"Congratulations on your anniversary! Now kiss and we'll wrap you in toilet paper."

Maura:

On Thursday evening, the teachers at St. James threw us a welcome party. We had delicious food and a lot of fun!

I (Tom) mistakenly got two plates of food, not knowing
about all of the extra food we were getting soon.

They shared some local delicacies with us, including stinky tofu (somehow it tastes a thousand times worse than it smells, which is already really bad), tea eggs, chicken's feet, fried chicken steak, mango shaved ice, and bubble tea. To introduce us to the country, the office staff and teachers told us about the different regions of Taiwan and the specialties we would find in each area. we were also told if we don't visit the eastern coast of Taiwan we can't actually say we've been to Taiwan, so we'll have to see if we can fit in a trip to Hualien.

Everyone gets their food.

At the end of the party, Catherine and the teachers had a big surprise planned to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. In the days leading up to this, there were some cryptic warnings that we might not want to wear our nicest clothes, so we were a little worried. So when Catherine stood up and announced that we needed to stand in the middle of the room with our eyes closed and kiss for one minute, we were dubious, but complied. They then proceeded to wrap us in about 6 rolls of toilet paper, which was much less sinister than I was thinking!

...while kissing for one minute in front of everyone.

After the party, we headed back to the high speed train to spend 2 days with Catherine in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

I tried valiantly to eat all of the perishable goodies they got at the party on the train.