Local Wildlife

It has become official that I am now a recognized face when I walk down the streets of Jhonghe. Just yesterday I was walking out of the supermarket with a new jar of peanut butter and some bbq Pringles chips when all of a sudden I hear Teacher Jon, Teacher Jon. I look up and there is Kiki with her mom. Naturally I sent out my greetings and salutations and then continued on my way. Later I decided to go to McDonalds for some lunch, and the same thing happened. I was standing in line and some kid walks by and says "Hi Teacher Jon", I didn't even recognize this one. Anyways, at McDonalds I had a spicy chicken combo but I was feeling pretty hungry and I didn't think just the combo alone would fill the void. So I decided to top of the meal with an apple pie. I totally had forgotten about the McDonalds apple pie until yesterday, and man am I happy I rediscovered it. It is so delicious, next time you are in McDonalds I would suggest picking one up and rediscovering the goodness. I also made a discovery when I was sitting eating my lunch. I looked over at the table next to me and there was a guy reading the newspaper, and I realized that Chinese people read right to left. As soon as I saw this I couldn't help but notice the similarities between Jewish people and Chinese people. They both read from right to left. Weird discovery eh. Throughout my stay here I have noticed many types of wildlife in and around the streets of Jhonghe.


These two creatures were both together in cages along side of the road. I guess someone was trying to sell them, but as far as I could see they were just sitting there by themselves.

No matter where you go here, you will always run into some kind of a dog. Usually the dog will just be maintaining like any other person would, no collar, no leash, just walking around enjoying the day, or night. As you can see above, dogs even ride scooters.

I was down at the day market buying some vegetables the other day before class when I heard many sounds resembling the sounds of a barn yard. I curiously followed the noises until I stumbled upon this giant cage of roosters. You can pick which rooster you want while it is alive, and they will kill right there and then prepare it for you. The whole operation looked fairly dotty.

Finally, last but not least this is Ted. Ted is my new roomate, his tank sits right beside the couch. So far he has been pretty solid. There is this fish store right beside my building, so I went in there the other day and came out with this. When I first got in there I was trying to talk with the clerk, but he didn't speak any English, so I was speaking English and he was speaking Chinese, so we didn't make it very far. I was trying to ask him about some of the different fish when all of a sudden this other guy pops out of nowhere and starts speaking to me in English. So I was like alright tell me about these fish. He knew everything there was to know about these fish. His name was David and he got me fully set up. He even came over after when I had it all set up to put some drops of something in my tank. I gave him a brew and we watched a little baseball.