Day 12- One More Day Left...

    We started off our day early at 8:30 to head towards the Lin family house, a traditional house in Wanhua (a district of Taipei) that has stood for centuries. We took the metro to get to the house, as we learned that bus drivers require 10 hours of rest before working, and as we ended the day yesterday very late, it hadn’t been 10 hours since the previous night. Because it was rush hour in the morning, the subway was packed. However, despite the subway trains being packed, the subway was extremely quiet. Unlike subways and crowded places back home in America, the subway in Taiwan was really quiet, which was surprising.

After arriving at the Lin family house, we noticed that the bottom two floors of the traditional house were a Starbucks. At Starbucks, I (Ryan) tried a matcha to see if the flavors were different despite the company being the same. However, it tasted almost exactly the same. At the Lin Family House, we learned that houses typically faced their worshipping doors towards the south, as the character for south in Chinese, nán (南), sounded like the character for "male," nán (男). Because members of the household wanted to try to have more men in the house, they purposefully faced the doors of their worshipping areas to the south. However, our tour guide said that the percentages of boys to girls born in the family over the past two generations were 30:70 and then 60:40, to which I doubted whether the superstition worked. We also noticed that the house had a lot of tiles that looked like turtles, which represented longevity. Inside the house, we learned how small the rooms were, with 8 people living in a very small room.

After learning about the traditional house, we got a tour of the city, where we visited a market area and tried deep-fried burdock root and dried fruits. Trying Burdock root for the first time was scary at first, but it ended up tasting really good! Afterwards, we walked towards Longshang Temple, one of the oldest temples in Taiwan. There, we learned about and prayed to a variety of gods and the methods people used to pray to them. We prayed to the God of Academics for good grades and the Matchmaker God to find love in the future. To pray to the gods, we learned about Moon Blocks, two blocks used to determine if the gods said yes or no to your wishes. If one block was up and one block was face down after throwing the blocks three consecutive times, the gods said yes to your wish. However, if both blocks were face down, even once, the gods said no. If both blocks landed face-up, our tour guide said that meant the gods were smiling because the person who threw the blocks already knew the answer. Reflecting on those terms, it feels unlikely for the gods to say yes, but if they do I guess your wishes are bound to come true.

After making our wishes, we headed to lunch at a nearby restaurant. At the restaurant, we tried squid soup and rice noodles, which I (Ryan) thought were alright. After eating a lunch that has been recognized by the Presidential Office, we headed to one of my favorite sweet treats of the trip: mango shaved ice. Thanks to Alex’s dad, we split an order of shaved ice with a partner and got to sign our names on a board filled with the names of other famous people. The sweet mango and freezing ice offered us a refreshing break from the humid weather. After that we headed to a shopping mall that used to be a tobacco factory. This shopping mall had a lot of traditional treats like egg sausage pancakes and custard desserts. We also walked around and saw a lot of beautiful Taiwanese artwork. Despite the torrential downpour and wind blowing at a 45° angle, something I had never seen before, we went to another shopping mall that had some of my favorite shops we have seen from this trip like the Pokemon Center where I (Russell) and a couple of friends bought packs at an extremely cheap price for fun. I also tried out some Chrome Hearts sunglasses (even though I couldn't afford them) and saw some exclusive Taiwanese merch. I went to the LEGO store with a friend and built a “67” Lego set on the massive board for everyone and took a photo next to it.

   To end the night, we enjoyed a hot pot dinner where we all indulged in a variety of vegetables and three different types of beef. I think it was an extremely fun and delicious penultimate dinner. To put it frankly, I think it is safe to say that this was an extremely fun trip that taught us a lot about ourselves. I'm thankful for all the new experiences, friends, and connections I made along the way. I am also very thankful for the lessons that Taiwan taught me like the value of living in the moment, developing self-confidence, and the power of genuine curiosity. I will forever cherish these moments, and I'm truly sad to say goodbye to Taiwan, but I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up back here a few years later down the road. Goodbye Taiwan, and I will miss you forever and always.

Tune in for the last day,

Russell and Ryan