Free day, but a bad day

This morning I woke up late to a broken phone that did not sound the alarm. I asked the rest to go ahead to Fulong without me 'cos I needed to get my phone fixed. I thought it would just be a battery fault but it turned out to be the motherboard's problem. The staff told me it could not be fixed in Taiwan because Samsung (my phone is Galaxy Note II) has different repair policy in different countries, hence I need to get it fixed back in Singapore =.= Now I am a 'mobile-phoneless' person. I was trying to join the rest of them after that but I realized all my contacts are in that broken phone =.=

Thinking that it's going to be troublesome without a mobile in the next 3 weeks, I bought myself a temporary basic phone in Gwanghua electronics department store in Zhongxiao Fuxing. Now I have to make do with this unfamiliar gadget.

As I know I could not join the rest in Fulong, I took a trip to Wu Fen Pu in Houshan Pi station. It is famous for its budget clothing and trendy fashions. One does not simply walk around Wu Fen Pu without buying anything. I got myself a few pieces of shirts and berms. The whole area was pretty big and the night fell early. I could not finish exploring the entire place and I will definitely come back again for more bargains.

We had our last lecture in Taipei today and it summed up with experimental design. I've learnt a lot throughout the lectures regarding the ways to make hypothesizes and testable predictions correctly. It will definitely make the project work clearer in terms of approaches that we need to use at the later time of the course.

Yesterday we had a trilling excursion because we climbed up the Cising mountain (七星山，阳明山) in Taipei. It was a tiring journey going up the slope but everything was worth it when we reached top of the mountain. The breeze took away our sweats from the climb and rejuvenate our excitement as we enjoy the scene at the bird's eye view. It was really breath-taking looking down the view of Taipei from the highest point. Everything looked so tiny and I could see the skyline of the other clusters of mountain. I felt like singing already!

After that, we went to the Beitou hotspring museum before evening and learnt some histories about the place. I was bewildered at the water temperature that was heat up by sulfur compound around this mountainous region 'cos the water goes up to 90 degree Celsius. It is not suitable for people to enjoy hot spring there because you will probably turn out lobster-liked .

This morning we went to the Yingge ceramics museum for the introduction on the making of ceramics and how the place turned out to be what it is today. We also managed to get out hands dirty as we were taught to make a plate from the ceramic dough. 

Staff explaining the procedure

Tada! This was my finished design. It was such a pity that we couldn't burn and take our product back at the same time because it took about 50+ days to heat and solidify the ceramics. But it was a fun learning after all!

 Me posting with one of the statues in the studio

As we headed back to NTU, we learnt about Chinese calligraphy and this was my first time holding a calligraphy brush. My writing characters was ugly initially but as practices progressed, I managed to smoother some of the strokes and wrote a nicer piece. It writes "Nanyang Technological University in Taiwan". What do you think of my writings? LOL.

It was definitely rewarding these two days as I learnt a lot of stuffs that I will never encounter in Singapore. I am enjoying every moment of the trip.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

In National Museum of Marine Science and Technology, we found Nemo and it was residing safely in the tank. It won't go missing again 'cos Dory was there with him all year long, and they live happily every after...

Okay, that's all folks.

It's fascinating how marine lives adapt to one another even though they are completely different species with different shapes and sizes. Some corals grow slower than others, but they are bigger than them and live deeper in the sea. Sea urchins tend to stick onto the side of the tank because it is easier for them to clear the bowels. The giant grouper is the only grouper species which is aggressive, but they do not eat human. These are just tip of the iceberg that were exposed to us in the museum and we were already overwhelmed by it. Knowledge is really boundless.

Of course, a picture speaks a thousand word, and getting hands dirty is even better than staring at motionless photos. We had a chance to experience first hand by heading towards the rocky shore nearby the museum, and we managed to pick up various types of sea creatures including star fish, shell fish, sea cucumber and crab.

The scenery of the shore was magnificent with the ocean touching the sky.

I couldn't wait to explore further but due to time constraint, we need to get back to school by the evening. Looking forward to tomorrow's trip to Yangmingshan and explore the plants and insects on Balaka Trail.

An island between the biggest Continent and the biggest Ocean

Sandwiched between the biggest continent and biggest ocean on Earth contributes to the biodiversity of Taiwan. Despite having a harsh condition for living, Taiwan is able to propose a vast and vibrant life of flora, fauna and marine to satisfy our curiosity hunger. Tonight's frog observation is one of the proves to this diverse nation (right).

The place is located on a hilly landscape in Lingguang (麟光) and we were able to spot 6 different species of frogs from the habitat, which were about half the number of species in whole of Taiwan (which was not bad at all!).

On our way up the hill, we had a surprise find of a non poisonous snake on a tree. We were told that it feeds on birds 'cos only snakes that climb on trees eat birds. I was thinking 'Wow, is that possible?' since birds are agile animals too. But that adds on to the mystery of nature that is out of my imagination and knowledge.

We also had a chance to be a farmer in the morning and we were taught to harvest the rice paddy using a sickle knife and extract the maize using a roller-like machine. I have never done this before but we picked up the skill quite fast. Haha, guess we got the potential to explore further in the farming industry. This is me on the right with fellow my course mates :)

Today's experiences were definitely eye-opening and even though it's a tired day. I enjoyed myself very much. Good night all!

Regards

Jimmy Lin

A day we get to know more about NTU

Today I got to move around and know more about NTU thanks to the scavenger hunt. In the midst of the hunt, I learned that 'playground' in NTU refers to the multi-purpose field inside the running track instead of the kids' playground that I know of in Singapore. Well, that's interesting, haha. Although our team did not win any prize at the end of the hunt, we did enjoy ourselves and learnt some histories of the campus.

The lectures about fauna and insects of Taiwan were fascinating because they were beyond our syllabus in my course of study. What's really intriguing is that we will be studying them hands on in the next few days! It could never happen back in Singapore because it does not provide such diversity like Taiwan since the former lacks natural resources.

For dinner, we went to Ximen and had our bites from various street stalls. We headed right to the legendary Ah Chong Mee Sua (阿宗面线) once we came out of the station.

The taste didn't let us down and we were really satisfied. On our way back, we saw a street artist doing spray paint. I was amazed by his talent and speed of painting. The art work was really nice and realistic!

For those who haven't been to Ximen, it is a hangout place for young adults because most of the shops are selling stuffs for the trendy-goers.

As we need to wake up early in the morning tomorrow, we headed back to our dormitory after 2 hours of walk. It was tired, but it was a fulfilling night! Good night all.