Day 4 June 14

Today I was able to sleep in because of the long day that was ahead of me. When I woke I up Bob and I had dumplings filled with pork and vegetables and rice juice that tasted sort of like peanut butter. We then rode with Tiffany and Vicky to Grace Church where we met up with the rest of the group. To my surprise the church was very contemporary, it started out with a worship band and then the pastor gave a message. They were very glad to have us and even included us in the service by asking us questions and translating the message to English. After the church service we rode over to a restaurant where some of the students who came to the U.S. last October came to hang out with us for the day. I was excited to see Jason who stayed with Robert last year. Jason is one of my favorite students in Taiwan because he is hilarious and very fashionable, wearing jeans and Ralph Lauren shirt in the really hot weather all while caring around his man purse. At the restaurant we ate a lot of sushi and drank black tea. After lunch we walked over to one of the colleges in Hsinchu were we played games on one of the large fields. Next we went to the Hsinchu Zoo which was fun because I haven’t been to the zoo in a while and experiencing with the host students was interesting. Once everyone was ready to leave the zoo we were taken to the Flower Market, which is a very misleading name because there were no flowers to buy. Instead it was a lot cooler because the vendors sold food, drinks, and clothes. I wanted to try everything that I saw and the host students wanted us to eat as much as possible. First we all had ice cream, then watermelon juice, and a type of bread. Then Amanda and I felt adventurous, so we were given fried squid and of course I was the lucky one to eat the tentacles and the head. It didn’t taste bad but it was very chewy and spicy because we had asked to make it hot but didn’t realize it would be that fiery. All of us then took taxis to a shopping mall, where we looked around but not for long because we had to catch a train to Jhubei. In Jhubei we visited the night market which was even more hectic than the flower market. As we were walking around I was handed a chicken foot by Jason, who after seeing my shocked reaction, told me it is good and to eat it. After looking around some more, everyone needed a break and a place to sit down, so we walked over to the bubble tea shop. However, Jason asked if I was hungry and even though I wasn’t very hungry I couldn’t turn down his offer so Jason, Milk, and I walked back to the market to eat dinner. They ordered eggs with oysters and stinky tofu all it was all great. Our night ended with everyone sprinting back to the train station so that we would not miss our train. Tomorrow we start our visits to schools again and I know that it’s going to be amazing.