Me and some of the other Yilan city folk trained it down to the rural aboriginal township of Nan'ao (where 3 other Fulbrighters live) on Christmas morning to celebrate the holiday and a double birthday!
At a tiny elementary school nestled in the mountains, we partied it up with BBQ, sweet breads, cookie dough truffles, mulled wine, as well as homemade rice whiskey and raw boar meat - both local aboriginal specialties.
Here are some pics I stole from my friend
Jenny's blog (again).
Party spot!
Chillin in the pavillion
Mmm BBQ!
I assumed that after camp ended this summer, I would never do archery again... WRONG! We played with the school's traditional archery equipment and shot at a drawing of a boar mounted on plywood. I hit that sucker in leg. Not dead, but at least crippled. It's comforting to know my chances of surviving in the wild / a zombie apocalypse just went up a little.
A few of us stuck around late into the night (9pm) singing KTV and drinking shooters of Taiwan Beer. We were invited back for beach ATV'ing and all future BBQs.
Life's really different down in Nan'ao. It's an incredibly beautiful, incredibly rural area surrounded by mountains and the ocean. Drinking is a big part of the culture and many people speak the native aboriginal languages outside of school. While I don't know if I, personally, would be happy living in such a secluded area, I definitely plan to make many more visits to Nan'ao in the coming months!
Merry Christmas from me and some English Village kids!
