9/30/2001

9:00am Jiantan YAC
Friday was just a travel day. G and I were on the later flight with only 300 people so things went pretty smoothly. We took a bus to the airport. Before we left, Mama Asai climbed on the bus to wish us a good trip and all the staff members waved to us until we were out of sight. Kansai airport was almost empty. It took no time at all for us to get through security and customs and immigration. We had a really long time to wait so we just sat and relaxed. There was a Coke machine that only took US dollars so we had a little fun and spent American money. Of course, it was $1.00 for a regular can, so it wasn't all that great.

The airplane was empty too, so once we all got on we switched seats. G and I had a row to ourselves but we just both read books. The flight was crazy bumpy and a flight attendant spilled a drink on me. We also got a meal on the plane. From the plane we got another bus. Actually, we could tell we were in a different country from the minute we got off the plane. There were huge signs that told us that the punishment for bringing drugs into Taiwan is death. That was fun. Plus there was a disinfectant carpet. Another round of immigration, baggage check, customs, and then bus. There was a great guy on the bus who told us interesting facts about Taiwan and himself and was pretty funny. He said his name was either Mr. Nee, Mr. Gui, Mr. Gnai, or Mr. Gay. This weekend begins the mid-autumn festival when people visit their native homes away from the city. This meant that the roads were all jammed up. It took almost 2 hours to go 35 miles.

But during that time we all felt so much at home. Drivers drive on the right side of the road here. The cars are all normal size. Looking out the bus window it looked like we were driving from O'Hare to Schaumburg. When we got here, Prof. Winship was ready with our $NT allowance ($2000NT, or just about US $58). We got room assignments that were different from what we signed up for, but that was ok because Emily and I got to room together with Giordana (who I actually don't know that well). We surveyed the snack shop, then went upstairs to unpack.

This place is wonderful! 3 of us in a 4 person room gives us so much space. The beds are on one wall, there's a desk on the other with a TV and water boiler. There's benches and plenty of floor space for our suitcases. In our room is a bathroom with two sinks and a shower and a toilet. The beds don't have mattresses, and the pillows are tiny, but the comforters are great. It does seem a little dirtier than other places. We've been warned about geckos and bugs, though I haven't seen either.

Anyway, after admiring our suite G and I went exploring for dinner. We walked out of the Center and it hit home again that we were not in Japan anymore. Motor bikes everywhere! Like a bicycle race packed together but motorized and faster. We were warned that traffic rules were merely suggestions and to be careful. In places there weren't even crosswalk signs near big intersections. People pretty much just did whatever they wanted. Scooters sometimes even drove on the sidewalk. They usually park their bikes there.

There were no other pedestrians, the sidewalk wasn't even all that great- it was cracked and uneven all the time. Things were just really dirty. The air was humid, there was a rotten egg smell in the air combined with scooter smoke. As we walked it felt like we were walking through a slum almost. Stores were tiny and messy, people were dirty and dressed in dirty old clothes. There was garbage mixed into puddles on the sidewalk. We walked past the 7-11 (big landmark) and down the street. We didn't see anywhere to eat really. Just more of the same. There were cars parked on the side of the street so we had to walk in the street. Once we realized there were no more lights we turned around. We explored the 7-11 for dinner. G got a hot dog. I got some light bread, noodles, and custard. We came back to the YAC and ate while watching Austin Powers 2 in English on HBO.


So, yesterday was unbelievable. It started with a lecture by an Ecological Demographer. I took notes. Then lunch of whole fish, shrimp, some BBQ meat with bones in it, octopus, rice (thank God) and a miso soup with unidentifiable meat in it. I got cookies (really rice cakes with sugar on them) to supplement that meal. We all took a few hour break to nap, read, watch movies, so we could have more energy for the fabulous night we were about to have.

We left here at about 3:30pm and went to the subway station. It was wet outside, but no rain. Humid like Tokyo where standing makes you sweat. The subway was easy, but the cars were not like Tokyo. They were more like Chicago with hard plastic benches in groups of 2. There were no sleeping businessmen and we were just as loud as other Taiwanese. The car only went two stops because the rest of the line is flooded. When we got out it took us a long time to orient ourselves. We wanted to go South through the city and end up at Snake Alley after dark to experience it.

That's what we did. Again the sidewalks were uneven but there were more crosswalk signs here, and bridges over the intersections in many places. There really wasn't much to stop and see. Many food stalls, shoe stores, and tons of men sitting on boxes playing cards. We passed dozens of stray dogs. The goal temporarily became to find TGI Friday's. We got hungry before that and split up. Jen, Jeremy, G, Eric and Eric went to a buffet. Meghan, Emily and I went to McDonalds. It was wonderful  to know exactly what I was eating and get full on it. Plus we talked about being annoyed at people, and that's always cleansing.

After dinner we went shopping at NET which resembled GAP in many ways. We all found clothes we liked that fit. I was still looking for shorts- the closest I came was a pair of capris that were too small. The boys all bought matching Back Street Boys white zipper shirts, and we girls bought Team 1 sleeveless shirts (only $99NT). We continued walking in search of the night market. At one point we passed 3-4 blocks of what looked like pet shops- birds in cages mostly but also mice, gerbils, baby rabbits, cats and dogs. It smelled disgusting and I just had a feeling that this was not really a pet store.

We finally got out of that area at another big street. As we were waiting to cross, a Taiwanese woman in dirty clothes started yelling at us in perfect English. Despite that it was in English we really couldn't hear what she was saying. Something about the "Chinese dirty Americans, why are you here scum of the Earth?" So we walked quickly away. Very quickly. We kept walking until the boys saw a dirty alley and assumed snake alley would be down there. Nope. Just people selling old clothes and probably stolen electronics.

Someone asked directions and we kept walking. Eventually we found a temple. It looked open so we went inside. It was absolutely beautiful. The colors were great, the decoration was great, there were rows of decorated columns all lit up (lots of lighting, very flashy). People were praying and bowing with incense in their hands. The pots were overflowing with the smell. There were tons of people at different areas of the complex. Around every corner seemed another place to pray. Incense pots were everywhere. There were lots of tables with food on them and flowers. We saw people kneeling and bowing, offering food to the gods. Every inch of wall, ceiling and pillar was beautifully decorated. There was music coming from somewhere, but I don't know where. Along one side of the temple was what looked like an office with people sitting behind desks. This surprised me because it was already 8:00 at night. Outside the temple but inside the gate were 3 waterfalls. I don't think they were natural, but I couldn't really tell. There was moss and trees and rocks and a koi pond at the bottom. There were lights in the water also and it was beautiful. We stood there for quite a while and took pictures. We looked at the map and saw that we were very close to the snakes.

We found the sign that said Tourist Night Market and walked in. It was a lot like Asakusa in Tokyo. Clothing shops, little souvenir shops, electronics shops, all on either side of the aisle. There were also many food stalls selling food I've never seen before. There were foot massage places (real ones where you could see people getting massages), fish market stores and "adult" stores. The adult stores were pretty numerous. Plus, they weren't hidden. I thought a lot about the stores in relation to the population speech we got in the morning. Anyway, as we walked we started hearing men speaking in Chinese over microphones. We found a man speaking at a table with a snake and a headset mic. He was playing with the snake, petting it, cleaning it, coiling it up and uncoiling it, making loud noises to scare it, showing it a rabbit.

After quite a while of his constant stream of Chinese, he put the snake on the ground and hit his head with a hammer. Then he hung the snake by the head and it wriggled a little. He took a small pair of scissors and slit the skin about halfway up the snake. He pulled the skin off and snipped an artery. The blood drained into a mug of whisky. He lifted the tail and folded it to squeeze it all out. Then he cut the heart out and dipped it in something that looked like alcohol. The heart kept beating on the table for about 5 minutes all by itself. He skinned the snake farther down and cut out a little black organ. He pinched the organ and drained the black liquid into a clear liquid. He poured those two into separate shot glasses and then two more different liquids into two more shot glasses. These he placed onto a tray with some soup and gestured back to the restaurant. That was great- just wonderful. I felt extremely uncomfortable. G got excited and ran to find the boys. They watched another snake get the same treatment (without the knock on the head), and went back to the first guy whose stall looked cleaner. Jeremy, G and Eric all took shots of the blood (which included a fairly large pill of perhaps antibiotic). We walked a little farther and got to a game stall. There were little BB guns and balloons. You won a beer if you shot 5 balloons. Of course they were very deflated and the BB's were light plastic. Despite that (or because of it) G's BB's kept bouncing off and one hit me in the face. It hurt and I ducked down to the floor for the rest of the game. Eric won a beer. I was ok, it hit my glasses. We took the long walk home after I stopped at McDonalds for a pit stop (poop on the squatter). I crashed after that but everyone else stayed up and hung out.