一个人的宠物是别的人的肉。(One man's pet is another man's meat.)

Hi all,

I realize it has been quite some time since I last sent you an update, I have been busy like a crazy mongoose in a pit full of cobras. I decided I'm just going to continue on as if no time has passed whatsoever so that the weeks don't get mixed up and the tale unravels as it's meant to, in chronological order (can't go about these things all will-nilly).

On Friday, the 29th of June, my friend Kim and I hopped on her scooter and went up to the university so I could look around the campus and find the language center. Although the views of the jungley hills and vast ocean are lovely, I have a feeling that since my class building is perched on the side of a mountain the trek to make it there every morning is going to be less than fun.  

Kim brought me to the third floor where I met the office coordinator, Janice, who has been helping me through email for the past few months sussing out visas and classes. She's really sweet and the whole office seems very nice.

After wandering around the building for a bit, we went to a restaurant called 'Shell Ice' which is aptly named since the entire building is full of sea shells and they serve flavoured ice.  The shells are really quite amazing as they have all types, colors, and shapes; star fish and blowfish hang from the ceiling while cabinets of random shells line the walls and shells sit in patterned collages under the glass table tops. My favorite piece is the giant shell-lamp in which is carved a picture of Venus based on Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus' and she was coming out of her shell, literally!  I thought that was quite clever, though it was lost on Kim who didn't know the painting on which it was based. When our bowl of 'ice' came out (in a giant shell) it was enormous with about five different scoops each with a different syrup, green soy-beans on the side, and little pieces of tapioca jelly in the middle. Quite decadent, and manoeuvring the shell-on-a-stick which passed for the spoon was particularly amusing. Unfortunately, my camera decided to randomly delete these photos, so I can't share them with you, I shall just have to go back sometime!

After that I went home where Ansy came around eventually and asked me if I wanted to go get mangoes with some friends the next morning. I naively agreed having no idea what was in store but became a little suspicious at the 8 am start…

At 8 am, Ansy and I sped down to the church where we met up with Arky (guy with a shaved head), a guy from the church, who was going to drive us and another Taiwanese girl to get the mangoes. We were then joined by two other car loads of Taiwanese girls all from a different church; this caravan, apparently, had been organized by the daughter of a Taiwanese pastor. We then road-tripped down south along the coast-line following a highway which wove around the mountains on our left and the ocean on our right. For the first half hour I asked random people where we were going, but when I found out that nobody actually knew I decided to stop enquiring and just enjoy the sights.

Our first surprise stop was to get a 'biandang', what Ansy translates as a 'lunch box'. This is the normal meal here in Taiwan; you choose three vegetable sides and one meat main dish it all comes with rice and tea and it's usually only about 50 NT which is about a pound or a dollar fifty. These ones were exciting, however, because they actually came in little wooden boxes, which I thought was quite a good idea. Unfortunately, these pictures were also deleted.  After that we drove for another hour or so and stopped to get ice, you can get as much ice as you want for the price; just get it refilled as the heat quickly turns your snow cone into soup. Clever idea.

Fully fed and satisfied with the surprise stops thus far, we carried on down towards Kending (but not actually to Kending apparently). I still don't really know where we went, but it was a nice drive and it was fun to be spontaneous (or rather to tag along while everyone else was being spontaneous). Before we finally bought the mangoes promised me the night before, we went up onto the mountains into a little Hakka village where the leader of our group knew some of the local families.  

The Hakka are the native people in Taiwan who are often agricultural workers, specialising in fruit. They have their own language and often their own religious practices. If you look at the picture of the sign, you can see their language on the bottom.
 


This village up in the mountains has huge statues of people in their traditional clothes and the mangoes on which they rely. They have their own school for the few dozen kids running around on summer vacation staring at me, and they are fairly self-reliant, but poor.

We were fortunate enough to make it to the statue-lined gates and back to the school yard before the heavy rain started up and we sat under the tin roof and chatted listening to the plinks of the water above.

Finally, we headed back down the mountain and stopped in some town or other where we found a mango stall at long last!

The stall was run by Hakka people from the same village who sold their goods down in the main city, so we all had about three giant mangoes each and felt well satisfied with ourselves on the way home. I tried to take pictures from the car, but the rain didn't cooperate and we got home that evening tired but happy. It was an excellent trip.

Ansy and Mango

 

On Sunday I went to the New Life church run by Mike Miller, it's bilingual so it was neat to compare the two languages as they ran through some of the Old Testament. The music is in both languages as well, alternating songs. There David and Sarah, the ones who picked me up from the airport, found me because I'm going to be staying with them for a few days next week, just to see another part of the Greater Kaohsiung area.

The weather continues to be oppressive; I jump from air conditioner to air conditioner, barely making it in between. Hopefully the typhoons will hit soon so the rain will cool us down a bit! I will let you know about the trip to the Ullstroms in a few days. I think the email is long enough for the moment. Thankfully recent weeks have mainly been a lot of studying, so we'll be able to get caught up soon!

With love,

Amanda