A Day at the Zoo

Sunday, June 3, 2007--Taipei

I had decided to go to the Taipei Zoo today, since Sundays are a good day to be among lots of people and watch them. It was cloudy when I got up, so that made it an even better choice. I could go without having to worry about getting a heat stroke! Some of the clouds were dark, though, so I packed my umbrella.

The zoo here is out in the suburbs and in the mountains. It is in a narrow valley that goes upwards. It's a beautiful place with lush vegetation. There were gorgeous orchids blooming on the sides of trees. Most of the animal enclosures had a natural jungle to provide a home for the animals. And the enclosures were large enough for the animals to be comfortable, I think. I saw a number of animals I had never seen before. There were a surprising number of them that are native to the island of Formosa (which is most of Taiwan--there are a few smaller outer islands, too). But I also saw mammals and reptiles from other areas that I had never seen. It's a large, nice zoo.

There were sprinkles off and on most of the time I was at the zoo. Many people were there for the day. I enjoyed watching them as much as I did seeing the animals. The children were so cute. One little boy and his father walked up to me as I stood reading the menu at a restaurant. The father went to get in line to order, and the little boy didn't move. After a while, he said the equivalent of "Papa," and looked up at me. Suddenly he became scared and looked around screaming, "Papa!!!" Because both his father and I were wearing shorts and he was only knee high, I guess he had just assumed that my set of legs were those of his father. I eventually decided on a spicy chicken burger with fries and a Coke for my lunch. The burger was spicy, so I enjoyed that; it was a bit small, though. I had taken my novel with me thinking that I would stop and read some during the afternoon, but the drizzle kept me from doing that. The seats were wet, and I didn't want to sit inside and read. Finally, it began to be more of a light rain. By that time, however, I had been there for 4 hours and had seen most of the exhibits. I was ready to go.

On the way home, I stopped at 7-11 and bought two boxes of instant noodles. They have a much bigger selection in Asia than they do at the regular supermarkets in the U.S. (although you can find big selections at the Asian markets in the U.S.). I bought two large-sized ones (about a liter paper bowl). After a couple of hours of reading at home, I prepared one for my dinner. I couldn't remember for sure, but I thought I recalled that water should be boiled for 5 minutes in countries where it isn't normally drinkable. I put water in the kettle and boiled it for that long. So much had boiled away that I barely had enough to go over the noodles. They were just right for dinner though. It was a spicy noodle soup and had my tongue tingling. I can't wait to try the other one. The liter size cost about $1 per box.

I got a surprise phone call in the evening from Ignatius, the medical student who gave me a tour of his campus and took me to dinner on Friday. Because it was raining, he was worried that I was lonely. I assured him that I had my noodle soup, a good book, and some DVDs. It was nice of him to be concerned.