Well....let me tell you about the rest of my week. Yesterday (Saturday) some of the returning teachers along with the new teachers went to a town called Lugang. It is mainly a shopping town. We didn't have any money so we just explored the area....and took lots of pictures. There were so many cool little shops and a couple of Buddhist temples. We definitely took plenty of pictures. We were at one of the temples and all of a sudden we heard a loud "POP, POP, POP". We definitely weren't expecting that. As long as it wasn't a gun shot we were fine. :) Apparently one of their rituals is to put a bunch of fire crackers into this metal crate thing. Then, a ton of people walked into the temple and listened to a sermon-like speech. It was very interesting to see something like this. The temples were filled with smoke because they burn incense when they come to worship. It is definitely a different religion but it was very interesting to see some of the things that they do. The architecture in the temples was also amazing. They spend so much time on these temples and they make them very extravagant. One thing that I still can't get over is how much of a novelty we are. They think that white skin is beautiful and we get a lot of stares. Some of the teachers have told me that they would be just walking around or sitting on a bus and some random person would just take a quick picture of you. In Lugang some random person took a video of us. We were standing around talking and he was taking a video of the temple and then he turned the camera on me...super random! I just need to remember that none of this is offensive. They are just interested in us and our culture just as we are interested in there's. And we are just very different from them.
This is a picture of one of the temples that we found in Lugang.
After Lugang we went back home for a few minutes and then we headed out to a night market and to try to find some food. The night market was very interesting. We bought 6 loaves of bread for 100 NT (that's about 3 american dollars). That is SO cheap! :) It's crazy! We also tried to go to this great place that is right by our house to get some food. However, we definitely failed! They were closing right as we got there. :( Oh well. We went to 7 eleven instead.....yes they have those here....and we just got a couple of things to tide us over.
Ok. Now on to Sunday. So I can officially say that I have attended church in a different country. How crazy is that?!?! Luckily we attend an english branch. There are 50 to 60 active members in the branch. That is SO tiny! I have never been in a ward that small...even when I went to singles wards at home. I am going to get home and think that those wards are SO BIG!! Today was the last day that they will attend church at 1:30 pm. For the new year they are switching to 9:30 in the morning. NASTY!! Getting to church is quite an adventure here in Taiwan. Today we left our house around 11:30...we wanted to catch the 11:45 bus but we missed it. So...we caught the one at 12:00. Oh well. The first thing that we had to do was walk about 15 minutes down the road to the bus station in Feng Yuan. I am going to have to get pretty familiar with this route if I plan on traveling at all....all of the major buses and trains leave from this area. Anyways, after the 15 minute walk we had to wait for the bus. Then, the bus ride is about 45 minutes long. Buses in Taiwan are like nothing I have ever seen before. There are so many people in this country that they cram as many people on the buses as they possibly can. It is usually cramped and uncomfortable for most of the way. I have learned that you can't be polite. In order to survive you have to push your way through. Once we finished our bus ride there was a short walk to the church building. We first met with the branch president. He wanted to meet us and he plans to give us callings right away (I'm pretty sure). One of the new teachers in our group already has a calling. Then, church started with Relief Society, then we had Sunday School and we ended with Sacrament Meeting. It was actually pretty nice and it went pretty quickly. The real adventure happened on our way home. We got to the bus stop and it was raining and freezing cold. It probably wasn't freezing by Utah or Idaho standards but it was cold to us. Plus we were in our skirts which made it even worse. Usually the wait for a bus is a maximum of 15 minutes. This time it was 30 minutes. We didn't dare go stand inside a shop to keep warm or anything because once a bus comes all of the people try to shove their way on. You have to be first if you want any chance of a seat. So...after bus 55 came we ran to try and board the bus. We looked inside and people were so crammed in it. There was no way we were all going to fit. One of the experienced teachers fit on the bus...that was all. So....we had to wait for another one to come. Luckily another bus 55 came soon after that one did. We all squeezed onto the bus. We didn't get a seat. The walkway was crowded with so many people. Nicole, Kaitlyn and (2 of the other new teachers) were like right up against each other). A crowded bus is almost a benefit because the driving is so crazy that you are definitely thrown around a little bit but when you are crammed in like sardines you don't move around as much. You can't even imagine crazy the buses (and cars for that matter) are here. They are always slamming on their breaks and getting extremely close to the cars, scooters and people around them. I can't even watch or it makes me nervous. As we came to each stop more people got off. As they got off it is important to begin to push your way to the back to try and get air.....and maybe even a seat. At one stop many people got off and I noticed a seat towards the middle of the bus. I definitely pushed my way through the crowd to get to that seat. I'm not usually pushy like that but you have to be in a country like this. There are so many people that it is almost a survival skill. The guy sitting next to me was studying English in a book. When his stop came I noticed that he was getting read to leave so I got up to let him out. He said "thank you" in almost perfect English and got off the bus. It is so fun to me to see that we are such a novelty here. When we finally got off the bus we had another 15 minute walk back to our apartment. By this point it was 7:00 and it was cold and dark. We finally got back home. It was so good to be home. The returning teachers have been so good to us. We are with a great group of people! A couple of the teachers made us spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner since we haven't really had an opportunity to go to the store. That was so nice of them!
It still feels very surreal that I am even in this country but I am loving it. The people are so nice and kind. The teachers that we are working with are nice and as Annie would say, "I think I'm gonna like it here!"
No comments:
Post a Comment