Sunday, July 31, 2011
Yesterday we spent the day in Taichung. Besides hitting up Costco, we also went to a botanical garden and a few of us explored the National Museum of Science. Of course I took a million pictures, but I also finally managed to get three whole pictures of myself on my camera!
These tiles were really cool. You can't really see the picture that they form until you look in the mirror in the center. Jenny pointed it out to us as a little side-trip on our way to the botanical garden.
Can you see the picture? Butterflies!
This is a clock. There were a lot of people looking at the clock. We didn't really take the time to stop. (haha)
Another giant butterfly! And me. I really am here in Taiwan!
Kylie and Kendra.
Veronica and me
Biggest durian (I think that's what it is... Felix?) Ever.
Me again. Just in case you've forgotten what I look like.
Giant fish!
More of the giant fish! The biggest one I am pretty sure was bigger than me.
And this catfish reminded me of the ones at SeaWorld in the Manatee Rescue tank.
A ray for my sister
Dr. Harris, these dinosaurs are all for you. (Just ignore the date and time stamp; brand new camera and I, of course, did not read the manual so in playing with the settings, I somehow turned that feature on and didn't notice until a few pictures later. Fun fact: I actually set the date a day ahead on accident, so it's not completely accurate, anyway) The shirts say "Discover the Dinosaur" and are Chinglish free!
Some cute coconut pigs. I almost bought one because I think they are adorable, but I decided against it. The hot glue on this one makes it look like it is crying. Poor, sad pig.
I don't know. All the signs and exhibits were in Chinese, but I think it probably has something to do with the aborigines that first inhabited Taiwan.
Dandelion Fluff in a glass ball! I thought it was cool.
This was very ironic to my life for reasons that I can't really explain. But, hey, lanternfish! And other light-up sea creatures.
Kyle, this one is for you. You're welcome.
One exhibit that we were able to fully understand, even though everything explaining it was in Chinese. You know you've got a good illustration (can I use that word to describe our little water-filled friend here?) when it makes sense to people that can't understand your language.
A "nake" skeleton (Almost all of my AK students say "nake" instead of "snake." It's not actually adorable anymore.)
These dinosaurs moved. I actually took a couple videos of the moving dinos. They were awesome. Also, remember how I said all of the exhibits were in Chinese? That was totally true... until we came to the dinosaur exhibits! Then they started to be in Chinese and English, and it was fantastic. Most of the exhibits from here on out had English.
I took a picture of this feathered, flying dino (I'm sorry, I forgot the name. I am a terrible student.) without the flash, and then I took this one with flash and found the flash made it a lot creepier. I would not actually want this to come after me. That would not be awesome.
This giant beetle is chasing an elephant. I don't actually know why or what was going on with this display because it was one of the few in this part of the museum that was still only in Chinese.
Also, I thought this was disgusting. They have a display showing, basically, the circle of life. This dead bird is being eaten by maggots (they're not real, at least).
Anything can happen in Taiwan. Here, pigs fly!
I kind of loved the various archaeology related displays. Don't even worry, there is a mummy further on.
Can you see the number? It was constantly changing. At 3:42 PM in Taiwan on July 30th, 2011, the world's population was approximately 6,907,601,327 people.
They had this fun thing that you could do (same wall as the world population display) that showed about how many people had lived and died since you entered the museum. You enter in however many minutes you think you've been there and it does the calculations. In 30 minutes, it was estimated that 7,380 babies were born and 3,240 people died.
Sara, Me, and Heather. It sensed your body heat or something? I don't really remember very clearly. I was getting kind of tired by this point.
The real, dead mummy!
I want to go back sometime so that I can see the rest of the museum. It was HUGE and reminded me of some of the museums that I went to on my LA art trip this past semester.
Christina, Veronica, Kendra, Kaylee, Kylie, and Jessica. Jenny was on the phone and we were just waiting for Heather and Sara to finish looking in the final museum gift shop.
Also, for you, Mom. My first Taiwanese souvenir! I can't believe I went a whole month without buying anything souvenir related, but this was a real orchid, not too expensive, and I just couldn't pass it up, especially since it is tiny and should therefore be easy to take home.
Labels: Photography, plants, Roommates, Taiwan, travel, weekend plans
