Gone to Taiwan- Summer 2012: Man re du (It's hot!)

So not a whole lot to report from this past week, as I worked at the zoo for three days and was in the lab for two days. But I am having a blast getting to know people, learning natural history at the zoo, and giving English lessons (usually without meaning to, but I love doing it!). I've been doing lots of feeding turtles, cleaning turtles, taking turtles to the vet, and watching the office German Shepard get acupuncture everyday! It's a hot sweaty job, as stated in the title; the humidity here is pretty incredible (and I'm from Indiana; that's saying something) but I really like it. I wish I could show pictures that I've taken while working at the zoo, but unfortunately I'm not allowed to upload pictures of the zoo behind the scenes on the internet for security/legal reasons. But I have plenty of others to show!

I will have to perform my own ELISA experiment and create a report on it in the lab during my remaining time in the internship. So basically, wish me luck! I am hoping that it goes smoothly and that I can proove that I can do it. I have lots of good help here so it should be ok. I've seen alot of the students' different experiments and projects, and they are performing some pretty incredible research! They are all eager to show me what they have discovered, and many have been working on projects for years. Pretty cool stuff.

One day after lab, Mia and another labmate Lin went to go see Treasure Hill, a cute little area that has preserved its older buildings on a hill side and contains lots of little shops especially for artwork where you can make your paper or pictures or just look at other artwork. It was one of the quirkiest place I've ever seen. It is also a photographer's dream; the backdrops and random buildings would be perfect for someone's senior pictures or a model shoot. I'm no photographer, but if I were I would be at this place all the time! After walking around for awhile, we went to a korean restaurant and got some delicious seafood. I am hoping to try each Asian country's food while I'm here (hopefully without burning my tongue off).

Last night, many of my zoo coworkers took me to Shilin night market. If I though I went to a night marker before, I was wrong! This place was HUGE! The food, shopping, and people was like the state fair x 10, except it goes on EVERYDAY of the year almost 24 hours a day. Wow. I have to say, I believe I was pretty brave to try all the things I did. The pictures tell it all. I am sure I will be heading back to this place eventually.

Map of Treasure Hill

Pretty Wall I found

Examples of areas in Treausre Hill

Looking up at T.H.

Seaweed and weird noodles at the Korean Place (Seaweed is a new fave)

Pot of Seafood, including shrimp, octopus, and oysters

Seafood Pancake

Beginning of Shilin Night Market

Lots of fresh fruit stands

Biggest Sausages I've ever seen

Steamed buns with meat and veggies on the inside, one of my favorite foods I've found while here

Seafood soup

Oyster omelet and REAL stinky tofu (not a fan anymore...)

Some kind of fish

Lots of squid-on-a-stick stands

More Chinese Ice- very strange food, with red beans, tora (the gray balls), sweet potato, leekies (sp?) and tofu and little black balls they like to call frog eggs, but they're supposed to be sweet.