Penghu Pt. 1 (Pics to follow)

This entry may have to be split into two or more parts because of its length. There was no internet connection on Penghu Island to speak of (at least, not wirelessly), so I wasn’t able to post, message, or surf the web since Wednesday morning! I knew that Mom and Dad would prolly be plenty worried about me if they hadn’t heard from me in four days, so I got to an internet café and sent an email to Mom. It went along the lines of an SOS message and I wanted to title it “SYK,” for “Save Your Kim,” but alas, I didn’t get the opportunity.

Penghu Island is part of a larger archipelago that lies in the Pacific Ocean. One thing that I knew but didn’t realize until I got here was that the ocean is salty. If you get even a few drops of water into your mouth, it tastes like you’ve drunk an entire glass of salt water. And not only that, if you get splashed by salt water, it leaves a sticky residue all over your clothes, your bag, and your hair. So if you go to the ocean in the morning and get splashed by the water, chances are you will be feeling the salt on you for the rest of the day. That’s how it’s been for the past several days.

We met the other teacher (hereafter referred to as Steph) at the Penghu airport when we arrived. She comes from BYU (a given as that’s where this program is offered, the fact that I’m in it can be seen as somewhat of an anomaly) and is following in the footsteps of her sister, who also did the same program.

Wednesday was spent getting acquainted with Penghu Island and taking a boat ride into the Pacific to visit Bird Island and see the rock formations that were caused by volcanic activity in the past. I’ll be putting up pics of the rock formations when I get the chance to get on Blogspot.

Of course, seeing as we are journeying between islands, the #1 food available is seafood. I’ve eaten dried fish (small fish that’s literally been dried in its original state, kind of like fish jerky), oysters, mussels, shrimp, fish soup, fish biscuits, and lots and lots of fish with and without bones. I know I said I liked seafood, but all this seems like a bit much…When I got to a place on the island where they actually sold some kind of American food, I ordered French fries and chicken. Hopefully it served to remind my body where I came from.

We’ve been to a fish farm, where we focused on feeding the fish (including huge fish and squid, although the squid were apparently more interested in playing the clarinet than in what we had to offer) and a floating restaurant where we could fish for our own food. Most of us didn’t catch anything. I’m convinced it was because of the large number of people fishing at once in the same spot. It would confuse the fish. That, and the people on board were constantly shuffling around and kids were yelling. That scares fish away, you know! Pity, too, because that was the first time I’ve ever been fishing.

We went to a beach on an island called GBay and went on some water rides. Not the kind of thing that my family would normally think of when I say that, though. Think of it along the lines of jet skiing and various balloon crafts that are pulled behind said jet skis. The balloon rides are the things that we would ride. We were only able to ride two when we went to the Gbay beach, though, since that is a favorite tourist spot.

The real havoc didn’t begin until our third fishing trip, when we were taught how to catch fish underneath rocks with our nets. We had to wear rubber shoes and gloves to protect our hands and feet from ocean wildlife as we waded into the water. Unfortunately, they didn’t offer a place for us to leave our things, so I had to take my messenger bag and Chinese-style hat with me (the wide-brimmed kind with the draw string that you can tighten underneath your chin). I bought it to help protect my face from the sun, which it does quite well…when it’s not being blown off my head by the wind. My bag, my hat, AND my hair got in my way of the net fishing, which was steadily pissing me off more and more. I wanted to keep things dry and as relatively salt-free as possible, which was very hard to do given our task. Add to that the fact that I was tired and my legs were starting to get sunburnt and it makes for a very unhappy Kim. Worst part was, if I had my family with me, the entire unpleasant experience would have been made easier because I knew I could complain to them and make myself feel better. As our family says, “One should never suffer alone.”

But everyone around me either didn’t understand English or lacked the cynical sense of humor to sympathize with me, so I was left trying not to curse my head off in front of my manager and the other teachers even though I was hot, tired, and pissed off. I wonder if it’s is a mark of personal growth that I can restrain myself like this.

We’ve also seen a fountain light show set to classical music (and, strangely enough, a US patriotic song) and a fireworks show since it was the last day of a fireworks festival in Taiwan. The fireworks show was the best I’ve seen in my life because of the close proximity and the variety of fireworks they included in their show. They included shaped fireworks, like a smiley face, butterflies, and one that was apparently supposed to be Taiwan. I got some clips from the show that I will be posting onto youtube soon.