Well, until Leia, a student of mine, told me that she and her dad biked to Taiwan last weekend.
Me: Really?
Miss Leia: Yes, really.
Me: How long did it take you?
ML: Hmmm. About, about, about....I don't know.
Me: Really, you don't remember how long it took you?
ML: Miss Shan, I got new gloves. See! Oh, maybe two hours?
Only two hours! I had been thinking that it would take much longer. And, Leia most distinctively pointed out to me, they had ridden to the mountains, not the town.
My mind started mulling over this new bit of knowledge. I mentioned it to my roommate Connie, and immediately we decided it would be a cool thing to do. This past weekend promised to be the perfect opportunity for such a jaunt.
After my Saturday morning class, Connie, Erin and I loaded up our bikes with our waterbottles and bags, and started pedaling. And...it didn't take us very long at all. Granted most of the way into town was downhill, but still. I was shocked to find that it took us 55 minutes to get to the center of Taichung--that's only 10 minutes slower than the bus! And we weren't booking it by any means.
{Connie and Erin on the road}
{Yes, that is a building with Britney Spears plastered on it's side}We ended up parking our bikes at the Church, and then set out to go exploring. We didn't get far. Only across the street where we found a Sushi Express, and had to go in. And it was fantastic!
We decided to go to Chung Yo, the big department store, and Connie and Erin got there makeup done at the MAC counter (Mindy, you've converted me!). As we were leaving we heard some pretty cool music coming from outside. Often there's some sort of concert going on on Saturdays so we went and investigated. It ended up being a belly dancing contest. And it was pretty much amazing!
It was interesting to see the different variety of women--and man--who made up the different teams/groups. Culturally in Taiwan one cannot be beautiful and big at the same time. Asians do have a tendency to be smaller boned, and I think because of that women have a lot of pressure to be slender, and sometimes unnaturally so. It was refreshing to see these middle aged women not ashamed of their bodies, even though they didn't necessarily fit what was culturally acceptable.
One of the teams singled out Erin and asked if she would film them. They were from Taipei and didn't have any friends to do it for them. They happened to be really good. Allen was the only guy belly dancer, and man did he have some amazing moves. His partner, Maggie, was absolutely gorgeous.
{One of the performing groups before the actually performance}
{I loved the colors}
{Maggie and Allen performing}
{Allen and Maggie after the show}
{Taiwanese school girls}
{The most adorable girl wearing a mask at the show}
{A dog wearing goggles. Totally normal, right?}
{Cute Asian fashion}
{Gotta love the Hello Kitty umbrella}Here's to a day of complete awesomeness! One of tans, endorphins, and amazing memories!
{Erin, Connie, and I with our bikes. Just about to ride back to Feng Yuan}
