Today we began the day with a trip to the Taipei University of the Arts after a quick breakfast at the hotel. The MRT and bus ride was quite long, but definitely worth it to be able to see one of the Universities in Taiwan, and meet some locals that were our age. Upon arriving at the university, we were greeted by a recent graduate and a current student who showed us around the campus. They brought us into two art buildings that contained art exhibits that displayed work done by students at the school. I enjoyed learning about the art and how it was made in the first exhibit from some of the students. They explained that this one interesting sculpture was made of clay and foam (shown below), and I was reminded of a tv show, The Last of Us, from the design of the piece. This exhibit also had a room dedicated to displaying paintings made in the form of stop motion clips. This was particularly cool because we were able to meet the student who created that art in-person.
We also had the chance to see a second art exhibit that contained an array of small paintings and a few large banners made by the students as well. I enjoyed seeing many different paintings as it showed how the students were able to express themselves in various ways. One thing that I found cool about the school in general was that it was built over a graveyard so it was thought to have a spiritual presence. One of my photos below shows a lion statue that is stepping on a skull, placed there as a form of protection against the spirits/souls.
After lunch at the university, we headed to Jianguo Jade Market, walking through a cool flower market along the way. I entered the Jade market expecting to buy some jewelry to take home and left empty handed after almost being swindled and feeling quite overwhelmed by the vast amount of stuff present. One moment I was just looking at a Jade bangle that I thought was pretty, and the next I was sitting down in a chair with a cup of water placed in front of me and two individuals trying to put the bangle around my wrist while massaging lotion onto my hand. An interesting experience to say the least. Nevertheless, we continued on to our next stop of the night: Raohe Night Market at the very end of the green line of the MRT in Songshan. We walked around for a while and tried a bunch of different food items that looked interesting, one of which was chicken feet – none of us were a fan – but at least we tried it. I also ended up finding a cute, simple and inexpensive tea set to bring home to my little sister who is obsessed with tea, so overall it was an evening well-spent.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a local temple that contained the goddess Mazu who is considered a sea goddess.
We finished the night by going out to Yuanshan. I thought it was super neat that we were able to make some new friends and connect with them on instagram!
