24 Sep., continued
We also went to Hiroshima. This was quite the experience. we toured the museum and I was amazed at the horror that took place, quite a bit is left out of the text books at home! We talked with a few survivors and they told their stories. I Iearned so much about the war in the pacific from the few hours we were there. I won't go into details, but the results were grotesque. On a happier note, we are trying to get the traveling part of the museum to come to augie to inform more people of the facts and things that went on.
Well, lets see, I have stopped running, everyone on the trip is sick at the moment, including me. Hopefully everyone feels better soon! I have been gone for almost one month and it has flown by! I can't believe that we are leaving Japan in a couple days. We leave Friday for Taiwan! The new professors are meeting us there, it will be quite the good time. Rumor has it that we only have finals and then no class in Taiwan, just when we get to Hong Kong and China. We'll see what happens though.
Well, I have to get going, I am going to a tea ceremony this afternoon. I miss you all! and I love you! Please write, I know the personal emails are far between, but my email time is limited and I will get back, but I love reading all the emails, so keep sending them! Keep me posted on everything, I don't care how trivial! Well, goodbye for now. Love, Amy
From: Amy Mirus
Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001Subject: Re: Hello From Taiwan
Hi Grandma and Grandpa!
Well we are in Taiwan now. We just got here a couple days ago after being in Japan for a month. I loved Japan, that is definitely a place I would love to go back to. It is so beautiful yet has enough excitement to keep up with! I'm not sure how I feel about Taiwan yet. I have been sick for the past week, so my outlook on the situation is somewhat distorted. It's a lot dirtier than Japan, but that was expected, as Taiwan is a still developing country.
We have to brush our teeth with bottled water because the water is so bad, especially after the typhoon last week. It was the typhoon of the century I guess. We were still in Kyoto when it happened, but all the subways are closed so we have to walk or take the bus, which is kind of hard when we don't know chinese. But we are getting the hang of it, and everyone is so nice in offering to help us out. Tonight I am going out with my roommate and one of her family friends who lives in Taipei, so we are going to get the authentic Chinese meal, I think, so that should be a good time.
How are things at home? I got Aunt Ginny's email about her surgery, I hope she is recovering well. Tell her I send my best. How are Candy and Peter? Involved with school? Sounds like Grandpa and Uncle Reid are quite busy with the remodeling, sounds like quite the project! I got your video too! I loved it! It was so good to hear voices from home! I talk to Mom and Dad once a week, but I haven't talked to anyone else since I left, not even Missy or Ryan (they don't get up in time to talk to me, I call on Sunday mornings, when no one is using the internet). Well, I have to get going, we have to walk back and get ready for dinner. I miss you! Love, Amy
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001
Hello everyone!I have no idea how long it's been since I last wrote. Sorry about that. I
don't even remember if I did a mass email in Taiwan yet, so I'll cover all the bases.
Things have been extremely busy! First of all we had finals last week and started
new classes. Chinese medicine and Chinese drawing are becoming quite the workload.
I never expected this much work abroad, based on my previous class which was
a breeze! Oh well, I am managing fine. So we have been in Taiwan almost two weeks and we leave on Friday for Hong Kong.
I have gotten used to the enormous difference between Japan and Taiwan just in time
for us to leave. Actually I have really enjoyed my time here, it doesn't have the
breathtaking views, well it has a couple, but the night life is incredible.
Night markets crowd the streets from 4 in the afternoon till after midnight, people
walk shoulder to shoulder down the streets in one big mob! Last night I went to
snake alley, one of the most touristy night markets. Well, I did it, along with my 5 companions, we drank snake blood and bile, its just the
thing to do. For those who are queasy, skip ahead to the next paragraph, others read
on...as we walked down the street, we heard men calling out random phrases in Chinese
as they played with snakes. Turtles hung upside down from the ceilings, turtles with
their heads cut off were still twitching on the counter. Snake hearts were still pulsating
on the slaughter table. Lots of animals, dead, alive, on their way to death were seen
in all the little restaurant/shops. It was quite a sight, pictures weren't allowed so
don't worry, no one has to see it. Okay, for the ones who get queasy: we did go to a wonderful national park last
weekend, Yeilu National Park, on the coast of Taiwan. It was incredible. We
walked along the path to the top of a cliff and on our way we saw a sign that said
"dangerous do not enter" or something of that nature. Attached to the fence next
to the sign were 2 ropes. Of course we hopped the fence and repelled down
the side of the cliff on the ropes. When we had made it down to the shore, we
played on the rocks that bordered the ocean. The waves crashed up onto the
rocks, spraying the salt water onto us. It was great! That was definitely one of our
greatest group adventures. Speaking of adventures, a few of us went to the hot springs the other day, We just
hopped on the train in search of the mini bus to take us to the hot springs. We found
the mini bus with no problems, the hot springs were a little more difficult. We ended
up asking some woman where the hot dogs were because we didn't pay to close
attention to the phrase book, funnier story in person, sorry. Okay, so we found the hot springs and bathed in the steaming sulfur water til our bodiescould no longer take the heat. It was an interesting experience to say the least, I now havean entire made up song about hot springs, remind me to sing it to you sometime :)Today is 10/10 the Taiwan fourth of July if you will. We went to the celebration where only200 tickets are given out to foreigners and we got 85 of them. We watched the parade andlistened to the president speak about 200 feet in front of us. The parade was exciting, littlekids in bright extravagant dragon suits dancing around but the President's speech was inChinese, obviously, so everyone kind of dozed off during that.
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