'cause money can't buy me love

we made it back from matzu all in one piece.
this morning i tried to get on the earlier plane, but there was a 30-person long waiting list and i was #30, so i had to wait until 7. we tried the famous 'matzu bagel' today which is sort of like a bagel, with various fillings. this man made them for us with egg, onion and hot dogs scrambled together and served on a bagel thing. it wasn't very delicious.

then in the afternoon, leila, meghan, josh and i hiked to the top of the tallest mountain and took the road back down, which took the better part of the day to accomplish. i think i'm done hiking for the rest of my life. i just wasn't made for climbing up steep hills. but i'm glad we did it.

once we got into taipei, we ate dinner at the train station because it has a reallly good cafeteria upstairs. i had hummus, falafel and pita bread. sooo tasty. i was so happy to get out of matzu and back into civilization. and then we all went for coldstone before we caught the bus home. it was a good evening as far as food went. the specialties in matzu were the bagels, fish noodles, and this rice they make with the dregs of red wine, which is this red, pulpy stuff. it tastes kind of vinegary and weird. not my favorite.

here's the link on facebook if you'd like to see pictures with commentary. i'll add some in to my blogs from the last few days, too. glad to be back!

matzu day 3

i guess since i bought an hour of internet time, i might as well write today's blog while i still remember what we did. it's always kind of lame to write it a few days later.

this morning, we woke up bright and early to catch the ferry to the biggest island, nangan. it was much bigger but everyone else says they like ours better. i liked nangan though. it would remind you of the san diego zoo or wild animal park. it was really green and lush, with random manicured flower beds along the roads. there's a vine or tree that has flowers that look like purple morning glories that's really pretty everywhere along the road.
we spent most of the morning bouncing around from place to place, looking for somewhere to eat breakfast. we finally settled at 7-11 after we weren't really able to find anything in town.

the funniest part of the day was finding a store that sold military uniforms and all of the accoutrements. these islands are dominated by the taiwanese military, and to walk in to a little store and buy their uniform was pretty funny. most of us bought a little hat that has the sun from the taiwanese flag on it, and the soldiers were saluting us and stuff. i asked one in chinese if he liked my hat and he said yes, it was very beautiful (in english). i'm not much of a hat girl, but it was fun to wear it for the day. josh bought a full uniform. hat, pants and jacket. he's going to wear it for halloween.

other than that, we checked out some of the tunnels along the sea where they used to keep ammunition and ships and keep watch. we watched an informational video at the tourism office.dawn in the temple to matzu. this guy was making funny hand gestures.

that's about it. lazy day! ..headed home tomorrow.

matzu update

hey friends, fam and keith :)
i found the internet on matzu. i'm only checking email quickly and then getting back to the whole 'remote, semi-deserted island' thing, but i wanted to give you a heads up that i was wrong, and i really get back monday night. i'm going to try to switch my flight to monday morning to go back on dawn and alex's plane, but in any case, it'll be monday. just didn't want you to think i fell off a cliff or something.

the island is very quiet, to put it nicely. i think the total population is 9,000 people, but our island is one of 5, and it's the 2nd biggest, so we probably have 3 or 4k. anyway, it's very small. there's a main street and a side street. our hotel is literally across the street from the 'airport' and in our day and a half here, we've completely exhausted this island. we're taking a ferry tomorrow to the bigger island.
memorable moments so far..
-yesterday alex and josh were on a scooter, alex pointed to something off in the distance and josh, who was driving, quit paying attention and drove into some brush on the side of the road. they were fine, but it was pretty funny.
-we ate waffles on this beautiful terrace overlooking the ocean today and a bride and groom showed up for a photo shoot. her dress was so pretty, i wish i had the nerve to sneak a picture.
this is the little village thing where we had waffles
-we drove to the highest (or one of the) highest points on the island today and it was ridiculously windy. there was a military outpost up there and out of nowhere, we see 3 soldiers pulling this live goat on a rope. we tried to ask what they were doing with it, but we couldn't understand what they were saying to us.

i guess that's the beginning and end of the memorable moments so far.
i've taken 142 pictures so you can look forward to those.
talk to you monday unless i break down and get online again in the next 2 days, which will probably happen.

we meet every day at the same cafe

i thought my umbrella disappeared and i was super bummed, but yesterday i found a cute new one that's yellow with polka dots and ruffles. i think the lady kind of ripped me off at $5.50, but $6 for an umbrella is ridiculously cheap so whatever.but then when i went to pack becca's birthday box today, my old umbrella was inside the bag of stuff i bought her! it's green with pink elephants, and it has a really cute coordinating strap thing, also with polka dots. i guess i have a thing for polka dots right now.
fun chinese lesson, while we're on the subject:
dian - period ( . )
dian dian - polka dots
dian dian dian - elipses ( ... )
well today my outside class was canceled. i'm not sure why. this week and next week, wooo! i took advantage of my new free time by mailing becca's long overdue birthday box. her birthday was sept 26.

tonight i went to see the vegetable mrs. chan saved for me before she cut it up. it's like this giant, ear looking thing. HEYYY i think i know what it is. keith had been getting 'jews ear' dumplings and it didn't make any sense until right now.. wikipedia is loading. let's see.
yep. it's about as weird in person as it is in that picture. it's flatter, though. it looked like a giant purple pig's ear. wikipedia says: Auricularia auricula, Hirneola auricula-judae) is commonly known as Judas's ear fungus or Jew's Ear, the name from which it derives the "judae" in its scientific name, or as the jelly ear fungus. This jelly fungus is conspicuously ear shaped, ranging from purple to dark brown or black in color with a rubbery texture, and most often found on dead elder trees but also on elms. It was said that Judas hanged himself on an elder tree, which is the origin of the name.

well, i feel better. mystery solved.
anyway when i went there, mr kuo and 2 other guys were drinking this crazy alcohol they make in taiwan. it's 38 proof and i don't know how to describe it other than 'disgusting'. mr. kuo wasn't drunk but this other man was. he tried to teach me some chinese but he kept pausing for long periods of time. i agreed to having a beer with them some time after class.

in class tonight, i offhandedly mentioned how their class time was switching and they wouldn't have me as a teacher anymore, since i assumed my coteacher had told them, but they all looked at me incredulously and they obviously hadn't been told. after class, one of the girls, rebecca, came up to me and asked why i wasn't going to be their teacher anymore and she hugged me and said she would miss me. that class is kind of fun. usually we just sit and chat for 10 minutes or so, but only a couple of the kids talk. i'll miss the ones i actually got to know.

so tomorrow is 10/10 which is a holiday in taiwan. it's like their independence day, even though they're not technically independent.. but a bunch of us are going to a small island off the coast of china, but controlled by taiwan, called matzu. we picked it because we didn't think any taiwanese people would go there since there's not much to see.. i guess the main function is a military outpost. you can apparently see china on a clear day. we will see. i'm bringing my fancy camera to keep myself entertained.
we'll be there friday until sunday evening. so i'll talk to you again sunday, hopefully with distant pictures of china :)
my cell phone is 0987994511 if anyone feels the urgent need to contact me.