Taiwan - February 1

Today I went to the Museum of Natural History with my parents. We saw some interesting exhibits there. I think my favorite exhibit was the "Collection & Research" Gallery, but I also found the "Chinese Science & Technology" and "Chinese Medicine" Exhibits interesting too.

Some of the exhibits are quite interactive, most especially the "Journey of Human Life". I found the aging and medical diagnostic parts of that exhibit most interesting, although they also had an "after death" section with a real Egyptian mummy and sarcophagus! Unfortunately no flash photography was allowed in that section and the light wasn't good enough to take photos. There was a special exhibit on aging and the body at each decade of life. Apparently after 100, all the organs are withered and the body is "ready for death". Kind of morbid and definitely doesn't make me want to die of old age! Another exhibit had an eyeball tracking demonstration; to simulate what it would be like to be immobilized from the neck down. After messing with that I decided I'm much too impatient to live like that!

A few of the exhibits had English explanations or commentary but most of them did not. I did notice one audio commentary that was not only in English and Chinese, but in Taiwanese too!

There was also a dinosaur exhibit that I enjoyed; they had an animatronic T-rex and velociraptors, which I thought were a lot of fun.

I'm also thoroughly convinced that if we forced people in the United States to start using the squat toilet it would help our obesity and related health problems.
Tonight I went to a night market which was a lot of fun! I thought most of the vendors were selling a lot of crap though. However, the crowded atmosphere was great and the food was good. I also noticed they were playing a lot of Western music, which I found amusing.(I'll blog later about all the great food!)