Taiwan Day 5inally

Just a heads up, unlike New Years Eve, I'll keep all of New Year's Day within the confines of a single post. If we're lucky, I might also stop being so self-reflexive in my writing. I just found out that I have someone to do it for me. Either Kathryn or Kenna has taken to stealing my notebook when I'm not looking. Writing sweet little nothings like "John! This is your notebook. Please don't me, and I would appreciate it if you were to write more legibly so I and others can read what you write! Much love, Notebook", they've also taken to making what could be heavily veiled commentary on how much I've been eating.

My favorites are:
"Richard Simmon's vanity license plate reads, 'YRUFAT'"
 and
"It's legal in West Virginia and Pennsylvania to eat roadkill."

I'll have you know that according to my mom a reliable source, I'm just a human garbage disposal big-boned.

Even though I've written a lot about food, there is a lot more to Taiwan. For example, on New Years Day our group trekked out to the National Palace Museum for a free visit. Even though it seemed like everyone who went to see the fireworks at the Taipei 101 the night before had the same idea, it was a pretty good experience. The museum is one of the largest collections of ancient Chinese artifacts in the world, with everything from manuscripts to royal pottery. I enjoyed the latter quite a bit. Not being allowed to take pictures, I'll to try and describe one of my favorite pieces that I saw. It's something called a spinning pot. Basically, it's a vase inside of a vase, but the outer vase has parts cut away so that the inner vase is visible. The inner vase is able to spin inside of the outer vase, so when it is also decorated with things like koi it looks like a ceramic fish bowl. If I get the chance, I'm making my own when I get back, but with gun-turrets instead of fish.

I can't wait to get kicked out of pottery class.