Field Trips, Nature & Animals!

This week has been such a busy one. We have been up to something everyday!

Tuesday we went on a field trip to a disability center here in Taipei. It was very interesting to see. The center was open to children from 3-6 years and to adults over 15. The gap in ages is the time that people should be in the public school system (only 9 years is required here in Taiwan, not 12 like in the States). It was hard to learn to much about the center because we had to have a translator, and I feel that a lot got lost in the translating.

Wednesday we went on field trip to a junior high and high school! This was truly a neat experience. I feel like I have heard so much about how important school is here, and how seriously it is taken, so it was nice to hear it from the actual source and know that it is true. I got the chance to interview a student one on one. His name was Steve and he was 16. He was so nervous about his English and the interview did go pretty slow, but I was still able to learn a lot from him. Here many of the students go to "cram" schools after their day at public school to study for these college placement tests that they have to take. How well they score on these tests determines which type of higher ed they will move onto. The higher the score the better the school. (Fu Jen is supposedly on the higher end of the schools in Taiwan!) I felt bad because Steve (the student I was interviewing) really wanted to be a doctor, he was so excited about it, but his parents could not afford to put him through cram school. I know that his parents had to pay for him going to Heng Yee (the high school I was at) and that they also planned to pay for his college tuition, I just hope that he will be able to get where he wants without the extra studying and help. The majority of students in Taiwan do not ever work until they are almost done with college or completely done. It is amazing how surprised they are when I say I have worked for so long. There is so much pressure on their education that parents don't want them to think about anything else! There isn't even school sports! Schools don't even encourage children to do organized sports because they don't want it to interfere with studying! (they just do more PE) It was so neat to listen to him!

Thursday we had a luncheon with the Department of Child and Family Studies (my department while I am here). It was fun and there was a lot of good food and tea! We just mingled with the students and faculty mostly. After the luncheon was my very last Chinese language class. I am excited to have the extra time to work on other homework or do new things, but I am also going to miss learning more of the language. And our teacher was very funny and so nice. We made sure to make her a card and give her a gift! (giving gifts is a huge thing here!) That evening I decided to go to the clinic on campus. I have been having some of my stomach issues again and Hayley had a mondo mosquito bite on her ankle that needed some help so we went and got fixed up. It was a very unique experience. The room that we went into was so much different than home. You walk in and sit at the end of a table with a doctor in front of a computer on one side and a nurse on the other. The doctor asks you a bunch of questions and types up your answers on the computer, where you can read it and then tells you what he is going to do for you or give you then sends you on your way. It was so much less personal and private. There was only one worker manning the pharmacy and anyone could have seen the medicine that he was giving me. It was an interesting experience. Overall it cost me $420. (Taiwanese) So it was not bad, and it will all get reimbursed through OSU with insurance that we all bought for the trip.

Friday we went to Beitou! I loved it here! If I lived in Taiwan, this is where I would have a home. It is nestled on the side of Yanminshan Mountain. When we got there we went walked up to the hot springs. The walk alone was beautiful. There was green grass and trees and rivers (things you don't always see in Taipei)! The hot springs were so much fun. I had never been in any before. We were not allowed to take pictures so I don't have any from being there. There were 5 tiered pools. The one on the top was the hottest, the second was in the middle and the third was the lowest heat. The other 2 were on the side and they had cold water in them. What you are supposed to do is go into the warm pool, then the cool pool, then the warmer pool, then the cool pool, then the hottest pool, and back and forth to improve your circulation. We did this for a little while, but I could only go into the hot pool once, it was sooo hot! It was amazing to me that all of the water was naturally that hot and natural to that area! After the hot springs one of the Chinese students who was from Beitou had her Ba Ba (dad) pick us up (in an actual car which we had not been in for such a long time!!! It was so nice to not have to take a bus!) and he drove us up the mountain! He took us to this great place to eat lunch. We ate a family style meal of 10 plates!! I was so happy because there was warm soup (it has started to rain) and so much vegetarian food. It was delicious, and the vegetables had all been grown on Yanminshan! Ba Ba paid for all of us to eat which was so nice, he told us that we were all his kids that night! The plan was to take us to a view point on the mountain but the fog and rain were so thick that we could not see. He took us back into town and we sat and had a coffee, he then drove us up to a restaurant on the mountain to meet the other Chinese and OSU students who did not come out with us for the day. The restaurant here was beautiful. It had a few of all of Taipei city and its lights! None of our half of the group ate because we were all still full from our wonderful traditional Taiwanese lunch, but we really enjoyed being there and taking in the view. It had stopped raining and we could see so much! The presentation with the food and drinks were amazing! We then headed home which ended up being a trek. It took about an hour and a half through taxi, MRT (subway), and the bus. I slept so well last night!

Today (Saturday) Hayley and I went with Clark (a young staff member at FJU that knows Sharon) and a Chinese student and her younger sister went to the Taipei Zoo! It was incredible. You were much closer to the animals and there were many more animals here than in the Portland Zoo. We walked around for about 4 hours and saw so much, but still missed some spots. It was very funny when we came around the corner and saw that there was a section for many animals we have at home. Like beavers.... and raccoons. Hayley and I explained that raccoons are not an animal that we necessarily like in America, so that we thought it was funny they were in the zoo! It rained for a little bit at the zoo but it was not too bad at all. There was just one thing..... I saw the biggest spider in my life! It was not on display it was just cruising around on the walkway. I am sure that you can all imagine my reaction, trying to stay calm, but failing. It was, with NO exaggeration at least 2-3 inches in diameter. I have tinglies all over me just thinking about it. I watched it run across the walkway and crawl on someones shoe!!! I told Clark that he had to go and let the lady know that it was there, and of course they all screamed. I could not believe what I saw!!!YUCK!!!!! I am so glad that we do not have spiders like that at home!

After the Zoo the two Chinese students left and we went to this restaurant that Clark wanted to take us called the Modern Toilet. It was very interesting. Each table was made out of either a sink or bath tub with glass over the top and all of the chairs were toilets. The napkins at the table were hanging from a toilet paper roll on the wall and all of our food was served from a toilet. It was the most interesting fun place to go. We really had a great time! It was not outrageously priced either. All of the meals come in combos with drinks and desserts, and we decided to upgrade our dessert to more than just one scoop of ice cream. So for a little bit more we all ordered shaved ice. But when we got them we laughed so hard because they were absolutely gigantic (and were also served in toilets)! We had a great time. After the restaurant we went into a used book store and browsed. It was nice that both Hayley and Clark were nerds like me so we could look through all of the books for around an hour! I ended up buying The Devil Wears Prada and The People's Republic of Desire, which I am really excited about because it is supposed to be like Sex in the City, but in China. It will be interesting to read about all of the culture differences!

Now we are home and I need to be getting to bed! We leave for the group trip on Monday morning and I need to pack and get everything ready tomorrow!

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