My last week in Taiwan has been very fun and I have fortunately been able to fit in all of the last things I wanted to do. The highlight of Monday was without a doubt our visit to a Peking-style opera show in Taipei. I have never been to an opera show, let alone a Peking opera, so this was an excellent opportunity for me. The show we watched was a rendition of the Chinese legend 西游记 (trans. Journey to the West or The Two Monkey Kings). The plot was based on the Six-Eared Macaque who copies the form of the monkey king, Sun Wu Kong, in order to go on a journey to find the golden Sutras. In doing so, he creates a lot of mischief and the two monkeys must travel to the heavens to discern the true Sun Wu Kong. The most fascinating part was the martial prowess of the actors. The performed back flips and amazing Kung Fu feats. I definitely want to go see another Peking opera sometime in the future.

The next day, we had an amazing dinner with Dr. Liu and her sister at a vegetarian buffet which, despite the lack of meat, was very delicious. Dr. Liu's sister generously paid for a large portion of our dinners. There were at least 40 different dishes at the buffet to try and each one was creative, unique, and delicious. I made sure to eat at least 3 full plates of food in order to try every single dish. My favorite thing that I ate that night were their assortment of different fried vegetables. The batter was perfectly crisp and well seasoned. I even attempted to eat the 臭豆腐 (stinky tofu), which, after three weeks in Taiwan, I still do not wholeheartedly enjoy. After dinner, I went to a karaoke box for the first time with the other students. I'm not a fan of singing, but I still had a blast hanging out with everyone and attempting to sing classics such as Never Gonna Give You Up, All Star, and Oops I Did it Again. Although it was a lot of fun, my voice was definitely strained the next day.

On Wednesday we went to Taiwan's National Palace Museum, a house for Taiwan's most precious artifacts. Of these artifacts, the most famous is the Jadeite Cabbage, a beautiful piece of jade carved into the likeness of a cabbage. The museum contained many other beautiful works of porcelain, ivory, ceramic, and several paintings. I found the most awe-inspiring art pieces to be those made of ivory, as the skill required to make many of the pieces seems unfathomable. That night, we visited 饶河夜市 (the Raohe night market) which is said to be the best night market for food in Taipei. My two favorite dishes at Raohe were a pepper beef bun which Raohe is renowned for, and a bone soup. The bun was cooked in a tandoori oven in order to give it a crispy, baked shell, and the filling was perfect. The soup was the best I've ever had, with a perfect and seemingly-simple balance of flavors. I also ate snails, fried milk, mochi, fried taro, spicy wantons, and sausage. It was without a doubt a filling night.

After I took my final exam for my class today I made sure to take a long nap to catch up on sleep. After taking a nap, I worked on packing and preparing for the closing ceremony tomorrow. After my nap, I went with some students to a famous sushi bar chain in Taipei. Despite being a chain with $1 plates of sushi, the fish was incredibly fresh and tasty. The $1 plates would easily sell for at least $6 in the US, and the quality was much better. In all, Emily and I ate a total of 30 plates of sushi. It was well worth spending a little extra on dinner in order to try all of the different varieties of sushi offered.

An interesting cultural comparison I noticed this week was at the Beijing opera. Unlike what I would expect from an Western style opera, the focus was less on the singing and more on the acrobatics. There was a musical quality to the speech of the characters and an accompanying orchestra, but there were far more scenes involving fights than there were scenes involving singing. It reminded me a great deal of Cirque du Soleil, especially with the elaborate costumes and facepaints the characters wore.

It is hard to believe that this is the final blog I will write for my study abroad in Taiwan. I have had an amazing amount of fun here and these three weeks have flown by far too fast. After my experiences here, I know that I will one day come back again to visit.