Day 8: Free Day Adventures

  We were given a "free day" to do whatever before we left Taipei. It was really more of a free afternoon because we left the hotel at 10 AM (packing took a while) and had to be back by 7 so that we could catch the train to Taichung.

   A few of us headed out to the movie theater by Taipei 101. Tiffany and I chose Star Trek, so we bought our tickets at the automated machine (which even lets you chose your seats) and had some time to kill.

Ireland's Potato was a fry and drinks place next to the cinema, it played hardcore uncensored rap music that no American restaurant could get away with

The movie was amazing (I love Star Trek an Benedict Cumberbatch almost equally so it was an awesome combo) but it made me really homesick because when I was little I'd watch Star Trek with my dad.

   After that we visited Taiwan's largest bookstore (which had random clothing shops and a food court in it as well). 

   The whole group took the HSR (high speed rail) up to Taichung City and then a taxi to Tunghai University's Alumni House where we'd be staying. It was really hard to say goodbye to all the friends I'd made in Taipei.

Day 7: There's Gold In Those Mountains! (And Sky Lanterns)

 

 Saturday started off with a long bus ride into the mountains.

Our tour guide Jenny

  We toured an old gold mining town and saw the residence built for the crown prince of Japan at the time (but he became emperor right after it was finished so he never visited)

    The main street was really packed and winding as we tried to make it through the crowd and stay together to get to the restaurant where we had lunch reservations. 

   Then after a little bit of wandering around and shopping we got back on the bus to go to another town for the "sky lantern" experience a lot of people had been talking about for days.  I don't believe in it, but that doesn't mean it wasn't really fun.

The hardest part was filling up all 4 sides

   Basically we stood on a set of train tracks holding a paper balloon with a huge wad of fire inside it...

   Every so often a whistle would sound and everyone would hurry off the tracks before a train came through

   They looked really cool in the air though.

   The bus ride back was really long most people got off at the hotel but I went wandering around with Shelly, sadly I wasn't used to the nighttime settings on my new camera so the only one that turned out was of part of the Ferris wheel we went on.

   We went back to the hotel to see who wanted to come to the hot springs and picked up Laura and Theresa. It took us two MRT trains and a 15ish minute walk to get there but it was worth it.

Interesting statue at the Xinbeitou station (where the hot springs are)
 

   We didn't go to the public hot springs, we went to the ones where everyone has their own individual room with their own tub and you get 40 minutes. It was super relaxing and we didn't get back to the hotel until almost 1 AM. 

Day 6: Tamkang University and Tam Sui old town

Hmmm I wonder what this building is used for...

   We went to Tamkang university for a tour and lecture. The students there were a lot more shy with their English.

They also had a gorgeous traditional garden

Their Maritime Museum was cool 

   Then we had a lecture on cross cultural communication. The teacher was really funny and awesome and we got to learn through playing games. The best was probably the telephone game. We were split into groups based on nationality (all American, all Taiwanese, and mixed) and then given sentences to pass along. Some were written in western news order others in eastern. I think the desired outcome was for unmixed groups to have the best results but that isn't what happened at all.

    We had lunch with the students. Basically they took us to their cafeteria and most of us got what they usually eat. The group I went with took us to a potsticker place. It was amazingly good (but I made a poor choice for the accompanying soup, I like fishballs sometimes but that wasn't one of those times). After lunch we had one of our group discussions in the library, we got some pretty weird looks from the students who had no idea why we were there but the discussion was good.

   Once our discussion was finished we rejoined the students and went on a tour of Tam Sui old town.

We visited a really cool temple 

A church built by the first missionary

Gorgeous building (part of a university)

There were two turtles (there's a little guy back there) and  some fish, we got irrationally excited 

We all needed pictures of the turtles

Day 5: Brand Management, Taiwan Stock Exchange and Franz

   We started out with a brand management class at NTNU, where we listened to an analysis of a case study about E-harmony and contributed to the discussion. The presentation itself wasn't that interesting but people raised really good questions. In the end we had to leave early to make it to the Stock Exchange.

   At the Taiwan Stock Exchange we got a brief presentation of how trading there works. The presenter seemed almost apologetic over the polices. Share prices can't fluctuate more than 7% a day so that no one looses all their money which makes sense because most traders are housewives. They also have very short trading hours, only 4.5 hours a day. Honestly I have mixed feelings, it's good that so many women are getting involved in the stock market and I wish it were that way here, but at the same time the speaker said something about how buying a stock was like buying a lottery ticket and how most people follow trends or listen to TV personalities which isn't healthy.

   After the presentation we had lunch at Taipei 101 and I finally got to buy a new camera! My old camera had been having issues with the lens sticking no matter how much I cleaned it and the  day before it had finally given up and refused to close. I bought a cheaper Sony model ($140 USD or so) and the clerk was so nice. She asked me if i wanted to use it right away and when I said yes she traded the battery in the box with a fully charged one, put the wrist strap on the camera and set the menu to English for me.

First picture with my new camera!

   Then we visited the vase and porcelain manufacturer Franz. I think the most interesting part was watching the sculptors making the decorations for the vases out of clay (and applying them to perfectly symmetrical plastic vase molds). They were all so breathtakingly beautiful and the thought that less than 40% of them will ever see production makes me incredibly sad. We also visited the upstairs showroom which was both terrifying and gorgeous because you were surrounded by extremely expensive and fragile objects. 

Steps of the porcelain making process (in the only room we were allowed to take pictures in)

 

   The last item on the agenda was an appreciation dinner for everything NTNU had done for us, but the NTNU students got to chose and they chose McDonald's... it was a little ridiculous.

 

Day 4: NTNU Cultural Class and HTC

 

   The class started the day by going to NTNU for a cultural class on Chinese traditional medicine. Our Mandarin teacher from the day before had told us that the lecturer would be trying acupuncture on us and on the train ride to class most of the class swore they wouldn't participate in that aspect.

   The class began with an overview of different characteristics of foods and what they were used for. The fascinating part for me is that many of the traditional "cures" contain natural chemicals that are close to those found in prescription drugs for the same purpose.

   After that we started talking about stretches and meditation being good for the body, something proven by multiple studies.Then the topic of acupuncture came up. The modern needles used today are are small and come individually wrapped in sanitary packets. Once everyone saw the needles people relaxed a lot and in the end everyone participated.

  Once the class was finished we went on a tour of the NTNU campus.

   From there we took a charter bus to HTC for a tour. The first impression upon entering the company was a huge wash of whiteness that was almost painful.

   Naturally the pose of the statue lead to some joking around.

   We were given a standard short tour of the cafeteria (with free food and no waiting because they'll send a text when your food is ready) and the fitness center (that you can use anytime even during work hours). I wasn't surprised that we didn't see more, especially since HTC rarely allows visitors of any kind let alone foreigners. After that we got a standard company lecture and a marketing pitch and got to play with the newest phone for a few minutes.

Day 3: Asus computers

   Following our visit to KPMG we took a bus to Asus. Again we got a lecture about the company then we got a brief product demonstration and a tour. We were taken to the cafeteria and the gym/ rec center which is free for use after work and were taken to see the pool on the roof. We didn't get to see actual office space but that's to be expected from a tech firm.

Day 3: KPMG Taipei

   After we left NTNU went to the 68th floor of Taipei 101 to visit KPMG. KPMG is an audit, tax and advisory company that has offices all over the world.

    We got a lecture about the services the company offers and then toured the offices. We saw the cafe, massage room, multimedia room and a fancy boardroom. We also learned that the 66th floor is their shelter area which is stocked with emergency food and supplies. 

Day 3: NTNU visit

   Our day started off with a Survival Chinese class at NTNU. It was fun but challenging. It went pretty well for me until we hit counting. The problem was that I know some Japanese which wouldn't have been bad alone but the number 3 is the same in both languages (san) and the reference packet that we were given had the characters for the numbers right above them, with the characters being the same as well. I was fine counting up to 3 but after that I tried to switch to Japanese and it didn't help that I was tired and jetlagged.
 
   Still, the class was interesting and very useful and I've signed up to take Chinese at U of M - F in the fall (and a friend from NTNU will be at school with me an help me study)!

   Afterwards we had a group lunch with some fun games and got to meet our e-mail "buddies" in person.

   

Wang Tea Company Visit

Our tour guide, Jason, introducing the company

   On 5/13 we visited Wang Tea Company, the part if the company that we visited takes tea leaves that have been fermented into various types of teas (green, oolong, black) and roasts and blends them into the commercial product

The steps of the tea making process

   Tea has to be cured, blended and baked to get just the right flavor.

The traditional tea baking process involving charcoal and ashes

Tea used to big the biggest export of Taiwan that isn't the case anymore but recently tea has been making a comeback.

Taiwan Day 2

 After breakfast at the hotel we had a group orientation covering a brief history of Taiwan as well as the requirements for group assignments and other homework. 

When that was over we visited the Wang Tea Company to see how tea is processed and turned form the leaf into the beverage. The company takes leaves grown in different parts of the country that have been fermented into black or oolong tea or fresh leaves to make green tea (all these teas could come from the same plant) and then roasts them using modern machines or the ancient charcoal method then they blend different leaves together for the perfect aroma and flavor. 

Afterwards we had our nice group lunch and headed over to the National Palace Museum. The museum houses a collection of the best artifacts from the Forbidden City brought to Taiwan for safety. We weren't allowed to take pictures but it was very lovely. The star of the museum is an intricately carved Jadeite cabbage given as part of a dowry to an emperor. 

Our last activity of the day was visiting the Shih-Lin night market. This is the largest night market in Taiwan is is packed with food stalls, carnival games and merchandise. Some of us tried the legendary stinky tofu with mixed results. 

Taiwan Day 1

   After changing hotels our first activity was to visit and tour the Confucius Temple.

    It was simply gorgeous and had the most intricate carvings and decorations. The temple is only about 80 years old. Confucius was the first to teach everyone. Today, students often come to seek his help with exams though he isn't considered a god. 

     Afterwards we had lunch at Taipei Main Station.

    Then we visited the ROC Presidential Building which is the Taiwanese version of the White House. The tour  covered the history of the building which was built by Japan who had ownership of Taiwan at the time. 

    Then we visited the National Museum.

 We were going to visit the CKS Memorial Hall but the rain interfered with those plans. The museum was full of interesting things. The best parts were making our own narrations to a video about fish (there were benches and we were tired) and the dinosaurs in the exhibition hall across the road (especially Matt's reaction to them)

After that we visited The Red House Market for Artists and walked around that are of the city for a while. 

Surviving the Flight

   

   The flight was really long. All in all it wasn't too bad though. They feed you well, and often, much more than I was expecting them too. There were 3 full meals on the flight to Japan (which admittedly was 11 hours long coming from San Francisco) and one on the 3 hour flight to Taipei.
 

      I was mainly worried about trying to stay awake on the long flight to Japan but that turned ou to be the easiest part since there were a ton of TV shows and movies to watch. The flight from Tokyo to Taipei was a little bit delayed but since it was the last one that was fine.