Taiwan II, hanging out with Warwick and family

We met Warwick at our church in Urbana, IL in the late 1980s. At the time, he was an international student working on his PhD in agriculture. Somehow, David had kept up with him enough through the years to know of his current Taiwanese residence. A little email legwork last winter (N. hemisphere) put us back in touch with each other so that Tuesday afternoon, May 13, we were able to take the bullet train from Taipei down to Tainan, traveling up to 300 km/hour, to meet up with Warwick and Vicky, who generously took a day out of their busy schedules to show us around their Taiwanese stomping grounds.

Warwick and Vicky lived in their home country of Australia and then Kenya before moving to Taiwan just 2 years ago where Warwick now works at the World Vegetable Center. I'd never heard of such an organization before so it was interesting to learn what they're about. As I understand it, the Center's main mission is to maintain the genetic pool of vegetables and create new hybrids, which are used all over the world but especially in developing nations. It is effectively an agricultural research institution.

Wednesday, we piled into their family car, along with Warwick, Vicky and Anthea (their oldest daughter couldn't skip school that day), and drove about 2 hours north to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, stopping by Sun Moon Lake on the way. The Village was a strange mix of displays on native Taiwanese culture and heart-stopping amusement park rides, all set on a large hill. At the top of the hill was the cultural section. We got to see reconstructions of huts some of the aboriginals would have lived in, and there was a museum with interesting displays on the aboriginal groups, of which there are so many I can't share specifics beyond the fact that Polynesian background figured in hugely. People in traditional dress wandered around the park. We saw a highly polished traditional dance show. As we wandered down the hill, we came across roller coasters and twirly rides and stalls selling pizza and fried chicken. All of us went on a flume ride, resulting in all of us getting soaking wet, which actually felt good on such a hot day. David and Ian braved a corkscrew-upside down roller coaster while the rest of us stood in the courtyard directly underneath the roller coaster, eating ice cream and craning our necks upward to watch its progress . (Somehow, I don't think that would be allowed in the USA.) Though the two parts of the park were very enjoyable, we never were able to wrap our minds around what conceptually tied them together. No worries; it was a lot of fun and very professionally done.

We also enjoyed getting to know Vicky and Anthea and commisserating with Warwick and Vicky about Australia. We sure shared some good laughs, as one is wont to do when hanging out with Aussies.