiping and a dip in out now multi-frequented
waterfall. I don’t know what I’m going
to do in the future when I don’t have the option of freshwater pools to swim
in, they are perfect. A few hours of
river rock climbing and splashing around and we were off to celebrate my good
friend’s birthday with a taste of home (TGI Fridays), and a few big city bars,
and, since my age is catching up with me (haha) I spent most of today lounging
around my apartment.
I guess that’s it for now, another two weeks of adventure
come and gone. Hopefully this time next
week I will be writing from the comfort of my own home, with my newly
operational WiFi, well, that’s what will be happening in a perfect world at
least.
No comments:
Post a Comment