last night night market

so it's our last night at the night market and we have some shopping to do! i need a necklace (made from glass nepalese beads!) that ann bought, so poom said she and johnny would take me there. the only catch was i had to eat stinky tofu.

i tried everything to get out of it, including: "oh, i ate too much dinner i'm full" (we just walked around for an hour), to "i just called my mom and she said i was allergic" (christine, you have yet to buy a phone card), to "they just ran out" (there are like a million booths that sell it); to "i just ran out of money" (they paid for it). so basically i was stuck. now let me tell you -- stinky tofu just isn't tofu. it's STINKY, as in the first time i smelled it i looked for the sewer line that broke, ran through the river of decomposing bodies, through the valley of rotten eggs, around the bend through the land of overturned, overflowing porta potties and ended up in the big wok steaming ahead of me.

anyway, i bought a big-ass glass of lime-ade (the limes are the size of oranges here) and got ready for my first bite. they say if you can get past the smell, it's not that bad tasting, it tastes like normal tofu ... so i just have to wonder then why put all the work into stinking it up if it's just going to end up tasting like normal tofu? but i am a visitor in this land, not here to question.

i take a bite and it's really not that bad. it just tastes like normal tofu. i still wash it down with the limeade just to be sure, but the buildup was worse than the taste. to be truthful we had the fried version, and i guess the steamed version is way worse .... but i pulled out the last excuse i had "i'm tired, i'm going home" so we had to grab the next booth we saw, which i had seen coming .... the fried booth. ;)

June 21 -- last day in taiwan

ok, i am going to try and forget i am in this godforsaken china place and reflect back on my time in taiwan, as i don't think i got to everything and it would take me to a happy place in my head.

so we boarded the bus in the morning to visit the other campus for ming chuan university just outside of tapei, where we were greeted by cheering and clapping students who had formed a little like welcoming us! (caron and kelly, it was just like the nordstrom secret shopping events!) then we had this reception thing, which i have learned are little formal things they do, like introductions, greetings, exchange gifts, remarks, etc. ..... then we had a campus tour. they were very hospitable and we were so happy to be there. CSULB is a sister campus with them along with Michigan State and another school i can't remember.

it's our second day of straight sunshine, so that means it's hot and humid again. i think a few of us are secretly wishing the rain would return.

after our campus tour -- which featured a peek at their "american culture" room, which included a poster of JFK, christmas decorations, a copy of the declaration of independence, a colonial/pioneer dress and a fireplace ("often the center of an american household") -- we headed to EVA Airlines, an airline HQ'd in Taipei. We even had a greeting by the chairman himself! (whose son graduated from CSULB). We visited their training center for pilots, ground crew and stewardesses and got to sit in the cockpit flight simulators! there were also many mock planes we got to go aboard for their emergency drills -- there was even a pool they use for those "water landings" that never happen.

the cockpits sure have a lot of knobs and buttons and levers and such ... i just wonder where they fit the DVD player and cupholder. the training was actually quite cool and it seems pretty advanced to my untrained eye. the thing is, if you want to be a pilot with EVA, you have to graduate from college and then sign a 15-year contract with them! they pay for all of your flight school and training and licenses, etc ..... you live in their dorms, etc .... so you just have to decide if it's worth it. basically, they said they have no trouble filling up the slots!

but probably one of the more interesting parts of the trip was visiting the "walking room" where they taught the stewardesses how to walk in high heels while serving, and while carrying her shoulder bag and luggage through the airport (shoulder bag on right side, left hand pulling wheelie cart). only women can be stewardesses, as dictated by the chairman himself, and you can tell they need to be beautiful and petite too! it was interesting all right ....

after the airline HQ we shuttled over to Evergreen Cargo shipping HQ which is the other business run by this guy. this was the original business he did, and he added EVA airlines later. so we got to learn about container cargo - both for shipping via air and sea! it was actually v. interesting -- lots of logistics to coordinate. this guy has to be loaded. the business --esp. cargo -- appear to be booming!