A Hockey Bar and other adventures...

NI Hao! (knee how = hello)
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As the title implies,  there was a hockey bar involved.  Something I completely did not expect to see on this trip.  Friday night most of the groupd wanted to go to a club... I just wanted to find someplace a little quieter to sit and talk, given that even when all my joints are uninjured, I still can't dance to save my life so I sure as hell didn't want to go out and try with one good leg in Taichung.   So a few of us splintered off to find a pub that Christie had noticed in a tourist map.. and it was closed but the bar down the street was full of Waiguo ren (foreign people) and so we went in.  Much to my delight.  the place was a semi shrine to the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club.  OMG!  what?  here??  how?????  I knew it was fate.  My friend Ryan and I were trying to speak Chinese with British accents only we had to be quiet enough so that the "little John" (i swear he was 7 feet tall) and his british mates couldn't hear us.  Fun times.

Run Kei Run!
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Saturday we had a field trip to the Jade market in Taichung which is very reminiscent of a flea market in the states, only it is all jade and other handicrafts.  ...I am no good with numbers and counting in my mother tongue soooo, I viewed this excursion as a reconnaissance mission only.  There was a lot of very cool jade, jade dragons, and rings, and necklaces, and trinkets and baubles.  The vendors all say "Hello!!!"   I know that behind that hello they are tripling or quadrupling their prices.  for sure.    After that most people went home but a few of us (Lily, Daniel, Ryan, Kei, Alex, Brent, Patrick and me)went to shoot pool.  I am about as good at pool as I am at counting without looking at my fingers.  I'll leave it at that but it was loads of fun.  In Taiwan, pool is apparently a male activity.  Lily and I got some quality looks in there. Mei wenti (no problem).   We learned out how to play paper rock scissors too.  What more do you need to know, really?

Lily ran in fully clothed shortly followed by Kei and Ryan who striped to their skivvies on the way and me and Meghan who also followed Lily's example and just went in.

Tres amigas
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Sunday.  had to sleep in, but then the same pool crowd (minus Brent and Patrick, but plus Ziyi and Meghan) went to the Taichung Harbor.  It was pretty cool.  I have never seen so much cooked seafood in one place in my whole life.  There they put whole squids on skewers and grill them so that their legs stick out six ways from sunday.  There are also huge tanks of life things, I can't just say fish and shell fish because there were things in tanks that I don't think I could have imagined.  It is a literal "See-food' place.  you go and pick your victim, and then ten minutes later it is steaming on your plate.  Wow.  I am really sorry that I am allergic or averse or whatever towards seafood.  Anyways we walked to the ocean front park next to the harbour which  was pretty filthy but once you get to the beach it gets better.  There are all these crabs that live there and as they make their nests or burrows or whatever they kick out sand in tiny spheres.  The entire beach was covered in tiny little balls of sand.    There were a few people milling around near the waters edge. but being the brash and spontaneous Americans that we are.... Lily ran in fully clothed shortly followed by Kei and Ryan who striped to their skivvies on the way and me and Meghan who also followed Lily's example and just went in.  The water here is very warm!  Warmer than Hawaii... though if it was anything like the beach, probably pretty disgusting, I don't think I swallowed too much though. SO haha , I guess if I lived through the night, I'll be ok.  It was hillarious.  We get stared at everywhere we go because we are clearly not asian but once we all were in the water. we were quite the spectacle.  I learned though that sand and a broken knee do not mix very well. I am sore today but wouldn't change a second.  Back to homework now, and whenever Meghan lets me use her computer again, I'll upload some more pictures because the ones that I just attached to this entry are all hers that I ripped off of facebook.... I am shameless.  Ciao a tutti!