Good Exhaustion

I'm exhausted, and I don't think it has as much to do with the fact that it's 1:30am as it does with our itinerary today. Which is, of course, the best source of exhaustion in existence: the satisfied kind.

Today found us, after a sumptuous Western-and-Taiwanese style breakfast and a stop to buy the legendary sun cakes of Taichung, on the outskirts at the Tong Feng bikeway, renting bikes and riding around to see Shih Gang Reservoir, some very pretty scenery, and scores of tourists who were inappropriately dressed for riding bikes but persevering anyway. (My favorite was a lady wearing high-heeled knee-high boots, personally...though not when she was driving in front of me up a hill.) It made my jeans and tennis shoes look like training gear for the Tour de France.

After biking for a good 8 miles or so (I think? The map was a bit confusing and all in kilometers...), we took our bikes back and enjoyed some sweet green bean soup, which was surprisingly good, and a little peanut candy, which was understandably scrumptious.

Then it was off to the amusement park! At Yamay, we ate lunch as a group of apparently Russian dancers performed dressed as pieces of candy and cowboys on the windy platform outside. I couldn't help but feel for them: I doubt that this is what they had in mind when they said they had been offered a job in Taiwan. But I also couldn't help remembering Brittany, Rachel and Karina's assessment of the Russians they met in mainland China--let's just say snobby--and think there's a nice touch of irony in this group's job.

We then meandered through the park, eventually settling on a white water rafting ride, the slightly cold and quite windy weather notwithstanding, and came out fine, thanks to the wonder that is the poncho. Then it was The Pirate for Emily and I (aka the Viking Ship, for US friends' reference), and then I talked Emily into edging her way towards the big ride--the one highlighted here--by trying out the Energy Storm (aka Octopus/Scrambler/whatever).

That turned out not to be a good idea. See, next we headed for the Gravity Max, which she was hesitant about. When we reached the top of the very, very long waiting area, she told me she would be right back and vanished, leaving me attempting to communicate to the three non-English-speaking employees that I was waiting for my friend but that they should go ahead with the ride (nonexistent line=you wait for people, apparently). About 15 minutes later, she came back to say the Energy Storm ride had done her in--and then we left, undoubtedly leaving the employees scratching their heads about the odd foreign girl who stood at the entrance for 15 minutes and then didn't go on the ride. Oh well.

Then it was time to head back, but not before a stop along the way at Dong Shan service area for a delicious dinner of turkey rice and wonton soup.

When they dropped me off at my front door, this exhaustion settled on me, reminding me of all the wonders of the day.

Oh hey there, Taichung!

Absolutely wonderful. As I type this, I'm laying on my bed at the gorgeous Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Taichung, as my host sister Emily checks her Facebook on her phone on the other bed. What a glorious day!

As is usually the case when I had a great day of sightseeing, I don't particularly want to describe it in full detail, but, unlike most of those days, I have my memory chip already in my computer and ready to pull pictures at will, so even with minimal description, this post should give you a good idea of my day.

To begin with, of course, I had school, where Patty and I taught food-related words to the 5th graders, repeating "Coca-Cola" enough times to brainwash myself into buying one after class (true story), and engaging each class in a debate as to whether soup is a drink or a food (Taiwanese say drink, Americans say food!).

Then I came home, and had the treat of being able to talk to both my cousin, Julia, and my Mom and Dad, before throwing some clothes in an overnight bag and running downstairs to meet James, Margaret, and Emily.

And then it was off for Taichung! But not, of course, without a stop at the whimsical Ceramics Art Village in Chiayi. It was charming with everything made of ceramics and with benches of every ilk:

A cow...

A basketball...

Yes, that's a full-sized ceramic TREE!

Different sort of ceramic cow--way more fun to sit on :)

It's a ceramic phoenix!

...and a real, live rooster that came out of nowhere.

 A quick car ride away, we stopped at a Taiwanese antique attraction, which also featured...a turkey. With territorial issues.

James had some fun with it :)

There, we snacked on roasted (smoked? Not quite sure, actually) yams/sweet potatoes (also not sure on that one...) before moving on towards Taichung. A quick service area stop and a delicious IRISH CREAM (first time I've ever seen that flavor here) latte for me later, we hit our destination, and I took in my first impressions of the heart of Taichung, which oddly reminded me more of its larger neighbor Taipei than of  closer-sized Kaohsiung.

On arriving at our hotel, I discovered that it is GORGEOUS! I mean really, truly, absolutely gorgeous, and one of the nicest hotel's I've ever stayed at. I am so grateful to be here now.

Emily's and my room tonight--yeah, that's a full-on sitting area at the end, and this isn't the whole room :)

 Perhaps as a result of that gorgeousness, we found that our fellow residents are largely foreign, of the Western-and-Japanese variety. Looking around the hotel lobby, I was met by face after white face. It was eery. You don't notice it while it's happening, but living in a country where you stick out like a sore thumb brings you to the point where something seems wrong if you don't. Seeing foreigner after foreigner after foreigner is just too weird to me now! I don't know what I'll do when I make it back to America.

Pictured: pizza in a cone, going into a cone-shaped hole in an oven

Anyway. We settled in and headed to Feng Chia night market, the largest in Taiwan with 1,600 stands, for dinner. We had pizza--in a cone. Quite good. And then, after Emily and Margaret ate a local delicacy consisting of a hot dog inside a sausage, and Emily got a delicious-smelling chicken-and-cheese concoction--I was too full to partake, this time anyway--I grabbed a five-fruit juice and then Margaret and I each got hot sweet soup with sticky rice. Lovely!



So that was my wonderful day. On the agenda for tomorrow: more amazing times with my host family.