Night markets and soo much more....

Saturday was an extremely long day but soooooo much fun. I feel like I’ve been here for 3 weeks already just because we’ve done so much. We got to sleep in so we could adjust. We got ready and walked around to find some breakfast. The city we’re staying at is famous in the country for breakfast….and let me tell you it’s definitely for good reason. Everything we tried was delicious. It puts breakfast in the U.S. to complete shame. Mmmmmm…….but it’s definitely entertaining because you can’t find forks ANYWHERE. They only have chopsticks so you have to make do. For breakfast a lot of us got these pancake type things….so I’m sure you can just imagine how entertaining we were trying to pull it off….

(this pic is of probably my most favorite thing so far. It's a quesadilla type-the only thing that comes close to describing it-thing with potatoes, eggs, cheese, and random stuff with this sweet and salty sauce over it)

Afterwards we had to meet up with our instructor and one of the nurses that lives at our apartment building. As we were getting closer we heard really loud music so we followed it to see what was going on. It was this random campaign for some election and there were TONS of people. As soon as they saw us American a bunch of people rushed up to us and offered us tons of things…..pineapple cakes (they’re really popular here), Taiwan beer (that we didn’t know was beer till after we tried it…..ha ha ), food, and much much more. For some reason the Taiwanese absolutely LOVE Americans. We’re basically celebrities. Everyone comments on how beautiful we are and they all want our attention. They will go to ridiculous extents to get us to talk to them. They will walk by and literally stare…..no trying to conceal it…they’ll flat out stare as they walk on. It’s so funny. I feel like we’re going to be so vain when we get back and we’ll be shocked when people don’t pay any attention to us.

This is a picture of a family at the campaign. The asian kids are soooo dang cute!

After the campaign we met up with Jim (our instructor) and Jane. This is when we had our first taxi experience……or should I say first near death experience. We waved one down and Jane interpreted for us and let the cab drivers know where we wanted to go. Then 4 of us hopped in one and it took off. Let me just say that I don’t think I’ve ever been more scared in my life ha ha (Mom you probably shouldn’t read this part). Taxi drivers in Taiwan are completely insane. There are NO rules and NO inhibitions. They just do whatever they want. They don’t drive in the lines, they cut people off, and honk at everyone. There are no laws about driving either. It’s whoever can honk more and whoever’s willing to take the greater risk. So it was definitely an adventure in and of itself.
The ride took us to Zeelandia Fort in An Ping (This is the fort of Coxinga…I won’t put you through all of the details….let’s just say he’s an important historical figure), An ping is just a part of Tainan, it’s right off the coastline. We first toured through a temple there. It was absolutely gorgeous and all of the people were so friendly. I’ll post pictures of it on facebook, this is just the outside.

We then toured around the fort and museums within it. While we were up at the very top of the fort we heard this insanely loud music and hundreds of fire crackers going off. We looked down by the temple and there were TONS of people. We quickly ran down there and there was a HUGE parade going into the temple. It was so much fun! The parade was just like the ones in the movies with loud music, dragon heads, and crazy costumes. They were celebrating the birthday of their Godmother. Once again I won’t put you through all the details, you can look up who she is if you want. After the parade we were kind of just hanging out. Jim noticed a group of boys that kept looking over at us and pointing. Finally I went over and acted out that we wanted a picture with them and they all freaked out. They started jumping up and yelling and pointing. They were just grinning and so excited that Americans were talking to them. They just started babbling but of course none of us could understand it. We took a picture with them anyways but they kept saying something we still couldn’t understand. Afterwards Jane (the Taiwanese nurse) interpreted it for us and I guess they kept saying they just wanted a picture with just me in it not the other girls! Lol Which is really surprising because they normally loooove blonde girls. I blend in more than any of us. Here's a pic of me with them.

We then walked over to a street market and shopped for a couple of hours. There was so much going on and so much to see that I can’t cover it in here. There’s only one thing that really sticks out in my mind. Every little shop had samples of whatever they were selling so we would walk along and try everything….unless it looked too gross. There was a particular stand that was lined with really good looking meats. I quickly picked up a piece not thinking and popped it into my mouth. When I bit down it was crunchy, bouncy, hard, leathery, gelatinous, and just flat out disgusting….before I started gagging I quickly swallowed it and looked up at the sign. It was chicken feet. It doesn’t sound that horrible…but it was. I’ve already tried a lot of gross things but this by far was the worst. Mostly because of the disgusting texture. I’m just glad I got it over with (because I was planning on trying it at some point). In Taiwan chicken feet are like popcorn. People buy it as a treat on a daily basis. This street market was also where I got Mom the perfect present. You’re going to love it.

This is a picture of a random lady at the street market with a cat in a helmet...maybe he has seizures? .....

After the street market we hopped into another taxi and headed to the Flower Market (the biggest night market in Tainan and one of the biggest in Taiwan). All I can say is wow…..it was HUGE. I was expecting some little open area full of vendors but this spread over a number of blocks and it was packed full of people. There was NO standing room at all. It was like being at a concert where everyone is packed together but instead everyone was trying to buy things and look around. But it was a blast nonetheless and made the experience even better. Here's a picture of the outside. It's gives you an idea of how big it is. Oh ya and I forgot to tell you that on the way to the night market we could only get two taxis so we had to pack 7 people in one taxi….and that’s not very fun especially with how they drive. Plus to add to it our taxi driver was a little crazy and would just laugh when we said anything and he ended up losing the taxi in front of him (full of the other girls in our group and our instructor). So he just randomly dropped us off at the night market and the other girls and instructor were NO where in sight. We split up trying to look for them but couldn’t find them because like I said it was packed. We had no way of contacting them b/c cell phones don’t work here and no one could help us because no one speaks English. We just said a prayer and decided to go into the market anyways and enjoy the night (we would be able to get to our apartments later b/c we know how to say the name of it in Chinese). Literally about two minutes later we randomly ran into the other girls! (a complete answer to our prayers considering how big and packed it was).
The next couple of hours were spent shopping around, trying crazy things, and eating delicious food. Taiwan has amazing food. I had always heard that it was delicious but I thought it was an exaggeration. But it’s not at all. Everything is so creative and different from the U.S. They have so many different combinations of things with so many different flavors. I don’t think I’ll ever be satisfied with American food ever again. Ha ha. And the fruit is amazing. Definitely not like fruit in the U.S. You don’t think it could be that different but it is. Fruit tastes like candy here. It’s so sweet and juicy. The only bummer is that it’s not Mango season yet so there are no mangos anywhere. But supposedly they start showing up in the middle of this month. Taiwan also has ridiculously crazy food. Here's some duck tongue but with the hyoid bone.... Also stinky tofu. It REEKS. You can smell it everywhere. We have yet to try it. Thousand year old eggs (fermented eggs) and so much more. But we did try chicken butt ha ha and it was surprisingly delicious. We decided to save the other weird things for another night. I also got Rico the perfect present here (yes you get a present). We walked by it and I couldn’t pass it up…..At about ten thirty we all met up to go home. We were completely exhausted. We had been going since 10am that morning. We hopped into another taxi and this time our driver kept taking us down random deserted back streets that were nowhere near our apartment. We were getting worried for a bit but we eventually ended up at our place. We found out that he was just lost. Ha ha So now we’re back safely J We don’t have too much planned for tomorrow except for church. Sorry there is so much to read. It’s more for my benefit because this is also kind of my journal. So feel free to skip over whatever you want….