admin on June 30th, 2009

Taiwan Tech Trek orientation, day 1

The coming posts will outline my TTT orientation, which consists of lots of free food, visiting various places in Taiwan, numerous guest speakers, and new friends. I would have loved to blog every day, but unfortunately, Internet access was severely limited during orientation, if not completely nonexistent. However, worry not! I’m here now, with lots to share!

I arrived at Jhongli train station last Wednesday at 10:00 am, where I saw a bunch of people clustered around a Taiwan Tech Trek sign. Soon after, we were all herded onto a bus bound for Chingyun University, where we would be issued name tags and meet our small groups (the 200+ students in the programmed are divided into groups of roughly 9-10 people each).

With name tags around our necks, we filled out waivers, ate from a small buffet, and began getting to know each other. In my small group, there were people from not only the US, but also Great Britain and Brazil. I met up with PW, who arrived from Massachusetts just a couple of days before. We then headed over to a large auditorium to listen to our first guest speaker, who did an empowerment/motivational type of talk. It was also there that we received goody bags, which contained stuff like a travel mug, brochures, Chinese knots, and a set of utensils.

After the talk, we boarded buses again to go to our first lodgings, either at the Sun Moon Lake China Youth Corps or the Ching Sheng Hotel (my group was assigned the latter). Once we checked in, we left again to attend the official welcome dinner, where aboriginal Taiwanese dancers performed while we ate.

Later, we returned to our hotel to have our first group meeting – all of the groups were supposed to prepare some sort of performance for the end of orientation. We didn’t do anything except brainstorm and write ideas down. After that, we played cards, and I taught my group Contact (an awesome word game with no required materials – everyone should try it). And then sleep.

Updates No Comments

admin on June 23rd, 2009

Could not resist

I walked past this in an Ilan supermarket, and immediately made up my mind to make a “de-motivation” poster on it.

Note: I in no way encourage drinking beyond what is responsible. That said, . . . hahaha!

De-motivator

Interesting and Fun 1 Comment

admin on June 17th, 2009

Friends meetup!

Met up with friends and relatives of friends (i.e. new friends!) today at Shilin nightmarket, the biggest nightmarket in Taiwan. Sad that I was only able to hang out for about two hours, since I had to get back to my grandparents’ place before the last bus to Linkou left Taipei Main Station. Still, it was a lot of fun!

After about a week of not speaking a single word of English, conversation felt like an explosion of pent-up American lingo. Thus was my instant but brief transformation from anonymous Asian to full-blown American tourist as we happily ate through the delicious offerings of Shilin. I had oyster pancakes, Taiwanese-style fried chicken, sweet sausage, winter melon tea*, and milk snow with mangoes and strawberries. Yay! And, of course, it was wonderful getting together with friends again.

In other news, I believe I’m finally accustomed to Taiwan local time. So time to sleep.

*Edit: Thanks VL, you’re right.

Updates 4 Comments

admin on June 16th, 2009

Cell phone in Taiwan!

My uncle dropped by last night and gave me one of his cell phones to use this summer (he has three cell phones…what). Anyway, if you happen to be in Taiwan for the next few weeks or months, let me know and I’ll give you my number.

Updates No Comments

admin on June 15th, 2009

Awwww!

I just discovered Keepon, a very simple robot developed to study social interaction, particularly in special-needs children. And it dances (as in Keepon dancing)!

I want one! Perhaps I’m a special-needs child…? *Edit: They are indeed on sale, at $30,000 apiece (primarily to institutions and hospitals), although a cheaper (hopefully much cheaper?) version for the general public is planned by the company that makes them.

Watch this video! You will smile and giggle, guaranteed.

*Another edit: I couldn’t resist, Keepon’s too adorable. Have another video!

Updates No Comments