Design in Taiwan - Blog Post #5 - Capybaras and Snails

    Hello blog! Today is 09/16/2024 which marks the 16th day of our study abroad program. I can't believe it's already almost over, I'm not ready...Anyways, I'll get to yapping about my past few days. 

    On the 14th, we went on a wetland boat tour in Anping which was definitely wet since we also happened to get rained on during the ride. But, my highlight of the boat tour was when we pulled oysters from out of the floating farm contraption because I did not expect them to look like rocks, and they were much bigger than I expected. 

My Classmates Pulling Oysters at the Floating Oyster

    Then, we went to Anping, and during our break my classmates and I found this cute cafe called Meller Cafe with these amazingly soft and tasty chiffon cakes. I would definitely recommend if you're ever in Anping. 

    Then, we visited the Anping Tree House, and pictured below is a view of the house from outside on an outlook that was connected to the house. What a big tree! Also, I was told by one of the professors that every year, a fashion show is held in the tree house, so the models walk through the tree house which I thought was so interesting because it seems like a extremely challenging venue to walk through since the ground is uneven. 

    After Anping, I had dinner with my roommate, Kayla, and we ate at Is Yi Shi Restaurant near the NCKU campus. I had the truffle and mushroom steak pasta which was amazing, but I was unable to finish it which was upsetting :(

    The next day, a couple of my classmates and I visited MOGU KAPI, a capybara cafe near the campus! I hope heaven looks like this because the capybaras were sooooooo cute and round-they looked like sweet potatoes! They were very chill as I expected, but they were much bigger than I expected, they're like the size of a Saint Bernard dog. 

    After the capybara cafe, I visited one of the biggest temples in Taiwan, Tainan Grand Mazu Temple which is an "Ancient landmark honoring a sea goddess...17th century place of worship, dedicated to a Taoist water deity," quoted by Google Maps. My highlight of the visit was seeing the baddie herself, Mazu, and completing the soulmate-finding fortune ritual. To prepare, I prepared a list of twenty attributes of my type, and in my prayer, I had to state my name, address, date of birth, and the list I mentioned before. I don't think I completed it correctly, but the god still allowed me to draw my fortune and take a red string. I was told to store it inside of my wallet or pocket, and that, when it disappears, that means the red string is finding my soulmate and will pull them to me when found. 

    After the temple, a bunch of us went and visited Yuguang Island which is famous for its sunset view. We almost missed it, with a couple minutes to spare as pictured below. The water was surprisingly warm, and I saw lots of people surfing. I was sad that we couldn't swim in the water because the waves are dangerous to swim in-you need a surfing license to get in the water. 

    For dinner, we had Maodon, a Japanese-American-style restaurant. I had the 16-kind fish donburi bowl meal, which came with shrimp-head miso soup, fish roe steamed egg, and a glass of Calpis. I was filled to the brim, but one of the workers came and told that if we took a picture of us eating and send it to them, we would get free dessert. And, I couldn't refuse, so I scarfed the red bean milk pudding down with the last bit of space I had in my stomach. 

    The next morning, my group met at Bottoms Up, a cafe near the campus, in the morning to finalize our concept for our design project (will share about it when we finish (hehe)).

    Later in the day, when we had free time, a couple of my classmates and I visited the famous Snail Alley, which is quite literally a network of alleyways with cute, fun, and tiny snail statues/motifs scattered about the alley. Although, when we were walking through it, it seemed barren and quiet-a lot of the shops were self-service which was interesting. 

Snail Door Handles!

    Ending the night, some classmates and I visited the Hayashi Department Store which had the first elevator in Taiwan, but I didn't know that until one of my classmates told me in front of the elevator. When I tell you my jaw dropped, it DROPPED! It's a weird feeling casually standing in front of a historic piece of technology that's still in service to this day. 

That's all for today folks, thank you for reading and will see you again in the next blog!