After we were all completed with our makeovers we went to have lunch together at a very authentic Chinese restaurant. So I will share with you how little we knew about the culture. Because our group was so big we ended up at two large tables with Dr. Chen (professor/ native of Taiwan) at one and just students at the other. The table without Dr. Chen had an interesting experience when ordering the food. We just assumed that we should each order something off the menu( ya know like you would pretty much anywhere you go to eat). Wrong… apparently the culture tends to share food more often than not so the portions are a little larger than we had expected. Needless to say we found ourselves with an abundance of food that we were having a hard time finishing. Oh did I mention they don’t do the whole leftovers box and they generally think it is rude to leave food on the table and not finish. Ha Ha… We were in quite the pickle. I don’t think any of us at that table ate dinner that night we were so fool. After lunch we experienced monster ice which is a popular dessert over here. It is basically shaved ice with fresh mangos and sauce over top and sherbert. Really really really good….ummmm… just reminiscing (lol). I unfortunately did not take a picture of it…. Sorry. I am sure we will have it again though before we leave so I will try to remember then.
After the delicious monster ice we went to the National Palace Museum to tour some of the historical artifacts of Chinese culture. It was a massive museum that you could easily get lost in with all the rooms and hallways. We stayed there and watched a concert of traditional music being played as well. After the museum we headed to one of the largest night markets. I knew there would be some chaos and a lot of people but it is hard to even imagine it until your right in the middle of it. All I can say is WOW!! More people shops, food vendors, and interesting look things than any human brain could process at one given time. It was a little overwhelming to say the least. The picture I posted doesn’t even really give it justice. We had been told that the food was really good at the night market however I really didn’t see much that I thought to be edible..ha ha. They eat a lot of really strange foods over here and they are all cooked in ways that are really unusual to us. They have this one thing called stinky tofu and you guessed it.. it stinks. Oh does it stink.. It is quite unbearable to just walk by, the odor is so pronounced. So when walking through any food area you are hit with some rather good smells and then some really unappetizing bad smells. I just can’t figure out how you could eat something that smells that bad… This concluded Friday so as you can tell we are doing a tremendous amount of things each day we are here.
After the delicious monster ice we went to the National Palace Museum to tour some of the historical artifacts of Chinese culture. It was a massive museum that you could easily get lost in with all the rooms and hallways. We stayed there and watched a concert of traditional music being played as well. After the museum we headed to one of the largest night markets. I knew there would be some chaos and a lot of people but it is hard to even imagine it until your right in the middle of it. All I can say is WOW!! More people shops, food vendors, and interesting look things than any human brain could process at one given time. It was a little overwhelming to say the least. The picture I posted doesn’t even really give it justice. We had been told that the food was really good at the night market however I really didn’t see much that I thought to be edible..ha ha. They eat a lot of really strange foods over here and they are all cooked in ways that are really unusual to us. They have this one thing called stinky tofu and you guessed it.. it stinks. Oh does it stink.. It is quite unbearable to just walk by, the odor is so pronounced. So when walking through any food area you are hit with some rather good smells and then some really unappetizing bad smells. I just can’t figure out how you could eat something that smells that bad… This concluded Friday so as you can tell we are doing a tremendous amount of things each day we are here.
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