Taiwan Summer 2013: taiwan's history/culture

Although pictures weren’t allowed inside the museums today, it was still a nice time walking around the air-conditioned rooms, learning about some of Taiwan’s culture/art. Our first stop was at the Shung Ye Formosan Aborigines Museum. I never considered Taiwan as having so many different Aborigine tribes. In total, there are 14 different groups from this island, each with distinguishable physical and cultural characteristics. I think the thing that most stood out to me was the facts that women in most of these tribes were the ones who ran the show. They were looked to for wisdom and decision making. Very different from the history of women status in America and many other countries, where the man was regarded as “higher” in rank. We also saw some tools where the people tattooed their faces! The tools looked like it would hurt so much! These tattoos were regarded as a beauty symbol and womanhood status.

We ended our busy day at the famous Shilin Night Market. This is the busiest and biggest night market in Taiwan, and before coming here, I read so many blogs saying this was a must see. We all tried to not eat a lot of snacks throughout the day so we would still have room for all the yummy food at this market! I was on a mission to try as many things as possible! We got off the bus, and our huge group managed to walk across the street as a pack, but we didn’t stay together long, because maybe only 5 or so minutes into the stalls, we all got separated into smaller groups. It was almost impossible to keep everyone together because of the sea of people; pushing and moving along the tiny crammed street. My group, consisted of mostly the guys so their “man appetite” was calling them to the overabundance of food stalls. So our first mission was to find a good place to stop and eat. In our group was a couple students form NTU, so they knew where the good stuff was located. And it so happens that all of the famous foods were underground! You hop on an escalator and you come upon a huge square area almost like a food court (just 10x more people!) I was warned on the escalator that outside every stall, there were people who would yell at you to try and get you to come over. They were really forceful! Haha, or maybe it was just because I wasn’t use to the excitement and energy these people displayed in order for our business. But finally we ended up picking one, and many of us had the popular Oyster Omlete, smothered in a famous tangy sauce. It was absolutely perfect. It was neat to see the cooks making your food just a few feet away; you know it’s the fresh real deal. Baker was super excited to get a bowl of Duck Blood… so ofcourse, sticking to my motto from the beginning, I had to try some. It was.. interesting. Some Sticky Tofu was on our table as well, which was another greasy goodness dish. So with all these heavy dishes, we needed something light and refreshing, so our next stop was for dessert, and taste some of Taiwan’s popular Shaved Mango Ice. Absolutely, it hit the spot. Huge mango chunks ontop of shaved ice (infused with mango juice).

We ended up walking around the stores for a while, and bumped into some of our other people along the way. Of all the stalls with clothes, jewelry, souvenirs, ect…I only spent my money on food. Best purchases of the whole day.