Dear friends,
Today was a very fun day. Patty, a local English teacher, took me and four other Fulbrighters to Mei-Nung, a Hakka Village 40 minutes outside of Kaohsiung. The Hakka are a type of tribe in Taiwan. This particular Hakka village is famous for their hand-painted umbrellas and hand-made pottery. The name, "Mei-Nung," means "beautiful (thick) mist." It is nestled among several small hills that are covered with bananas trees and beetle nut trees.

You can find the photo album for this day, here. We walked around the shops, saw the beautifully painted umbrellas, and then...made our own pottery! You won't get to see the grand masterpiece that I made until the end of this month when they send it to me. So, sit tight, and I'll post again when my hand-crafted artifact comes in =D. After making pottery, we had lunch and picked lemons at Patty's lemon farm.

Dear friends,
Last night, Selena, a colleague of me, Billy, and Kate at Ling Zhou Elementary School, took us to her brother's restaurant "Modern Toilet". Yes, you won't believe this, but the entire restaurant is toilet themed. The chairs are toilets, tables are bathtubs, curtains are shower curtains, etc. It's incredibly funny. The food is also delicious.

The seats at the restaurant

Taking a little shower in the restaurant =D

Hot Pot in a toilet bowl!

Rice curry, chicken, and cheese dish in a bathtub bowl!

Our drinks came in this

Kate getting napkins for Selena!

Dessert: ice cream in Taiwanese squatting toilets =D

And then...came the humongous dessert shaved ice with strawberry, strawberry syrup, fruit, and ice cream.

There are several "Modern Toilet" Restaurants in Taiwan, and they just opened up two restaurants in Hong Kong. We had a really great time at the restaurant. Food was good, atmosphere was great, and company was hilarious. We talked and laughed so much while we ate that the whole restaurant kept on turning their heads and either glared at us, or just stared at us. Good times!

Dear friends,
Today I saw the famous Taiwanese movie, Cape No. 7 (海角七號). It's a beautiful movie, with the proper elements of romance, comedy, and moments of sadness. I especially like the music and cinematography. I don't want to ruin the movie for you because I'm planning to get the DVD and bring it back to the States with me so all of you in America can see it. Cape No. 7 is in Japanese, Taiwanese, and Mandarin. But, it has English subtitles so do not fret my English-speaking friends =D. Here's the trailer if you're curious. It was a great first movie to see in Taiwan.