First weekend: Food, Baseball and Buses

My whole study abroad group. Only 8 of us, plus Jim Kohl, our instructor. Left to Right it is Calvin, Jane, Alexa, Candice, Me, Katie, Megan, Whitney

So I have survived the first weekend and finally have some time to write about it! After arriving here and unpacking and getting to know the area a little, we have had a little time to explore. Tomorrow, the real work begins because that is our first day in the hospital, where we will be spending a whole lot of our time in the next five weeks. So this weekend was all about catching up on sleep and getting acclimatized, if you will. The first day we were here I forced myself to stay awake so that I could get on schedule again (we are 14 hours ahead of everyone in Utah). Needless-to-say, I was a walking zombie and finally crashed around 8:00 pm and slept a solid 13 hours. Since then I have been pretty much good to go!

A big thing here is FOOD. We don't have a cafeteria or any set food plans so its just on our own, wherever we want. The problem is, we 1) don't know what we want and 2) wouldn't know how to order it if we did. There is a street just a block or so down from our building that is just lined with whatever you could ever want. We have sampled a fair bit so far, but there are many things undiscovered yet. Like stinky tofu. We haven't gotten that brave quite yet.

This is a shaved ice thing with a bunch of different things in it, including red and pinto beans, jelly-like stuff that I actually have no clue what it is, pineapple, and others topped with a molasses syrup. Very interesting. Called chuay bing, or something similar to that.

Shayla, Kat, and Suzanne - little shout-out to you from Taiwan to you via dead duck. Head included.
This man may be my new favorite friend. These little pancake delights are the most delicious thing. They are some sort of bread thing with filling. It is amazing.

Another thing we have done this weekend was go to the Tainan Lion's baseball game. It was incredible. We found out about this game from a man we got dinner from one night (that is a whole different hilarious story in and of itself) and decided, why not? So we found a bus that we thought would get us there, and it did! (and by the way, the only way we are functioning at all around here is because one of the girls here served her mission in Taiwan and speaks amazing Chinese. We would be completely lost with out her. Thanks Megan!) When we got to the stadium: HOLY COW! These people are into baseball. I have never been to a sporting event period that was so spirited. Let alone a baseball game! Absolutely hysterical. Check out this video. They were like this the ENTIRE game. How they have that much energy I have no clue. We were chanting the song the whole night.



The buses are basically our way around. And walking. A lot of walking. The funny thing is, everyone in Taiwan is super helpful, but not at the same time. They are so willing to tell you things and directions, even if they aren't completely accurate. Everything is either 20 minutes away if you are driving or 2 lights away if walking. But really...it could be much farther. The bus adventures are pretty funny. We never know when the bus is going to get there or where it may take us or how much it will cost, but it has worked out in the end for the most part.

So that is basically it! The first weekend is wrapping up and we are on to a whole different adventure in the hospital tomorrow. We all have NO clue what to expect, but probably more confusion and smiling and nodding. I will be in the ICU for the first 2.5 weeks and then we switch and I go to the community. Oh boy.