Last Saturday we went out exploring.  Unfortunately it rained the entire day, so it was a pretty wet excursion, but overall we had a lot of fun.  It was the first time we both went out and did really tourist-y stuff.  We've been focused on getting our house put together and getting our bearings and haven't had a lot of time for fun stuff (which is part of why the posts have been so few and far between).

We started at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.  It is an impressively massive square with traditional looking buildings on all sides.  The buildings were constructed in the 80s but they look like they could have been from several centuries ago.

This main building was the actual memorial for Chiang Kai-Shek, who was the leader of China until he had to flee from the communists to Taiwan in 1949.  After that he ruled the Republic of China (Taiwan) until 1975 when he died.  The memorial is very impressive.  There is a hall with pictures and a lot of his personal effects.

If you climb to the top of the stairs on the outside of the memorial (and there are a lot of stairs!  We were definitely out of breath when we got to the top) there is a gigantic room with a statue of Chiang Kai-Shek, protected by guards.


Every now and then they do a sort of changing of the guards walk which is pretty interesting to watch.  Too bad so many tourists were in there hiding from the rain.  The guards almost didn't have room to turn around properly.

 The stairs are quite a bit easier going back down, although with the rain it was pretty slippery.  I'm glad we both had on good shoes.  On a side note, in case you're planning to come to Taiwan for a visit, make sure to pack non-slip shoes.  I can't believe how slippery things are around here.  Most of the sidewalks are tiles that get really slippery in the rain.  Even the paint on the streets gets slippery.  The first week I was wearing flip flops and nearly killed myself about 10 times.  I've since learned my lesson and tend to go with running shoes (even though they get completely wet).

The other buildings in the square are mostly concert halls.  The day we went, there were a bunch of kids out near one practicing dance moves.  It looks like they were going to have some sort of performance in the middle of the square.  I wonder if they still did it with all the rain?
The best part of the memorial to me are the gardens on all sides.  On the side we walked through there was a small lake (I think it was too big to be called a pond) that had a ton of big ugly koi fish (sorry but I've never liked these things.  They creep me out for some reason).  They were all different colors and kept jumping out of the water and making a lot of noise.

I know this is getting to be a really picture-heavy post so I'll just put one more in.  I really loved this garden.  I think I might come back on a day it isn't raining and do some writing here.  It seems like a very inspirational place.

This week looks like it's going to be filled with a lot of fun and surprises.  Wednesday is a national holiday in Taiwan - Dragonboat Festival.  We're excited to see what it's like.  Hopefully we'll get to see some races and have some good food.  Then on Friday my Chinese class is going on a fieldtrip!  I'm pretty excited.  We get to go to a little village and learn about traditional ceramics and food.  I'll be sure to write about it!

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