So today's adventure was to 乌来, alone, a mountainous area preoccupied dominantly by the Atayal tribe （泰雅族）It was raining the whole day, so except for the waterfall and the streets, I didn't get to visit many places. I want to go to the national park!!!! :(

Ok, two interesting encounters today.

I was on the mrt, and was about to take my motion sickness pill as the road up to the mountain would be a long and winding one. There was this police woman opposite me. Tall, strong and big built. Just as I was about to turn on the cap of my water bottle, she shouted " 小姐！这里不能喝水！”. I was a little taken back by her stern tone. I then showed her the pill on my tongue and told her “不好意思我得吃药”and guess what follwed? She stared at me with the "你敢喝给我试试看！！”look. Mind you, it was a 6 second long, cold hard stare. Me being me, ( ever since i came to Taiwan), I returned her with a stare too, with my big eyes and 不以为然 look. And so, it was a slient war of staring. We both didn't utter a word, just stared into each other's eyes. And throughout this 6 or 8 seconds, I wasn't hesitating whether to drink the water or not, because I'm determined to drink it, even if she's going to send me to the police station or the Mrt office or whatever. And so, i opened the cap, and i drank my water. Seeing the need to explain again, i said “不好意思”. She alighted 2 stations later. I understand that she's just carrying out her duties, but laws are laws, humans are humans, the former is made flexible by the latter isn't it? And I really need to take my medicine, if anything is going to happen to me( if in this case, it isn't just a motion sickness pill) who is going to take responsibility for it? The police woman? The MRT personnal?? And there isn't such a need for such a rude stare, seriously. Too bad, I'm not someone to be trifled with. And it's just your misfortune to choose to stare at me, coz you've chosen the wrong person to stare at, for obvious reasons. If I've put on mascara today, the effect would have been greater. Morale of the story: 1) its understandable why we have laws on the abstinence of food on trains, but the enforcement of such a law or rule should also depend on certain circumstances. 2) civil servants should treat people with respect, law enforcement should be done in a professional manner, and not by disrespectful, rude means. How do you expect the people to feel safe in the society they are living in, to trust and respect the government if the poilce behave like gangsters? 3) stick out your tongue and show the evidence in case you need to drink on the train.

Next up, I met an American at the musuem. It started with him asking me about the explanations of the exhibits, though he could read and speak Mandarain, and yeah we started talking about politics, different countries, alcohol, sale of alcohol and tobacco..... He came to Taiwan to stufy about the farming here, and his main purpose of this trip is in fact, to study mushrooms! How interesting. He had lived in China previously for 3 years, and in Korea for 2 years. And so, we started talking and talking, for about half an hour and I had to leave, coz I haven't been to the places I intended to visit. A rather abrupt departure initiated by me. But yeah.......