Heading home

I'm so sad to be in the airport getting ready to leave Taiwan. I had a great last weekend here. Friday night we went to another night market, which was really difficult to find. Saturday morning we took the MRT to Beitou where we went to a hot springs. Eve though it was hot out, it felt so good. There were 4 different pools, and the top one was really hot. I couldn't even get in that one. The other two felt like a hot tub, and then the last one was just like a swimming pool. It was all natural water flowing from a spring nearby. When we left we walked by the spring and you could feel the heat coming off of it. Then we walked to the Taipei public library nearby, which was cool to see. After that we went to a revolving restaurant for supper. It was on top of a really tall waste incinerator and the restaurant moved around 360 degrees while you sat at the table and could see the city. The meal ended up being more expensive than we'd expeceted, but since all our other ones had been so cheap it was ok. It was like a 7 course meal too, so it was worth it. They took forever to bring each dish though so we were there for over 2 hours.
Sunday the graduate students in my lab took me out. I thought we were going to go to the zoo, but we ended up going to the Old Street in Danshui. I had so much fun, it was a great last day in Taipei. We walked along the street with a bunch of old shops along the coast, and they had me try a bunch of different food, which wasn't as scary when I had them there to tell me what it all was. I tried octopus which I would never have done at home. Then we got to take a boat to the other side of the shore to a place called lovers bridge. It was really pretty and lit up pink. Apparently if you go there with your lover though, you'll end up breaking up! We ate supper at a pizza place, where we got pepperoni pizza which they called "meat pulp" pizza. We took the boat back and didnt get home til 12:30am, and still had to pack all our stuf up.
I've had so much fun on this trip, and learned alot too. I liked Taiwan even more than I liked Europe, and would love to come back some day!

Last week of class

We finished both our work in the lab and our Chinese class this week. Tuesday after class a few of us went to Shilin night market which is one of the biggest ones in Taipei. There were tons of stores, carnival games, and food stands. The fruit stands are so good! They also have stands that sell stuff called stinky tofu which I couldn't ever try because it smells too bad to even be close to it.
Wednesday night after class some of us took the MRT to a bookstore that's open 24 hours that lots of the students go to to study. We had coffee in the cafe and studied all night for our final. Everyone looked at us when they walked by, I don't think they were expecting to see us studying Chinese. We also had to each prepare a presentation to give in front of the neuroscience department.
This morning they threw us a farewell party in the neuroscience department and we all gave our presentations which discussed what we did in lab and also on our free time. We got to see lots of pictures everyone else had taken. Then we got to have pizza hut pizza which was so good!
Then this afternoon we took our final. It was part oral and part written. So we had to be able to answer questions in Chinese and also write characters. It was really difficult!
I'm sad that my time here is almost done. Were still planning on taking a few last trips this weekend, and Sunday the grad students in my lab are going to take me somewhere, which I'm excited for!

Weekend

Thursday night we went up to the top of Taipei 101.  Its the second tallest building in the world, and the Sears tower is number 7.  The elevator we took was a lot smaller than the one I took in Chicago though.  There were a bunch of different displays on the top floor, and one of them was a tree with wooden prayer tablets on it.  Buddhists from around the world wrote their prayers on them and left them there.
Friday I went into the lab in the afternoon (since I don't have my Chinese class) since they only ever do the behavioral tests in the afternoon.  I got to pick up mice and record them and their movements during an open field test.  For each mouse, you put it in an plastic square box that has an open top for 16 minutes.  The last mouse I tested almost escaped by jumping over the top!
Friday night we were too tired to do anything so we had supper at Juicy bun and then studied since we have our final this coming week.  Saturday morning we decided to get up early and go to Longshan temple.  It's one of the most famous temples in Taiwan.  We took the bus and then the MRT and it was about an hour ride.  We got there around 8:30 and got to see the end of a worship service, which was cool.  They were singing and lighting incense and reading scripture.  After that we tried to walk around the shops in the area, but most of them weren't open yet.  We were standing on a corner holding our maps trying to figure out where to go next, and an older man stopped and tried to talk to us in English and tell us where to go.  He had just retired from the government a few weeks before and said he had nothing else to do so he walked around town every morning.  He said he would walk us to a botanical garden that was nearby.  I was kind of scared to go with him, but he ended up being really nice.  He also apparently was a pianist on his free time, and basically communicated with us by singing American songs from the 50's that he knew.  It was an interesting experience!  He walked us through the garden, which had a lake with tons of lilly pads and bright pink flowers floating in it.  Then he helped us get a taxi and told the driver how to get us home. 
Today we were going to go to a hot springs, but it's been way too hot.  So we've stayed in and studied most of the day instead.  We're hoping to go to the hot springs Tuesday after class.  I can't believe I start my last week here tomorrow!  All the other foreign students leave on Friday, so it will be just us UNI  students next weekend.  We have our Chinese final on Thursday, which is going to be really hard, and then a presentation for lab on Friday.

Here's the public link to the new pictures I've posted:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2226648503904.131191.1178520002&l=96614192d3&type=1
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2199140416219.129902.1178520002&l=981306bb6b&type=1

Night market and gondola

Sunday it rained the entire day, so we were stuck inside and mostly just studied. Monday night we took the bus to the Gong guan night market. They have all kinds of food and little shops. I tried milk tea, which Taiwan is really famous for. It just tastes like iced tea with milk in it. We found a cute chocolate store, and lots of clothes stores.
Right after class on Tuesday we left to ride the gondolas. We got one with a glass bottom so we could see below us the whole ride. It was about a half hour ride up, and we got to see the sunset over the city skyline. It went by the Taipei zoo and a temple on the way up. Then we got off at the top of the mountain and there were shops, restaurants and tea houses up there. We picked a random restaurant we saw, and it ended up being my favorite meal of the trip. It was about $10 for our meal, and it felt really expensive to us since we've been paying hardly anything for our other meals. We got potato soup, a salad (it had clovers on it which we thought was weirs but they tasted good) a main dish (I got rosemary chicken spaghetti with basil tomato sauce), a latte smoothie, and chocolate strawberry rum cake. I was so full! We had a good view of the city during dinner too since we were up so high. After supper we went to one of the tea houses and bought some of the local tea to have later. On our way back to the gondola, I stepped on a giant bug that was the size of a small bird. It was disgusting. Then we took the gondolas back down and got to see the skyline lit up at night.
Lab has still been really interesting. Yesterday I got to see them anesthetize a mouse and then get rid of all the blood in it's body by pumping saline through the heart and then into the rest of the body. This morning we dis immunohistochemistry, although I liked the way I did it at home better.. I think it was easier. The head of their department came back today (he had been at UNI), so now tomorrow we get to meet with him for lunch an hes going to tell us about his experiences there. He said it's just as hot at home as it is here :)

Weekend 2

Friday night a bunch of us went downtown to see the new Harry Potter movie. We had a group of about 20 of us and filled up most of the theatre. There's a guy from mainland china with us, named xiao, so he can always talk to the cab drivers and help us get around, which is nice. During the movie Simon from the UK pointed out all the different English accents, but they all sounded the same to me!
Saturday morning some of us left for a field trip to the north coast. First we followed a trail up a mountain to a look out over the coast, which was pretty. There was a mainland Chinese military station right next to us, which was strange. For lunch we went to a local sea food place, where they had all the fish live outside in tanks. I ate shrimp and fish, which was daring enough for me. Two of the guys tried fish eyeballs. After we were done eating, we went outside and saw a lady kill some of the fish by throwing them on the road and hitting them with a club! Wasn't quite expecting to see that. After lunch we went to a Gold Ecological park where we got to see a 220 kg brick of gold. Then we walked around one of the markets in town and got some souvineers.
When we got back home, we went to a Japanese place for supper. Some of the guys know Japanese too, so they were practicing using that, and some of us were just saying random things in Spanish and French too. When Xiao got up to leave, he asked someone to hand him his "scum bag" instead of gym bag. He got confused with all the languages going on.. We all found it pretty funny.
Not sure what we're doing yet today.. Either going to a temple or Taipei 101. Have to study for another Chinese quiz tonight. Cant believe I'm already half way done here!

Friday

Just got back from lab this morning.. It was so cool! The grad student needed to get tissue from the mice to do a western blot. I got to watch her kill the mouse, cut off it's head, and take the brain out. She said she was really nervous the first time she did it, but she's very quick at it now. Then she had to dissect out certain portions of the brain. I have the chick embryo memorized, but the mouse brain seems pretty complicated.. She knew it all so well! After that she showed me how they section the brains. They use dry ice to freeze their tissue (unlike what I did got my research where I used wax). So it was cool to see the different procedure and machine they use.. It was much more high-tech than the one I used! Yesterday the students in the lab took me out to lunch. I'm really enjoying lab, especially since alot of it is so similar to what I did at home.
We had a test in my Chinese class yesterday, and I think it went pretty well. We are in the beginner level class, but people in the 2nd and 3rd levels have told us were learning things they'd just learned the day before.. We're moving really quickly！it's cool to be able to recognize a few characters now tho when I see them on signs, where before i just looked past them.
This Saturday some of us are going to the north coast for the day. I think we'll be able to see the beach and an old gold mining community. We also want to go to more temples this weekend, to the zoo at some point, and are going to go see the new harry potter with one of the guys from the UK.

first day in lab

I started lab today, and it was really fun!  I learned about the graduate students' project and the procedures they use to study the mice.  I was glad to see the mice in my lab were a lot smaller than the rats in some of the other labs!  My lab focuses on autism specturm disorders, specifically Rett syndrome.  They use many of the same immunohistochemistry procedures that I used in my lab at UNI for my thesis.  The students were surprised that I knew anything about the projects they were working on, I don't think they even knew I was going to be a biology major.  They were really interested in the work I'd done for my thesis, so I showed them my thesis powerpoint at the end.  Even though I don't speak chinese well at all, and they only speak some english, it was cool to be able understand eachother's science.  They had all the same brands of lab supplies that I used at home :)
I'm starting to learn symbols in my Chinese class this week, its pretty difficult! 

Here is the public link to the facebook pictures I've posted so far:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2199140416219.129902.1178520002&l=981306bb6b

Weekend trip

I just got back to the I-house from our trip to the east coast this weekend. I had alot of fun but am so tired and glad to be back. We got up early fri morning (we only have lab on Fridays, no Chinese, so we only missed one class). We took a bus on a 4 hour drive to the coast.. The roads were so wind-y thru the mountains and got kind of scary since they drive so crazy! We stopped at a beach that had rocks instead of sand along the way, it was so pretty. For lunh we went to a restaurant that had aboriginal Taiwanese food.. They just brought the food out to us and we didn't get to choose what we wanted so I didn't eat as much. They had a monkey on a leash in front of the restaurant, and she stole one of the guys glasses!
Then we took the bus to Taroko national park.. it was the prettiest place I've ever been. There were huge mountains w a river runnig through them and giant chunks of white marble.. There were lots o water falls and the water was so blue.. It all just looked like screensaver pictures! I got to see some Buddhist and Taoist temples too. We went walking thru some if the cliffs and had to wear lovely helmets in case rocks fell. We went to a night market that night.. They have soo many cute clothes for so cheap! I got new shoes and a dress for about 6 American dollars each :) we stayed in a hostel that night.
Saturday we got up early to go on our white water rafting trip. We had to wear helmets again and big life jackets, so it was really hot. There were 7 of us in each raft. The water didn't have a whole lot of rapids, but when we got to them it was really fun. One of the girls on ours fell off in the beginning which was really scary.. Glad it wasn't me! We went for 3 hours and then stopped on a bank for lunch that they gave us. Then we went about another hour and were done. We all got kind of burnt even after putting sun screen on.
After rafting, our tour guide took us to one of the only sand beaches in the area, but me and a dew others stayed in the bus and fell asleep cuz we were so worn out. After that we went to a supper at a place they called a "BBQ" which was so good! We had a grill at our table and just got to pick out the raw meat and vegetables we wanted and cook our own food. It was my first beef of the trip. We had sone things that we thought were bread and were so good, and we found it was fish loaf! It was all u can eat, and had ice cream too. We went to the night market for awhile to shop again after that, and then went to bed.
Today we got up early again (I'm good at being a morning person here cuz I get so tired I have to go to bed early!) we took the bus to the national center for traditional arts. It had alot of fun little shops, and had people acting out fights and stuff in traditional costumes. Then this afternoon we went to a gro park, which was outside by the vast and had lots of rocks that had been formed into different shapes by the water and wind. It was raining tho while we were there, so we didn't see as much as we could have- everyone had umbrellas but us! We found the biggest snail I've ever seen sitting by some flowers.
We start inour actual labs tomorrow.. Kind of nervous for that. Everyone else has another UNI student w them in their lab but I'm alone. Could be interesting picking up the rats too ! I have to study for a quiz still tonight, were starting to learn how to draw characters now, hope it goes well!

Wednesday

Had a great day today! Had to get up early to study for my quiz, but it ended up going well and am learning a lot. We get excited when we overhear a conversation and understand one or two words:) today our bio lecture was all in Chinese, so I couldn't get much out of it. For lunch we went to a bakery and had super good bread stuffed with pork onions and corn (even tho it sounds weird), and yummy chocolate cake. After class Melanie and I went and explored campus which was cool. There's a trail that goes by the river that runs through campus and we walked through it and took pictures of everything. (hopefully I'll be able to post some soon if I can get on a real computer). On our walk we found an altar up on a hill which was really cool since I've learned about them in my religion classes. During ghost month, they burn food and paper money at the altars for the ghosts that come up from the underworld for the whole month. My meal for supper tonight was my favorite I've had so far. I had fried chicken breast, green beans, cabbage, and rice. It reminded me of Ippa :)
This weekend we're taking a trip to the east coast of Taiwan, which I'm really excited for! We get to go to a national park, and river rafting. We leave early Friday morning, and get back Sunday night, should be fun!

Start of classes

I think I'm finally getting adjusted to my new time zone! On monday I woke up at 6:30 and couldn't sleep anymore! I got go meet my buddy, Wei-ting that morning and Melanie and I went to Starbucks with her for breakfast. Coffee there was a bit more expensive with smaller cups than in the US. I was glad I got iced coffee, because after that we walked to the neuroscience building and it was so hot! It's about 95 degrees here every day and super humid, and the. It usually rains for a couple hours around the same time every afternoon. They don't Lea e the air conditioners on when theyre gone, so once we get into a new room it takes a bit for it to cool down again.
At the neuroscience building we got to tour the labs and meet our research advisors. The labs are smaller than they are at uni. We got to see the rats too, which was pretty cool. After that we went to an orientation that was for all international students on campus this summer. We met 2 american boys from Illinois, and some from the UK, Germany, sweeden, and Poland. They all speak English so it's cool to talk to them. At the orientation we learned all about how to get around the city and good places to eat and shop near campus.
We started our first Chinese class Monday as well. It was quite overwhelming. Us uni students got split into 2 different classes... The other class has been playing games most of the time, and pursues been really hard! I guess we're learning slot more this way though. We were just expecting to be in the lab spot more and in in language class's slot less I think.
For dinner, we went to look for a restaurant to eat at with our friend from Poland. He speaks decent Chinese, and also had his buddy with him. She took us to a restaurant where they walked our group thru the kitchen and down into the basement for a table! It's nice having someone who knows what they're doing with us.
Monday night when we got home we decided to celebrate the 4th, and Simon, a guy from the UK decidedto come with us, even tho we were celebrating independence from his country :)
We got a taxi to downtown Taipei ( which was super cheap). It was so cool to be there, there's so many big buildings that they light up with moving bright colored lights. Taipei 101 is tight in the middle and way taller than any of the other buildings. We went to a restaurant in a tall building that had really pretty bars and restaurants on each level. They gave us a bowl of what we thought were just peanuts on our table, but im pretty sure they had some kind of dried insect in them... Gross!
This morning inhad to get up early to practice my presentation we had to give in Chinese in front of our class already. Then we went to a lecture at the neuroscience building(we don't actually start in our labs til next week). The professor had to say everything in Chinese for the students that were there, and then everything over again in English. It was over a really easy topic. So do far the Chinese has been hard and the biology easy! I thought our second day of Chinese went better than the first tho. Other people are really worried, but I think I kind of enjoy new languages.

Arrival

I've made it to Taiwan! We had a delay in Chicago due to weather, which caused us to miss our connecting flight from Seoul, south Korea to Taipei, Taiwan. The airline gave us a free stay in a hotel for the night and vouchers for free dinner and breakfast. The rooms were very nice, wouldn't have minded staying there the whole trip! Breakfast was amazing.. A huge buffet of anything you can imagine. One of the girls with me on the trip, Melanie, asked her friend from Taiwan before she left what they usually have for breakfast and she just said, "anything you want!" Guess she was right! Our flight to Taipei was also a very good flight.. I'm very impressed with Korean airlines! Once we got to the airport, NCCU had arranged for us to be picked up and taken to the university. We expected a bus, but got very nice black luxury cars! It was about an hour drive to the university, and neat to see the city along the way. Once we got here we got moved into our rooms.. Basically like dorm rooms in the US with a bathroom in each one. Then we went out to explore.
We found a restaurant down the street for supper. We got giant bowls of noodles and soup for about $5.. It was great! Then we found a store and bought breakfast food and other stuff we needed. I feel like we are much louder than everyone here, and hope our group splits up some in the future so we're not such a big loud American group.

Jess- I've been very thankful for the Teddy Grahams! I got quite hungry on my flights :)
Leanne- it's so nice not having to worry about blowing a fuse with my electronics, the outlets here are the same! :)

I'm kind of disappointed cuz they only offer Ethernet in our dorm rooms, which I can't hook up to my iPod. But there is wifi in the lobby so I just have to come down here when I need to use it. It's kind of hard to type well on my iPod, so there may be lots of typos!

We start class tomorrow, and I'm super excited for it. We go to meet our lab advisors at 9ish tomorrow, and then I believe we have an orientation after that. Mel and I are planning on wearing red white and blue :)

I'm excited to meet my "buddy" Wei-ting. She's offered to help me with lots, like finding a cell phone and walking us to campus inthe morning. She may be stopping by my room tonight, so I should probably head back up there in case she does. Miss you all, have a great 4th!!