Jarek Buss—Wyoming, Political Science, Bass II

Our first Friday on tour … time to party like a rock star. Ok, so actually, we spent the morning back at Feng Chia University, performing the activities we taught and learned yesterday. There was top spinning, puppet shows, the lion dance, the hula, the haka, a stomp dance, a fan dance, and Chinese drumming. Pretty cool, despite being tired. We had lunch there in the gym then said our goodbyes and loaded the bus. We began the long road to Taipei.

The countryside changed quite a bit as we traveled north. Flat cityscapes became forested hills and mountains. It started to rain intermittently. When we arrived in Taipei we headed straight for the temple. As we turned down a main street we suddenly caught a glimpse of a monstrous building rising into the clouds—Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world. Comments ranged from “Goodness gracious!” to “Where’s the giant eye of Sauron?” Pretty impressive.

More amazing was the temple. The design is similar to that of the Boise and Chicago temples, but on a much smaller scale. Also, a nice touch against the gray sky: a blue roof. Inside was as beautiful as always. I went with the group to do baptisms. There were four endowed elders to perform the ordinances and twenty-two volunteers. Sone Naunau is a beast and did ALL of the baptisms himself. At fifteen to twenty a piece, that’s around three hundred and fifty. Awesome guy.

After the temple we checked into the hotel and had dinner, a super traditional meal served on lazy Susans. Very interesting, shall we say. My personal favorite was the tuna on sprouts, covered with mayonnaise/frosting and, of course, sprinkles. Strangely delicious. Other food included chicken, rice, soup, and various boiled vegetables.

At long last came the moment everyone had been waiting for: the night market just a few blocks up from our hotel, the largest in Taiwan. An estimated one hundred thousand people sometimes attend on a single night. Let’s just say it was little busy.

Upon arrival in the market, our senses were overloaded with a plethora of colors, sounds, smells, and distractions. Buy this, buy that, look here! All in Chinese, of course. I ate some tasty little fried cake things from an illegal vendor who packed up and hid from the police right after selling us the dessert. It was a fairly common occurrence—you had to keep your wits about you to keep from being run over by a vendor wheeling away their cart out of authoritative eyes. I Found all sorts of great shirts and other things bearing wonderfully eloquent English. My personal favorite was “STOP KILLING WHALE”. Charming. Stayed out late seeing the sights and observing the people. Watched a brawl break out between a vendor and a beggar/thief. That was interesting … we chose not to get involved in a dispute we didn’t understand, so we just drank our punch and moved on. Finally, happy, full, and exhausted, it was time to end the day by collapsing into bed.