Afternoon tea with the animals!

The Friday before last was very busy for us. We went to visit the Taipei City Zoo. It's a good size zoo, and I saw many animals native to Taiwan. It was interesting to look at some of Asia's wildlife like the Taiwan black bear and a few pandas. Also, we met Tina, another NTPU student going to State in the fall. It was nice to chat with her and answer her questions about our school. Unfortunately, it was a little to hot outside for me to fully enjoy everything in the zoo. I often found myself taking refuge in the parts of the zoo that had air conditioning. Haha. I definitely feel like the best was saved for last because at the end we rode in these cable cars that took us up the mountain where we could see a beautiful view of the city. When we arrived at the top of the mountain, we walked for about 20 minutes to a tea house. There, we learned how to pick tea leaves, dry them in the sun, and crush them. After this lesson, we all had a little tea ceremony. The owner of the tea house was so very nice and welcoming; he let us drink his award-winning Tie Kuanyin tea (Iron Buddha tea) and taught us how to fully enjoy it. It was definitely very interesting to see how it is all prepared because I drink tea quite often.

Later that night, Jovy took Stephanie, Rob, Lily, Jeremy, and I to a teppanyaki-style restaurant in Sanshia. It was kind of a hole-in-the-wall type of place, but it was really delicious. I think I made a mistake in ordering my meal with the "ma la" option ("numbingly hot"). There were so many red peppers in there. My eyes were watering so much, but it was delicious. All in all, it was a very tiring, but good day.

After a hiatus...

First off, I am a bad blogger for not updating in so long. This post (and possibly a few others) will hopefully remedy this.

The week before last was our first week of classes. In that time, our group has experienced so much of Taiwan. The following events may or may not be in order...

The last thing I talked about was our Chinese class. I am getting used to it, so it's not as bad anymore. We have another presentation, paper, and test on Monday, so tomorrow will be another hardcore study day. Anyways, we only have Chinese class 3 days a week, so we have cultural class and business/economics class the remaining days. The week before last, we had our first business class. NTPU got a chiropractor to come speak to us about his profession and lobbying the Taiwanese government for recognition of chiropractors. We talked about the statistics, and how it the salary for a chiropractor in Taiwan is much, much lower than in the U.S. (only about $60,000). Also, we discussed doing business overseas and how it is sometimes difficult because of bribery and other ethical issues. I felt like it was very pertinent information and interesting to learn about since I may one day work internationally. Later that day, Lydia took us to Neihu Technology Park, the HQ of many large corporations. We listened to a talk about the economy and the development of the tech park. After that brief speech, they took us around the area, where we toured a sports complex. It's pretty amazing...it had pretty much everything you would want to do...swimming pools, racquetball, badminton, and basketball courts, workout rooms, and the biggest rockwall I've ever seen. Later that night, Lydia and the TA's had to leave, so we were left to make our own plans. We decided to go to Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world, after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The district around Taipei 101 is very nice, but that is really no surprise. The elevator going up to the top (or almost the top) was so fast...I could feel my ears pop several times during our ascent. When we got up to the top, it was amazing...the city is really gorgeous at night. I would say it is a really good way to end a day.

The next day, we had our cultural class, so we went to the National Palace Museum. I was really excited about going because in this museum, there are housed more treasures of China than Mainland China has. Apparently, during the Civil War, Chiang Kai Shek and his troops took many of these antiquities with them when they fled to the island of Formosa (now called Taiwan). It is said that if the curators were to rotate all the pieces on display everyday, no piece would be repeated for 100 years. I was amazed to see these pieces of history, and the craftsmanship is really amazing. After our tour, most of the people in the group wanted to leave and get massages, but Jeremy and I still wanted to see the rest of the museum. After about 45 minutes perusing all the galleries, we met up with the rest of the group and headed to Shilin Night Market, one of the most famous night markets in Taipei. I had been looking forward to this before I even got on a plane to Taiwan. There are so many people there...and so much good food and inexpensive things to buy! I finally got to try stinky tofu, one of the famous street foods. It is made by fermenting tofu in a solution (I don't really know what is in this mixture). Then, it is fried, cut up into pieces, and finished off with cabbage and hot sauce. It was not as stinky as I expected, since everyone always says it is *so* horrible. Really, it was not that bad, and the taste was not as good as I imagined either. It just tasted like regular fried tofu that was very porous on the inside. Afterwards, we tried dou hua, a kind of gelatin-like texture dessert made of soybeans. I really love it; it is silky and slightly sweet from the syrup that they pour on. On top, there is also a bit of crushed ice. You can add a variety of toppings to it like red beans and other gelatins, but I like mine plain. After we were all shopped out, I went with Jeremy and Kochia, an NTPU student who is going to State this year, to search for durian. For those of you who don't know, durian is a spiky fruit that has a horrible smell, but is very delicious. We walked 4 or 5 blocks to look for this, and my feet were killing me after all the walking we had done that day. Alas, our search was fruitless. I did buy some of my favorite, longan (literally, it is translated dragon's eye. Mmm, delicious.).

I'll just go ahead and end this post because it's getting long...

Chinese tests are hungry in the morning...

First off, sorry for not updating for such a long time. NTPU has been packing our schedule everyday pretty tight, and we just had to move dorms this weekend. Of course, this included extensive cleaning and organizing. I will inform you all in my next post about last week's fun-filled week.
Today, we had our very first test in Chinese class. All of us stayed up until at least 2 AM studying for it. We had around 80 characters to memorize, along with idioms and grammar patterns. Even with all the studying we did, our class's test was really difficult. It consisted of a speaking section in which we had to give a 3 minute presentation on a street food we tried at Shilin night market (more on that in another post), a listening section where the teacher spoke and we wrote down her sentence, and free answer section, and a fill-in-the blank section. That test had me for breakfast. I feel like I royally screwed up, but we will see tomorrow, I guess. Though, it's never a good sign when the teacher looks through the completed tests and then tells us maybe she should make it easier next time. Sigh...
The up-side of all this is that the fast pace we are going at forces me to learn quickly. My reading and writing have improved a little in the time that we have been going to class. I feel more in the loop during class meetings now. Also, just being here in Taiwan and interacting with the people has definitely improved my speaking skills. I feel more confident in my speech and my vocabulary has expanded greatly. It feels so great to go places and be able to communicate with people without stumbling through a sentence. Right now, I can hold a decent conversation with someone about mundane topics, but there are still blips when I fail to find the words to say what I want. Hopefully, I will be fluent by the end of this trip. All I have to do is listen and speak more! Keep an eye out for an upcoming blog post about our adventures this past week! For now, I bid you all good night.

The REAL first day of class

Today, we actually had our first lesson in Chinese. It definitely did not go as well as I had hoped. Our class is taught in Mandarin, which I expected. However, what I did not expect was how difficult it would be to have a Chinese grammar lesson in Mandarin. Also, the vocabulary was all new...and though I knew synonyms for many words, that does not really help. I figured things out eventually, but it took longer than I expected, which is frustrating and somewhat discouraging.

Well...on to the good news! I woke up at 8 AM this morning. Finally a decent hour! Also, my experience in class today will motivate me to study harder. I will memorize all those new words and vocabulary tonight. Therefore, 是時間復習 (time to review). Wish me luck, guys!

Weekend

This past Saturday, we all went out to spend the day in Taipei City. Most of the people went out ahead of us, but Lily and I stayed behind to wait for Jovy, one of our TA's. She took us out to Ximen, a popular market where they sell pretty much everything you could imagine---clothes, jewelry, food, etc.. Apparently, it is the young people's hang out. It was more expensive than we anticipated since the prices were comparable to ones in the States. Still, it was nice to walk around. I think it was because of the way I dressec that day, but most people could tell I was ABC before even talking to me. The shopkeepers spoke to me in a combination of English and Mandarin.

After Ximen, we all went to a big bookstore in another part of the city, where I bought a book for my mom. I think I may go back to look a little longer. Then, we had coffee (my first ever caramel macchiato! haha) and took the MRT back to Sanshia. Jovy took us to a large supermarket where we bought some fresh fruit...dragonfruit and guavas.

On Sunday, four people from our group decided to go hiking and see a waterfall. I originally planned on joining them, but I decided against it since it looked like it was going to rain. Also, I think I needed a day of rest where I didn't sweat like crazy. It was nice to just spend the day reading and relaxing. Next week, I hope to find a nearby church to attend. Around dinnertime, Jovy called me up and asked if we wanted to eat. So we all went out to a hotpot restaurant not too far from our university. I ordered the ginseng hotpot and it was delicious. All of our TA's are so nice and helpful; it's really great to have them here with us. All in all, I would say it was a good weekend.

Food, Part I

...Because there will definitely be more food posts to come.

First day of Class!

Today I was very excited because it was our first day of class. Not only was I anticipating learning Mandarin, I was also looking forward to a slower day, with less activities and heat. The TA's and one of our professors introduced us to various computer programs that we could use to type in Chinese and translate between traditional characters, simplified characters, and pinyin. I enjoyed it quite a bit; I believe I will use these programs and websites frequently.
Afterward, we went to lunch at an Italian restaurant with our TAs, then had our class conversation time with them. We discussed our field trip yesterday and also cultural differences. There were some awkward silences since we were doing all this in Chinese to practice our language skills. Hopefully we will be more talkative in future sessions.
Later, we just all hung out with a few of our TAs. Their names are Stella, Jovy, Simon, and Ting. They took us to their palatial-looking apartment complexes to play pool, ping pong, and sing karaoke. I am really thankful for our TAs, coordinators, and professors. Everyone here is so nice and helpful. Also, I already feel like my Chinese skills are improving from just being immersed in the culture. It makes me so happy to be able to hold a conversation or sing karaoke in Mandarin. Hahaha. Well...it's time for a very late dinner. Talk to you later!

Dharma Drum Mountain and JuMing

Yesterday, we went on a very long field trip with Lydia, Queenie, our professors, and all our TAs. Our destination: Dharma Drum Mountain (法鼓山, Fa Gu Shan), a Buddhist temple founded by Master Sheng-Yen. I was expecting an ancient temple carved from the rock of the mountain, but it was actually a very modern complex. The views were very pretty because you could look down on the city from high up in the mountains. We spent our time there touring around the temple and visited the Great Buddha Hall, the library, and various other places. Later in the day, they fed us a vegetarian lunch, which made me happy because I got to eat some dried tofu (豆腐,乾, dofu gan)! Haha.

After DDM, we all piled back into the bus and drove to an art museum to look at the works of the famous Taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming (朱銘). It was pretty neat, but I was just so tired after a day in the sun at the temple. It did not help that the tour of the art museum was outdoors due to the size of many of Ju Ming's sculptures. At least it was overcast, so there was no burning sun that day. Anyway, Ju Ming had two main series at the museum---The Living World (about the military) and Taichi. His Taichi series was really interesting to me because it is more abstract and leaves more to the imagination of the viewer.

After all of this, we returned to Sanshia, where Lydia and Queenie introduced us to the non-sketch part of town. The places we had been before were so cramped that I felt like I was going to be hit by a moped. Not this part of town! I was so happy to discover this area. It is quite close to our dorms, and so much nicer. There are wide sidewalks and cars actually seem to drive less crazily. There are also more restaurants, so we found a place to eat beef noodle soup (牛肉麵, niu rou mian). It is pretty much one of the biggest Taiwanese dishes. It was so delicious...best thing I've had here, hands down. Lydia told us this was the "more expensive place," so imagine my surprise when it was only 110 NTD ($3.43). I love Taiwan. Love, love, love.

Under the Taiwanese Sun

Yesterday was our first day in Taiwan, so Queenie took us to explore Sanshia (三峽), the district that our campus is in. First thing you notice as a pedestrian: there are SO many mopeds everywhere. Second thing: People cut way to close to you as you're walking. I will count myself lucky if I don't get clipped by a vehicle this six weeks... Also, in Sanshia, there is a street called Sanshia Old Street (三峽老街) where you can see Japanese and European inspired architecture. There, we visited some tea shops and Buddhist temples.
It is 32 degrees Celsius here (89.6 degrees Fareheit), which may not sound too bad, but the humidity is really what gets you. Yesterday, all I ate was an egg and bacon toast sandwich the whole day because the heat just took away all of our appetites. Good thing is, my meal was only 35 NTD, which is roughly $1 US (1 USD=32 NTD).
Today was such a very long day. We started out with breakfast in Sanshia---hot and sour noodle soup with oysters and beef tripe (I think). It was very good and very cheap, like most food here. Then, we took our placement tests to figure out which class we would fall into. I felt horrible about the exam, so I was very surprised when I got into the advanced level! Afterward, we had a traditional Chinese meal with all our professors and then traveled to Taipei City. I think I was worn out before we even had lunch...it is much too hot here. At least I had more than one meal today! Perhaps I will acclimate to the humidity here soon.
Anyways...I am dead tired even though it is not yet even 9 PM. Sorry for the long, unorganized post. Time for bed...晚安!

Time Traveling...

So...I made it! After 20 plus hours of grueling travel in a tin can, we are all in Taipei. We arrived around 9 PM of July 5. After picking up our luggage, we met with the people who will be helping us, Lydia and Queenie. They took us to a convenience store last night to buy foldable mattresses. Yes. Then, we all moved into our dorms (I am rooming with two MSU girls, Stephanie and Lily), I took a shower, and all collapsed in our beds. I woke up at 7:30 AM, but feel fine! The jet lag is definitely not as bad as it could be.

Today, I woke up and was greeted by our wonderful view. I guess I was too dead tired to notice anything last night. The landscape so picturesque...I wish I had a view like this at State.

We are all about to go out in a bit to explore the city since we have a free day. Then, it's back to studying a little since our Chinese placement test is tomorrow. First day in Taipei...so excited!