Hao chi-de

Hopefully this blog post won't be quite as long, but I just wanted to write a little bit about what we did yesterday and today. After working out Saturday morning, we went to Apple203 and had a most delicious breakfast! I think it might be called shou zhua bing, and that could be totally wrong, but it is definitely one of my favorite things so far. It is an egg that is cooked into a kind of shell that is just amazing! Love it. On our way back there was a sort of health fair right outside of our building, so we stopped by...ate some watermelon, some sort of tea (hopefully it was different from the 'Taiwanese Beer' cans that we saw everywhere, but who knows!), watched people smoke as they had their blood pressure taken...what and interesting sight..ha, and were entertained by some great Karaoke!

We met up with Jane, a nurse that lives in our apartment building and works at the hospital. She is such a cute girl and we loved spending the day with her! We took a taxi to Anping while we had a lesson in Chinese from our taxi driver Mei as I feared for my life a little. The driving here is crazy! I swear there are no traffic rules. Between the cars, taxis, buses, scooters, and bikes, everyone seems to drive however they want...and pedestrians NEVER have the right of way...scary! The Anping District is kind of the historical center of Taiwan and was once occupied by the Dutch East India Company. While there we visited Fort Zeelandia which was built by the Dutch as the first castle in Taiwan. I still don't understand a lot of Taiwanese history, but it was fun to learn a little bit more about it!

In Anping, we visited our first Buddhist Temple. It was amazing to watch countless Taiwanese individuals and families pass through the temple to burn incense, pray, or buy sacrifices to pay to the God's and their ancestors. Jane told us about a practice they do to receive a sort of answer from god, so we thought we'd give it a try! We started by praying to God and asking a question, then we dropped these moon shaped wooden pieces until they landed one up, one down three times in a row, which indicates your question has been answered. We drew wooden sticks that had numbers corresponding to a drawer in which a poem was found. A man working at the temple was able to interpret this sort of fortune poem and then Jane interpreted them into English for each of us. The man told me I would marry late...ha. I told him I was engaged to be married in August and he quickly retracted it, but told me that I needed to pay back any money I have stolen (I racked my brain, but couldn't come up with any memory of stealing money! Ha) and that I needed to make sure I stayed on the good, straight path, so that was good advice!

While looking at Fort Zeelandia and the other historical sites we heard several fire crackers and saw a parade beginning, so we went over to watch the parade into the Buddhist Temple! It was wild! But really cool to see the way they celebrate and honor their God's.

While in Anping I tried Garlic Snails that you sucked out of the shells and they were sure delicious! We were doing a little shopping and there were some food samples that we would stop to try. I chose a sample that looked like chicken..thinking it was a relatively safe bet. It was indeed chicken...but after biting down on its cartilaginous texture, I quickly realized it was chicken feet and swallowed it whole- GROSS!

We did a lot of people watching in Anping while waiting for a group to finish their shopping. In fact, we passed by a white man and in awe we kind of took a second look and in shock he said "hello!" ...he was definitely an American :) It is always kind of shocking to see another white person among so many Asian faces! He was one of about 3 that I have seen..ha! People here are generally intrigued by us...a big group of Americans wandering around taking pictures of seemingly mundane things. The people frequently ask us to take pictures with them or we will catch them trying to take our picture without us noticing; it is pretty funny! I had a guy at the Buddhist temple that was taking picture of me every time I turned! Eventually he planted himself on a chair straight across from where I was standing with his camera glued to his hand...can't imagine what blog or facebook those will end up on! Watching families pass is one of my favorite things to do. Most everyone rides scooters around and it is common to see three adults riding on one scooter with a toddler standing between their legs and a dog hanging off somehow. It is incredible!

As we sat in front of the 711, a Buddhist monk passed back and forth several times. This beautiful, bald monk clothed in her simple brown and yellow robes with her donation box around her neck, would walk 2 or 3 steps, then drop to her knees to chant and pray, she would rise..walk a few steps and return to her knees. Her feet were black, her soles and palms were worn, and one could almost feel the pain in her legs as she walked. I have seen monks before, but for some reason, she had a big impact on me. Watching her caused me to ponder and reflect upon many things. I wondered a lot about her, who she was...what her life had been like...what kind of things crossed her mind...what she observed around her...what type of personality she had...and how much of it had been erased by a lifetime of wondering asceticism. I was nonetheless inspired by her obvious devotion to her beliefs and motivated to live a more devoted life to the gospel I believe. I am grateful for this woman and the lessons she unknowingly and so gracefully taught me.

Today, I had the wonderful opportunity of attending church here in Tainan. We took a bus to the LDS Chapel. I have never been so happy to be going to church! The spirit of love and unity I felt as we entered the building was overwhelming. We met the American missionaries there (some of them interpreted for us) as well as several of the ward members. It was incredible to hear the testimonies of such strong and devoted saints. How amazing it is to be able to travel to the opposite site of the world and experience consistency in the most important part of my life.