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! :)
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