Well, I am sitting here in my living room as Typhoon Soudelor passes through. The wind has been really big but has died down from overnight. It is supposed to pick up again later tonight. So far everything has been fine, just been enjoying the day doing homework and watching TV.
So I thought that a blog post would a be a good idea!
I want to share my trip to the beach! We had July 31st off, as the building that has all the classrooms did not have power as they were doing the annual electrical testing. So a group of friends and I decided to go to the beach! We had planned to go to Fulong beach, but when we got to the train station the next train was not for two hours. So we did a quick google search and found a beach near Yilan (宜蘭).
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| At the Yilan train station! |
The next train was in about 20 minutes, so we quickly bought train tickets and off we went! the train ride took about an hour and half. Once we arrived in Yulin, we asked directions to the nearest beach, which was Waiao (外澳). We had to take another local train to the beach, but once we reached the station we were right across the street from the beach. This beach has more waves and we saw many people learning how to surf. The place that we stopped off for lunch gave surfing lessons, but we were just there to enjoy the water!
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| The Waiao train station- that's the beach off to the left! |
The water was really warm and not that salty, even though the beach is on the ocean side of the island. Getting out to the water was a challenge. Waiao is known for having black sand. So the sand in between the boardwalk and the water was ferociously hot. It was almost too hot to walk across! But once we reached the water, it cooled down. The beach is pretty shallow so we were able to wade and just enjoy being in the water. The water was really clear and a cerulean blue. the beach was really clean and not that crowded. After coming home and talking with my classmates and 老師, I learned that it is not as touristy because it is harder to get to; Fulong beach is right off of the train station so that is where most people go. I’m glad that we ended up going to 外澳 because it was pretty empty and the scenery was beautiful! The pictures really do not do it justice!
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| Some of the boardwalk and the beach |
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| It was a pretty clear day- the water was great! |
It was great relaxing trip and a great break in studying. The only hiccup that we had was that the train back to Taipei was standing room only. It wasn’t that bad and if that is the worst thing to say, I would consider that a successful trip!
It was a busy weekend as the next day, I met up with my class at 士林 (Shilin) to make Pineapple cakes (鳳梨酥) . We went to a well known local bakery Kao Yuan Ye and made these Taiwanese desserts. It was really simple as they had all the ingredients measured out for us, so all we had to do was dump it into the bowl and stir. But it was still a lot of fun and people at the bakery were very enthusiastic! While the cakes were baking we went up to the attached museum to learn about the customs and traditions of Taiwanese pastry. You can follow the process from the pictures below!
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| The prep tools and the ticket for the museum |
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| Combine butter, egg, and sugar |
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| Add in the flour |
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| Make a ball of dough- are your arms tired yet? |
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| Divide into 10 balls, and then put the pineapple jelly into the middle of the ball |
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| Smash into the forms, and add your mark, then bake! |
It’s hard to believe that my time here is quickly coming to a close, but it’s been a great experience so far! Until next time! 再見!
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