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!!!