Dragon Boat Races

Today drug on forever. We met at nine and took cars to the Dragon Boat Festival in Kaoshiung. Before we went to the boat races we visited the Kaoshiung Museum of History. It was interesting, and a little creepy at the same time. The first room we stepped in to had a bunch of hand puppets that would terrify me if I was a kid.

More creepiness happened after the puppet room in the museum. Ryan and I were walking around and this lady started talking to us in Chinese about exhibit pieces. I had seen her earlier talking to Tin-Man so I naturally thought she was with our group somehow. I was so wrong. She was just some random lady that singled Ryan out and wanted to talk to him about the museum. She kept on tugging on his shirt and pants though to explain materials to us (in Chinese). As soon as she walked out of the room we ran the other way downstairs. Later we were walking around and saw her again but we eluded her with some tactical evacuation maneuvers.

After the museum tour was finished we walked to the river to watch the dragon boat races. There was a festival going on the riverside and people had booths set up with games and food. It was interesting to watch, but the heat was so distracting. Then JR makes the lame wish for it to rain so everyone can cool off. Sure enough it started raining on us less than a minute later. At first it was nice and felt good, then it started pouring down on us. At this point it just felt uncomfortable, but then the rain stopped and the sun came out. I think this is where I started to get the sun burn that I am feeling now.

To cool off we walked around and found some shade, then met back up with the group and drove to the beach. The beach was really dirty with litter which detracted from the black sand, but it was still fun to walk around. We are going to take a trip to some beach in a couple of weeks with the students from Shu-Te. I think we are going to stay in a beach house and relax (it's not like we don't do that now though).

By the beach there was a small market that we explored. There was a pot bellied pig on a leash that I think was a pet, so I pet it. It felt really bristly and dry.

We left the beach and went to McDonalds for dinner. I feel a little ashamed, but only on the inside. The burger was good.