The National Palace Museum

This was the welcoming committee for the museum.



This me in front of the Museum, and then the brand spanking new camera's (which rocks, thank you mom and dad!) memory card filled up.




Which was ok because we couldn't take pictures of the art anyway, so here is my rendition of some of the most interesting pieces.


In my opinion, the aboriginal museum across the street was far better lit and organized. It was much more interesting and pleasant to view than the National Palace Museum. Not being able to read Chinese definitely put us at a disadvantage when viewing all the ancient texts. The translations seemed to be lacking helpful or interesting information about any of the pieces. The collection and how it got to China is an interesting story, or at least it seems to be. I haven't been able to find any sources on the Internet to substantiate the claims that American planes were used to transport a good portion of the goods to Taiwan to prevent it from being destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In fairness to the Internet, I haven't looked very hard yet.

For more information about the NPM, although not much, go here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Palace_Museum

The Lovely Nuances of Language

Found, December 26th, 2008 in the classified ad section of The Taipei Times.

Confucius Parade (I think)

Before we headed down to check out the Confucius temple, we were pleasantly surprised by what I believe to be a Confucius parade in front of the Danshui MRT. Now, if I had to guess if Confucius was a guy into parades, I would say no, but then again, he and I are not that close.




My favorite part of the parade had to be the kids wearing the Confucius heads. They brought up the tail end of the parade, and the local car and taxi drivers seemed little concerned with the safety of the Confucius heads or the real possibility that the parade of people might serve as a potential road block. Due to this, the variety of Confuci had to dart in and out of traffic in order to avoid becoming Confucius pinatas. This was no easy feat as, I imagine, their range of motion and sight was severely limited. It was still very amusing to watch.

Vow of Silence

I have been forbidden by my doctor to speak for at least 24 hours or risk permanent damage to my vocal chords.

But really, once my doctor tells me not to talk, of course, I instantly really, really want to talk. I have spent my time thinking about all the people I need to call, and how I should really, really catch up on my communication. And suddenly, I have the burning urge to use my Chinese instead of jumping around like an idiot and pointing at things and pictures. But the hardest part so far (it's been 2.5 hours, and no one is home yet) is that I talk to myself all the damn time. I have to stop myself from talking to myself. A lot.

This vow of silence should be an interesting little journey for me...