Day 6 started off with me figuring out how the laundromats in Taipei work, which actually turned out to be relatively simple – I also really liked the fact that it was a completely “self serve” process. A little while later we got on the subway and traveled to National Taiwan University, one of the highest ranked universities in the country. A couple of first year students gave us a tour of the school, some of which happened to also be international relations majors! It’s a less popular major, so it’s always interesting to meet other students who study it. I learned from the students that the IR major is quite different at NTU than it is at Bucknell. While at Bucknell you select a specific region of the world to study as part of your area concentration, at NTU students study relations across the globe. There is also a larger focus on China, which obviously makes sense given the current political climate. NTU also offers a much wider range of languages than Bucknell, and students also have to choose one to study. Overall, though, the NTU campus was really lively and looked like a great place to be a student in. After our tour I separated from our group to explore the area on my own, as I’m learning that wandering around markets and different parts of Taipei is one of my favorite things to get up to here. I explored a market about 20 minutes away from TNU and had some delicious iced tea (I wish I remember what it was called!), and then headed to the train station. I got on a random train to see where it would take me and I eventually ended up in Jingmei, which had a really great night market that I had a lot of fun walking around in. I’ve found that it’s really interesting to see the way locals and even tourists traverse Taipei – I’ve subconsciously done a lot of people watching to observe how people customarily behave so that I can mimic them a little and try to act a bit less like a tourist. Still, I’m obviously continuing to figure out Taipei and I’m learning how to navigate the city. Given that we’ll be traveling to other cities in Taiwan soon, I’m excited to compare and contrast and see what these new areas will be like!
