6/30/2012:

Jet lag hit me early in the morning, when I woke up at 5am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I ended up roaming around the dark house, cutting some fruit, reading a few chapters out of the book I had brought for airplane reading (Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink), rolling around in bed, listening to music, and eventually getting up to get the day started when my alarm went off at 7. We left at 8 to go to Jing Shan, an area further north of Keelung that is famous for its hot springs, both natural and artificial. The place we went to was about an hour drive away, and had many different pools...there was a ridiculously hot pool (I liked this one a lot, I’m always cold) and a cold pool, as well as strange ones like a rose water pool, a milk water pool, and a lemon water pool.

Our food adventures continued after our visit to the springs- lunch was at a small restaurant known for its local vegetables and seafood. We ordered a few dishes: two leafy vegetables, a beef stir fry, a seafood trio (clams, octopus, and shrimp) with onions, white bamboo, bitter melon, and a tofu vegetable soup. Next door to the restaurant was a small convenience store that sold cheap and fantastic ice ocream (it reminded me of the Thrifty’s inside Rite Aid) in Asian flavors like red bean, taro, peanut, and longan-my favorite of the selection :)

There were a few more spots to hit before heading home, including various shops that are famous for zhong zi (sticky rice and meat wrapped in bamboo leaves), mochi, grilled corn on the cob, and CAKES (I love the Asian bakery smell). Our Uncle told us that some of these shops were alongside the road that runs right at the edge of the island(like PCH runs along California’s coast), which is the same road that our dad used to ride his little motorbike up and down when he was in college.

Taiwanese beaches are nothing like southern California beaches, and I have to admit that I miss the latter. The beach here is just piles of old concrete and steep rocky dropoffs. However, I've heard that there are actual sand beaches in Tai Dong, so I'm looking forward to that.

Tomorrow, we convene with the rest of the student teachers at Jian Tan, and will be split into what sounded like a dorm-esque arrangement. This should be interesting.