Last Days

I feel like I haven't done anything in the last few days except saying goodbyes and going to the post office to send the millions of items that don't fit in my suitcase! Not very fun...

第最後課 The Last Class

Just had my last class at the Mandarin Training Center. I think I'm going to cry!

Yummy Japanese sushi things

I'm pretty sure this is Vietnamese style pigs ears and mushrooms

好漂亮！My classmate made these!

Yuenan

KTV (Again!)

I'm so beyond addicted to KTV! For my last Chinese Corner class ever, we were able to go to KTV which was amazing.

I'm a bit sad to be leaving this group :(

動物園，貓空 The Zoo and MaoKong Gondala

Finally went to the zoo today! Yay!

They have a really exciting section called the Insectarium which had about a million bugs and butterflies all flying through the air. That was great.

Monkeys are my favouriteee :)

The Australian animals area was a bit depressing really. I'm not sure if I was imagining it, but I'm pretty sure all the animals were looking very bored and like they'd rather be walking around Alma Park Zoo instead of being stared at by Taiwanese people.

This emu didn't respond to any of the people yelling 'NI HAO' at him, but I said 'HEY MATE' and he casually strolled over.

The giraffes were impressive, but their enclosure was really small and had an electric fence around it, which made me really uneasy.

Afterwards, I took a ride on the Maokong Gondala. It was a bit anti-climatic really. If I'd gone on a clearer day (haha, what a joke, there is no such thing in Taipei) then I'm sure it would have been nicer. As it was, I could see 101 in the distance and just a whole bunch of boring stuff...

淡水 Danshui

It was sunny today, so after class I went to Danshui (also sometimes known as Tamsui if you happen to be the lunatic who romanised Taiwan's place names).

A 'small' ice cream

Alethia University - the first Western uni in Taiwan

Hongmao (Red hair) Fort

The old British consular building

Lunch

日月潭 Sun Moon Lake

On Saturday we went to Sun Moon Lake which is the biggest body of water in Taiwan. It's very pretty!

On the ferry - slightly seasick 

GONDALA... Veryyyyy high!

三義 Sanyi

On Saturday I woke up super early to go with a lovely group of people to Sanyi. We caught the train there, and then spent the day riding moped-motorbike things around the countryside.

Claire, Sarah, Tim, Max, me and Sarah

We stopped at a wood carving museum

Sanyi is famous for wood carving

LUNCH

Longteng Bridge (Destroyed by an earthquake in 1935) 

We arrived in Taizhong after 9pm, quickly had something to eat and then headed to our hostel.

國立故宮博物院 National Palace Museum

I finally managed to go to the National Palace Museum today! The whole area was very scenic and peaceful.

The most interesting part of the experience for me was knowing the historical background about how Taiwan came into possession of all the thousands of pieces on display in the museum. China maintains that the items were stolen, but the R.O.C. states that they probably would have been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution if they weren't moved. With that in my brain, it definitely seemed that the emphasis is very much on "Hi China, look at this giant collection that we have preserved despite every effort to the contrary" rather than "Isn't this a nice painting".

Chinese Corner

Chinese corner is run by a local church once a week to help students practise their Chinese. It is basically exactly like eCommunity (English Community) except now I'm on the other side, learning instead of teaching... Which is absolutely great.

Last night we played an interesting board game. Not sure I completely understood it, but it was fun.

Flowers and Fine Art

After class I caught the MRT to Yuanshan station. I think this is one of my favourite places in Taipei! From one place you can see the mountains, Taipei 101, the Grand Hotel and a wonderful flower park.

 I really wanted to go to the Story House, but it was closed today. So instead I settled for the Fine Arts Museum.

Afterwards I went to Ximen. I walked past a movie theatre and there was a sign that said they were showing 'Beauty and the Beast' in 3D. I could not resist! It was lovely.

情人节 Valentine's Day

Celebrated Valentine's Day with some ladies from Chinese Corner.

It was a joyful evening filled with Bridget Jones' Diary and a huge amount of tasty food.

This morning in the middle of my class, one of the MTC staff members came into my classroom with an anonymous love letter and rose. Pretty awkward.

Another unknown Chinese meal

Very yummy! I feel so silly in the class though, because I just stand there awkwardly with such a lack of cooking skills :S

龍山寺 Longshan Temple

I went to Longshan temple this afternoon. Usually I find temples etc pretty dull, but I was quite impressed by Longshan. Appearance wise, it is quite different from other Buddhist temples which I've seen in Taiwan or in mainland China. It didn't have as much awful bright colours everywhere which was much easier on my eye balls.

I was surprised to discover that there were tonnes of people inside chanting and burning incense. I've seen this before over Chinese New Year, but I think this is the first time when I've been in a Buddhist temple and it has actually felt like people are legitimately worshipping. The impression that I get is that many people do this sort of thing over CYN, much like people go to church on Easter or Christmas, just out of a sort of tradition. As far as I could tell, there wasn't any special festival on today, so I was surprised to see that so many people were there. The whole place had a really solemn feeling about it, and that combined with the chanting of hundreds of people was a little bit confronting for me!

After I'd seen that, I went for a walk around the area and to the Huaxi markets. It was legitimately the seediest place I've ever been in my life. I walked past several restaurants with cages filled with snakes out the front (I didn't take a picture, pretty sure that image is burnt into my brain), and there were lots of old men looking at me like they wouldn't mind adopting a small Australian girl, even if she wasn't keen. This is the first time in Taiwan I've had a "wow, I should really wear my bag on my front and walk a lot quicker so I don't get attacked/robbed" moment. Usually I feel really safe, but not in this neighbourhood!

Don't go here, you will be kidnapped or killed, possibly.

打棒球 Baseball

After church today I enjoyed a meal of Indonesian food, followed by a casual game of baseball (with the pastor and his wife!). I'm feel very confident about my skills right now! Tempted to stay in Taiwan and take it up as a career.

Books and meatballs

Originally the weather forecast for today was really good, so I was planning on going to Danshui to explore. However, it was really foggy and a bit cool, so instead I decided to just do some shopping. I ended up at Eslite bookstore near Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT. It was amazing! I entered into some kind of overwhelmed daze due to the sheer size and range of this bookstore. It was like being in heaven. I spent several hours there (mostly in the travel and languages sections) and picked up quite a lovely selection of books, including: Taiwan travel guides, a Morocco lonely planet, Easy Reading Arabic, a moleskine to add to my collection, some Jonathan Safran Foer and a guide to Australian language and culture. I honestly have no idea how I managed to forget for a minute that I don't really need an Australian guide, since I'm already fairly familiar with the culture... but it has proved very hilarious and interesting (I'm discovering that lots of things which I thought were just 'normal' are actually uniquely Australian!)

My sister is a Japanese home improvement magazine

Purchases

I went to IKEA for lunch. It was a glorious experience of meatballs and loganberry sauce. Yum.

Overall, it was definitely a wonderful day. Hopefully the weather will one day be nice, and then I can go to Danshui!

大考試 Final Exam

I had my "final" exam on Thursday. For the other students, this exam is really important because they can't move onto the next level unless they get more than 60%. Also, if they get more than 80% they can re-sit the placement test and possibly move up a level. Since I'm not here next semester, so it doesn't matter too much but I got 85% and it's nice to know that anyway. I still have two weeks of classes left, so it's not really a "final" anyway.

In other news, I completed my sign on for next semester at UQ and for the first time in my life I actually have an awesome timetable. Very happy with myself for getting up at 4am Taiwan time for the sign on, even though I went back to sleep afterwards and missed my 8am class.

Tonight I headed over to the Shilin night market. I hated it. Wayyy too many people, and I wasn't in the mood for shopping at all. My landlord has also been showing my room to a few people today so that they can take over my lease. It's just drawing attention to how little time I have left here... 19 days :(

Blue sky!

The sun decided to come out in Taipei today. I woke up and couldn't hear the sound of rain, so I literally leapt out of bed to look out the window. It was so nice! I had a lovely morning at church, followed by some shopping with my friend Esther. She's going back to the States very soon, which is sad.

Speaking of sad, I considered rescuing these creatures which I saw at the markets...

The only thing I dislike about Taipei is the weather, so on sunny days like today I find myself crying over my class selection form for next semester (which I won't have to fill out, because I'm leaving...) and wishing I could stay longer!!!