Ming and his daughter picked us up for a trip to the National Palace Museum, filled with treasures that Chiang Kai Shek and his people brought with them from the Forbidden City in Beijing back in the day. You can imagine the roiling controversy over where they should go.. not that anyone provided much insight. Pretty much people don't talk to me much about the politics of the region, and I haven't inquired very strongly. We had a tour of bronze and jade sculptures, including the famous jade cabbage, which we had to fight through crowds to glimpse. Then we had lunch at the Museum which also turned into a lesson on tea culture and tasting, you can be a connoisseur of tea just like wine. Then to class, we are only have one more day after this, although finishing papers can go on through ANGEL, so there is some flex. THEN, (the days are packed!) Yvonne, one of the co-ordinators of the trip, took me to an awesome nail salon, where I had a manicure. The aestheticians there are so artistic they have their nail paintings hanging on the wall as art. It was downtown Taipei in the neighborhood of Taipei 101. We headed there after -for a dinner at a restaurant on the 85th floor hosted by Dean Sung, one the main partners of the collaboration. The food there was typical Taiwanese cuisine, and plenty of it!
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