This Sunday morning, we had class at 9am for reflection of our first few days of Taiwan and what we picked up on at these temples and areas we went to. I was a little late to class as both Mikey and I did not wake up on time for it. We were still able to participate and share our thoughts on what we learned and thought from our Taiwan experience. I especially reflected on Day 2 and 4 as my interest in technology appeared again this morning. Afterwards, we wrote these reflections onto paper to get a rawer idea of what we thought.
After a little break from the class reflection, we decided to go to Prof. Chen’s alma mater, National Taiwan University. We were guided by first year students whose main goal was to interact with foreign students and learn from them while also sharing about their own country. They guided us around the university, showing us the library and bookshop while also explaining some of the history of the campus with a little help from Prof. Chen. Most interesting was seeing some of the graduates of the university still there as they had apparently just graduated the day before we got there. Graduates were taking pictures in the middle of the street still in their graduate gear or taking pics at famous campus spot like (I believe it was) the clock.
We decided to disperse after the library and Joelle (I get kidnapped a lot by her these days now that I am thinking about it) and I decided to walk around the area near the markets after leaving Amma and Ayden. We went to multiple places around the area; First was one of the food markets to get some skewers and pineapples to eat for lunch ( or for a second lunch I guess). Afterwards we walked around and checked out some of the stores, one of which I bought a 500 piece Godzilla puzzle, something I will be building over the summer when I have time. We went to Poya mostly for Joelle and whatever she bought.
Most interesting thing we did was go to a relatively cheap massage parlor. This one was interesting as not only was it a 2-hour full body experience, but our massage therapists only spoke mandarin and eventually learned that Joelle and I could speak mandarin as well. It was nice to chat with them in mandarin only, even with the heavy grammatical mistakes from me. I live for these moments when I get to speak with the locals in only Chinese, whether I’m having a chat with them at the massage parlor or trying to order food. I like to listen to how Mikey, Joelle and the other professors speak to the workers as I try to mimic it in my chats as well. They have been a good influence and motivator for me to speak Chinese.