Spring Break in Taiwan: Day 7

Our second day in Taipei dawned bright and early; and before I knew what was happening, I was in our hotel’s restaurant eating the garbled assortment of corn flakes, white rice, and toast. After scrambling to finish breakfast, we made our way down to the lobby and out to the bus, where we drove to the National Palace Museum. I visited this museum during our NSLI-Y trip to Taipei and had wished for more time to explore. Despite my wishes being granted today, I still wish I had more time to fully delve into this place.

First, it’s massive; and second, it’s incredibly difficult not to get caught up in the detail and sheer craftsmanship of every piece. This museum houses the treasures of the imperial Chinese families, passed down throughout literally centuries. When the Kuomintang fled China, they selected the most precious and most historically significant artifacts and hid them deep inside the mountains of Taiwan. Later they built this museum to share some of the artifacts with the public. Due to the sheer massive amounts of artifacts accumulated, only 1% at a given time are shown (of about 700,000 pieces). Like I said, it’s an amazing place, and the coolest part was that about half the museum was totally different then when I was there last. The newest exhibit was displaying the emperor’s personal porcelain workers experimentation with different methods of glazing–mixing domestic and foreign materials, underglazes, overglazes, different firing temperatures–to create unique looks for the imperial court. Again, seeing pottery gave me an itch to get back in the studio, even if my references are (just a little) unattainable, being century old crafted-to-perfection pottery. Unfortunately the famous jade cabbage is still on loan to a touring show, which is disappointing. Guess I’ll just have to come back again (oh no!).

Next up was Xi Men district, a section of street side shops cutting through downtown Taipei. This place was amazing, yet an odd mix of incredibly fancy high brand name international stores and mom and pop shops. Everything kind of stood in contrast with one another. But the food was good and there were still some affordable (yay!) shops on the strip. This is also where, surprisingly, Simone and I learned we would be changing host families. One of the host family’s kids has the flu, and rather than send us back and risk exposure, we switched out: I’m staying with Trixie and Simone with Nia. I was sad to end my time with our host family so quietly, packing up our things and saying a quick goodbye. Our wonderful host mom gave us snacks for the road and wished us well. I’ll definitely miss this family, they were so welcoming, excited, and utterly generous. After grabbing my things I went straight to my new host family’s house for dinner and an early night. This new family is also really, really lovely, and were super excited to hear that I’d studied in Kaohsiung. We ate meatloaf with cheese for dinner, and snacked on wax apples and matcha ice cream while playing rummy cube (which I was so, so excited to see and play, as my family regularly plays this after dinner. Felt just like home).

Tomorrow we are off for more adventures as we visit Sun Moon Lake. But right now I am too tired to think about any of it. Goodnight and good morning.