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.