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July 4th 2015
Published: July 4th 2015
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Hi everyone!

Happy 4th of July! I can't believe it's already been a month since I left home! That's crazy! Anyways, I've successfully found my way to the university where I will be studying for the next two months. For the first few nights we stayed in the Alumni House on campus, which is basically a hotel and was very nice. We had wifi (which we don't have in the dorms - we have to connect using ethernet) and air conditioning (which we have in the dorms but have to ration because it takes credits, and once we run out, we have to pay for more). When we first arrived, we checked in and got ourselves situated before meeting Yu Laoshi (our teacher) for a welcome dinner. She brought us to this little soup dumpling (more of them!) shop, which was really tasty. During the first few days, we were split into groups of two and sent on missions. The first full day, we were given a scavenger hunt, written completely in Chinese. Our task was to find specific buildings and landmarks on campus and answer questions about them. The idea was that we ask people if we couldn't find something or couldn't answer the questions, but Trini and I sort of cheated and found a campus map. It's not our fault we outsmarted the system... Technically we had a time limit, but neither Trini nor I were aware of it, so we did manage to go to all of the locations (although this campus is huge and we ended up walking around for about three hours). Such landmarks included the dairy (yep they raise cows here and make their own milk), the lake (which is actually more like a pond), the time capsule, the church (the most photographed spot on campus, the church is a major landmark in this city because of the architecture), and the post office. Afterward, we had to present on a few of the locations and draw a map of the places we visited. While I thought this was a cool way to get to know the campus, it is crazy hot and humid here. To the point where after three hours my skin was so damp with sweat that I could soak a tissue just by running it over my face. Which is gross, and too much information, but I needed to make that point. We were also given an ongoing homework assignment, which is to write a 100 character summary of the day each day, and our teacher then collects and reads them the next day, makes corrections, and gives them back. The idea is that by the end of the trip we will each have a notebook filled with stories of our adventures, and proof that our Chinese skills are improving (theoretically). I think it is also a good way for our teacher to get to know our approximate skill levels, which is the idea behind the activities we have been doing so far. Our official placement test isn't until the second half of next week, but I think the test itself will be more of a formality, because thus far we have only been working with one teacher as she has gotten to know us. (By the way she is SUPER nice.)

On the second day, we were tasked with translating foods and menus, as we really only have a basic knowledge of food words among us. Some of the foods we were looking at were pretty basic, like: 可樂 (kělè - coke), 珍珠奶茶 (zhēnzhū nǎichá - bubble/boba milk tea),
More soup dumplingsMore soup dumplingsMore soup dumplings

This time from a small shop
and 豬肉包子 (zhūròu bāozi - pork buns), whereas some were pretty crazy, like: 五更腸旺 (wǔ gēng cháng wàng - intestine and duck blood spicy soup), 雞爪東 (jī zhuǎ dōng - frozen chicken feet), and 大腸包小腸 (dàcháng bāo xiǎocháng - lit. small sausage in a large sausage, or a sausage in a bun-like rice cake). Since then, we have seen some of the dishes, and the more adventurous of us have tried them. For example, today I tried meat from a small local variety of deer (I've never had deer before). I've also tried baby fern, prune juice, red dragon fruit, questionable meatballs, taro in various forms, chicken and pork cooked in various dishes (we had oolong chicken with lunch today), and charcoal ice cream (which tasted like vanilla. Charcoal doesn't really have much of a taste...). I will say that I don't try any of the dishes that look questionably like seafood, as I don't eat seafood, but I try the other things.

On Thursday (our third day), we packed all of our stuff and left all but overnight bags at the language center for the night, as we took a short field trip up to 溪頭 Xītóu national park. On the way, we stopped in 南投 Nántóu for a tea tour. After drinking lots of oolong tea, we went to a tea museum of sorts, where we learned that there is a yearly national(? it could have been global, I'm not sure) tea competition where judges have to taste over 300 different teas. After the winner is announced, there is an auction, and bidding starts at about $900 for less than 1 1/2 pounds. Winning tea has been sold for upwards of $80,000 (USD). That's two years of my college tuition for less than 1 1/2 pounds of tea! Crazy! Anyways, I guess Taiwan is most well-known for their oolong tea, which did taste pretty good, although I'm sure I was drinking a much cheaper quality tea. After learning a bit about the history of the competitions (the tour guide talked completely in Chinese, and Yu Laoshi only translated every now and then, hence the holes in my understanding), we went to a tea farm and got to pick some tea leaves, then roll some leaves traditional-style - that is, with our hands! I think the rolling process was to get the oils out so the tea has a stronger taste? Maybe? Anyways, we left our names with our piles and overnight they baked the leaves and we got them in a nice tin today! (I will definitely tape down the lid before I travel with it, though...) After that, we got lunch at this place where they cooked the food in hollowed out bamboo over an open fire. The rice, which was cooked with sweet potato, was really tasty, and the meat, although questionable, was also pretty good. When we go out with the group, we get traditional family-style meals, meaning we get a TON of different dishes. Lots of variety! Right next to the place was a bamboo cannon? thing that I was made to light (I lost at rock-paper-scissors *sigh*), and which went off with a huge BANG! although nothing came out of it. I'm not going to pretend that I know science, but I think it was like those demos where the professor would swish some alcohol around those giant water jugs, and then quickly drop a match in the jug and there was a sound as the alcohol burned? Maybe? I could be mixing that up with something else though. Anyways, it was
For Terry MayFor Terry MayFor Terry May

Giant, beautiful Starbucks in Taichung
really scary and we all definitely flinched. The guys who ran the shack/shop were 100% laughing at us the whole time. To end the day, our tour guide brought us to this place that is surrounded by tea farms, and was gorgeous. We were at a high enough altitude that there was actually fog, and the mountains were covered in the tea plants and topped with fog. It was beautiful and 很安靜 (hěn ānjìng - very quiet, peaceful). That night we stayed in a cabin-style retreat (which was surprisingly close to being hotel-grade).

Today, we began the day with a short hike, although we all got tired pretty quickly and decided to continue on our journey after a short while. On the way down, we stopped at a small Japanese-style town, with lots of demon statues everywhere. Definitely a tourist location, but it was admittedly very cool. Like a weird taste of Japan in the middle of Taiwan. There were lots of Hayao Miyazaki characters in the souvenir shops, as well as common anime/manga characters (One Piece, Naruto, Powerpuff Girls, etc). We didn't stay for long, but it wasn't a huge place so that's okay. We then went to lunch (where we had deer and oolong chicken), before heading to a place where we got to throw some pottery. I'd never used a pottery wheel before, so it was a new experience for me, and I had a lot of fun making a bowl and a (kind of large) sauce dish. Although we don't get to glaze the pottery, the people who work there will, and I guess they will fire them and send them to us in 3-4 weeks, which is really cool! After pottery we came back to campus and officially moved in to the dorms.

The dorms here are very interesting. They are definitely different from what we are used to at Puget Sound, that's for sure! First of all, we are not in the dreaded girls' dorm (some of you have heard me worrying about that before, but basically, we were supposed to be in a dorm building that is surrounded by a 6 ft concrete wall topped with barbed wire and broken glass. The girls' dorm also has an 11 pm curfew, except for Sundays, when you can (with advance permission) return at 12. Also, no boys allowed). Instead, we are in a
Ready to pick tea!Ready to pick tea!Ready to pick tea!

Photo cred. Yu Laoshi
"newer" building, which is coed by floor. (Or building, I'm not entirely sure. There are lots of buildings that count as one dorm here.) Anyways, the rooms are quads, and I am sharing a room with KC and Trini, and we will have another roommate (she's not here tonight though. Her stuff is, but it hasn't been unpacked and we haven't met her so...) The dorm beds don't come with any sort of mattress (just the bunk bed fixtures), so we had to buy our bedding (a foam pad - think camping mat, a thin comforter/quilt, and a pillow). The bathrooms have no toilet paper or hand soap - we had to buy that stuff ourselves. There is one Western toilet, but the rest are squats. Should be fun! And there is one washing machine for the entire floor. For some reason the dorm rooms don't have wifi, so we have to connect to the internet with ethernet cords, and I guess the policy is that you get 5 GB per day, which I think is a lot, but if you go over you can't access the internet for a week, which is scary! We also have a limited number of air conditioner credits, and if we run out we have to pay for more, so right now we just have the ceiling fan on (no A/C) and the room is super freaking hot. It'll be an interesting two months, to say the least.

Also, over the past few days I have been collecting mosquito bites. My last count was at least 16 29 on my left leg and at least 11 19 on my right, although I have definitely found new ones throughout the course of today. Would you believe that I also wore deep woods OFF! that I brought from home while I was up in Xitou? No? Me either. The mosquitos here are nasty buggers, and for some reason they have definitely been targeting me. My friends have bites but not nearly as many as I do. As Yu Laoshi put it earlier, 蚊子很愛我。I did buy some anti-itch stuff from Watson's though, and it has quickly become my best friend over the last few days. Hopefully the mosquitos give up on me soon, though, because it is definitely too hot to sleep under a blanket!

Anyways, I will let you all get on with your days, so bye for now!

PS. I posted this the day after I started writing it, so "today" is actually "yesterday."


Additional photos below
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Tea tasting like a proTea tasting like a pro
Tea tasting like a pro

Photo cred. Yu Laoshi
紅龍果 Red dragon fruit紅龍果 Red dragon fruit
紅龍果 Red dragon fruit

Photo cred. Yu Laoshi
All of us with our tour guideAll of us with our tour guide
All of us with our tour guide

Photo cred. Yu Laoshi
Where they store the tea leaves after harvestWhere they store the tea leaves after harvest
Where they store the tea leaves after harvest

Tour guide for height reference


5th July 2015

Xing ba ke!
Hi Katie, Thanks very much for the photo of Xing ba ke - xie xie, xie xie. It looks impressive and high-tech - like a glass tube (with good coffee inside). As usual, the family style meal looks yummy! The Luce Chapel - the name Henry (& Claire Boothe) Luce came up often in the Contemporary China history class I took last spring, so very interesting to see your photo and caption. I. M. Pei designed the Chapel as well as the NCAR building in Boulder - I don't think they look very much alike, do you? You are a very descriptive writer - the tranquil beauty of the tea plantation, and the sweaty mugginess of just walking around. Glad to hear your Chinese language skills are improving - especially so you can order that delicious sounding intestines with spicy blood soup. Lianne is complaining about one aspect of her internship - she attends events which are often held in big Chinese restaurants - she ends up with plates full of jellyfish and chicken heads. Happy 4th of July to you! We eagerly await your next blog entry! Terry

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