A Personal Tour of Taipei?! Nice...

Yesterday we got a personal tour of Taipei by a woman unassociated with the program who wanted to practice her English. It was fabulous. When we met up she handed us our itinerary, which included: all the place we'd visit, how we'd get there, food available to eat for dinner. Her hospitality (and the hospitality of many Taiwanese I've run into) went above and beyond all expectations we had for our personal tour.

We started off at a hotplate restaurant, where you pay $5 and a soup base and eat as much as you want, including smoothies, drinks, and ice cream! When you get your soup they put it in front of you and you pick and choose what meat, vegetables, and other soup ingredients you want and throw them into until you're full. I tried a few things that I wish I hadn't, but overall it was a great meal! I had my first taste of real Taiwanese spice, which was a nice break from the rather bland food otherwise.

Then we took public transportation into Taipei and explored downtown a bit. We saw the second tallest building in Taipei (saw the tallest in the world later) and explored some hidden street markets that we never would have found as tourists. Our guide bought us these FABULOUS pastries, still warm, that were a cake-like bread around a cream filling. I have no idea what they were called, but they were great.

Then, we were to Sun Yat-sen National Memorial Hall, which is a gallery building dedicated to the founding father of modern-day Taiwan. There was an overhang around the perimeter of the building and under it were dozens of Taiwanese youth dancing, both practicing choreography and competing in quasi-freestyle battles with other groups. They were blasting music and taking up almost the whole width of the path in some places. It was a completely odd experience, to see how normal this type of thing was and how undisturbed the older generation walking around the hall were. We sat and watched them for a while, partly for an assignment for class, and really got to know their styles and social dynamics. The hall was clearly a hub for youth social activity, nothing like which would have been allowed in the states.

Taipei 101 (tallest building in the world, until the one in Dubai officially opens) stood a few blocks away, and we chose to see from a distance because our feet were aching at this point.

Our guide showed us the "underground street" which turned out to be a HUGE underground shopping area built between two subway stations. And I do mean huge: about 20 blocks wide and 15 blocks tall. I got a really great egg, scallion, and cabbage crepe-like thing there that might be my new favorite of Taiwan.

Then we went to the number one night market in Taipei (according to our guide). There was TONS of food vendors there, which is the only thing I explored much because my feet were aching from walking around for 8 hours. They had everything from juice and ice cream stands, to oyster omelets and stinky tofu, which is the only thing I refuse to taste, mainly because of how well it lives up to its name. We looked around the merchandise area a bit, but we were too tired to look much. Headed back to the hotel, showered, and rested our feet.

No class this morning, but Politics of Taiwan/China is this afternoon. I'm looking forward to it.

B(ee)