Day 82 -- August 14

Got out of the dorms early today with the purpose of meeting Jillian and Nick to go Taiwan’s National Museum of History. We had to walk through the Botanical Gardens to get there so please excuse the pictures of lotuses. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take pictures inside the Museum but I found the endeavor worth wild. We were able to see some fascinating artifacts, some dating all the way back to the Neolithic period. It amazing the kind of culture that was thriving in China even in BCE. Also there is interesting historical implications as these artifacts came to Taiwan went the Nationalist Government fled mainland. If these items hadn’t been taken they would have been destroyed during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. I felt very lucky to be able to see these pieces of the past. There was also an exhibit for Taiwan’s Contemporary art that I enjoyed very much. I love the traditional Chinese style paintings. They are incredible minimal in design but exquisite to look at.

    After a few hours in the Museum we headed to Shida and classes for the day. Friday will be our final exam for the school. Tomorrow we have a big review day. It should be interesting trying to pack an entire book into one day. Some of it will be easy others are much more difficult. I hope I do well on this final exam. Next week on Monday we have our Final presentation. Then Tuesday will be a class outing to go make pineapple cakes. I have absolutely no idea what Wednesday will be, hopefully not another test concocted by Loashi. I hope we just go out to lunch and hang out with classmates for a little bit. I will miss everyone dearly. It’s been a good go, maybe I will see them again some day.

    Sometime during classes it started raining hard, enough that the clouds really blocked out the sun and it looked like night time. Also the wind managed to blow over another tree. It was in my way when I was walking home. I got back to the dorms and finally did laundry. It’s kinda weird to think that I’ll probably only do laundry once more while in Taiwan. I worked on my presentation for a bit and chatted with my roommates. Since the weather is bad we are hoping we will be able to go shopping tomorrow. I am getting some common and easy gifts of food. Always a good souvenir I feel. Well not it’s shower and bed time. My last conversation class is tomorrow, should be a good time. Until then!

Day 81 -- August 13

Once I left the dorm room my first order of business was to go to the vegetarian place and get me some awesome tofu and vegetables for lunch. I always get weird looks for not wanting rice but it adds another 30 NT and I had plenty of food. I’ve never so excited to see eggplants in my life. I went in a got my food then swung over to get my coffee. At some point I realized I had forgotten chopstick so I needed to ask for some. They were happy to provide me with some, and I was on my merry way. At some point in the elevator I realized I had about 5 minutes of successful communication. One of which I had not planned out in my head, I simply needed some chopsticks and on the spot I ask. It was awesome I was really pleased with myself. The food was epic and I was happier for it.

    Class was interesting, for some reason directions in Mandarin simply do not mesh well with the way English speakers tend to give directions. They was some confusion over a few instructions, we spent a stupidly long time trying to explain our point of view. Loashi, by the end understood a little better but it just overall frustrating. Also she was using America as the country that everyone was supposed to describe. It was interesting hearing the names of familiar cities in a different language. My favorite was San Francisco which became Old Gold Mountain after the mass migration of Chinese workers during the Gold Rush and Railroad construction. I guessed that one on the first go simply by knowing the history of the area. I would like to say I probably could still pass a geography class on my native country.

    After class I was extremely tired so I went and took a nap. At some point Johnny arrived back from his trip around the island and I met up with him for a bit. It was good to see him again even if he hadn’t showered yet. We chatted for a bit, he too is feeling the time rushing towards when we leave. Tomorrow morning I have plans to go with Jillian to the national museum before class. It should be fun. I’ll see you tomorrow!

    After writing this our dorm came under siege by cockroaches. We are up to at least 15 kills and there are probably more. One of our windows has a hole in it that we were not aware of so during the day we no one was in we think they crawled in. So now we are armed with Raid, brooms, shoes and Sunny (my umbrella), I am going to go to sleep and try not to think about it. Thank goodness for my mosquito netting.

Day 80 -- August 12

Today was a difficult on the learning side. Every once in a while in the classroom native english speakers encounter a cultural barrier that is directly connected to Mandarin. One that Laoshi is often not aware is different in our culture. There is a particular grammar structure that came with a very ambiguous set of instructions, every single english speak got this section wrong because we were required to make the sentence the opposite of the original statement. To me this was not at all clear but Laoshi was incredibly confused as to why we all got this point wrong. And to her it would make perfect sense because this concept exists in a very specific context in Mandarin but not in English. (I would explain in more detail but then I would have to go over an explanation of basic grammar and I’m not anywhere near being able to do the language justice). These encounters with Laoshi are incredibly frustrating because for her she’s never thought a different way but for me it’s a totally new concept. It just becomes something to memorize but not understand until later, which bothers me on a intellectual level. I will ask around and hopefully get this all cleared up.

    It was a four hour class so by the end of it I was totally done. There was a plus that weather recently has been cooler and a nice breeze has been blowing through the island. Makes waiting around for the bus much nicer. I had a boat load of homework to get to so I went home and started grinding. I emerge for a quick trip to the local market for some quick food. I’m not sure if I will miss night markets or not. On one hand they are incredibly convenient but on the other you tend to get stuck in a food rut and just eat from the same restaurants everyday. Other than that I didn’t really go out. Tomorrow I am planning go out again with Shilin. We have become much closer, it makes me very sad she is leaving on Friday and Meling will be gone on Saturday.They made my stay in the dorms fantastic and I hope I will see them again. Saying goodbye is difficult and I will be doing it a lot in the next two weeks. I am slowly beginning to gather my things getting ready for the major move home. It feels weird this is my last full week of school. I’m in the final stretch of this race, here we go!

Day 79 -- August 11

Well I was going to go so something today but I slept instead. Which turned out o be good thing I feel better than I have in a long while, my cough and sore throat are finally clearing up. Don’t forget to take rest days! They are just as important and the crazy traveling I get to do. Tomorrow will hopefully have more to share. Good night!

Day 78 -- August 10

Today began at 8:30 where Shilin dutifully informed me we needed to leave in 30 minutes. We had to be out of the dorm by 9:00 am so we could get over to Da’An station. After a quick pit stop at the 7/11 we were off. It took a while to get over to the station because transferring to brown line is a strangely arduous task. There is a giant elevator that takes you from blue line (on of the most crowded lines) but it takes forever. But it was worth we popped our head out at this tiny station and met up with Jillian. We then we hopped a bus to the underpass where our day could actually begin.

    We first went to the Artist corner which was an interesting place. It’s where independent artists can sell there wears. But what’s fascinating about it is most of the people who were the artist were disabled enough that they were not able to work in the traditional sense. So they carved out a small niche in the Taiwan Tourist market. I think it’s a really good thing because they are not left behind in their own community. I did a good portion of my shopping here and was able to get very reasonable prices. We then wandered through the garden part of the this weekend market. I did actually buy some very specific things for a few people. We also stumble across some orange mint tea that was fantastic. Then we made it into the Jade Market. It was busier than the other markets and you needed to heckle more to get decent prices. We made it through and it was a good trip for all of us. Having arrived at 10:30 we finally left at about 2:30. We honestly made out like bandits and it was a great time for all of us.

Flower Market

    After that Shilin and I decided to go to Shida and get some lunch. Jillian was fairly tired so she went back home via the MRT. Shilin and I got some epic soup and dumplings from one of my favorite places in Shida. We also swung over and got some juice from of the local stands. I essentially got a bunch of fruits blended together and it was fantastic.We finally made it back to GongGuan around 4:00pm. Then we spent some time sorting out our things. Then for me I took a nap. Then it was roughly dinner time so Shilin and I went to get some Guotie. We raced on our way back up the 5 flights of stairs. I won on determination alone, it was good fun. I am going to miss both Shilin and Meiling, who are both leaving this week. I need to get them some kind of gift but I don’t know what. I’ll figure it out. Well I am still tired and really have nothing going on tomorrow expect some exploring of the Dongmen area. Time to sleep I think, good night everyone!

Day 77 -- August 9

Hmm today was a really slow day. I was extremely tired and it was a four hour class today. Though on a plus side Laoshi bought us all coffee and specifically bought me coffee without sugar or milk. I also got two because my cans were much smaller than everyone else’s. However, class was rough, I am beginning to feel the beginnings of sickness really take hold. I am hoping to go to bed earlier and get a good 10 hours of sleep. Loashi informed that drinking cold water will make me sick. This isn’t true but a thing from Chinese medicinal history, cool water can soothe a throat and help lower body temperature, but I wasn’t about to burst her bubble. Laoshi let us out early which was cool because I got to ride the less crowded bus.

    On my trek home the sky did something really interesting so I got a picture of it. For some reason I am taking pictures of the sky a lot more. Who knows why, I guess I really like sunsets. I came home a just rested for a bit. Then Shilin and I decided to venture out and find some food for dinner. We ended up at the little restaurant off of the Family Mart. The lady now knows me because I am one of two foreigners that eat at her place. The other person is Johnny who is currently cycling around Taiwan for kicks. It’s probably all I’ll do. Tomorrow I meet Jillian and we are often to the weekend Jade market. Should be fun!

Day 76 -- August 8

Today was my early start day for conversation class. It was good fun. In the middle of Laoshi speaking she turns to me a just starts up a conversation about when we went to the Opera last Saturday. Everyone could here it as she had a microphone, it was super strange, but it worked out. It’s really nice to have a teacher that remembers you. Next week will be our last conversation class. I am sad to see it go, I really like the people I talk with and getting to practice my Mandarin. Naomi in particular, she is my older Japanese/ English friend.

    Class was fairly normal but I have a cough developing that is slowly getting worse. I am not super thrilled about it and if it gets much worse i am going to have to start wearing a mask to get around in the public transport. Not that it is a requirement but I really don’t want to get other people sick. Reid is also beginning to fall under the coughing so I either caught from him or visa versa. Small tangent for everyone. to enjoy. There weren’t clouds today when walking home to the tree and the sun was looking quite pretty so I got a picture because I can.

    I came back and pretty much immediately left with Meling and Shilin. We were on a reconnaissance mission for finding a good place to buy souvenirs. We ended up a large department store that Shilin knew about. It was five stories of just stuff, including a produce department that was pretty much half a floor. It was goof fun, I didn’t buy anything I now know what they have so when I a moment I will sit down and write out a list people and what I want to get them. After that we went back to GongGuan and got dinner in the night market. It was very good, one of my favorite restaurants. We then wandered over to a second hand book store and looked around for a little bit. I may end up buying a book for entertainment on the plane ride home.

    Coming home we were actually out fairly late. As I was writing this blog there were fireworks going off from a new by temple. It’s funny because it was very loud and in the middle of a city, can we fire hazard? But anyway it was kinda fun going on an investigation to figure out what was going on. I was running around with some unknown Japanese person giggling and having fun. She was very nice and we waved good bye at the end. I am very happy tomorrow is Friday I am really looking forward to the weekend. 加油！