On Friday, January 3rd we hurriedly packed our
belongings anxiously awaiting our bus to head out to Tainan, Taiwan. The bus
ride was approximately 4 hours long, with exactly 2 pit stops. The bus ride was
surprisingly entertaining because a few of us played Monopoly and other games
in the back of the bus. The bus driver and tour guide were great, and the bus
driver especially because he drove at such high speeds! In Tainan we went to
the night market, and I tried 1000 year old eggs, takoyaki, ice cream,
cuttlefish, and pigeon eggs. At first I didn’t want to try any of it, because I
had gotten food poisoning the previous day. But then I just ate everything! Then,
we went to the hotel, which was quite fabulous in comparison to our previous
living conditions. We had a TV and a bathtub which had a shower curtain! The
following morning we went to the Chikan Tower, Anping Old Fort, and the Eternal
Golden Castle. It was interesting to see the different architecture that was
created by the Dutch, Japanese, and Chinese. Then the following day we went to
the Buddhist Temple and visited a wedding to wish the soon-newlyweds our
blessings. I already knew a lot about Buddhism, so it was nice to see the
explanations again to reassure what I already knew about it. But, it was
interesting that Buddhism focuses on simplicity, but the entire temple/museum was
very extravagant and seemed to be more of a tourist attraction rather than a
temple of worship. When we headed back, I slept almost the entire time on the
bus. The following morning, we had to go to class and I was extremely tired in
the morning because I stayed up late completing my homework. After our Chinese
class, we had a discussion about cultural differences in China, Taiwan, and
America. Finally, we made jiaozi, and ate until we were beyond full. I had a
really fun time making the jiaozi because I started making random shapes with
them, such as a snowman. 
My
focus for this week is the difference between Chinese and Taiwanese people.
When I first arrived in Taiwan, I could not tell the difference between the
two, but as I spend more time in Taiwan I am starting to notice some
interesting differences. This does not go for all Taiwanese or Chinese people,
but these are just a few things that I noticed. It seemed to me that the
Mainlanders are more rambunctious and they are very pushy. For example, when
Samantha was in line to get her food, some Mainlanders just cut right in front
of her. Also, when we were all on the ferry, the driver instructed everyone to
stay seated until the boat stopped. But all the Mainlanders got up before the
boat stopped. From what I have seen, Taiwanese people are more friendly and
kind. They are very willing to speak Chinese with me when I want to practice
and always seem to be excited to see foreigners. Also, Mainlanders have a very
distinct accent that is different from the Taiwanese people. I hope to one day
go to China to be able to experience the culture for myself.
This
week we have a full week of class, and tomorrow I have a test! Hopefully I do
well, because I just spent the past two hours studying really hard! Also, we
are taking an MRT trip tomorrow, so hopefully Travis and Cindy will be there so
I can continue practice listening to more local Chinese with them. Also, next
time I will be blogging about the difficulty of my Chinese class and more
cultural differences and similarities between China and Taiwan.
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