Settling Down

The last few days haven't been too exciting so I decided not to post a blog per day.
Thursday and Friday: Work in the lab is taking a painfully slow time to mobilize into the experiment that I know it will be eventually. I'm just worried that Xena will miss the actual analysis but we're going back into the field on Thursday and collecting more samples. We've been reading excerpts of multiple textbooks on coral reefs in general as well as the species that we are working with Stylophora Pistillata. I'm enjoying it here nonetheless and I am learning quite a bit.
Friday night we went out to a late dinner in Ximen which is the Time Square of Taipei. It was sure bustling with a great crowd and I was able to spot out some foreigners that weren't obviously from a part of Asia. Xena and I came across a great street performer all dressed up in green (including a green mask). He turned Daft Punk up loud and began dancing by isolating each movement so that it was as if each part of his body was separate from the other. After walking around a bit we decided to do a little shopping and get our profiles cut out in paper by another wonderful street artist. I stood for 5 minutes as this wonderfully talented man extracted the features of my profile from a small square blue paper. He was quite intriguing and certainly remarkable at what he did. However, I don't believe he liked the way I looked. Although I love the cut out, it looks more like the profile of Sailor Mercury of the animated series Sailor Moon than it does of an American/Egyptian tourist.
Saturday: Saturday was peaceful. Xena and I wandered around our neighborhood a bit and found ourselves sitting at the near by sushi bar. They have a rotating section of the table and you simply pick out the sushi that looks most appetizing and eat it! It's very much like the sushi bar in Johnny English (if you haven't seen it go see it right now). Xena and I both dared ourselves to try sushi that we had never tried before and for the first time I ate a shrimp that had it's head still attached. I know that that isn't daring at all but believe me when it's looking at you while you're eating it it's not as enjoyable. I must admit though... I made Xena take off it's head- I couldn't do it.
We also wondered through the "Traditional Market" and like usual I had to hold my stomach to prevent it from leaving me as I passed stands with decapitated chicken remains. The stench of the meat is sour and as I passed it I felt nauseated.
Xena and I were kinda rushed out of the market by a man on a bicycle who had lost all of his teeth. He rode up from behind us and smiled. "Hello!! NIce!" he said and we looked at him in surprise because the men of Taiwan have proven themselves to be very humble. At first we didn't mind- I mean with Xena's blond hair and my light brown skin I should certainly say that we stick out quite a bit. It did get a bit freaky though when the man began to follow us out of the market and to a 7/11 where we stayed for 10 minutes until he rode away.
Saturday evening was brilliant!!! We were lucky enough to see a performance of Cloud Gate Theater!!!!! Ms. Huang, our host Christina Huang (the owner of the apartment we are now living in) and a young family consisting of a bunch of animated children accompanied us. The performance was so wonderful- the dancers were so fluid and expressive in their movement. I was in awe of the first performance. It was a rendition of an ancient love story, part of Chinese mythology. A young man falls in love with a beautiful woman who grows deeply attached to him. Sadly their differences keep them from free love, as the woman is truly a magnificent snake who can live at times in a human form. The dance was choreographed in 1973 by in Hwai-min. It was beautiful. At the end of the event the dancers invited audience members to dance on stage and Xena and I were coxed by Huang laoshi (Teacher Huang) to dance. I had a lot of fun.

Today is a big day- Xena and I are meeting up with some of our younger Taiwanese lab workers to help explain what they haven't been able to understand in the English readings that we have been given. We are also working on a powerpoint on the details of our project that we must present to the lab faculty tomorrow! Around 3:00 I'm going to run off to make an African dance class with a woman I met yesterday at the Cloud Gate Theater performance. I'm late so I must get going!
Mom, dad, nana, I miss you so much. I'm feeling a little homesick here and I need my family! <3 <3 <3
I love you all

Wednesday

Not much happened today. Xena and I went to the lab and discussed how to better collect our samples in the field with our team of co-workers. Xena has come down with something and isn't feeling too well. I think I just ate mystery meat for the third time today. That about sums everything up.
Oh! Supposedly there's a typhoon making it's way up here. They're not sure about whether it will hit us or not but is it bad that I'm a little excited? Well, I'll only be excited if I know it's not going to cause a massive mudslide in the South like the typhoon of last year did.

Summary of the past few days

We are nearing a week in Taipei and so much has happened!

It's the morning of Wednesday, June 14th. So far so wonderful :)

Friday: Although we are enjoying time as tourists, we are here on business! As two marine biologist hopefuls we have traveled here as interns of the Biodiversity Research Center of Taipei. We are working in a coral reef lab with some of the most amazing and world renowned scientists of today and, although not being very experienced or knowledgeable in this field that both Xena and I are very interested in, we essentially have been given a unexplainably tremendous opportunity for learning all there is to know about coral.

Friday mostly consisted of meeting everyone Xena and I will be working with for the next couple of weeks.

That evening, however, new friends that will be working with us as interns at the lab took us to see the night market. It was a fantastic evening and I tried some pretty interesting foods including a massive fried potato with about everything you could possibly think of piled on top of it as well as a type of jelly drink which didn't sit too well with my stomach. There were so many different stands and small clothing stores lined up on both sides of the street. Xena and I purchased two flowery jumpers that seemed suitable for the intense heat that greets of every time we attempt to leave our air conditioned apartment.

Saturday: Saturday began with an errand to City Bank which was conveniently found by a small museum that seemed mainly focus on the history of Taiwanese architecture and technology. After we returned from our little touristy adventure we decided that it was time to fill up our fridge. As we wandered around our neighborhood looking for a respectable grocery store we passed a DVD store and got a bit scammed by the DVD store owners (who of course just came back from America).

Saturday night was a little strange- we heard of this pool party in the mountains and decided to chase after it knowing that there would probably some interesting foreign university students there. Well there were except they were all about 10 years older than we were and also completely drunk. We decided it was best to call a taxi and arrived home safe and sound and ready for bed.

Sunday: Sunday was wonderful- We left pretty late but made up for lost time by squeezing in as much fun as we could in one day. We began the day by traveling to a water park that we found on some "Fun things to do in Taiwan!" website. It wasn't as great as we expected it to be but Xena and I still had a lot of fun. We also met a hunky lifeguard who made conversation with us and was very sweet. Between my broken chinese and his broken english I believe I mistakenly told him that we were in Taiwan studying how to fish. After going on the longest slide the water slide they had Xena and I grabbed some food and air dried. As we made our way to the exit the lifeguard ran after us asking for our numbers. We decided to give him our emails and the next morning we received an email that said "Ni hao. I am the lifeguard of ____. I wanting having date with you!^^ "

Our next stop was the Chen Kai Shek memorial. It was magnificent. Standing between two of the most beautiful structures I've seen, I felt as if I was a part of this beautiful entity that symbolized the unity of a peoples. Turning around I faced a giant bronze statue of Chen Kai Shek himself. I believe I took over a hundred pictures on that day alone.

As I walked to the attractive and multicolored structure known as the National Theater Concert Hall I saw two groups of dancers. Poor Xena was left to roam on her own as I wandered off towards the dancers. When their rehearsal seemed to draw to a close I approached one of the dancers hoping that he would inform me of where I could be an audience member of their final performance. He told me that they sadly had no performance soon and than they practiced in front of the hypnotically vibrant theater believing that it would enrich their dance. However it wasn't as if they needed enriching, they were all quite wonderful dancers. He showed me how to "pop-and-lock" in which I thoroughly embarrassed myself. Although I couldn't understand all that he explained to me we mused over his favorite American choreographers. The sun leisurely began to set and I felt that it was best to find Xena. Sunday was a wonderful conclusion to an exciting weekend.

Monday: Monday was pretty much spent in a diving pool. We were being tested on our ability to sustain ourselves in the water while collecting our samples of coral.It was fun, yet quite exhausting. After an hour and a half of swimming around in a wet suit and flippers I was ready to go home. However we all went back to the lab and prepared our supplies for Tuesday, our first day out in the field.

Tuesday: Absolutely fascinating. At first I was quite frustrating because I wasn't as great at snorkeling as I wanted to be. It was my first time deep sea diving at water continued to find it's way into my snorkeling mask. The first hour in the water I spent by flopping around uselessly trying to scope out healthy coral colonies to sample from and completely failing. Bummed out and exhausted I pulled myself onto the shore line and let my equipment dry while I watched hermit crabs interact with each other within a small stagnant pool created by the low tide. After my mask had dried I was able to clean it to prevent it from fogging my vision while in water. When I went back to sea I was determined to tag and sample from my two coral colonies. I had to prove that I was useful in some way! Although I had trouble tagging even while wearing a weight belt I was able to collect my samples. I found myself underwater surrounded by clear sea jellies and small brown shrimp. Beneath my fins I stared as a school of blue fish the size of my pinky fingers watched me quizzically. More than once I picked up beautifully colored shells believing that I could keep them as a reminder time spent in the water. I only found that they were already inhabited by crabs who weren't too pleased by being lifted from the sea floor by a stranger. It was an exciting day. Xena and I didn't realize how tired we were until we came home for a nap around 7:00 pm and woke up this morning.

I will do my best to post a small piece of writing everyday. I assume that that will be much easier than writing dense posts that are hard to follow. My apologies! :)

WE MADE IT.

The flight was SO LONG but at the same time enjoyable because Ms. Huang (my chinese teacher of 10th grade) and talked with each other and spent the 12 hours of the first flight discussing the many issues of interacting with the opposite sex, playing a version of American Airlines tetris (we had small personal movie and game screens on the back of the chairs in front of us) or watching sappy new releases such as "Leap Year" (which if I might add was absolutely terrible).

I had a huge toothache 3 hours before flying which was quite inconvenient given that elevation aggravates toothaches but all was fine. To compensate, however, I had to direct every slightly cold or sugary substance to the right side of my mouth.

We landed in Tokyo around 3:00 pm. After 16 hours of flying my teacher and I met up with her father and I was rushed, half asleep, to a dental clinic. You won't believe how wonderful the health care system is here. It seems to be for the convenience of the people and I found it wonderfully efficient. Much better then in America. I did not wait. I was immediately given an x-ray and within 5 minutes a quarter to 9:00 pm, I found myself in the middle of a small white office holding the hand of my chinese teacher and watching her father look on worriedly in the corner of the room.

Although it was merely a cavity, it certainly made for an interesting beginning.

We then traveled into the mountains. Ms. Huang's parents decided to settle outside of Taipei city and instead in the beautiful countryside which was utterly understandable given that it was well... BEAUTIFUL. There were small communities of farmers and various forms of wildlife foreign to me such as large beetles and deep red butterflies. The air was also refreshingly clean, different from the New York City air I've grown so used to.

After a very warm sleep and a stomach full of my teacher's mother's splendid scallion pancakes, the family and I ventured into the city of Taipei. They helped me relocate myself into the apartment Xena and I are currently renting. Xena hadn't arrived yet so I was on my own, which was so peculiar. It wasn't for long but being in another country, not entirely understanding the language, and being completely in control of your life is an interesting feeling.

The metro here is almost completely clean. I couldn't believe that it was possible but it does exist. In fact, you cannot eat or drink anything (even water) once you have made your way past the turn styles. The consequence is a perfectly grand fine. Naturally, after being explained the laws of Taiwanese transit, I absentmindedly removed my bottled water from my overly stuffed bag to steal a drink. Already within the train station and almost past the turn styles I received a stern but understanding look from the tall young man working behind the information booth.

Our apartment here is comfortable, roomy yet large enough to adequately accommodate two messy young women (well truthfully I can only speak for myself). So far everything is quite clean and in its designated place. The apartment is a studio yet also a penthouse. We have a beautiful balcony designed by the owner herself (technically our host though we are renting the apartment from her). She is a wonderful interior designer and her talent is clear by how beautiful our apartment's interior design has shown itself to be.

The neighborhood is wonderful! There are so great ways of obtaining good food! There are stands with the beloved scallion pancakes to stands with strange scary looking foods such as the necks and heads of a various animals. I should make a list of strange elements of this foreign cuisine that I have dared myself to try. So far the only particularly note worthy foods I have tried have been-

Stinky Tofu: Smells so terrible you don't want to bring your mouth close enough to try it. When you do however, and have captured the smell within your mouth, it tastes like any other piece of tofu consumed n the states.

Pig intestines: Now this I am a little ashamed of, but it was in front of me and I couldn't pass up the offer. Very squishy, however if you don't think about it I imagine it tastes very much like a chewier version of pig muscle.

The city smells like egypt- musty and full of motorcycle fuel but it's completely different at the same time

The architecture here is a combination of old and shabby with modern and grand, I like it.

First night in the apartment was an adventure. Even the few hours I spent alone were strange. I'm going to have to get used to it though since my partner in this adventure, Xena, will be leaving three weeks before I I do. I'm happy that she's here and we are getting alone really well but I must learn how to depend entirely on myself if I intend to continue my work here after the departure of my friend and roomy.

The second night also proved itself to be an adventure. After Xena arrived, Christina Huang (the host of our stay and the owner of the penthouse apartment that we are renting) came upstairs from her own apartment and showed us the high tech security system that she set up here. When she left I showed Xena a few things about the apartment and we decided to go downstairs for dinner. We got ourselves dressed and left to try the outermost door of our apartment (there is a door to the apartment but the door into the main part of the building is the one of our balcony) to find it locked.

Apparently Christina Huang had accidentally locked us inside from a little push-in lock on the outside. We spent the next hour working to pick the lock because there was no phone in the apartment and our cell phones refused to cooperate with our new sim cards. Both Xena and I couldn't unlock our phones so that they could be used with the foreign sim cards.

I ended up having to pay the 5 dollars to call my father in the U.S in order to ask him to inform Christina of our predicament. While the process of unlocking ourselves from our new and now too inviting apartment, In Xena decided to take a shower. A second after she ventured into the bathroom I heard a little screech. Low and behold there was a GIANT brown water bug on the floor. I spent the next 15 minutes trying to catch this very agile cockroach which was about the size of my thumb. Once I finally got my hands on the creature another one came up from behind me, and made a straight run through my legs and out of the bathroom door into the apartment.

For the evening, Xena and I were locked into our magnificent apartment without food and with some very friendly, large and crawling tenants. However I must say, I have had a quite amazing past two days.