Monday and Tuesday

11/11/2010

On Monday Mark had the day off, so we went to a city north of Taipei, I think: Tan Sui. It is on the ocean, so we walked on the boardwalk and watched the fishermen. Tan Shui bridge

Fishing from breakwater

Sleeping Confucius Mountain

Fishing boats from bridge

Boat ride ticket

Later we took a boat to the old street with the market. We saw lots of small stores and ate lunch in the Red Castle. That is an old house built by Portuguese. It's really beautiful in a functional way. I think the restaurant specializes in hot pot. We had several things to !eat. One was a kind of stew, very spicy, that had (I found out later; it is better not to ask, just eat and enjoy) pork tripe and blood. We also had a vegetable soup and rice. I loved the fried bread. It is similar to a bagel but a little bit sweet. Everything was very good. When I went to the restroom, all they had was traditional facilities. Oh man!

Red Castle restaurant

View to the sea from restaurant

Playing a game

Buddhist nuns from boat

Checking the trash

We rode the boat back to the boardwalk and left to see an army museum. After a very twisty ride, we discovered that it is, like many Taiwan museums, closed on Monday. We looked through the gate and saw some figures dressed in fatigues--statues. It was getting dark, so we returned to Mark's house.

Statues at army museum

11/09/2010

On Tuesday, Mark had several classes, so Joyce and Aileen came from Hsinghu to take us out for the day. We had breakfast at McDonalds while Mark went on to school. They got through the traffic to meet us there.

It was still early, about 8:30, so we went to a national park near Neihu. It was up a very twisty road on the mountain. They wouldn't tell us what we were going to see; they just let us smell it when we got near enough: a sulfur spring. As we got nearer, we could see a cloud coming up from the moutain. We walked up the path, and there were dozens of openings in the rocks with steam and sometimes water coming out. It was a very beautiful and peaceful place. On the way down we went through a nature park.

Sulphur springs park

Then they took us into Taipei where we made several stops. One was a street of fabric shops. I found a few things to take home. We went on to a place where they make a meat snack. The pork is sliced very thinly and dried as thin as paper. The street where we parked was so narrow there was only room for one car at a time.

Making steamed buns

We went into a department store for lunch at a bun chain restaurant. They make a large variety of buns. We had pork soup buns and pot stickers in a spicy sauce, a green vegetable, and a sticky rice and red bean cake. It was all delicious. Before we went in, we watched the chefs make buns. I took some pictures. We also went to a bakery.

Election banners

Afterwards we went to Garrett's favorite, the Eslite 24-hour bookstore. The collection is more varied than a Borders or Barnes & Noble, and lots of people were browsing there. We also went downstairs to the children's bookstore. Aileen and I talked about the Caldecott medal and some of the books we have in common. (She is a kindergarten teacher.)

It was time for Mark's dinner party. He invited some of his school staff and some of the students we knew: a math teacher, a Chinese teacher (Mark teaches history), Michelle and Gian Carlo, Joyce, Aileen, Vicky and Ian, and another student we had not met, Tony. We had so many foods I can't remember them all and had to resort to just taking a small amount of each.

The main dish was roast duck. We were served the crackly skin dipped in a sauce and folded into a rice tortilla. It was exceptional. Later they brought in slices of the duck to dip in the sauce and eat. I'm not a big fan of dark meat, but duck is so delicious I can't resist it. I think I will gain 10 pounds on this trip. We also had some soups and shrimp and spicy celery.

The men from the school brought us cups engraved with out names and a paper weight made of crystal. They seemed to understand some English, but were reluctant to speak. I think that is frequently true here. They are taught English like we used to be taught foreign languages, reading and writing to pass a test, but not much listening and speaking.