More Taiwan nostalgia

March 24, 2006

Weird food tally: Have I told you about the eel? Enough said. The Taiwanese men tell the American men that when you eat eel, it makes you strong like bull...in bed. "Eel like Viagara," they say, and then giggle.

Tip: Bring your own towel. They usually use what we would call a hand towel to dry themselves after a shower. So in an effort to be good hosts, my last two host families have given me brand new towels of the size we are used to (though they're not as fluffy and are much thinner). But because they haven't been washed yet, they are full of lint and fuzz, which then sticks to my wet skin. For the past couple of days, my skin has had a sky blue hue. Today, it was a lovely orange.

Word of the day: We'll go back to the basics. Xie xie (pronounced a bit like shee-ay shee-ay). Means thank you.

Today we checked out Taiwan's legislature. Incredibly interesting. The history between Taiwan and China is insane and the current relationship is even more so. I got the whole lowdown from one the Rotarians who accompanied us. I was completely fascinated and will give the details to those interested when I get back. The Rotarian asked me later what I studied in school. I told him journalism. He
said, "That's why you're so interested." We met with the president of the parliament, which is the equivalent of the Speaker of the House. Cool guy.

I'm going to a hot spring with my host family this evening. Apparently, I need to get naked for this. I'm a Westerner and I know they're all going to stare at my big American fat ass, so I may bring a suit. I'm sure I'll have a story to tell.

Time for dinner. Pray for me.


March 26, 2006

Name that tune: Goin' to the temple and we're
learnin' to med-i-taate.
Goin' to the temple and we're
learnin' to med-i-taaate.
Goin' to a temple of Buddha.

I'm so excited.


March 27, 2006

Weird food: They make life so difficult sometimes. I am used to boneless chicken breasts, boneless fish, boneless pork, boneless everything. Everything here is full of bones. When they serve chicken fillets, it still has the skin and bones in it and probably some other things too. And because we eat with chopsticks, it's virtually impossible to eat. For such an efficient society, I can't believe they don't take out the bones first.

Tip: Bring whitening toothpaste. Otherwise, your teeth will be permanently stained from all the tea they insist on serving you.

Word: Ah-me daba. This is what Buddhist monks and nuns say by way of greeting. They also place their hands in a prayer position as they say it.

So I went naked at the hot springs, but because my host family was awesome, we went to a place where I had my own private room. It was great. And I didn't feel like I was copping out because my host sisters didn't want to get naked in public either.

The Buddhist temple was amazing. It was also not very Buddhist-like in that it was huge and elaborate and ridiculously expensive to build.

It's only about 5 years old and it's the largest temple in Asia, possibly the world. It's also a monastery so there are a whole bunch of monks and nuns there, but I was only in contact with the nuns. The men were often kept separate from us womens. We even ate on opposite sides of the table. It was sometimes hard to tell the difference between the monks and nuns. They all wore the same robes and were all
bald.

We were given a tour of the place and saw rooms that the general public never sees. It was crazy. I don't even know how to explain it, so I won't. Pictures will be better. We stayed over Saturday night then. I found a cockroach in my bathroom; Buddha was testing me. I didn't kill it, but I wouldn't have even if I wasn't in a Buddhist temple. I was never able to kill bugs; I think I'm a closet Buddhist.

I got up at 3:30 am on Sunday to attend a morning meditation service at the temple. Lots of chanting, bowing, kneeling, meditating and for my part, yawning.