NDD + Furniture Museum

wednesday morning in the middle of week 2 at shu-te, we took a bus excursion to tainan. a few stragglers almost missed the bus, but everyone made it. and that is what counts.

the first thing that happened on the bus was that terrible question: "should we karaoke??" NOOOOO!!! not again... too much! thankfully we had an alternative to watch a movie, and that was the option the bus went with. it was a silly movie... that one where jennifer lopez is artificially insemenated and then meets the man of her dreams... can't remember what it's called at the moment. oh well.

our first destination was NDD... the design firm where we will be interning later in the trip. it was pretty cool. nice and chill. they had some amazing snap-fit plastic lamps + chandeliers. there's one with flowers that create shadows when light is cast through and another that's shaped like a fortune cookie. i want them both.

next we stopped in a relatively famous market where we ate the legendary 'coffin cake.' it was esentially a chicken pot pie in a coffinesque shell. oh, and i gambled for ice cream :) you put your 10NT into the slot and pull the lever. the arrow lands on 1 through 5, and the number you land on corresponds to the scoops of ice cream you get! pretty awesome deal... for about 30 cents!! i got one :( ...but i had more eating to do anyways. we went inside one of the market restaurants and ordered shrimp wraps (yum :) and these adorable fizzy cola drinks with a marble in the bottom for playing with while you drink :) it was like a super bubbly sprite... usually soda isn't exactly my first choice, but i made an exception for the infamous childrens' drink.

we walked around the market for a bit looking at and sometimes buying little knick knacks for friends and family, and then we boarded the bus again for our next destination.

the furniture museum was definitely pretty cool. it is actually a furniture manufacturing/restoration company that happens to have a number of antique pieces on display as well. the extents people go when given the right amount of money is just crazy! we saw a bed frame with inlaid mother of pearl in intricate patterns completely flush with the wood. even where the mattress would lay over it! insane. gorgeous.... but still insane. apparently there was a flood last year too... and the employees didn't get the furniture out in time... so they sat in water for days. these antique priceless pieces of art just sitting in water! ridiculous... that's one of the few things i caught of the tour... as it was all in chinese... and the lady just talked and talked and talked.

next we went through another little museum exhibiting the works made by this company. pretty neat. i snuck a few pictures :) we even got to try our own hand at hammering in a few joints... i think i'm a bit too impatient..

outside they had some scrap wood we could take.. really nice quality and it smelled delicious! so i took a couple pieces... i got a souvenir in the gift shop too... chopsticks with inlaid mother of pearl :) only $4US!! absolutely gorgeous too. arissa and i also managed to solve the puzzle cube thing... in about 2 minutes! we are officially puzzle masters. props to eric for me being so experienced :)

and of course before we left we squeezed in for a 'jump' picture. epic.