Blogs from Taichung, Taiwan, Asia - page 3

I've settled into my dorm room here in Taichung. There are definitely some differences between the dorms here and the dorms in the US. I think I'm starting to get used to them, but it's been a little hard. Let's just say they don't appear to be as clean as the ones in the US, however it is nice to have a permanent place to live for the next 7 weeks. We started class on June 30th, but we've mostly been doing outings (will talk about those more) and group projects/presentations. Tomorrow we take our placement test, I'm kinda nervous about that. Tunghai University is REALLY big compared to Puget Sound. They own about 345 acres of land. They even have their own dairy farm on campus! I heard they make ice cream... I haven't tried ... read more

Its Day 2! After a good night's rest its off to Tian Ma Farm. Trip took around 45mins from Tai Chung. Looks like a wild life park. Its basically a Llama wildlife park with other minor animal species. There is a newcomer to the farm, its a 160-year-old tortoise (claimed by the keeper). Looking at him makes me think that in his current lifetime he had lived through 2 world wars and more. Among other animals is this cute ground hog. There are many other animals like snakes, birds, camels, ostriches etc… Next we went to one of the most beautiful attraction of our trip. (Zhong She Hua Shi). Also known as "Hua Hai". Its like the beautiful flower meadows in Holland. They even had a wind mill there. Lol. After that, we travelled to a ... read more

Het begon gister allemaal heerlijk vlotjes. Tas in twee uur gepakt, geen file, toedeloe regen, geen rijen, leuke mensen op dezelfde vluchten, slechts een uurtje overbruggen tijdens de overstaps, prima inlfight entertainment en plastic voedsel, hupsakee langs de douane, stempeltje erbij, ' Nou, dit gaat allemaal wel heeeel erg soepel.'. Tsja, en DAT hadden we dus beter even af kunnen kloppen. Sta je dan als enige nog bij de bagageband. Alles roetsjie, maar tassie foetsie. Balen. Nog een poging gedaan bij andere vluchten die vanuit Hong Kong kwamen, want wat bleek, het vliegtuig zat zo vol dat de koffers niet allemaal pasten. Aantal gingen dus mee met de volgende vlucht. Behalve die van ons. In het systeem te traceren? Nope. We gaan het zien.. Op naar de andere kant van de douane, meer konden we toch ... read more

Sunday, 15th May 2011 This entry is specially dedicated to the owners of 三能 Optical Shop @ 一中街 (Yi Zhong Street) Night Market who were kind enough to allow the general public to use their toilet facilities within their premises. I guess most of the friendly shop owners at the night market would willingly offer the use of their washrooms during an emergency provided if you asked them nicely (I haven't really tried asking though). What made 三能 stood out from the rest was that they had prominently displayed a toilet sign outside their shopfront. Any members of the public were welcomed to use their facilities to answer the call of nature even though they were not patronising their business. This unusual fact was first related to me by SS. During her last trip to Taichung, ... read more

Went for a haicut yesterday (Saturday)...was not the first time either going to this place. It is located directly below our apartment, and I particularly enjoy getting my haircut here because the people are always friendly, prices are cheap, they pay attention to the tiniest detail of the provided picture I bring in, and it is family owned - which I found out yesterday. They are quite busy too, with no exception on a Saturday night. I made my appointment for 6, catching the tail end of their hours. When I walked in, an elderly woman greeted me, remembering me from the one previous time I've been in there, way back in October (at least, I would like to think so, I don't understand Taiwanese, but she was certainly friendly enough) I was ushered to a ... read more