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