- Society and Culture in Modern Taiwan on Tuesday
- Elections and Democratization in Taiwan on Wednesday
- Land Use and Urban Development on Thursday
- Part-time Mandarin course on Monday and Wednesday
I am really excited to start because the break has been very long, but very fun. I made the right decision to come to Taiwan early to travel and experience all I could in the month before courses began.
In the past few days I have done a bit more traveling around the north and to places that I have been before (but this time with people from the I-House.)
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| Tea fields |
A few of us took our first trip up to Maokong which is located right behind my university. Maokong is the largest tea growing area in all of Taipei. We took a bus up because the gondola that normally takes people up was closed on Monday. This was a really amazing place to go because it was a warmer day and we had a perfect view of Taipei from the tea house at the top of the mountain. When we got off the bus I smelled a beautiful scent of tea and herbs growing, it was like I was in a giant tea bag. We had our little tea party before we took the nauseating ride back down to the campus for dinner.
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| Tea party! |
The food on campus is very good. Since most of us do not know the names of restaurants we just call them by the way they look, for example 'Blue Chairs' (named due to the chairs being blue...) has great food for very cheap. There is also a map that was given to us that has restaurants named 'Cheaper drinks' or 'Red bean cake!'
A couple days later we had our orientation for the I-House where we were able to meet with the staff and have all the students together for a meet and greet. This was a great thing to do because we all sat around for hours talking to one-another about where we are from and the question that is asked far too often, 'Why Taiwan?'
After that we had our schools orientation which was very long. It was nice to get acquainted to the area from them but I am more of a physical learner than a mental learner, so experiencing the campus would have been more beneficial for me. Either way, the day went by fast and we are all now officially NCCU students!
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| Lin Family Mansion Garden |
Another trip we took was to the Lin Family Mansion. This mansion is a hidden treasure in Taipei. A historical place in Taipei city is normally hard to find but this place is amazing. It is located right in the heart of Taipei and you would never know it existed unless you were looking for it. The size doesn't seem to be as big as it really is. This mansion was built in the late 1700's and has a beautiful garden and really is a 'typical' home that one would think about when they think of Asia. The home is very open and has a beautiful pond. The thing that was most amazing to me was that I noticed towards the middle of our time inside that you cannot hear the city at all. I noticed how quiet and beautiful it really is to have a home like this in the middle of a loud city.
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| One of the parts of the mansion |
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| The sign said 'No Entry': Me: 'I want to go in there' Lawrence: 'Americans always want to go where they are not allowed' |
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| Cobra meat... for the low price of 300NT There was more meat on the leaves than the snake |
The same day we all took a stop to snake alley, this is a tourist trap just for the shock value of eating a snake. Historically, it used to have many snake shops to eat from but now it only has about three left. Many tourists come to drink snake blood or eat snake. We tried eating cobra, which was kind of a disappointment but still very fun. When people ask 'what does snake taste like?' my only reply is, I don't know because there is very little meat on a snake. The meat was very little and the price was very high (300 NT or about $10 USD), which doesn't seem like a ton of money, but here it really is a lot since a big meal can be purchased for about 120 NT. Either way, this spot is great to go to just due to the shock value of the situation.
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| Top of Jiufen |
The other day a French girl I met at the I-House, Sophie, and myself traveled to Jiufen. It is located in the far north east and was an old Japanese gold mining town. The town was the inspiration for the location for the film Spirited Away. This was a favorite movie of mine when I was a bit younger so I wanted to see exactly what the town looks like in real life. It was very rainy when we went, but Jiufen is normally very rainy and cold, as it is near the coast. There wasn't much similarity between the movie and the town but I did notice a few buildings that might be used in the movie that were in the town. This is a must see for anyone in Taiwan as it is very historical and beautiful, also very much a tourist destination (which is very rare, even in Taipei) due to the making of the movie.
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| Very famous road in Jiufen |
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| Back to Senfoni Wine House My buddy Atilla (the owner) didn't show until later |
Yesterday evening I met up with the old Homey Hostel friends to head back to our favorite (and probably only) wine bar in Taipei: Senfoni Wine House. This was such a fun time to reconnect with everyone and have some fun. The owner now knows me by name and thinks I am a local (but I have only been there two times total). I was just very observant and noticed that he changed his menu, got new business cards and got a new couch. Dana jokes with me that I am a strange man that I keep the Turkish man's business card; but why would he give me one if he didn't want me to keep it (haha).
Evenings in the I-House lately have been a lot of fun. There is never a dull night. Everyone is doing their own thing and there is always something to do. Some nights we head out to a club and have some drinks and socialize with other international students and the locals; some nights we will all gather and watch a movie in our common room; other nights we just all go down by the river and have some drinks and just talk.
It is hard to put into words how happy I am in this place. My personality is one that I get very anxious to stay in one place too long. This getaway was perfect for my health and my need for travel. The people here are always welcoming and always willing to help in any situation. For example last night my cab driver was teaching me some Mandarin, despite his inability to speak English. This really didn't hold him back to explain different things to me. You learn the 'international language' fast if you cannot communicate using words. Either way, me and the driver did some language exchange, he would point to something and tell me the word in Mandarin and I would say it in English and then I would repeat it in Mandarin and him in English. It turned into that he taught me the words: left, right, straight, stop, red light, green light. I had to use them to direct him back to the I-House, it really was so nice of him to help me and it taught me to learn fast because if there was a red light I would have to tell him to stop.
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