Week Thirty
Tainan & trying new foods
My computer’s battery issues have returned, so this will be an abbreviated summary of my week. I’m taking my computer in for repair on Monday, which I’m hoping will solve this issue once and for all.
Last weekend, I visited Tainan. Tainan is a city on Taiwan’s southwestern coast (Taiwan’s 4th most populous) that is well known for its food and political history. In the early 1600s, the Dutch set up a colony/trading fort on the coast near Tainan and ruled the area until 1661. In 1661, Koxinga, a Ming dynasty loyalist and naval commander, laid siege to the fort, causing the Dutch to withdraw from Taiwan. The Kingdom of Tungning (established by Koxinga) lasted until 1683, at which point the Qing navy defeated the Tungning fleet in the Battle of Penghu. Here is the Wikipedia page, which does a far better job explaining Tainan’s history than I can. I had been to Tainan once before (back in 2022) but was excited to go back with better Chinese skills and a more adventurous itinerary.
Tainan is Taiwan’s food mecca, so naturally I did a ton of eating. My favorite bites were the beef soup and the fried noodles with eel. Raw beef cooked in scalding broth is a common breakfast dish in Tainan, and it felt like a luxurious start to my day. The eel noodles were way tastier than they looked, with the wok giving them a really deep flavor. I ate plenty of other delicious local specialties (pics below), but those two dishes were the highlights.
On Saturday, I visited the remains of the Dutch fort before heading to the Tainan Art Museum, which was really impressive. I spent a long time here, and particularly enjoyed their architecture and print exhibits. In the evening, I joined Eric and Brendan for a trip to Garden Night market, which is Tainan’s most well known. It was huge (multiple times larger than Luodong’s night market), and a lot of fun to walk around. I was a bit disappointed by the number of repeat stalls, however. Some “chains” (if you can call it that) had 3 or 4 separate locations throughout the night market, selling the exact same thing.
I was exhausted when I got back to Luodong on Sunday afternoon. Audrey and I had a FaceTime date in the evening, which was the perfect way to wrap up my weekend. Calling her helps me relax and re-ground myself after weekends of travel. Long distance has not been easy, but these calls have made the distance bearable. I miss her a ton!
The weather in Luodong was pretty gross all week (can’t say I’m surprised at this point), but I managed to be fairly productive. On Monday, I got a stellar haircut from the Handsome King and managed to try two different new restaurants, one before and one after my cut. Both came highly recommended by my friend James, who did this same Fulbright program in Luodong last year. The spicy noodles had my eyes watering, and the stinky tofu was perfectly crispy— both will be in my regular rotation moving forward.
On Tuesday, I went to play badminton after class and ended up in an intense 1-on-1 match with the one other teacher who showed up. He (obviously) is much better than me, and he ran me all over the court for an hour and a half until I was drenched in sweat. I’m used to these badminton sessions being well attended (games are usually 2 on 2), but I enjoyed the solo work, and think it made me much better. After dinner, I went and enrolled in a tai chi course at the local community college. Class is every Tuesday from 7-9pm from next week until I leave. Per the professor (or should I say master), the only thing I need to bring to class is a thermos of tea.
After a long Wednesday, I grabbed dinner with my host family in Yilan. We went to a “Taiwanese izakaya,” which ended up being much more Taiwanese than izakaya. My host dad ordered a bunch of his favorite dishes for me to try, and I had fun practicing my Chinese with their two young daughters (8 and 10 I think). It’s been great to see them come out of their shells the more time I’ve spent with them, and it makes me excited about the semester to come. My host mom’s mother (host grandma?) apparently wants to teach me how to make beef noodle soup, and my host mom wants to teach me about Taiwanese tea culture. Much to look forward to.
Soundtracks to my week have included…
Pieces by Dinosaur Jr.
Burning Ground by Van Morrison
Grateful Dead 12/10/73 at Charlotte Coliseum
Thanks for reading, and apologies for the extremely brief recap this week. I typed up a longer one on my phone a few days ago, but the draft didn’t save, so I wasn’t able to send it out. This coming Thursday, I’ll have a lot to talk about, most notably a diving trip and my first tai chi class. I plan to put more time into the Week 31 recap in order to make up for this pitiful Week 30 coverage.
Feel free to shoot me an email (bwcopel@gmail.com) with any complaints or concerns!
Can’t wait to hear about tai chi. Also, you totally need to assert yourself in the world as a mukbang challenger.
Raw beef cooked in scalding broth is a crazy start to the day