Taiwanese Bird
I went to the park today! It’s only a few blocks away from my house, is pretty big, and has quite a lot of stuff to offer. There are gigantic palm trees, some sort of temple thing, several play areas, koi ponds, wildlife, and really funny people. Not to mention, a 7-11 on the cornor, if you’re into that sort of thing.
So here I am, wandering through the park in the drizzling downpour, and I see this bird. Now, normally I see a bird and fail to be excited, but I am not in North America anymore so any form of wildlife here is pretty exciting. I spent like 20 minutes following this stupid bird around, watching it dig for worms, scratch its face, and do other not-too-interesting bird like things, because it was exotic and the size of a hawk. I figured that must, somehow, mean it was unique and awesome to everyone who saw it.
Then I walked another five feet and saw two more, and realized I’d been staring in awe at the Taiwanese equivalent of ducks.
The pond was pretty cool, though it started pouring and I had to take shelter beneath a convenient gazebo. There were a couple of birds there too, hunting the fish in the water. I spent a while watching them as well, and then got the rich experience of watching a man fish in the pond as well. Keep in mind this is a pretty small pond with pet koi that people feed… and that he was tossing food into the water then scooping them up with a net. It got even funnier when the authorities noticed him and started yelling. Especially since he actually caught fewer fish than either of the birds.
Interesting fountains in the park, I think they were supposed to represent the spray of water when a whale slaps its tail into the ground, but one of them was broken and was just sort of drooling on the whale’s tail. Kind of pathetic, not terribly majestic, especially as the whale itself looked like a misplaced slug.
Renee and Alison showed up at about 9:00 tonight. They seem really cool, and both of them are, I believe, just the slightest bit shorter than me… which is awesome. Alison is from Ontario, Renee is from Tennessee. Renee will actually be leaving after this week; it’s her classes that I’m taking over.
The internet was restored tonight... apparently they had simply unplugged it while they were gone.
Stealing Fish
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