Last Friday I went on a field trip with the Tai-Da language center. I wasn't sure how it was gonna turn out, but it was actually a lot more fun than I had expected. We went to Tao Yuan. Before going there, the only thing I knew about in Tao Yuan was the airport. Now I know there is at least one other thing...hehe. The itinerary for the trip was to first barbecue Aborigine style, go to a flower field and then go to a big park and ride bikes...or something like that. So when I got to Tao Yuan, I was curious to see what we had to do to. We were broken up into teams...I was put in a team of 9, my 3 classmates that went plus two English students, two German students, and one Norwegian student. As a team, we had to build a chimney sort of thing with a bunch of dirt rocks (if that makes sense) on a pre-made oven looking thing. I think if you just look at the picture, you'll get the point. Then after the building process, we set a fire in the oven and wait until the chimney is charred. After that happens, we can cook our food...sweet potatoes and eggs....yum...not really...hehe. After doing that, we grilled up some lunch. I had some delicious rice with chicken blood cakes and some fish balls. Normal food for folks in Taiwan. I am glad I tried the blood cakes because this means I don't have to ever eat it again. While we were grilling, we also made a gelatinous drink from a special fruit seed. By rubbing the seeds together in water, the natural stickiness comes out and makes gelatin after it's been refrigerated. It's kind of weird. An hour later, we were able to eat our sweet potatoes and eggs. It was pretty much a baked potato and a boiled egg with an "earthy" taste.

After all the food stuff, we were suppose to head to a flower field, but it was raining. So instead, we went to Ying Ge. This place is really famous for it's ceramics. Unfortunately, I didn't really get any good pictures. We didn't spend too much time there. We were there to look around and do shopping if we wanted. I wanted to buy a bunch of stuff...but i didn't bring that much money! And I didn't really have a place to put these things. So I went home empty handed. Overall, it was a pretty fun trip because of the people. It's always nice to meet new people. I see these students all the time now. So I am glad I went. Without it, I wouldn't have had the chance to meet them. I kinda hope we do another field trip next term!

So I went to this International Bakery Exhibit a little while ago...surprise right, and I finally uploaded my pictures. I already forgot all the cool things they had there. It was like watching the food network, but I was actually there in the showrooms. There were pastry competitions going on with live cameras and TV screens for everyone to see the action. Also, there were pastry chef creating chocolate sculptures. Which by the way, are really awesome to see in person. Check out the little fishys on the left hand corner of the picture with the guy working on the sculpture. They are so cute! And then the fun recreation of Taipei 101. That's a lot of chocolate. I wonder what they do with the sculptures after they are done? Like I said, it's a lot of chocolate. I can't imagine them just taking a picture of it and then throwing it away...hmmm. I guess I'll have to google it and see. Then again, I've watched enough food network challenges to know that half of the time, chef's use something non edible as a base. So maybe there really isn't that much chocolate used after all.

I went to this Exhibition because I was hoping there were going to be a bunch of supplies being sold. People in Taiwan don't own ovens, so they don't have use for baking supplies. But, people are starting to buy ovens. It's becoming a lot more popular. I on the other hand, just love to bake. I already own a oven and was just scouting the place for more fun baking utensils. Unfortunately, the only things that were on sale were machinery for bakeries. Things that were way too big for me to buy. And too expensive! At least I got some gelato out of it!