Friends Will Be Friends

Having someone live in a place you want to vacation to is always a plus. My family and friends seem to agree with me and this past school year has been one filled of visitors (which I love). Peter and his friend Chris were the first to visit right after I got back from Brazil. I had already been to the ostrich farm twice and had heard that it was possible to ride one but I had gotten there too late both times to do that. One day while I was working, they went there and rode the ostrich. Based on their account of it, I promised myself that I would ride an ostrich before I left... and I did.

When Lela and Luis visited me in June we were on one of the first tours that morning. The tour at the Ostrich Farm is fantastic. I learned something new each time and they are really interesting creatures. On this tour, he got the ostrich to do its warning dance which I had never seen before. (I later imitated it on the dance floor and Lela and Luis said I did a pretty good impression.) During the tour, he told us that if we wanted to ride the ostrich we could do so by telling the people that sold us tickets. "You have to be a bit crazy to ride the ostrich. Usually, it is the Americans that always do it." Not to fit the stereotype... we immediately agreed that we had to do it.

I don't know how people ride an ostrich by themselves but the guys there told us that it has been done. I was the first one up and we sat in the back of a pickup while two guys went into the fenced-off field to capture the ostrich. They grabbed its wings so it wouldn't kick them and then pulled down its neck so they could put a sock over its eyes. As soon as the sock was in place, it immediately calmed down and they led it to the back of the pick up. They then lifted up its wings so I could sit on it and put my legs under the wings. The one guy told me to hold onto the top of the wings to steer. "Whatever you do, don't let go of the wings," he repeated 3 or 4 times.

I balanced myself the best I could and they started walking it to the far end of the road. Because of the shape of its body and the way it moves, it was very had to keep my balance. I constantly felt like I was falling in every direction. Keep in mind that it was going maybe 5-10 mph. Once we reached the far end, they turned the ostrich around and took off the sock. "Once the ostrich realizes where it is at and sees its home, it will run as fast as it can to get there, so make sure to hold on," they advised me. I compare the experience to water skiing... water skiing when you fall but you are still holding onto the rope and being dragged along. Oh, it hilarious to everyone and you know you will laugh later, but at the time you are just wondering when it is going to end. I exaggerate of course; it wasn't painful (though I think it definitely could have been if ridden for longer amounts of time) and it was actually quite fun. Plus, the two guys were still holding onto the wings and running with it to slow it down. Ostriches can go up to 50 mph. Can you imagine that?! Anyway, I definitely want to do it again. Hopefully there will be a place where I can take lessons in Taiwan...

When I got off, Luis got on and it was my turn to laugh. By the end of it, he was barely holding on and I was laughing so hard that I forgot that I was on the ground standing in the path the ostrich would traverse. Those things are tall and big... REALLY BIG! And, when you see one running at you, you run the other way! I quickly ran behind the truck while it ran past me into its pen and then continued to laugh.

After eating ostrich - I know... it sounds wrong, but its the circle of life and its delicious - I thought it would be nice to show them the kite surfing beach that is maybe 300 yards away from the ostrich farm. Since I knew all the places we were going, I had been driving the rental car and it wasn't much of a problem until I got us stuck in the mud. Luckily there was a few people in a truck that passed by and they towed us out... but... not before we got the whole front of the car covered with mud. And since we had a full day planned, we didn't have any time to wash it. I started to notice that people were giving us strange looks and I pointed it out to Luis and Lela. We were stopped at a traffic light and the people in the cars that were passing us kept slowing down and we could see expressions with a mixture of embarrassment, terror and astonishment. It reminded me of the movie "Friday," when Ice Cube and Chris Tucker would say, "Dammmnnnn!" The funniest reaction we got was when we were turning onto a neighborhood street and a kid on a bike reacted that way and almost fell off his bike. Needless to say, it wasn't hard to find our car in the parking lot.



I had Bijal visit in February and she Lauren and I hiked the trail from Jan Thiel to the Sea Aquarium. We also explored the local food at Golden Star and I had some local stews and fried funchi with cheese for the first time. Funchi is like cornmeal and it is really good. We went to Playa Forti and jumped off the cliff. Bijal did it after a good 20 minutes of encouragement from Lauren and me. I was really glad that Bijal visited because she was very interested in trying different types of food and really sought out local places. She read a lot about the island before coming and knew what she wanted to do. She even got certified to dive when she was down there.

When Irene and Benji visited me in May, they arrived just in time for Amy's birthday celebration and so we got to go to Klein Curaçao with a bunch of my teacher friends. Both of them are very into getting a taste of the local food too and so we stopped at the snacks and just picked up random food. On their last night, they went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of drinks and snacks that they'd never seen before and we hung out and tried them. It was really cool that they came to visit because they got engaged 2 days before! It was like a prehoneymoon celebration haha.

Benji is really into blogging as well and makes videos of places he goes. Here is one he made of Curaçao:



I know it is quite expensive to travel to Taiwan but I hope you all will continue to visit me!