City of Tainan

Sunday, March 20th, a group of exchange students, along with some Taiwanese students, took a trip to the city of Tainan. It is located about an hour and a half outside Kaohsiung, and is one of Taiwan's older cities. 

First we went to the Anping Tree House, where an entire house that was originally used as a harbour house, to monitor the river. After WWII, it was used to deposit crude salt. After this, it was abandoned for 60 years. In this time the banyan trees gradually climbed up the walls and brought down the roof. There now are banyan trees in and around the entire house. It is now part of the Anping Harbour National Historic Park, and is a very popular tourist destination. 

After this, we went to a restaurant to enjoy some local food. Tainan is known all over Taiwan for its abundance of delicious food. There may be a slight difference to what Taiwanese consider "delicious", and what my opinion is on the matter. We were served seafood soup with flat noodles, oysters with eggs and bean sprouts, a pie like dish made from a starchy vegetable, pork and shrimp slimy dumplings, and fish balls in a thick clear liquid. I did try almost everything, and some of it was tasty. It was an interesting experience. 

Next, we spent a couple hours walking around the street markets. In Kaohsiung it is more common to have busy night markets that are not open during the day. In Tainan, it is the opposite. We got to sample some local candy, freshly made cranberry juice, and some specialty sausages. I bought a hat and some sunglasses, for dirt cheap. In this time, we also found a beautiful temple. It's crazy in Taiwan, how temples can be found in virtually around every corner. 

The last thing we did was visit a museum in Tainan. This museum was strange in the sense that there was no real theme or area of specialization. There were numerous exhibits, all completely unrelated. Some of the exhibits include: art, furniture, musical instruments, weapons from Japan, China, and Taiwan, and a vast number of animal representations. 


After a long day in the sun, we were all ready to go home. It's supposed to be cold this week, so better enjoy the sunshine while I can :)


Chantal
xo 

A Day at a Monastery

Fo Guang Shan Monastery

 On Saturday, March 19th, I visited a beautiful monastery with some of the other exchange students. Myself, Lisa, Stacy, Violaine, Tia, and Jacques, took the hour and a half long bus ride up to Fo Guang Shan. The name literally translates to "Buddah's Light Mountain". It is an international Chinese Mahayana Buddhist monastic order based in Taiwan, with brand temples located in places such as Africa, India, New Zealand, Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and many more. Fo Guan Shan is one of the largest Buddhist organizations in the world, and it is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. Te monastery is surrounded by lush forest, and located at the top of a mountain. The experience was serene, beautiful, and peaceful.

The moment you walk in to the monastery, every angle is picture-esque. The first gate you pass is the Non-Duality Gate, and you enter the Five Hundred Arhats Garden, where five hundred statues line the pathway amidst a beautiful garden. Already, we have probably climbed hundreds of stairs. The next gate passed is the Padmagarbha Gate, which leads the way to the spectacular Main Shrine.

The Main Shrine was exquisite in so many ways. The exterior of the building is grand, and ornate, and the interior is cool, and peaceful. A place you could spend hours looking around at all the detailing, and watching the devoted followers pray. The Main Shrine covers 3 570 square meters, and is 30 meters in height. Enshrined within are three Buddhas, which are each 7.8 meters high. The center is the Sakyamuni Buddha of the Saha world, to the left is the Bhaisajaguru Buddha the medicine Buddha of the Eastern world, and to the right the Amitabha Buddha, the Buddha of infinite light of the Western world. 

The interior walls are filled with stone niches enshrining 14 800 smaller images of the Sakyamuni Buddah. Before the Buddhas are the world two tallest Light Jewel Pagodas, each nine meters high in seventy-two layers, and containing 7 200 Buddha images. They represent the light of the Buddha Dharma radiating universally upon humanity and the universe, the light of wisdom, which can break through the darkness of ignorance and bring hope and peace to the world. 



After walking through beautiful gardens, and passing by gorgeous detained buildings, we made our way up to Great Buddha Land where hundreds of identical smaller gold Buddhas, leading us to the Great Buddha. This Buddha is 36 meters in height and can be seen from miles away. This Buddha is the highest standing in South East Asia. 

This journey was better than I had imagined, and made me think a little differently. I will leave you with some words from Fo Guang Shan and BLIA (Buddha's Light International Association). 
                                 

The Four Verses of Fo Guang Shan and BLIA
May palms in every world be joined in kindness, compassion, joy and generosity.
May all beings find security in friendship, peace and loving care.
May calm and mindful practice give rise of to deep patience and equanimity.
May we give rise to spacious hearts and humble thoughts of gratitude.

Till next time,
Chantal
xo

Kickin it in Kenting

Kenting National Park






This past weekend we took a trip down to Kenting National Park. This national park is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and is Taiwan's oldest and southernmost park, covering the southernmost area of the island. The beaches were beautiful with white sand and turquoise water. We stayed in this little surf town for 3 nights, and had an amazing time.


Thursday

After chinese class ended on Thursday afternoon, 24 exchange students (2 boys -One being Arthur ;-) and 22 girls!!) took 4 party cabs down to Kenting. The drive was around 2 and a half hours. Party cabs are very popular here because you can fit up to 7 people in one cab and they are all equipped with small TV monitors that play music videos. Once we got to Kenting, we checked into a hostel that was at a church. At $12 a night per person, it was a great deal. The hostel was clean and well kept. 




That night was Sophies birthday so we all went out to dinner to an outdoor Taiwanese restaurant. After this we went to a bar, that was completely empty. This small town is very popular during the summer months, but since we went in March, it was not very busy. Even though we were the only ones there, we filled the dance floor. Later that night a live band started playing popular songs such as New York State of Mind, and Shots! 


Dancing in Kenting   *Click on this link to see a cool video of the exchange girls dancing in Kenting*


Friday


We woke up to sunshine and blue skies. We decided to check out the beach that was a 2 minute walk from our hostel. The beach was absolutely gorgeous. As soon as we set up our towels and lay down on the sand, vicious rain clouds started to roll in and it suddenly became very windy. We only lasted about 10 minutes on the beach. We then decided to go to the hot springs. These hot springs consisted of 6 pools of different temperature. One pool was meant for water massages with jets of all different powers, and chairs with massagers. There were two hot pools that were hotter than any hot tub I have ever been in. You could only stay in for a couple minutes at a time. There was also two ice cold pools that were refreshing, but extremely cold. The largest pool was warm and was like sitting in a bath tub. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing day. In all pools in Taiwan it is required to wear a cap on your head. Since we didn't know this, the hot springs provided us with these silly shower-cap type things to wear.
 

After a relaxing day, we decided to go for dinner at a Thai restaurant. The food was fresh and the seafood was incredibly tasty. After this, we went to KTV, which is Taiwanese karaoke. You pay a fee per for a secluded room, and is very popular in Taiwan. 
Saturday




The weather was not very nice this day, and a number of students had gone back to Kaohsiung because they had class on Saturday. With a smaller group, we decided to visit the aquarium called the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium. This was the most spectacular aquarium I have ever seen. The first exhibition we visited was the Coral Kingdom Pavilion. Here we saw large tanks displaying different coral habitats along with a large variety of tropical fish. The coolest thing about this exhibition was the large tunnel under a massive fish tank. The tunnel had 3 sections to be able to view the tank from all angles. The tank consisted of small sharks, manta rays, and a countless number of different fish species. 

The next exhibition we visited was the Waters of Taiwan. The main attraction was a massive viewing tank that contained a Whale Shark. We were even able to watch a feeding, and got a great view of the shark. In this exhibition there was also an area where there was an open tank to touch some of the fish. The sea cucumber was my favourite. Even though is was weird and gross, it was surprisingly soft. 

The last exhibition we saw was the Waters of the World. Here we learnt about some history, and the evolution of sea life. We saw some beluga whales, and I never thought that they were very playful, but they put on a great show. We then visited the penguins. This exhibit had three different kinds of penguins and we sat and watched them for about a half an hour. They are so funny and playful. 







After a long day, we were all exhausted. We went to eat at a fantastic Mexican restaurant that night. Since the weather was not great, a lot of people decided to go back to Kaohsiung. Arthur and I were rooming with our friends Ally and Justin, and their friends Manolo, and Fiona joined us that night so we decided to stay an extra night. That night we walked down to the beach and watched some fireworks that some other people were putting on that night. 

Sunday
This day was looking pretty nice, so we decided to rent some scooters and drive down to an area where you can surf. The drive was gorgeous. The nicely paved road winded through areas of tropical forests, or looked over a cliff to waters crashing against the side. The views were spectacular. We also stopped at the southernmost point of Taiwan. All three boys decided to surf while the girls enjoyed the sun on the beach. Ally even ended up going out to give surfing a try! This was a great way to end off a fantastic weekend. I will definitely be visiting Kenting again. 

Now it's back to Kaohsiung!
Chantal 
xo

I Love This City

I know it's been a while since I last wrote. But I have been so busy exploring all the sights and flavours that Kaohsiung has to offer. I can't believe it's almost been a month since we arrived in this beautiful country. I never expected to be doing so much and loving every minute of it! 

Enjoying the water :)

Since classes haven't quite started yet, I have been spending a lot of time at the beach. The weather has been around 26-28 degrees daily, so I have been soaking up the sun at the campus beach (don't worry mom, I have been wearing sunscreen). There are 2 beaches on campus, one large public beach, and a smaller "secret beach". We have been spending most of our time on the secluded secret beach. The water is a little chilly but, I have still gone swimming a few times. Locals look at us like we are crazy laying on the sand in bikinis because to them this is cold weather. This is their winter. Something interesting about this location is the abundance of people getting wedding photos taken. Virtually at any given moment there is at least one couple getting pictures taken at this gorgeous spot.

Chinese dessert - tofu & fruit

It has been great getting to know all the exchange students. There are people from all over the world, but the majority are from Europe, particularly France. It is especially helpful that some of the students here have been here already for one semester, or who are returning the for the second time. They have been really helpful at showing us some great places to eat. Everywhere you look there are people selling food. The main problem is most menus are in Chinese or else their translation isn't always accurate. For example, Arthur and I ordered fruit smoothies, and what we got was shaved ice with ice cream and fruit. Delicious, but not quite what I was expecting. One of my favourite things here are the fresh fruit drinks. There are numerous places that you can get fresh fruit blended with ice and sometimes milk and these refreshing drinks are so incredibly tasty and cost only 1 or 2 Canadian dollars. Another thing I have really been enjoying are the desserts. 

With the luxury of scooters and experienced tour guides, we have been able to find some hidden gems. Some of them serving local food, others serving delicious western food. Who knew one of the BEST burgers I would ever eat would be in Taiwan!? Our German friend Richard showed us this cute little diner named Howdys that had the tastiest burgers, fries, and milkshakes. After driving 25 minutes by scooter to this diner, we happened to be right by Lotus Pond. Since this was at night we weren't able to see the true beauty of the pond and its spectacular temples surrounding the pond, but we were able to see the two towers (Dragon and Tiger) all lit up. We will definitely check out Lotus Pond during the day sometime. You can walk around the lake (around 2 hours) and visits dozens of temples. 

Lotus Pond

Saturday Februrary 26th, the ISA took us on a fantastic field trip. We took the MRT to the outskirts of the city for some BBQs and activities. First we took a traditional Chinese train which was very a very slow open train mainly made out of bamboo. Next we played a game of paintball. I have never done this before, and I was pretty scared. Throughout the orientation, there were numerous horror stories (rare, but real) of people getting seriously hurt, and even one death. Based on this, I became terrified. I was not very good at this game. Probably because I took cover and fired off my gun like crazy until I ran out of paintballs. Probably not the best winning tactic. 


Next we went to a traditional Taiwanese BBQ. With hundreds of people, each table is given a box with supplies and food. Each table has a pit with coals and a grill to cook the food. We ate sausages, chicken, pork, green peppers, fish, cabbage, and bread. This was a very cool experience and it was a lot of fun. After we ate we did some Go-Kart racing. I had done this before so it was not new to me, but still a lot of fun. The cars went pretty fast, so some people were flying by me. Since there was such a large group, this took a couple hours. 

Beggar Chicken

After this, we made our way to BBQ #2. This one was a little different. It is called Beggar Chicken. This BBQ is done by cooking food under ground. It is a very old way of cooking food. The name comes from the tale of an old beggar who did not have any food, went searching in the jungle for something to eat. He found a bird and decided to cook it. He did not know how to do so, so he made a fire underground and put the bird in it and covered the hole with rocks and dirt so nobody else would steal his food. After a few hours, he returned to a delicious dinner. We cooked corn, sweet potato and eggs in newspaper, and the chicken and ribs in tin a tin foil container. The entire day was a great bonding experience for all the international students. Arthur even made a new friend. A lady had a bird just sitting on her shoulder, and the bird took quite a liking to him. Maybe I have some competition ;)

The following week was the beginning of our classes. So far, they are going pretty well. The professors and very bright despite the language barrier. I have started Chinese class - it is 3 times a week for 2 hours each class. It's been very hard but already I know how to say Hello, my name is Chantal. What is your name? I come from Canada. Where do you come from? And, it's nice to meet you. The language is very complex, and it's been very challenging. I am looking forward to being able to communicate a little better. Even though Taiwanese people are very eager to help even if they cannot speak the same language as us. If you think Canadians have a reputation of being nice, then come to Taiwan. They are the nicest people I have ever met.  

I miss you all very much, and I will be sure to write more often. 


Chantal
xo