June 6th

This was our last day in Hualien. We already did all of the things that we had wanted to do in Hualien, so the night before Rebecca and I tried to look to see if there were any attractions close by where we were staying. We found this Buddhist temple that was about a mile a way that is actually the biggest temple in Hualien. The mile walk was long and hot (no shade at all). We did pass by a man who was raising chickens in the first floor of his house. That was fun and seemed pretty unsanitary. Right before the temple we stopped at a baseball complex and had some snacks. The complex had three or four professional stadiums, two indoor and two outdoor. One of the outdoor stadiums had the outside walls as rock climbing walls. We tried that for a little bit, but it was just too hot to really exert ourselves too much. 

So after a while we walked across the street to the temple. The temple had a long driveway with a small grassy area on each side. We were surprised to see army people in that area. They had an anti-aircraft missile launcher a couple of jeeps and a few dug outs. It was all covered in camouflage netting. Then on the other side of the temple they had a few more things like that. There were probably a dozen or so people. Hualien does have a big military base that we had gone by before in the bus, but this was the first time we saw something like this in the city. The temple was really impressive! It had two huge columns that were shaped like dragons. AS we got closer we realized that they were actually staircases to the upper levels. We looked around for a while at all of the different statues and carvings and paintings on each level. Huge temples like this one often have several different rooms with different main gods in each room. I am always a little nervous as proper etiquette in the temples, but the people are always very welcoming and tell us that we should take pictures and things like that. We were able to go all the way up to the roof. Some of the kids walked across the roof, but it was too difficult for Rebecca and I to do that, so we got split up for a little while. The temple was so huge that we had a hard time finding those who went to the other side. When we did find them, then we realized Ethan had disappeared. We decided to all go out to the front and just wait there since that was the only way out. But then, I told the kids that I realized that it was June 6^th, the one day of the year that they sacrifice little children. They knew I was joking, but I still went in to find him. I searched the whole thing and didn’t see him, but he ended up making it out and finding everyone else before I did. 

That evening I had been invited to give one more talk at another university in the city. This talk was for psychologists who were practicing in the area. Before the talk they treated us all to Japanese boxed dinners from what must have been a really fancy place. They were really delicious and had sushi, breaded pork, chicken, different fish meatballs, and vegetables. The talk went well and I had some good discussions afterward. They actually invited me to come out one more time to visit one of the clinics that is set up to serve the indigenous people for the area. They are going to pay for train tickets for all of us and take Rebecca and the children swimming in a river again, so I agreed. 

That night when I got back all of the children were asleep so Rebecca and I snuck out to a bakery for some late snacks. It was a nice way to end our stay in Hualien.

This sign in the breakfast place was so funny. Read the words - I am not sure if they were trying to tell people not to eat hamburgers or what. It was extra funny because they didn't sell anything like that in this place - or anywhere else in Taiwan for that matter.




Here is what their breakfast hamburgers really look like. A patty of pig meat, an egg, some shredded cucumber, and then lots of secret sauce.


This is the school grounds for an elementary school. Most of the elementary schools follow the same general format. They have a two to four story building that is either in a square or a u around a courtyard that has a track, basketball courts, and playground equipment. They are also always walled in.





This is at the baseball complex. We see these types of trees everywhere in Taiwan. These are the type where the branches send down roots that hang in mid-air. Over time, the roots reach the ground and thicken out so the tree has many trunks to it supporting all of the branches.




The outside of the temple. The two white columns are the dragon stairs.








Elliott found a snail shell.








Some of the offering money that they were going to burn was folded pretty elaborately.








All of the different carvings in these temples are amazing. Each temple has hundreds of them and you don't even notice unless you go slow and really look at it all around you.




I love the rooftops of the temples.