Sightseeing

What a great start to Taiwan! Got through customs no problem, and 秋滿 (Qiuman),秋杏 (Qiuxing), and 秋滿’s husband were waiting at the other side of customs with a little sign that said “Kylee Bennett”~~ how cute :D As soon as I stepped outside I was hit with the beautiful warm (85 degree) and humid air of Taiwan. Feels just like Hawaii! (aww, Annie!) We went and got breakfast- sandwiches and tea- the sandwich for me was bread, lettuce, tomato, sprouts, and… PEANUT BUTTER! That’s right… peanut butter and tomatoes. It tasted good though. Next, we went to Chiang Kai Sheiks’ Mausoleum, it was a beautiful park dedicated to the leader of the Nationalist Party who had fled to Taiwan in the 1940’s. (He was the guy who was fighting Mao ZeDong- leader of the Communists). What was interesting was that they had collected all the statues of him throughout the island of Taiwan and displayed them there- because now there is a huge rivalry in Taiwan between the Nationalist Party (who Chiang Kai Sheik was the founder- they want “unification” with China) and the Democratic Party (who want Taiwan to be an independent country separate from China) so members of the DP were vandalizing the statues. So in a big park there are around 140 statues of him. It’s really interesting. They also had a changing of the guard ceremony that reminded me of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington DC.

It was cute, too, when I was walking along with my hosts, we walked past a little girl who looks at me and shouts, “外國人!” which means “Foreigner!” We all started laughing and then 秋杏 said, “you should get used to that!” I thought I was a minority in CTTB—but I didn’t see another white person there the whole time.

We went and ate at a vegetarian restaurant, it was delicious! The food is fresh and tastes great. After going home for a quick nap we went to 新竹 (Xingzhu) to walk along a beach trail and watch the sunset. There were hundreds of people on bikes doing the same thing. Then we went and ate at another vegetarian restaurant- again very delicious. I guess there are a lot of vegetarian options in Taiwan because so many people are Buddhist! Awesome!

Tomorrow we are going to 阿里山 (Alishan) in the mountains; it is famous for its beautiful sunrises. Getting to see some sights before heading to 台中 (Taizhong) to start work. I’ve posted some pictures for you all to look at!