October

October is finally here, but unfortunately autumn doesn't come to the island of Taiwan.  Well, it's the second week of October, and there are a few things coming up.  Speech contest for my TH5 students and Halloween Party.  For the Halloween Party, I was assigned to provide the music.  So I am using some Pink Floyd (off the Ummagumma album), Sun O))) & Boris (off of the Altar album, very dark), and Ulver (from the Silencing The Singing (EP)).  

I am going to try to find more music to put on it but for now thats what I have.  I didn't write a blog last week, so I am trying my hardest to remember what happened...oh yes.  Two weekends ago, we had school on Saturday (10/4) because we didn't have school on 10/10 (Taiwan Independence Day or something).   I spent the day cleaning the apartment while Jennifer went off to her second class.  Jennifer's dad came in and visited us for a bit.  He took us to dinner and we met up with one of their cousins.  He was pretty cool, unfortunately, I don't remember his name.  That night we ate Taiwanese cuisine.  Taiwanese food is generally spicier than regular Chinese food.  They use peanuts more as well.  I tried oysters that night, they were fried but I don't really want to eat them again.  The next day, Sunday, Jennifer and I ventured over to the far side of town to go to the Nougat Museum.  I know what you're thinking: Nougat museum in Taiwan?  WTF mate?  It was pretty cool for a nougat museum.  Being tourists and all, we went through the backdoor and not the front.  Whoops.  Ah well, because of that we didn't have to pay admission, I think.  In the Lonely Planet book on Taiwan it says that there is an admission fee.  But it was interesting, we watched a documentary on how to make nougat.  I didn't understand it because it was in Mandarin with Mandarin subtitles.  Jennifer told me a little bit about it.  I don't remember though.  While walking through the museum, we saw the different instruments that they used to make nougat.  

I should mention that on that the walk to the museum from the metro station was interesting.  I don't know how to describe it, let's just say that it was kind of bleak.  Warehouses all over the place.  But, something that was interesting was a restaurant where you fish for your food.  It's only a pool of water but you're given a reel.  I thought it a little bizarre.  So I took a picture, I'll need to get that off of Jenn's camera.  But, the walk to the museum, bleak as it was, had cow statues every so often to tell you that you were going the right way.  We did find a credit card on the side of the road.  I didn't turn it in, instead I destroyed it.  Yeah.

But back to the museum.  We took some cool pictures there, they had those rice patty hats, so naturally I had to wear one.  And there was a gong, so naturally, I had to hit it.  I'll post pictures at some point.  At the end of the tour, we were able to sample the nougat that they make.  It was pretty good.  Jennifer ended up buying some.

We then proceeded to go to a SOGO, which is a fancy mall in Taipei.  I had to buy a swim cap because I broke mine earlier in the week while I was swimming.  What happened was: I adjusted my cap and it snapped.  So I thought, "what do I do now?"  I put the pieces on the side of the pool and continued swimming.  The next time I stopped, the lifeguard looked at me and gestured to put my cap on.  I showed her the broken cap and then continued to swim.  Next time I stopped, she went and got a swim cap for me to wear.  So anyways, I had to buy a swim cap and they are expensive now, $310NT or $9.52.  Thats all for that week.