DAY OF FUN!!

Hello all,
sorry for our being slack last night, I think our post would not have been intelligible we were so tired. Today however we are both full of energy probably due to the exciting and fun day trip we took. This morning we had a bakery breakfast which included a croissant, chocolate cake, cheesecake brownie, ham sandwich, and a pastry with chocolate inside and sprinkles!! It was just what everyone was craving. We also had grape juice which was amazing because I am certainly having a shortage of fruit in my life over here.

We then took a bus to Yingge to the ceramics museum which was beautiful! We then ventured up the street to a pottery shop where we threw clay and made various bowls, pots, and vases. The owners were incredibly good and helped each of us and did demonstrations. I had to start over with new clay because i was enjoying playing too much i ended up ruining my first bowl- oops! Then we had lunch in the shop- probably the first meal I really didn't prefer- it was still good just didn't want it. The owners let us each pick one mug to take home too! everyone here is so hospitable its crazy; for example, we were combining rooms to save money when we are gone for our over night trip tomorrow and the inn keeper said just to leave everything and he isn't charging us! And at dinner we each got to take home our little glass with the Taiwanese beer label on it!




In the town they have a shopping alley which has shops every few feet mostly filled with pottery of all sorts. Everyone in our group bought tons of stuff and presents for loved ones. We only had an hour to shop otherwise we certainly would have bought about double. All of the pottery and tea sets were beautiful and not outrageously priced! Before we left to get back on our bus we stopped to watch these little kids dance a traditional aboriginal dance from the Philippines. After they finished their performance they asked us to join in another dance which of course Rachel and I obliged. It took me about the first minute to figure out exactly what steps we were doing!

After Yingge we headed out to another town to ride bikes on the green way. We rented four person bikes and rode around. There was tons to see- beaches, shops on the side of the road, stray dogs (which are everywhere) cars, scooters, and other bikers. There seem to be no traffic laws here at all sometimes we fear for our lives just crossing the street between classes its ridiculous! Little kids on bikes and scooters were cutting us off the whole time! We saw the most adorable pet dogs while riding one golden retriever was carrying a basket in its mouth what was in it i have no idea. The other was just a cute little fluff ball with a curly tail.



After bike riding we were off to the fish market! They had fish swimming in tanks, dead fish, fried fish, fish on sticks (I feel like i'm in forest gump). Rachel had a nice encounter with a puffer fish! By this time we were all sweaty, salty, and sandy I will never enjoy a shower more! They also had the coolest bridge and the waves were huge! We went to dinner at a restaurant near by and at dinner Rachel and I tried our first Taiwanese Beer; SO GOOD! It may be too plain for some of our friends but it perfect to us! Dinner was family style again including; shrimp that had "frosting" and sprinkles and tasted like dessert, bowl of green onion/Chinese spinach/garlic, chicken, tofu chicken soup stuff, rice shrimp mix, clams, and lots of other stuff.



Can't wait for our first over night trip to Taroko Gorge and Hualien for white water rafting, hiking, aboriginal dance show, shopping, and stuff :)
Night night
-K
P.S.- I went back and added pictures to the other posts too!