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