Taiwan Handicraft Promotion Center

Sunday April 21^st, 2013

Woke up. Ate breakfast. Went back to sleep. I abandoned the idea of going to church today because I wasn’t feeling too hot. A good quality sleep was achieved for a suitable seven or so hours but it just didn’t feel like enough. Another few hours were necessary to achieve a semi-functional Andrea.

At noon, I was awoken by my host family to come and eat lunch. With my hair in a mess and feet dragging, I slowly shuffled by way to the table. They made a comment on how cold it was but I countered with how hot I was feeling at the moment. This immediately struck them as a sign of sickness and encouraged me to drink some soup. I knew I wasn’t sick, just warmed from sleeping under the covers with my window closed. Regardless it was sweet of them to be concerned about my health.

Once the majority of my senses came to, host father, mother and I took the car out for a two-part trip. First was a newly build sugar manufacturing museum that ended up being short, unimpressive and completely lacking English. Not a very foreigner friendly. But it was a first visit for both my host family and I so it was just exploring.

In the car we passed a short parade-looking procession with loud resounding music and several traditional ritual items. Host father said it was an inspection of a sort, bringing the Gods to see if the area’s people had peace and health. I don’t quite understand why since they don’t do anything other than walk through some streets. How can they know if there’s peace and health? If there isn’t, what can they do? I still don’t know much about Taiwanese religions, as you can tell. :P

The second location was a place called “Taiwan Handicraft Promotion Center.” It comprises of four stories, each with various Taiwanese merchandise. Products varied from ceramics, jewelry, wall scrolls, T-shirts, CDs and much, much more. Many items I’ve seen only once in several different places where for the most part all collectively here in one compressed Taiwanese retailing package of a store. I took pleasure in browsing through the wide selection, though only with a window-shopping mindset. In my enjoyment I couldn’t shake a tired and vaguely weak feeling. No I wasn’t very lively but still smiled, talked and all that jazz. I wouldn’t have minded going through the entire four stories a second time but I’ll admit I was relieved when we left. Too weary and mentally lacking was I. :P

We came upon a do-it-yourself, price-based-on-weight buffet linked with a girl’s college dormitory. Despite this fact, many adults ate here for the cheapness, convenience and food selection. My host family was no different. I’ve grown to love buffets because I can choose what and how much I want. Therefore my dinner was a good healthy tray (from what I can tell) filled with delicious choices. And indeed it was delicious. The hunk of chicken was nummy and the tofu wasn’t the stinky tofu I thought it to be. Instead it was just tofu fried on the outside with the inside still soft mushy white tofu.

Available in unlimited quantity was two soups. One was a miso soup and the other a sweeter liquid. It basically tasted like water with a bit of sugar added and a few small jelly rectangles thrown in. Both had their own good qualities.

For the remainder of the night, the most outstanding thing I did was tackle my room. I borrowed a digital scale from my host family to weigh the impending threat of objects scattered throughout the area. Even with paying the penalty of a third suitcase, I’m still worried about exceeding the weight limit for the plane. For early planning and either relieving or worsening my fears, I recorded the mass of my Taiwanese stuff. If the numbers are correct, I seem…seeeeeeeeem to be ok. I still have yet to weigh all the collected papers of Taiwanese landmarks, which are way more than a few sheets. Knowing some are virtually useless, I went through the bulk and weeded out some I didn’t have any loyalty to. At the end my room looked cleaner than before, an appreciated improvement over the cluttered mess of souvenir bags. I liked cleaning but there was a feeling of dread for when I’ll have to stuff this all in suitcases. It’ll be really soon.

Good night now. Catch y’all later.