Yesterday, we woke up and ate continental breakfast...it was sooo delicious. We had hash browns, scrambled eggs, toast, and more...I was so happy. :) THen we had a lecture on the History of Taiwan in a Holiday Inn VIP room. I actually really enjoyed the lecture. The professor who gave us the lecture spoke English very well, and I learned a lot.
Then at 1:10pm, a bus picked us up and drove us near Taipei 101. I had already gone up the building, so I didn't go again. I just went to this mall and ate some Japanese food, which was very good. Then we walked around and looked at really expensive stuff.
After that, we went to this museum to see the development of the city of Taipei...this wasn't too interesting. Then we went to split up into 3 groups, depending on what we wanted to do. I chose to go to the Taipei Museum of Fine Arts. It reminded me of a modern arts museum, so I enjoyed it very much. I took a Cultural Studies class at Bryant University with Professor Amber Day, and a lot of what we learned in that course was represented in this museum. The museum even had a section dedicated to "The Yes Men." I was very surprised to see that. It was awesome!
After that, we went to Shi Da Ye Shi (Shi Da Night Market). I came to Taiwan 4 years ago for 2 months in the summer called OCAC (Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission) and I studied and lived in Taipei at Shi Da Dazue. I was extremely excited to come back now...4 years later to explore and see if Taipei has changed much. It was such an amazing feeling to walk down the streets that I had walked on everyday for 2 months. It was such a great feeling to finally find the crepe place that I ate at almost every other day. :D I was just really happy.
We had dinner at this Italian restaurant, and it was good. Then the Taiwanese students who were showing us around took us to this bar/restaurant. We had some Taiwan beer. There was a foosball table and a pool table there so we played...it was really fun. Then we went back to the Holiday Inn.
DAY 3:
The beds are so comfortable here (it's unreal). At Fudan University in Shanghai, the beds are very hard so this hotel is definitely a change. I didn't want to get up today. Lisa and Jen tried to wake me up several times, but I just wouldn't get up.
Finally, I ran downstairs, grabbed some breakfast, and we left to go to Chenghe University where we had a lecture on Education in Taiwan. The lecture was horrible compared to the one we had the day before. But afterwards, we went as a group to eat lunch, which was covered by IES. I had a bacon cheeseburger, and it was amazing. Then we split into 2 groups to visit some elementary schools.
Our final project for our Shanghai Metropolis class, we have to make comparisons between Shanghai and Taipei. We already visited a few elementary schools and a high school in Shanghai. So in Taipei we will do the same. So this elementary school surely gave us a warm welcome. They did a dragon dance for us, and we gathered in this room where they made name tags for us. Then these children began playing this flute-like instrument (recorder) for us. They were so good. Then, we had the principal talk to us about the school. We had a mini tour of the school. It was great! They have a track and field, a computer lab, a music room, and a soccer field. It was so high-tech and the teachers even have their own parking garage. I could not believe this was an elementary school!! Then they did some performances for us. They square danced, played with Chinese yo-yos, rapped in Chinese, finally did this English skit for us. It was so awesome. Finally, they gave us presents: Chinese calligraphy sayings and our names. It was so wonderful.
Then we went to a junior high school to see what that was like. Now I am back in my room at the Holiday Inn East Taipei...waiting to nap and go out for dinner...tomorrow's another big day.
I will keep you updated! :)
|  | 
|
