Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Just started the new years-weekend. Four days for own disposal. Wonderful!

Yesterday there was a christmas party at a school where my dad used to work. We went there and I brought some juggling equipment. I did a short performance, and played with the kids afterwards. It was mostly throwing balls back and forth, but using only simple Chinese, I were able to comunicate with them in simple manners, and we had a lot of fun.

Today I plan to do some work at home, and then practise Chinese when I'm done. Need to get this work done now, as it's been delayed for a while.. Except from new years eve, and maybe one day in the mountains, I plan to prepare for our mid-term exam on wednesday. It's just a plan, but I hope to manage to concentrate on some Chinese this weekend. ;)

Class trip to Yuanshan

Because new years eve is on a tuesday, many schools and workplaces decided to have a 4-day weekend. That means we had to have a work-up class. Instead of having this class in the classroom, we went on a fieldtrip to Taipei Story House and Lin An Tai Historical House and Museum.

The Taipei Story House has a british look, originally built by a man who very early discovered some great Taiwanese tea-plants, and how to make money out of it. This winter they have an exhibition about Taiwanese sweets. Later on we went to a historical house with it's garden. I was there two years ago, but I have to say I enjoyed going there with my class.

While waiting outside the MRT in the morning, a guy beatboxed and some... thing danced.

Taipei Story House
http://english.taipei.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=1100520&ctNode=27687&mp=100002

Taiwan story house, with their "Taiwanese sweets" exhibition.

Some of my classmates, including teacher.

Nice garden.. ;)

Scholarship granted

The Chinese Language Center announced the recipients of their scholarship yesterday, and I am happy and surprised I became one of them. The office check the score from last term of every applicant. The score is a combination of how well you participated in class, absence hours, homework, tests and teachers recomodation. 10 recipients will recieve 20.000NT in the end of this term, as long as they are not absent for more than 12 hours/4 days. So far I've been away for one day because of a trip to Yilan, but it shouldn't be any problem to avoid more absence. Crossed fingers :)

Last weekend outside 101.

Last weekend we went to a christmas concert, and after that to the Sun Yat-sen memorial hall for some dinner. Outside this hall people where practising dance, alone and in groups, and people had kites which I belive reached above the Taipei 101. I'm amazed by good people are at using public areas in Taipei.

2 day hiking with Taiwanese

I went hiking with NCCU's mountain climbing club last weekend. After packing our bags Friday night, we left the campus early saturday morning. We where heading for a national trail, around 25km long, and reaching about 1700mas. I find Taiwanese people more cautious than what I'm used to, and so I found the climbing club as well. Don't get me wrong, everyone I met on the trip were very nice people, and we had a great trip together, but some occasions became challenging as it kind of crashed with what I'm used to.

After a few kilometers

Along the trail where several suspension bridges, waterfalls and narrow trails along the mountain side. Occasionally we came across mudslides that had not yet been cleared, and some parts of the trail where totally gone, and so we had to find some alternative routes. Scary... yes, intereresting... for sure.

The slack-line equipment made a nice clothesline across the room

After approximately 12 kilometers and 6 hours, we arrived at our first destination. A couple of cottages built by the goverment would be our protection for the rain, and the place where we would sleep and cook. I brought some slackline-equipment in case the weather would be suitable, but we found it more useful to turn it into a clothesline so we could dry our clothes a little during the stay.

Impressive Chinese food. Pork, rice, vegetables, tofu and more

After a few minutes at the site, I joined a couple of others and we went to look for water. After about 15-20 we found a small waterfall, and filled up several bottles with fresh water. When we returned, people had already started to prepare for cooking. One of the hikers' dad was a chef, and he had prepared delicious Chinese food we could heat up and enjoy. By this food and cooking I was especially impressed.

After I had changed clothes, and become dry and warm, I soon felt tired and pulled me back into my sleeping bag. I got suprised when they still wanted to serve me supper! They were so nice.

The second day we had another 12 kilometers waiting for us. It was still raining, but as long as we kept on walking I didn't feel cold. As soon as we stopped though, I soon started to shiver.

The whole group after arriving at our pickup-point

Thanks everyone for a nice trip! I enjoyed it and learned a lot.

Second term, new class!

I had a really nice trip to Singapore last week. As I spent most of the time at the Sentosa island, I will probably return to Singapore one day in the future to explore the "real" Singapore. This time I got to see my friend and take a break from Chinese studies.

A park close to the National Cheng Kung University

After I returned to Taiwan, I went to Tainan to visit National Cheng Kung University. I'm thinking about moving to Tainan and continue my studies at there in March. One of the reasons being to see more of the island and experience life in a "smaller" city. I found the campus bigger than Cheng Chi where i curently study, and even though I didn't spend many hours there, it seemed to be a good place to continue my studies. Both train and bus-station where close to the campus, and I've heard the weather is better and more stable than in Taipei. It took me about five hours to get there by bus from Taipei, and the buses are very comfortable here. I found it easiest to buy tickets at the ticket counter by the bus stop, as both the website and 7-Eleven ticket-machines didn't have English translations.

This monday I started in a new class. New classmates, teacher and Chinese-subjects.
So far so good. My classmates are very nice, and we all seem to be at a more similar level than my previous class were, which makes it less frustrating. Our teacher is always smiling, and patient when we have a hard time to understand. My new class starts at 12:10am and finishes 3pm. which means more lazy mornings, but also more time to review my homework before I go to class.

At the cookie-factory. The cookies are machine rolled, and about 1mm thin. Tastes good :)

The cookies made at the factory are called ox-tongue-cookies due to their shape.

At the whiskey distillery they also prepare for  christmas.

Today I went on a trip to Yilan with the Campus caring group. They help foreign students with the language and Taiwanese culture. I go there for private class ones every week. They are really nice people. Well, in Yilan we went to visit a cake factory, whiskey distillery, national museum and conserved-fruit factory. All very interesting, and we had a lot of fun.

A lot of things is happening this week. Saturday morning I'll leave for a two-day hiking trip in some national trail. Looking forward to it!