Last Weekend in Taipei, Apple Pies & Goodbyes!

So I'm really down to the last few days now! On Saturday, Alaina and I visited the National Palace Museum. It is located in Taipei, so we rode the metro. We first went through the "Garden of Peace and Benevolence," and we were feeling PRETTY peaceful knowing we didn't have any work left. Slowly, we were slipping into vacation mode and since we've seen almost all the "must sees" we could go at a leisurely pace, and so we stopped inside a little cafe to have some coffee and a snack before heading to the museum. The museum is huge and the building itself is beautiful. There are two main exhibits that visitors can see at any given time, and you pay to enter separately. Alaina and I decided to see the Song Dynasty exhibit since that was more culturally relevant than the Ancient Greece exhibit. It was interesting for me to see all the jade and bronze and the progression of years in terms of dynasties because I JUST taught Ancient China to my seventh graders in Ohio before coming to Taiwan. I really wanted to take some pictures for them, but was unable to.

After the Palace Museum, we met Harriet at the Shilin night market. We had been once before, but we were not brave enough to try anything, and that was unacceptable to Harriet. So, off we went, winding through the crowds until we had obtained a pig's blood cake on a stick and an oyster omelet. We sat down to share, and I really liked the pig's blood cake! I had thought it was so-so mixed into soup, but this time it was on a stick (pig's blood and rice mixture) then coated with peanuts and fresh cilantro. Maybe it was the cilantro that I loved so much, but I liked it! The oyster omelet was pretty good, too. Only later did we find out that some foreign teachers have never tried the pig's blood! And here we are trying everything, lining up because we think it's some mandatory right of passage! We still haven't tried the stinky tofu, but supposedly tonight is the time for that. Then, we did a little shopping, this time bargaining much more than we had on previous trips.

Sunday morning, we decided to check out our local day market, something we had been meaning to do for quite awhile but hadn't done yet. So, off we went and found great deals and were quite amused. Somewhat reminded me of the West Side Market in Cleveland...only Taiwanese style, of course! Alaina and I both bought some leggings for $1 each, and they were good quality, too! The best sale items in terms of clothes, etc. are scarves, shoes, and leggings. They are extremely popular and you can get them dirt cheap everywhere.

After the market, we met our friend from Switzerland at the MRT on Sunday to go to Danshui, the old fishing village that our professor strongly recommended. Again, not at all what we pictured! We expected a serene little town, but even these old streets have been turned into somewhat of a night market scene. Food stands, games, and activities lined the sidewalks as we made our way through swarms of people. One funny little incident that occurred was a little elderly Taiwanese lady came up behind Alaina while we were walking and hit her in the back, then jabbed her in the side, pretty hard, then kept speed walking, turning around and glaring at us, even after she was a good twenty or thirty feet ahead. We are still unsure what we did to offend her....very strange! Anyways, we ended up taking a boat ride across the river to the old fisherman's wharf. Again, crowded with people, although less populated than before. We walked around for quite awhile just enjoying the nice night and I feeling REALLY in vacation mode, I had a grape champagne ice cream cone, the first real ice cream (non-soft serve) we have had in Taiwan, so delicious as we walked the boardwalk! Then, we took our places among all the others to watch the sunset, when rather quickly a giant cloud came out of nowhere and blocked the whole sky! We had heard so much about the Danshui sunset but ended up not seeing any of it, completely blocked!! Kind of a bummer, but we asked Iris to go back and take pictures for us sometime! She's here until June.

We had the day off school on Monday, so we traveled to Yanmingshan Mountain. It was quite the journey. We should have learned by now that even what we anticipate being quick always turns into a larger ordeal. We rode the MRT, then connected to a city bus, which we took to the top of the mountain. Then, we needed to wait for another bus, a shuttle, to take us around the mountain. Of course, the schedule was only printed in Chinese and we had to wait awhile until a nice Chinese couple came along and was able to help us find the destinations we were interested in seeing. However, just as with Taroko Gorge, the maps were well marked by the destinations were not. We had no idea when we were supposed to get off the shuttle, so when some people hopped off, so did we! Not where we wanted to end up, and the trail we were intersted in was blocked by 4 vicious dogs who kept barking at us and chasing us. I wasn't about to get bit in the middle of nowhere on top of an isolated mountain! There are stray dogs EVERYWHERE, but we have never seen them bark or be aggressive before, very uncharacteristic so it freaked us out! We walked a bit then found another trail going down into the mountains. It was a lovely hike, deep down into the mountainside. We felt like we were in the jungle surrounded by all the sounds and greenery. It was funny because there was some fall foliage, which is not common in Taiwan, so it was marked on the trail as a point of interest! We wound through natural growing bamboo, which was very neat, since our last bamboo trail was rather disappointing. I was terrified of getting eaten alive by some monkeys, but Alaina didn't seem too concerned. Anyhow, we survived, and finally found a bus again and hopped on. We ended up riding up, around, and finally down the mountain. It turned out to be a blessing because there was so much to see!

Our farewell dinner at the school was on Monday night. The principal, teachers, our supervisor, and several administrators gathered at a fancy Chinese restaurant for dinner. We shared several courses that were on a rotating disk in the middle of the table. I liked almost everything, so either the meal was excellent, or the food is growing on me?! What a lovely way to end our internship, but it wasn't over yet....

Today we are at school for a final day! Last Friday, we had given our "bus lady" a small gift to show our appreciation. She rides the bus, accompanying students to and from school. She doesn't speak English, so we wrote out a thank you card and then had Harriet translate the message. She was so appreciative, and today, when we got on the bus, she had a gift for us! She said, "for you!" and gave us some Taiwanese cookies. So very nice of her! It was just so neat because I feel like we've grown to know her on the long rides up and down the mountain each day, although we have had zero verbal communication. I just think that is really neat.

 Alaina and I spent the morning baking apple pie from scratch in the home economics room. The home ec teacher helped us find the necessary utensils, and we had luckily been able to purchase all of the necessary ingredients. We made three pies to share with teachers and staff as a "thank you." We served the Principal and Superintendant and their staff members, our entire office, and many of our teacher friends. They LOVED the pie, and many people came back for seconds. Harriet had picked up some vanilla ice cream, which made it even better!

My favorite part of the whole day was when my mentor teacher handed me a stack of cards and notes from my grade eight students! It turned out that they had asked her to take some time to write me a note to say thank you and goodbye, and they were really sad about it yesterday! Wow, I did not expect that! Their notes were adorable; several students drew a giant blue eye and wrote, "Your eyes are so beautiful!" haha...that really left an impression on them! But it made me feel good to know that they appreciated my efforts of trying to plan enjoyable yet meaningful learning activities, or at least that they enjoyed my teaching. A very nice ending to my time here. Many students also asked for my email address today to correspond....so different than in America!

Only a couple hours left then our time here at KCBS is done! Tonight, we will go to Carrefour, the department store, to have pearl milk tea one last time and pick up a few things to bring home with us. Tomorrow, we will pack, shop, and maybe squeeze one last little adventure in before taking off. We have dinner reservations for Wednesday night with Harriet at our favorite little hot pot restaurant. So delicious!