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.