FIELDTRIP NUMBER ONE: A SUNDAY AT A TAIWANESE FARM…

Yesterday we had no classes… expected since it’s the weekend right?!

We had fieldtrips (PLURAL) planned for us instead.

6.00am WAKE UP

7.10 at the bus, breakfast on the go

8.30 arrive at farm

8.30-3.00 you want to eat, you got to cook!

3.00 leave the farm (actually 3.30… que and hank weren’t done eating)

3.30 swing by a temple

4.00 swing by a saxophone museum

5.30 almost home… go have dinner in the town

8.30 bed time… I mean shower PLEASEEE, then bed time

The sunflower farm was nice and rewarding…

We prepared lunch from scratch using strictly farming methods…. No knives, no soap (I still haven’t mentioned this but soap in Taiwan is a MAJOR LUXURY!), no pans…. It wasn’t the cleanest way of cooking I’ve ever seen but on the other hand it was the tastiest and most delicious meal ive had so far…. (except for the appetizer!!! A sort of yucky pancake with rotten meat-shrimp-dog-port-chicken-liver topping (I don’t know what really was in it)….)

Jenny was relieved to be eating non greasy food… we worked hard to make it too… pealing garlic, marinating a whole chicken, building the oven in the ground with stones and dirt, wrapping the vegetables ( sweet potato, yam, corn) in newspaper and soaking them in water, wrapping eggs in mud, cooking all this stuff for 2 hrs….

While some people complained about the heat and lack of hygiene and everything else possible, Jen and I appreciated the meal and the whole preparation… Even though we were eating over newspapers and with our hands it was the best corn ive eaten in sooo long… too bad there was no butter L

We took a walk and caught clams in a warm pond…. Just for fun... we had to put them all back….

It was a hot and sweaty day for all of us…. Jen and I (and im sure everyone else, but I didn’t see them shirtless) have SUPER CUTE farmer tans.

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The temple we went to was beautiful but we didn’t spend much time there… and after a whole day working under the sun I feel like I couldn’t even really appreciate all the beauty and spirituality of the place.

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At the sax museum we just wandered around (its was just a small house) and got to listen to people playing…. The almighty Prof Lou (director of this program) also asked a boy (or should I say YALE STUDENT) who was just visiting the store to play for us… it was nice… he played Garota de Impanema and other stuff….

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Dinner was ok… I never thought id say that, but im getting tired of Chinese food!

I thought I could eat that stuff everyday but the language barrier makes it hard to order exactly what we want and many of the sauces and meat here are just noooot for my palette…..

Jen and I are addicted to the juices… mango, kiwi…. Sometimes with milk…. Yummy, fresh, and cold J