I saw a crazy-ton of monkeys, and it was awesome.

But first a quick recap over the days I haven’t written about. Basically we just started class, and for language I’m in a lower-intermediate class (which is fine by me; my Chinese is not the best). Classes are fun, we just work on vocab and speaking, listening, reading and writing characters. Quiz on Monday… gotta study.

The language classes are in the morning, then culture classes are in the afternoon. This week it was just sort of an overview of Taiwan, and basic points for cultural sensitivity so we don’t offend anyone. Example: don’t stick your chopsticks down into your bowl of rice or noodles, as it is a sign of a funeral and death.

Ok, so yesterday was our first excursion.

We went to a Buddhist monastery in the morning, called Fo Guang Shan monastery.

It was really beautiful; there were gardens that had hundreds of statues of the Buddha, beautiful buildings that reached towards the sky decorated in gold and jade, iron and marble. There was a museum, and a tea ceremony, and calligraphy classes. For lunch we had a fantastic vegetarian meal, and I stuffed myself to the point of bursting.

From there we went into the city of Kaoshiung, and went to hike up the mountain, Shoushan. It started off a rough hike, because it was mostly in the sun. It is HOT in Taiwan. But once we got under the cover of the trees it wasn’t bad at all; actually it was fantastically beautiful. There was a wooden path that branched off all over the mountain and through the jungle, and about halfway up we started seeing monkeys. Only a few at first though… Soon, a small group of us (me, Tim, Dan, and English name Raquel) all broke off from the rest of the group, thinking we could hurry around and see more.

First we checked out a small cave just off the path. That was a dumb idea, because we were promptly attacked by thousands of ants. It looked like my shoes were moving. Then they went for our ankles, and we quickly decided path walking was a better idea…

We walked just a little further, and then noticed a lone monkey in the path. She watched us a minute, then leaped into the tree above us. We turned around, and realized she wasn’t exactly alone. We were surrounded by dozens of monkeys. Most of them were mothers with their tiny and adorable old-man faced babies with bright eyes. They weren’t bothered by us a bit, and I went picture crazy, trying to catch the idea (and not quite managing) of how many and how close the monkeys really were.

After awhile we continued up the mountain. It was a great hike, but at the top we had a few surprises. There was exercise equipment at the top, like gymnast rings and pull up bars and a weighted hula hoop. I guess for those who want to run up the mountain and then REALLY start their workout…? We just played on it, then went to the outlook point. You could see all down the mountainside and clear out to the ocean. Kaoshiung is a major harbor city, and seeing mountain, jungle, and ocean all in one swoop is really impressive.

To make the experience even more amazing, at the outlook there was an ornate pagoda where they were serving hot tea and cold water for anyone who made it up the mountain. So we stopped and had a cup of tea and caught our breath, then rushed back down because we realized the rest of the group had only gone half way up the mountain and then back down.

When we got back to the city there was a teacher waiting for us. Everyone had gone on to the next place, so we grabbed a taxi and headed out to meet up with them. We caught a ferry to get to the other side of Kaoshiung, then had about 20 minutes at the night market to grab a bite to eat. Mostly sea food, which isn’t my favorite, but we did have these delicious tomatoes dipped in some sort of herb sauce. Then I had a few bites of squid, and fried fish.

When we got back to school we cleaned up, then a big group of us went to an American style bar for drinks. Nicole and I broke off from the group and had some delicious noodles for a real dinner from a street vendor, then headed back to the rest of the group. It was a good night.