Today I met up with a friend L to have lunch and just hang out. We went to a ramen (Korean noodles with soup) place where you can choose exactly how you want your noodles. So good! Afterwards we had mango shake as dessert on a chill café.

The selection sheet to step-by-step choose your ramen.

Ramen!

In the afternoon we took the MRT to Zhongxiao Fuxing to check out Lumi dance school as we want to start dancing. Oh, I really miss dancing! I used to take house classes and I enjoyed it. They got house dance here as well and many other dance styles. The best thing is that one can mix dance styles once you've paid for a certain number of classes.

Clothing Phenomenom

Why do couples and even whole families dress with the same shirts? For example, I've seen a family of four with red polo shirts (I was tempted to take a picture but luckily I could stop myself).

Structure

During my years as an IB student I learned that structure is something good. And in many aspects it is essential. Like in life. The structure I used to have has sort of bleached out because of the environment change. I think I'm slowly turning into a Taiwanese (!). I go to sleep too late, wake up late, eat badly and no exercise...but I'm gonna get back on track. So today I went to the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) campus gym and bought a three-months card. It's not very big compared to Campushallen in Linköping and there're no classes, but there're enough free weights and treadmill machines so that'll do. I also plan to take dance classes to develop my dance skills and meet people.

My gym card. Finally!

I visited the NTNU library to see what it offers. It's huge! I like that place a lot especially the long shelves with movies and TV-series. For example, who can resist The Big Bang Theory with Chinese subtitles?!

Inside the NTNU library.

A part of the DVD resource.

Hmm...

As I've mentioned before, I have barely met my neighbours. But everytime I come in or go out one of the neighbours always open his/her door a little and then close it quickly. E-v-e-r-y single time. So annoying. I just want to wrench the door open and ask this person: WHY???

Arty Day

First day by myself in Taipei and this morning I was thinking "What to do?" I had breakfast at some bagel place nearby. I brought my notebook with me and started to plan what to do next summer (well, you gotta start at some point...).

Then I prepared for school by buying some new notebooks. For the first time for ages I bought lined books and not squared which means no maths or physics! It feels a little bit strange to not go back to Linköping University, miss nolle-p and not meet up friends as I've done the past three years. However, many of my friends have gone abroad to study or will work.

I decided to go to the Museum of Contemporary Arts (COMA) in Zhongshan. Already in the MRT station the design showed that this is an area full of art and culture. It was an exhibition called Invisibleness is Visibleness collected by Daisuke Miyatsu. It was paintings, short movies, light projections and slideshows. In my opinion, the main theme of the contents were to pay attention to the small things in life and to live out life fully. It's hard to say if I "understand" all the pieces but it was interesting to see the collection, somethings more absurd and out-of-the-box than the other.

The museum entrance. This building used to be Government City Hall.

Quote by the art collector Miyatsu.

Short films.

Dance to illustrate an emotion.

Exhibition by Darren. It was a large collage with different styles and characters showing the diversty of personalities.

My favourite picture.

Today I went to Taoyuan airport to wave goodbye to my parents. I'll miss them! In the evening I went to Shi Da nightmarket to grab some food and I also visited a market where students and young designers sold clothes, accessorizes and other stuff. I found some really cute post cards.

At the young designers' market.

Now I sit in my room and it's heavy rain outside (typical Taiwanese weather). It may sound strange but I don't feel lonely and I'm not worried. I think I'm mentally prepared for this as I've been thinking of study abroad for like two years and the place is familiar for me by now. I like my room, it's not big but I got air conditioner, TV, internet, own bathroom and refrigitor. And it's close to school, very convinient. I haven't really seen my neighbours yet (we have no common room as in Swedish corridors, only a hall and rooms). However, sometimes when I walk outside I hear someone playing the piano magnificiently in the opposite building.

I have one more week to rest before school starts with orientation the 5th sep and classes the day after. I wonder how much Chinese I can learn in three months? Since I got here my Chinese and English have improved. Although, I do feel confused when I try to formulate a sentence and not mix Chinese Mandarin with Chinese Teochew (the dialect we talk at home) or Chinese Cantonese (another dialect that we talk at home and is somewhat similar to Mandarin). It happens that some Chinglish pops out and people give me a funny look. But hey, thank god for body language.

Daiso in Ximending

My heart leaped when I saw these portable ashtrays (with sort pick-up lines) from the Japanese store Daiso. And the spelling? Nice try.

School Registration

Yesterday I went to the Mandarin Training Center (MTC) to registrate for the fall term. There were so many new students (the whole floor was crowded with people from all over the world) = long line-up time. The registration process includes get a student ID no., verification of identity, payment (in CASH!), placement test and personal information. Puh. I hope I won't be in the beginner class 'cause I don't want to start from scratch again. It'll be fun to start Chinese classes again!

Yum Cha

Yum Cha literally means "to drink tea" and is a Chinese version of the English afternoon tea (or the American brunch). But the tea is not really what matters when yum cha, it's actually more about what you eat (the small dishes called dim sum). Yesterday, we (me and my parents) had dim sum at Din Tai Fung a resturant famous for their xiaolongbao. So famous that when we got to the restaurant there were crowded of tourists (mostly from Japan) that queued (hmm, grammar of Anglo-French word is not my strength) outside.

And I think it was worth the waiting as the dim sums were really good and the service as well (almost too good after the fifth time of tea refill by the waiter...).

By the mascote while waiting for a table...

Xiaolongbao is steamed dumplings with pork and leek filling. The soup from the filling is kept inside the thin layer of paste.

Yum Cha. (I daresay that 99% of my pictures are showing me eating something. Not really OK.)

Fruit Fields in Neihu

I love Swedish summer when I can pick strawberry, raspberry, black currant and apple in my hometown. But this was sort of left of this summer so to compensate it we went to Neihu yesterday to visit the fruit fields. Unfortunately, the fields are only open for guidance, tasting and picking on weekends so we could only look at the plants. We walked around and saw passion fruit plant, pappaya, grapes, dragon fruit tree, banana and grape fruit. We also stopped by to have some tofu at the most cozy café ever. It was surrounded by trees and plants and playing soft jazz music.

Passion fruit.

Green pappayas (pluralis?).

Lots of grapes. I got French vibes when I saw this.

At the café with view over the fruit fields.

Taiwanese Traffic- Part 2

The metro in Taiwan is very smart outlined and SO CLEAN (I'm not joking)! It's very easy to find (if you know where you want to go) and there are signs in English (even though the Chinese pinyin sometimes is questionable. I mean, Danshui = Tamshui?). And how do they manage to keep it so clean? Well, eating and drinking are prohibited as well as bubble gum, smoking and betelnuts (a kind of chewable tobacco). People who litter get fined (I think Sweden will introduce this rule too and I think it'll solve the garbage problem very efficiently). I've even heard that there're people who "work" as a litter papparazzi because picture evidence yield royalty. As simple as that. Or almost as simple. There are surveillance cameras in every corner at the stations and in the trains.

In a MRT train. So shiny-not a single graffiti tag.

The fine may be up to 7500 NT which is about 1800 SEK. No wonder it's so clean.

Wulai (again)

In an attempt to get the most out of my parents visit here we try to go to different places everyday. Today we went to Wulai (earlier post about Wulai). The weather was perfect not too hot and no rain (worth to mention as last time I was here it was heavy rain and because of that we didn't go to see the waterfall). We took all kind of vehicles one can think of- MRT and bus (the rollercoaster bus all over again!) to get to Wulai. In Wulai we walked uphill to see the waterfall. The waterfall was slim and almost veil-like. It may be a stupid thought but I wonder how come the water never stops falling.

Then we took the cable car to the the upper part of the mountain (300-400 metres above sealevel) and the view from the cliff made me grip the fence a little tighter. It's so high. And we went even higher by stairs. On the mountain top, it was a jungle landscape with many different trees and plants. We saw a pomelo tree (a type of citrus) with huge fruits that seemed to be overrule gravity! There was also an amusement park with some fun swings. After the hiking we went down from the mountain and rounded up the tour with fish spa.

The waterfall! (I know, I overuse exclamation mark!)

The view from the cable car top. The wires seem so small in proportion to the size of the cable car (which is more like minibus rather than car). What math and physics are needed to calculate the strength of wires?

Big pomelos held in the air by tiny branches.

Woho, the swings on the mountain top!

Shuttle train back to the heart of Wulai.

Fish spa. From the left: mum, me and dad. I think the previous fish-eating-my-feet session made me tickle resistant (I even had the gut to giggle at a another girl that was screaming by the fish pool).

Taiwanese Traffic- Part 1

There's so much to say about the Taiwanese traffic (in my opinion) so from today I'll start a mini serie. Part one will considerate a combination of maintain the traffic flow, creativity of high order and an urge to keep the staffing on the outermost low limit during a way construction. And this is best illustrated by a picture:

A dressed up manniquin with waving flags (yes, it actually moves) to catch the trafficants' attention. Note the fabulous orange boots. Haha.

Sunset in Danshui

Another must-do-thing in Taipei is to go to Danshui and watch the sun go down which we did today. Danshui is a city by the northern coast with lots of piers and streets to stroll around. I've mentioned before that we were here with OCAC to perform a dance in July. I like Danshui because the air is more fresh (and it reminds me of my hometown where you can find a pier as well) and there's ocean breeze unlike in the middle of Taipei.

There were lots of people that came to behold the sunset. And the romantic atmoshpere was completed by singersonger live music.

Then we went to have massage. I got 10 min shoulder and neck massage.

Lastly, we went to a shop (but it was more an exhibition than a shop) with lots of weirds things...

Beef jerky!!!

Something I cannot get enough of is Beef Jerky that is dried spicy beef. So good snacks!

Hualien

I've heard so much about the county Hualien (located on the east side of mid-Taiwan), how beautiful it is and that one must go there. So, my and my parents signed up for a one-day-tour to Hualien. Hualien is famous for its marble, mountain landscape and five (out of 14) aboriginal tribes live here. The well-known Amis tribe is one of them.

It was a quite intensive schedule, we took a flight at 7 a.m and then we went by bus to a whole lot of stops. We ride along the mountain trail and visited the Taroko village, Tiansheng and had a traditional aboriginal lunch. The scenery was stunning. On the way back we saw an aboriginal dance performance (I enjoyed it a lot!). We also visited a marble and jade manufacturer and learned how to distinguish between fake and real jade. Finally, we stopped be the Seven Star Lake (which actually is ONE lake) before we took the train back to Taipei. To sum up, despite the short time we saw and did a lot of things and had a great day in Hualien!

The flight to Hualien.

The secret valley, a hiking trail.

At one section we had to wear helmet in case of rock fall.

Natural cavities caused by water in the mountain that now serve as habitat for birds.

The aboriginal meal which included soup, stick rice (inside the bamboo stick), chili, sea weed, roasted sweet potato, grilled fish, mushrooms and tomato salsa. I liked the fish and sweet potato the most.

It was a small garden outside the restaurant and I saw lots of giant spiders (about 8 cm in diameter). There were also many big beautiful butterflies that swirled around.

Traditional aboriginal dance. Obviously, one can hold hands in many different ways...

At the end of the show all people in the audience could go on stage and dance together. Fun!

By the Seven Star lake. Too bad we didn't have time to take a bath... (I still haven't swum in a lake this summer!)

Sun Moon Lake

On 16-17th of August me and my parents went for a two-days-trip to Sun Moon Lake. The city is famous for the lake that is shaped like a sun and moon, surrounded by high mountains and vegetation. By the Sun Moon lake you can find many temples, aboriginal village and many hiking trails. During this tour we visited for instance the Puli (famous for their wine production), Longshan temple (the oldest temple in Taiwan, about 1000 years old) in Lukang, the Chiang Kai Shek Pagoda and Ita Thao aboriginal village.

On the old street by the Sun Moon lake. In my hand it's a kind pf hamburger with steamed pumkin bun filled with sauted cabbage and fried wild boar. So random street food, I know.

The famous tea eggs boiled with local tea and mushrooms. Tasty!

On the market by Sun Moon lake. Lots of different kind of bananas (compared to Sweden) from a local plantage. We also passed by plantage with pineapple, dragon fruit, longan and sugar cane during the trip.

By the pagoda that is situated on the mountain top.

Having breakfast at Sun Moon Lake Lalu Hotel. Nice view, for sure.

Stone decoration in the Longshan temple, I'm impressed by the hand craft. Note the two gold fishes in the circle, which according to Chinese tradition symbolize luck and fortune.

In the toilet of Longshan. Poorly translated it says there're three things you should do with care and correctly: pray, pee and toss the toilet tissue. Humor.

In the gentleman alley in Lukang. The alley is so slim that two persons cannot walk through without avoiding touching each other.