Making mochi! Called muaji in Chinese. You have to pound the glutinous rice, and wet it and turn it and keep pounding it with the mallet until it becomes the right texture. It's very sticky, but so very delicious!!
This is the tea we made at the same place . We had to crush the peanuts and black sesame seeds and various unknown things. It turned out to be more of a paste than tea, and they iced it so it was very cold. It reminded us of a Starbucks drink. It was pretty tasty, but a bit too powerful and we couldn't drink that much of it.
In Asia, being really tan is a sign of being poor. So some women go to any length to protect themselves from the sun. Carrying around umbrellas and wearing pants and long sleeves even in this intense heat are the most common, but occasionally you see something on this level. She looked like she would blend in in a Star Wars movie.
Madz, Kelly, and Priscilla at the Yeh Liu (野柳) National Park. It's famous for its "hoodoo stones" that are named for things they look like.
Da Xiong (大熊) with a rock that looks like a chicken leg.
Panoramic of a beach we went to.
Madz and Kelly at the top of a tower after hiking up a mountain (something we did A LOT) in Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園).
This little island was called Sansiantai Island (三仙台島). In the picture, we're standing on a curved bridge of stairs, of which there were eight in a row (eight is a lucky number, but it wasn't kind on the legs.) This picture looks really surreal.
It was just going CRAZY!
Priscilla running through a water maze at the National Museum of Prehistory (國立台灣史前文化博物館)! The museum wasn't that great, but they had a "dancing water fountain" show and a playground outside, as well as this.
Madz and Priscilla after the biking trip in Guanshan (關山). The counselors made the endeavor sound pretty terrifying: 12 km (about 7.5 mi), "all uphill," and apparently every year someone breaks something. However, it was really fun! (We all survived by the way.) Early on, it started sprinkling, and by the time we got to the halfway 6 km point, it was pouring down on us. So the counselors made us wait until it lightened up a bit. We had ponchos but the rain was so intense everyone was soaked anyway. This is us post-soakage.
Going through rocky passages in Sheding Nature Park (社頂自然公園) in Kenting (墾丁).
While walking through the Liuho Night Market (六合夜市), we couldn't quite help but notice this. No idea what's really going on here, seems like a crazy version of karaoke. Might have been a promotion for some musical artist (not this guy though).
We also went to Fo Guang Shan Monastery (佛光山). One of the coolest parts of this visit was eating lunch-- this room can seat 3,000, but there were "only" 1,000 people eating that day. It was a unique experience, as you are required to eat in silence.
The giant Buddha of the monastery. After taking this picture, Madz's camera said, "Blink eye detected." Hahaha.
"Planting our roots in Taiwan"! Kind of cheesy, but very sweet. It means we have to come back and see how our trees have grown.
Tonight was our closing ceremony. After watching a slideshow of all the pictures the counselors had taken of us, we got stamps with our names on it! These stamps are used for letters as well as official documents, sort of like a signature. It was very thoughtful as these are generally pricey in America. This is Priscilla's (her Chinese name of course).
This will be our LAST BLOG POST EVER! We are only spending three more nights here (and it's almost bedtime) and then we will be back home! Thanks for following this blog, I hope you've seen some interesting things and didn't miss us too much :] See you all soon!
Caucasian Sightings: 78
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