We arrived in Taipei at 5:20am. After a LONG 18 hours in the air we were excited to begin our Taiwan journey. It started with being picked up at the airport, a quick freshening up at the hotel, and then being rushed to a press conference at Yilan Junior High School. We were met by a wonderful concert band that our RM students joined. Yours truly conducted. At the press conference, we played one our prepared tunes, dignitaries from Yilan spoke, and we ended by performing together with the Yilan Jr. High School Concert Band. Following the press conference, our students took pictures with Yilan students, and even signed some autographs!
We stopped an an EXCELLENT dumpling shop for lunch (and some bubble tea)!!!
After lunch, we went to the Yilan Vocational High School. We were once again warmly welcomed. We performed a short concert, and experienced performances by their Chinese Traditional Orchestra, Concert Band, and Color Guard. The students were also quite excited about our presence. Again we took selfies, signed autographs, and got to know the students a bit. Some are now following us on Twitter!
Following our performance obligations, we went to the Agrioz Candied Fruit museum. Our students prepared a relish made from an indigenous fruit, the Roselli.
Dinner was at the 5-star Evergreen hotel. We were able to sample a large buffet of MANY different Taiwanese and other Asian fusion foods.
We topped off the night visiting a hot spring that offered the foot exfoliation services of schools of fish (yes, that thing where you stick your feet in a pool and fish eat the dead skin off of them). I tried it! I won't lie. It felt weird. But, what a wonderful experience to try!!! We went back to the hotel, at which point we all crashed.
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