DAY 2+3=word
Day 2Well lets see after day two was definatley alot more relaxed than day 1. since i have no idea what time is due to jet lag, i think i got up about 6 and showered and shaved then went out for a walk down the road to check things out. since i'm in a village kind thing outside Hualien city there wasn't much to see a whole bunch of half finished buildings, a few people checking out the ocean and some fishermen doing some work. After i came back no one was up or they had already left so i sat down and started reading through the Wired magazine I bought back in Calgary, which had a pretty interesting and sound concept on the future of a ecologically friendly automotive industry, can't explain much but it's called Better Place (Click here for website) and it makes the industry more profitable and cuts emissions buy at least 60%. then my auntie came and got me for breakfast, Jenny made me an awesome soup and some kind of ham and cheese sandwich. My mother got home somewhere after that and told me we we're having lunch with some rotarians, so i finished up some more of the magazine and we we're off. first we stopped at one bank than other i assumed one was for her businesses and the other her personal funds (the male clerk at the second one said i was very handsome and i can't say i disagree with him it just felt strange coming from a man :P). Then she showed me her beautiful Chinese fashion store which i though was very well displayed, with a whole bunch of fine expensive silk women's clothing. After she checked up on how things we're going we were off to lunch at a winery Eagle (a rotarian) owns, attempting to make some small talk along the way.
We arrived at a beautiful temple looking building and while we waited for her rotarian friends I had a history briefing on the Aborigines of Taiwan, and i found out that people wish they we're aboriginal unlike in Canada where it's the exact opposite. After there being no space for us he let us into the private bar area, where my host mother her two friends, there daughter sunny and I ate some incredible Chinese food. I tried to make as much small talk as possible but was shoved out by the gaggle of women talking, I was told my chopstick skills our outstanding (haha I told ya I practiced dad, I was even eating peanuts with them). We talked for a bit, and after a little bit of laughing and pointing at me they came up with my Chinese name v3 (they tried twice before but didn’t like it after awhile) so I am now named Chou-yu-yao. We laughed some more, and later I was served iced green tea which I don’t think the glass was fully rinsed because at it taste like soap and the top was extremely bubbly, they didn’t even pop or dissolve away even after I finished but I still drank it incase that was the way it was supposed to be. Then after for a bit I walked around with Sunny trying to have a decent conversation with what little English she new and what little Chinese I knew, all in all it turned out pretty good. Once we got back the girls decided they’d laughed enough and it was time to go. We said good bye and sunny gave me her msn, they told me how to say good bye but I’m still having a difficult time remembering all these weird sounds in order. I can’t say the day was very interesting past this, we talked some more with what words we knew, ate dinner together (she is an amazing cook btw still not as good as my actual mother though :P), oh but we did go on a bike ride up to the top of the hill and got a spectacular view of the ocean.
Day 3
This was an amazing day, Jenny came and got me in the morning for a delicious breakfast, then I put on my beach stuff and walked down to the beach, I couldn’t go swimming but that wasn’t a problem since every single rock on the beach is perfect for skipping, so I sat there and listened to some tuneskies as I huked some rocks at the water. I had originally intended to walk to the end of the beach but it was so far and the sun was so hot any thing a few meters a way was distorted by rise hot air, so I decided against because heat stroke really sucks but I do intent on going some other day because at the end theres a huge cliff where the wave hit making a huge kind of geyser effect. I wondered back 30 some odd minutes later to find my mother was up and about. Oh ya and the night before I ended up talking with Sunny, after awhile she offered to take me to a night market if my mother said it was ok. So after some explanation she phones up sunny and now we’re going to a Chinese tea house for lunch, then to a movie. So I clean myself up and we head into the city to pick sunny up. After we pick her up from the apartment her and my mother talk for abit and she translate a few things from my mother to me about I’ll change my American tomorrow and that she’s paying for this. We get dropped off at a pretty fancy looking Chinese tea house. We got upstairs and Sunny had to order for me because well I’m Chinese impaired and it’s not like Spanish were some word look similar….it’s all completely new characters haha. After the food arrives needless to say the tea was amazing like absolutely awesome. After we had our tea the food came out, again in rather larger potions and I’m going to have to admit I was unable to finish my Beef noodle soup but shit don’t phase right :P.
Next we walked over and she said we still have time before movie, so we looked up and saw a huge add for bowling . She asked if I knew how to bowl and I told them I was trained by a master (a.k.a. Jordan) she giggled and we went inside. It was up on the second floor and as soon as we got out of the elevator I noticed something….Bowling is rad in Taiwan, there are tons of asianed out teenagers and bumping rap. I was pretty excited. Once we finally got a lane, we sat down grabbed some balls and I guess I was up first and I was kinda nervous because well there was some to rad for life guys next to us playing pretty well and eyeing me up lol, plus this was the first time playing 10 pin. I line up throw and boom strike, I was pretty happy. So the game goes on Sunny didn’t do so hot the first game and I was on fire 172 haha even though the ball did slip off my finger and go backwards and I did end up hitting my calf and gutterballing. So I start showing her how to bowl, instead of dropping it and hoping it makes it, and she start bowling great she broke 100 this time I was so happy, she even got a strike. The game finished up and needless to say I don’t think I’ve ever had that much fun bowling…EVER. So we take off to the movies and it turns out the only two movies that aren’t full Chinese are Mama Mia and Mummy 4 (it says Mummy 3 but Jet-Li was on the poster so it must have been a mistake or something), I ended up choosing the lesser of two evils and decided to go see Mama Mia because I had already seen the Mummy 4 and it was god awful. After grabbing some popcorn and talking some more the movie starts up and it was just as girly as I thought but it was interesting thinking what life would be like if everyone randomly burst into perfectly choreographed song and danced. Oh btw I wont ruin it but the ending does not make sense what so ever, maybe I need a vagina or something to understand. So we leave and phone up Mama Hana to pick us up, we talk for a bit and try and figure out what style of dancing these people are learning (they we’re in a fully glass encased room on the second floor of a building, I thought it was kinda cool). It did take awhile for my mother to arrive mainly because she drive pretty slow, I personally think it’s because of the classic Disney movie music but I enjoyed the time soaking up the city life. She finally arrives in her ford sedan, and we go drop Sunny off at home, I think she wants me to teach her how to longboard and go fishing sometime. I’m glad that I’ve actually made a friend, yay for me :D. So I arrive back home and Hana say she’s going to a party so I get to sit and eat with all the restaurant staff and you know what? It was unreal, I sat with this little Aboriginal girl named Amen and David, I listened to them make fun of each other like Hannah, Erin and I do and surprisingly I got in on this and we started ganging up on each other surprisingly not in English, I can’t really describe this but the short version is I was having a freaking blast, they said they’d take me to some fun places in Taiwan and maybe go surfing.
This goes on for about 2 or 3 hours, rad all the way through, I got to bed and ya here I am in my room writing this up for you guys.
Moral: TAIWAN IS AWSOME, I still miss you guys dun worry Taiwan wont take your place
<3 Ben
posted by Ben @ 5:12 AM
Comments: 3
