Some say love, it is a river...

Each year the nurses take the students on a trip. This year they took us to a city called Kaohsiung--about a 1 hour train ride from where we're staying in Tainan. They were so nice, they spent their whole Saturday showing us around. It was really nice to have them order for us at restaurants too. The first thing we did was go to Monkey Mountain. There is a long uphill road to get to the hiking trail. We saw a lot of people riding bikes up it. I guess it is called Long Life Road because people get such a good workout going up it. They also stopped at a few viewpoints on the way for us to take pictures. Kaohsiung is on the ocean and is a major port for Taiwan.

Monkey Mountain is home to thousands of macaque monkeys. There are hiking trails that go though it. The monkeys are everywhere, and will swing through the trees and sometimes land right in front of you. We saw some cute little baby monkeys playing together. In addition to the monkeys, the hike itself was beautiful. The mountainside was lush and green.

After our hike, the nurses treated us to my new favorite dessert: tsua bing! It is shaved ice covered in fresh fruit, whatever you want to order-kiwi, bananas, pineapple, mangoes, guava, papaya, the list is endless... The top it with a kind of fruit syrup and then drizzle sweetened condensed milk over it. It is amazing! The nurses ordered one that they said was supposed to feed ten people, but I think it could feed more like 20. It was huge!

Here is a normal sized one (yes, I've had this multiple times):

We then went to the beach and watched the

sunset. It was beautiful. The water was warm and the sand was soft.

Afterwards we walked back through the market and got dinner.

Love really is a river. After the beach we went to Love River Park--it runs along the riverbank downtown. I asked several people, but no one could tell me why it was called Love River. There were lights in the trees and several boats that had lights as well that take tourists up and down the river. There were also cafes and live music. It was funny, we taught all the nurses how the difference between liver and river. They would say, "We go to Love Liver." It was really nice-a fun atmosphere and beautiful lights.