On Thursday, July 3, Eddie (the teacher from Scotland) drove us down to Kaohsiung so that we could grab some dinner and go watch the movie Hancock. While I was waiting by the main gate for Eddie to pick us up, I snapped some pictures of one of the trees I particularly like. I just wish I knew what it was.

Instead of a ticket, you get a token when you ride the MRT (mass rapid transit) system in Kaohsiung.

Be sure to mind the gap!

The movie was quite entertaining, and though the theater was kind of hot, I didn’t mind so much, because I got to bring an iced Americano from Starbucks into the show! I wish I could do that in Frankfort!

The next night Kristen and I decided to go to the night market in Gangshan. However, we had about a forty minute wait for our train, so I suggested a visit to the goats. I hadn’t seen them since my first week in town. They were still as amusing (and hungry) as they were then.

After we fed the goats for a good twenty minutes, Kristen ran off to get something to eat at 7-eleven, so I took some pictures in the train station.

This is what the signs for the trains look like at most of the regular (non-MRT) train stations. Sometimes, if I am very, very lucky, the Chinese will morph into English, and I’ll be able to read the signs. I do know a few of the stations I use on a regular basis, so I’m not totally lost, but still, I do like when the English version pops up.

Sunset was quickly approaching, which was kind of disappointing, because I wanted to get some pictures of the night market in the daylight. I still have a hard time getting used to how early it gets dark here.

We finally arrived at the night market around 6:45 pm. Gangshan (I’ve spelled it Kangshan on here before, so it is the same city, but the street and train signs are all spelled with the G) is only two stops south of us, on the way to Kaohsiung.

We were both hungry, so we stopped and got a couple of grilled things on a stick from this guy. I have no idea what kind of meat I had (might have been cow, might have been pig, might have been something else entirely), but it was good, as were the grilled mushrooms (at least those I recognized) I purchased.

These were so cute – they looked like candy, but they were actually washcloths done up like candy. Pretty clever. They were well priced here. I’ve seen then in novelty stores at a much higher markup.

Now, I’ve seen these snails advertised as “Alcoholic Snails,” but I’m not sure what kinds of alcohol they are soaked in. A google search posits the possibility of wine, but I’m not 100% positive. I’m also not quite sure how they would be eaten, seeing as they are so tiny. I might need to investigate at some point. Either that or direct them to the nearest AA meeting.

The bakeries at the night markets have quite the selection. I always think that I’m going to grab something from them, but then something else grabs my attention and I wind up being too full for baked goods. Terrible shame. One day.

There was one stand dedicated to selling only tomatoes.

There were a lot of vendors selling shoes at this market. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any that I had to have.

In addition to shoes, there were a plethora of hair accessories being sold.

There were also fish and turtles (!!!) being sold. The turtles were about the diameter of a soda can, and were soooooooooo cute. They were only 70 NT$ / about $2.33 US, but I had no idea what I’d do with it when I left, so I refrained.

I was at this night market on July 4th, and I actually saw fireworks that night. They only lasted about one round, but it was kinda cool.

Up next: A little bit about English Camp….

I just wanted to take a moment to thank the folks at Bloggers in Taiwan for making this travelogue the featured blog of the week. That was a pretty cool surprise.

The same day I went to the Museum of Taiwanese Literature, I went to the Taiwan (or Tainan) Confucius Temple (Chinese | English). (It is right down the street from the museum.) It was the first Confucius temple in Taiwan. The temple grounds are much larger than any temple I’ve been in to date, and there is at least one major difference between Confucian and Buddhist and/or Taoist temples. In Confucian temples there are no statues of Confucius (whereas in a Buddhist/Taoist temple, there might be images of Matsu or another god). This is because no one could come to agreement on what a statue of Confucius should look like, and instead of having many different looks for Confucius, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty decided that only memorial tablets would be used in Confucian Temples. Also, Confucian temples were often (like the one I visited in Tainan) used as schools as well as places of worship.

I love me a good “you are here” sign.

This is the main entrance of the temple, but there are other entrances. I found at least two others. The grounds are really quite extensive and some of the trees looked to be quite old.

The temple has been around for a long, long time – around 343 years.

There were a great variety of relief sculptures along the walls of the main temple area…

as well as many paintings. Most of the images seemed to be of animals, rather than people.

As always, the attention to detail that goes into one of the temples here is astounding and awe inspiring.

Because the temple used to be associated with a school, students who want to do well on exams will come here and put a card detailing the exam they want to have good luck on.

An example of the memorial tablets. There were a couple of rooms devoted to these on the temple grounds.

Although they are sometimes called Foo Dogs, these statues that are fairly common in the temples here are actually of lions, not dogs. Who knew?

A couple of shots from the temple grounds. I have many, many more pictures from here. I was really quite beautiful.

One thing that is really quite cool about Taiwan is how the old and the new reside side-by-side.

Don’t feed the squirrels at the Confucius Temple. Apparently the squirrels know they aren’t going to get fed, because I didn’t see a single one.

Right across the street from the temple, there is an import grocery store. They carried a lot of American food. I bought some Jif peanut butter and a Mt. Dew! It was the first Mt. Dew I’d seen since I got here. Very exciting.

Before I went home, I wandered around the Confucius temple area, checking out Fujhong St. (and the alleyways off of it) and found a rabbit hopping around on a leash! Too cute.

Up next: The Gangshan Night Market and a bit of miscellany….

This is me, fresh off the train in Tainan, at the Tainan Visitor Information Center. I’d stopped here two days previous and talked with Cherry (she’s the girl nearest me) who helped me get on my way to see the temples I’d been wanting to check out. She was very helpful, so I stopped in again two days later (Friday, June 20, for those who are wondering) and asked for directions to the Five Canals (or Channels) district. I was looking for more temples and an older shopping district that I wanted to check out. Cherry told me where to have the taxi driver drop me off and I went on my way.

The taxi ride was fine, nothing exciting. I got out and started walking down a street, not really paying attention to where I was going, but fairly certain that I was headed in the right direction. I walked down a couple of blocks, filled with interesting shops, but there wasn’t a temple in sight. I finally stopped for a moment, took out my map and tried to orient myself. After consulting one of the shop owners, we determined that I needed to backtrack a bit and go over a couple of streets.

On my way to my newly mapped destination, I stumbled across this street art project, Art Street in Tainan (music plays when you open the link, so you may want to turn your speakers down) on Hai An Road. The site does have some information in English, as well some more images from the art on the street.

This was the first installation I saw. I couldn’t believe my luck in running across it and thought that it was just a fluke until I found more street art in the area.

I love that the artists in both this location and the previous one left the remnants of the buildings visible and creating something beautiful out of the bones of the buildings.

There were also quite a few murals throughout the area. Over the course of my walk, I think that I saw around nine or ten different installations of street art, but I think that I missed quite a few.

I turned the corner to walk down to where I saw a temple was and found this sculptor working in his studio. He was gracious enough to let me take pictures of him at work and his works in progress.

Just down the street from the sculptor, was another studio belonging to a much younger artist. He, too, allowed me to take pictures (these are from the walls of his studio). I chatted with him a little while he re-hinged the very old doors to his studio and then went off in search of temples. I found four, but to this day I still don’t have a clue as to which – if any- of he temples I visited were the ones I wanted to see – no one seemed to know their names in English and I didn’t know the Chinese names for any of them.

Finally, after a lots of walking, a conversation with a bird (it spoke, I asked it if it spoke English, it nodded and puffed itself up importantly, and then I called it a liar – silly bird), I stumbled across a store called Beetles Jungle. There was a bird on a perch and both a dog and a rooster in separate cages. Inside there were (either alive or dead and pinned to cards) huge beetles – most of them along the lines of the rhinoceros beetle. And then there was this bunny. So cute. I really do seem to find all the animals.

Up next: My trip to Kenting….

Guan Gong, also known as Guan Yu, was alive circa 184 – 280 A.D. He was a general for the warlord Liu Bei during the time of the Three Kingdoms period in China. Although he is a god of war, he is venerated by many people including policemen, accountants (he was said to be good with money), students studying for exams, and those on the path of righteousness and brotherhood. This particular temple was built in 1665, but did not become a temple as such until 1690. It is still very much in use today.

The outside of the temple really gives no hint as to what is inside. The whole temple is surrounded by these walls.

The entrance to the temple is quite similar to the entrances to other temples I’ve seen – they all have a similar feel to them. However, once you step inside, the differences become more readily apparent.

If you turn back just as you enter the temple, you can see these characters – Da Zhang Fu. According the guidebook I received at the temple, “In classical Chinese these character represent courage, strength, and loyalty, the traits of the god Guan Gong. The name plate was present to the temple by a visiting Qing Dynasty general in 1791. Japanese visitors are often amused by this sign, as the expression has come to mean something like “male chauvinist” in contemporary Japanese usage!”

Also at the entrance to the temple are items for purchase to aid in your worshiping. You can buy incense sticks, paper money to burn as an offering, and more.

Upon entering the temple, I heard some beautiful chanting and once I got my bearings (and my free guidebook), I wandered towards the beautiful sound. These women (nuns? devotees? I haven’t been able to get a definitive answer) were chanting for at least a half an hour. I stood there for around ten minutes listening to them and then continued my exploration of the temple grounds.

One thing I found to be interesting was that there isn’t just one room where the temple is. Instead, there are multiple temples that all have different purposes and are dedicated to different gods. This incense burner is for offerings and was outside the temple just behind the main temple.

The view from this particular temple was quite spectacular. Each rooftop houses a different temple within the temple. Pretty cool!

Somehow I did not get a photo of the statue of Guan Gong in this temple. However, I did capture Zhou Chang (Guan Gong’s general and bodyguard who killed himself upon learning of Guan Gong’s death) and one of Guan Gong’s sons (unnamed in my guide, sorry).

As I mentioned above, one of the functions of Guan Gong is as a patron for those who have examinations. People write their examinations and dates on cards in the hopes that Guan Gong will help them to do well on their tests. I even found one where the student was studying for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam!

I was surprised to find a little pond for turtles. They were adorable and I watched them for a little bit and then wandered over to the more expected koi pond. The garden area was a nice little oasis.

This statue of Guan Yin was one of my favorites in the temple. She’s the bodhisattva of compassion.

This is the Yue Lao Temple. According to my guidebook, “Single people go here to pray for luck in finding a suitable partner. If they are successful, they bring a wedding cake and fruit to the temple to thank the god.”

Requests for that “suitable partner” are placed in glass vials and hung on the wall. Not surprisingly, this was a particularly busy temple.

The artwork in the temples is sometimes amusing and sometimes astonishing – usually a mix of both.

After about two hours I took my leave of the temple, but I think I fell a little bit in love with it. I really enjoyed how vibrant, yet peaceful it felt. This is a view of the street from the entrance to the temple. After I left, I wandered down a small, winding alley to the right, but that is a tale for another time.

Next up: Part two of my journey to Tainan, including a Matsu temple with gorgeous murals, melon tea, and an embroidery master….

I just wanted to thank everyone for the comments they’ve been leaving. It’s nice to know that people are reading this…. If there is anything in particular you are wanting to see, let me know, and I’ll try to get pictures! My apologies for the randomness of this post – I had a lot of little things that I wanted to show y’all and this is the result….

Zongzi is a traditional Asian food eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival which fell on Saturday, 7 June this year. We were in Kaohsiung that day, but the races had been canceled due to rain. Zongzi is made from glutinous rice, usually wrapped around meat or beans, and then wrapped in leaves and cooked. Lemon’s mother made this one and I kind of ate it without taking a picture of the inside, so if you are curious, click the first link. Also, check out the story of how zongzi came to be made. I love it! Holly, who is from one of Taiwan’s indigenous tribes, also brought some Zongzi for us to try. I liked hers a little better, actually. Unfortunately, I also ate that one without taking a picture.

The laundry facilities at Shu Zen. There are only around 5 or 6 washing machines and two dryers, yet I’ve never run into a problem doing laundry. Part of that could be explained by Helena’s reaction to my doing laundry downstairs. Apparently the boys mostly use those machines; thegirls, on the other hand, use the smaller machines on the floors or wash their clothes by hand and dry them on the racks provided on our balconies. Helena seemed to be concerned that I would catch boy cooties by washing my clothes in the same machines, but I think I’ve escaped them so far. I’ll keep y’all updated though. I was relieved to see that both the washing machines and dryers had buttons and instructions in English.

Yeah, it’s a cicada of some sort. They are incredibly loud here and I am beginning to think they are stalking me – first Kentucky, and now Taiwan. I had nothing to do with this cicada’s demise – it was like this when I found it. Promise.

Oooooh! A bag from a bookstore! What’s in it?!?!?

Eddie recommended this book/workbook/cd combination and was able to get a 20% discount on it for me at the bookstore near his wife’s school! It cost me 1140 NT$ / $38 US which seemed like a pretty good deal for all three items. Have I mentioned that learning Chinese is hard? No? Well, it is. I’m trying, though.

So, I got sick Wedneday, 11 June, in the morning and by Friday, 13 June, I was having stomach cramps so bad that I was doubled over in pain. I finally had Jonathan take me to the doctor. It was an interesting experience. I was in the waiting room for maybe 3 minutes after filling out the paperwork, and then was immediately seen by the actual doctor. (I didn’t get her name, unfortunately.) She spoke English and when she didn’t understand what I meant or I didn’t understand what she was saying, Jonathan helped translate. After about ten minutes with the doctor, we were ushered out to the waiting room. The visit and the medicine together came to a total of 450 NT$ / $15 US. Amazing. The medicine was dispensed at the office and placed in different colored wrappers (white = take before I ate, green = take if symptoms returned, red = take only if I got a fever). By Sunday afternoon I was feeling much better, and by Monday I was 100%. Hooray!

Despite not feeling super great, I decided to go to the Dream Mall on Saturday with Eddie, his wife Cathy, Kristen, and Dwayne. On the platform at Dahu station (the station closest to our school), I ran into some students from Shu Zen. They approached me and we talked for a bit, and then we posed for pictures while waiting for the train.

On the train from Dahu to Ciaotou Station (pronounced chow-toe), I saw these two men and tried to sneak a picture. Apparently I’m not at all stealthy, because they totally realized that I was taking a picture. Obviously, I wasn’t holding the camera completely still either, but I still like the shot.

The view from Ciaotou Station. We met Eddie here on the local train, and then transferred to the MRT which was just opened this year (image of stations in English) and went into Kaohsiung.

We picked Eddie’s car up at the station in Kaohsiung and drove a couple of miles to the Dream Mall. The weather was not ideal, and this was as close to the Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel as I got. I will prevail, though. Never fear. We’ll be traveling to the Dream Mall four times during summer camp, so I will definitely get pictures of the ferris wheel!

The Dream Mall was pretty much like any mall in America, only larger. Everything was rather expensive, so I just window shopped.

I had Cathy (Eddie’s wife) take a picture of me in front of the Guess store.

A puzzle shop had these amusing (and linguistically confusing) jigsaw puzzles.

This is the entrance to Eslite Books. They have a fairly good selection of English language books, and the store feels like a Barnes and Noble. I did buy a little notebook and a small flashcard set secured by a ring to practice my Mandarin.

Finally, there were some wood sculptures just outside of the bookstore that I liked. All in all, it was a good day, but I was again disappointed by the amount of Western influence I kept seeing and was left longing for a more traditional view of Taiwan.

Up next: I get that more traditional view in Tainan, Taiwan’s first capital and oldest city! Also, I finally visit a night market!

This is Lemon. Lemon is a fourth year student (I think) at Shu Zen and she is studying English as a foreign language. Her English is quite good and she’s been our guide around Shu Zen, especially when it comes to food. She’s had to field a lot of “what is that” kind of questions and she hasn’t appeared to get tired of them – yet. She is from Tainan (a city just north of here) and will be working with us during the English camp.

This is Helena. She’s a nursing student, but she’s quite adept at speaking and reading English. She’s helped me out a couple of times when I wanted to know what a particular bit of food was, as well. She’s very nice and will sometimes join us for breakfast.

In the classes (which are over until English Camp starts in July), we would mostly spend a lot of time talking with the students. Often they would have a set of five questions ready for us and we would break into three groups and each person in the group would ask me their questions. After we were done answering questions (or working on their resumes, or reading aloud from their textbooks and having them repeat after us) the students would usually want to take pictures with us. It seems like every student was armed with either a camera or a camera phone and they love taking pictures.

Graffiti on the wall of one of the classrooms. If I didn’t know better, I would think that the girl in the glasses is me!

Sometimes we’d leave our phone numbers (or room numbers) with the students and sometimes they would stop by our room to chat, which was pretty cool. We’ve also received some invitations to go and visit their homes, but nothing definite has come out of that yet. I’m hopeful that when school winds down (they are in their last week of classes and finals are next week) that I’ll be able to go home with them.

When we went to visit Maria’s class we were given a present of Bubble Tea (or Pearl Milk Tea) which is a drink that originated in Taiwan and one that I had tried (with Krikit and Lily) on my trip to California last December. I wasn’t fond of it then and I’m still not a big fan. The tea part tastes okay (too milky and sweet for me, but the taste is fine). However, I just can’t get used to sucking up the tapioca balls through the big straw. Also, the texture of the tapioca balls is strangely chewy in a never ending sort of way and they don’t really seem to have any flavor. Anyway – it’s not horrible, and if it was the only thing available, I would drink it, but I’m just not a fan.

Regardless, above is a picture of Jenny (one of the students who will be working summer camp with us) and my bubble tea.

Maria at work and some students in the background….

one of the students singing an American pop song (can’t remember the name of it, sorry)…

and a picture of me and Maria after the class ended.

When I said that in most of the classes we wound up taking pictures with the students, I wasn’t kidding.

We snuck into a practice room and watched/listened to the band practice for the graduation ceremony.

Last Thursday, I found a stray puppy and kidnapped her for pictures and petting. She slept underneath the desk during the first period I was having conversational practice, but got a little too frisky (and was trying to teethe on the purse Sara made me), so I let her out of the room during the second period. Luckily there was another animal just waiting to be petted in the group that Kristen and Dwayne had…

I promise, despite what it looks like, that I did not actually eat the cute, little hamster. Really.

On Thursday, the night before graduation, there was a concert on the steps right outside our dorm. I wasn’t feeling well, but I did manage to get a couple of pictures (any help with who was at the concert would be delightful)…

And that’s about it for now. I missed graduation (and class on Friday) due to being sick, but I’ve got more pictures to post and will do that either later today or tomorrow. We’ve got a long break right now until English camp starts in July. We just need to get things organized for the campers ahead of time, so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make a couple of day trips to see the sights.

Next up: Medicine, malls, and miscellany…. Dorm life…