September
9 |
|
| Later
on, we all took a taxi to lunch. They didn’t have a vehicle
and the taxi seemed to be the most convenient way of getting there.
In the taxi, my third uncle started engaging in a rant about government
regulations in Taiwan, when the taxi driver told him to fasten his
seat belt. I thought that the government, merely, was looking out
for the safety of its people, but my third uncle seemed to think that
the government should mind its own business. We got to a little eatery
and sat down for lunch. During the entire meal, they kept asking me
whether I had eaten any of the food on the table before. I found the
question amusing, and I just said that I had eaten some before and
had not eaten others before. My third uncle chose this time to ask
me about the relationship between China and Taiwan. When I told him
all I knew, he told me a bunch of other stuff as well. Anyway, after
the meal, we went back to the apartment and I was told to rest up
until three o’clock, which was when we would go out again. During
this time, I studied a bit for the GRE. At three, we went out and again took the taxi there. We first stopped by this cultural center which had a museum about human evolution. It was a serene place. I took many pictures here. There was even a little lake with fishes swimming about in it. During our little walk, I heard this incessant noise playing in the background and I soon came to realize it was the garbage truck. Apparently in Taiwan, the garbage truck played a very annoying melody on loop to alert the people to put out their garbage! |
After a while, I just could not understand how anybody could stand the music playing over and over and over! I wanted to rip out the speakers and crush the tape that was playing it. It was like musical torture! But I’m getting off topic. So we went to the museum afterward and it contained many pictures depicting the evolution of men and several other topographical maps. There were also some prehistoric tools on display. The day was so hot, that I found myself standing in front of the fan that was in front of the poster depicting the evolution of a mammoth, most of the time. All of us then sat outside to rest. My third uncle decided to buy for all of us, ice bars. I got a sour plum ice bar, which I hadn’t eaten before. It tasted different. There was thunderous noises overhead and I could tell that a storm was brewing. So, we quickly hurried over to a Confucian temple. We chose to walk there, and naturally, my uncle asked me all sorts of questions about traffic and politics in America. In addition he asked me questions about Confucian beliefs and religion. I didn’t understand anything he said, so he finally dropped it. At the temple, we walked around a bit more and I looked at the temple. There were some people doing Tai-Chi, a Chinese exercise. A bit later, it finally started raining and my third uncle decided that we should wait out the storm. Well, while we were waiting, I watched somebody feed the fish there. The guy fed pretty much everything to the fish. . |