OMG!!! Dr. Jung-Hua Yeh (my colleague at the National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung, Taiwan) kept me so busy this past week speaking at universities and visiting museums I have not had time to post. I hope you missed me and my adventures. The National Museum of Natural Science owns six separate venues: Space IMAX Theater, Science Center, Life Science Hall, Human Culture Hall, Global Environment Hall, and Botanical Garden.

In two days, I presented at the National Taiwan Normal University, and visited 3 museums and took 2 trains to Hualien to speak. That was just the first 2.5 days of last week. Wait until you see the next post for what I did Thursday to Friday!!!

I did really work while I was there! I spoke Monday afternoon at National Taiwan Normal University. After my talk, the university provided a student guide, who took me to Hongshulin Mangrove. Hongshulin means “red forest” or mangrove.

My guide and I took the train to the mangrove ecocenter. As we were getting off the train, she asked, “How do you feel about a bike ride?” I replied, “No. No, bike ride. I can’t ride a bike in this traffic. I will kill myself.” This is where all communication broke down! She took me right down to the bicycles and rented me one. I stood there looking at that bicycle thinking–“This is the day I will die.” As a kid, I had a bicycle with a banana seat and ape hangers. I loved to slam on breaks and see how far I could skid or pull my bike around in the dirt. The feeling of looking back afterwards at the long line of disrupted dirt or the 360 circle I made is not anything I can explain. Every time I got on my bike, I just wanted to see if I could slide further!!!

I got on the bicycle and rode around the mangrove–scared to death. It was like riding in the street. Bikes coming at me! Bikes coming from behind me! People walking out in front of me! Meeting people on the walkway! Going up hill–I have to admit, I stopped and pushed the bike up a steep hill. My young guide was in front of me and kept looking back to make sure I was there. I wonder if she could sense my hesitation! When we finally made our first stop, I said, “Ammmmmm … this is the first time I have been on a bike in 25 years!!!” To which she replied, “wow.” And on we continued!!! Did not even phase her. I found out later that she probably had no idea I said, “I can’t ride.” Jung told me that the contraction can’t sounds like can!!!! So from now on I am supposed to say cannot to be clear. So to be clear … I cannot ride a bike!!! But I did ride one around the mangroves of Taipei.

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Tuesday morning I went to the National Museum of Marine Science & Technology in Keelung, Taiwan. Wow the view was amazing!! The offices faced the ocean and the mountain. Jenn Idema (my master’s student from Texas Tech) you would love this place!!! I got a private tour and fed the fish and saw the holding tanks. Hope to work with them on a research project. The person on the left is my colleague Jung0-Hua (she looks the same in every picture–don’t know how she does it!) and the woman in the middle is Li-Shu Chen (Industry-Academy Cooperation Division Assistant Researcher and Section Director). The seahorses were amazing!!

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Wednesday morning was the 921 Earthquake Museum. Named this because the earthquake happened on September 21, 1999 in the center of Taiwan. The museum is placed where a school collapsed during the quake. No children were harmed, because it happened at night. The government decided to make the school into a museum to honor the 2,000+ people, who died during the quake. In the picture, you can see the fault line (black arrow pointing to it). This is really neat because the visitor area is built around the fault line. The earthquake pushed the land up–you can see where the track was uplifted. Additionally, the quake destroyed the school. The first floor was built and then years later the other 2 floors were added–which meant the bottom floor was too old and could not support the new top additions.

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If you have been following my blog, you might remember my blog titled January 13-15: Road Trip–Where is Stuckey’s!!!!. Well, I thought I would have a sit down toilet in Taiwan (which I did in the hotel room), but most of them look like this. Yep it looks like a men’s room urinal in the floor. Imagine my delight when I saw one for the first time! I could not decide which way to face. When I faced away from the cave my urine sprayed up on my shoes, so I turned around the other way facing the cave. I took this picture when we stopped to use the bathroom at a gas station. You cannot see it, but someone completely missed the hole–there is urine all over the floor.