Day 11 - E-mail from Christian

So, this week has been pretty crazy to say the least. The town that I am in is close to Hsinshu, Taiwan, it is a pretty shady town with bars on windows, wild roaming dogs and garbage trucks that plays Beethoven while driving around like an Ice Cream truck. Streets are extremely narrow and we have to walk about 300 meters to get to work down these narrow streets with cars, semis and mo-peds driving close to 40-45 an arms length away from the side of the road. (Yes I said meters) Walking around one particular curve is very dangerous because the side of the road is used by mopeds/scooters and they cut the corner very sharp to save time.

Class work for the week consists of grammar class for 2 hours a day monday-wednesday, and 1 on 1 conversations with MBA students that need to learn english for an exam they need to pass called "Toeic" (the spelling may be wrong but that is how you say it toe-ic) My grammar class is filled with 13 and 16 year olds that know a little english and know enough to get by for my class any way. Three of the kids have been asking me to say things in chinese that I later learn are swear words.

The 1-1 conversations can at times be very weird. When I first meet someone that doesn't speak much english it is hard to come up with topics to talk about...I can only talk about their hobbies and home city so many times before it gets old. However yesterday and tonight the MBA students took me out to the actual town of Hsinshu where we walked up and down the streets in what is called a night market. Selling crap after more crap, scary looking food after the most fowl smelling thing you could ever come across. The students are VERY nice and are just as curious to learn about me as I am to learn about their culture. Tonight, we were walking down the night market and they offered me some food from a shop that is connected to a moped. It was a tortilla wrapped around some vegitables and very thin pork, it consisted of more things but even the MBA students couldnt tell me what it was...I tried it and it was OK, OK enough to finish half and make up a lie saying that I had eaten prior to this walk and I was full.

A story about food...I was telling Maddie that on a scale from 0-10, 10 being Pizza Rolls, and 0 being horse poop wrapped in dog skin, Chinese food could never (for me) get past a 4. So a three on my scale is very high, and a 4 would be down right amazing for authentic Chinese food. (I have on this trip enjoyed a few 6's and 7's that are McDonald's, and Skippy's PB, and dominoes) The night markets where I have purchased at least 25% of my authentic meals have some of the most disgusting smelling things that can be imagined. I am 96.4% sure that it is human feces, and that doesn't bode well with me. After smelling these horrible devil like inventions I immediately lose my appetite. When I get home remind me to tell you about milk tea.

If you are ever curious about what we are eating to sustain our bodies, here is a list of the things that are sitting above me in the cabinet...In an extra large freezer Ziploc bag there are chickadee's (target goldfish) and I think are a few more fruit snacks, I see a box of oreos, small bag of Lays potatoe chips, andies mints, a bag of PB M&M's, pack of gum a dove chocolate bar. We did have a full jar of PB but after being on this island now for less than 7 days it has been consumed fully by maddie and yours truely. In our fridge we have...4 of 6 cans of coke a natural jar of PB that I purchased yesterday from night market for 90 NTD (A little less than $3), an Ice tray full of ice for some reason and some water melon also purchased from a night market this time by Maddie. During the day we either order free food from Dominoes, or a restaurant called The lunch Box...I wish I had a picture of the menu for the lunch box, but the food is interesting to say the least. The other day we orderd chicken and rice, and recieved our order but the chicken was 50% bone and 25% chicken, the other 25% was indescribable. We had Dominoes pizza for the first time today and was a great change of pace. Our boss pays for our lunches, but I would feel bad if I order the pizza every day because it is pretty expensive.