0712

Honestly, I do not think I will go the the by myself, I mean,  if BACT did not put this site into our schedule, I would never know there is a natural museum collecting specimens in Nantou. Two lecture and a video were good, but the visit to the endangered animal rescue station was more interesting to me. We saw owls and honey buzzards there. Frankly speaking, we do not want to see any animals staying there, especially for those are captive of their life span. Most animals there were not be treated well by human beings. It was very bad for a honey buzzard cannot fly again, seriously disabled (even amputated) made the animals could not use their instinct. How terrible is. Human beings should not raise the animals you do not familiar with. However, based on the attitude to show off, many people just keep birds, eagles in a small cage.  How can they do that and sacrifice animals' freedom.


To be a nice guy living in harmony with our mother nature is the most important reason why we need to be educated.

0711

Shueli Wood Utilization Center was a wonderful place, demonstrated many wood carvings made by famous masters. The tour guide also introduced one of the most expensive trees in Taiwan, Cinnamomum kanehirai. The reason is that a kind of funga only grows up in this tree, and the funga can hael the tumor.

We also visited the wood factory and make our own bench from ten in the morning to the afternoon.  First, we have the laser carving, then we tried hard to make the bench more smooth. We coated our own bench, and scratch it. It cost us a lot of time to do it, then we need to use our aesthetic talent to design the tiles decorated on the bench. Casey helped me to do it for she is really good at it. My tiles were symbols of spring!!! 

At dinner time, Robin shared her and Tom's love story. So touching!!!Zoey even cried, see how romantic it was. Nuts and shell, Ronbin loves Tom at first sight. And she said she saw Tom just as the same when she had seen him for the first time. Tom looked embarrassed during Robin's speech, but I thought that it was really unique especially in nowadays. Many people get divorced these days. They are really meant to each other:)

0710

This morning we picked up tomatoes on the Chuenyang Farm. The tour guide and staff there were nice and experienced. One of them even taught us astrology and told us the stories of horoscope! They said we could pick a cox of tomatoes up no matter the tomato is red or yellow. I thought that thee yellow one is sweeter so I picked them up more~I love the tour guides leading us this time. They were cure and knowledgeable, I learned a lot from them.

Then we went to Sun Moon Lake. It turned out to be that the history and stories related to Sun Moon Lake were all about Chiang Kai-shek and his wife. In fact, I found that the black tea egg rolls and black tea home-made cookies attracted me more! The egg rolls were crunchy. Tom bought some bananas and the shapes were tiny and thin, very different from the bananas I have seen in Taipei. We played the game called Luban Lock, which taxed my mind...........so exhausted~

By the way, I enjoyed the time spent with my roommates! They are really nice.

0709

This morning we had bird watching. The two tour guides were experienced. They knew the location of the birds just from their singing. In addition to that, they could also tell different kinds of singing from different birds. Several species of birds were chirping and twittering among the trees. The most common one we saw in the morning was white-tailed Robin. The female and male have different colors and different songs. I originally thought that the female one was like sparrows, but then I found some distinction between them. Using the binocular to watch birds maybe was not the first time for me to do so, but I was amazed at the behaviors of birds this time. I was not used to using the binocular so there was some trouble to find a bird by the binocular at the beginning. Luckily, some of them were close enough so there was no need to use the binocular! Then we had a craft activities: to make a decoration on the glass bottle by aluminum lines.

The sugar-beet harvesting was fun, especially for the juice!!! All the fruits in Meifeng Farm were sweet and juicy. Even the peach which was from the tree were good as well. We put apples and pineapples with sugar-beet together. However, the flavor of the sugar-beet was not really good (there was earthy smell with the sugar-beet). The green maze and lavender were fine. If the lavender can grow more prosperous, I think the landscape would be much better! Hope that I can visit here once more in Spring then I can enjoy the peach groves next time!

0708

Today we conquered two mountains! Although we did not "climbed" the mountains from the really bottom place, but I was still full of accomplishment, because we were the first one to climb up to the top!!! With Jenny and Fan, there was so much fun on the way. Fan was really good at outdoor activities, nothing could beat him, he could find several shortcuts even in the Hehuan mountain where he first visited. It was so cool to go hiking with them (and Alicia, Corinne ). If I went hiking by myself or with others, I would have never found the narrow trails or surprising dangerous rocks. They said that children living in the city just walk on the road. I agree with that for as I am a city child, it is nearly impossible for me to find another way to go. I thought there were dangers if the road no one taken. Thanks to them, I realized that I have potential to be more adventurous~The lunch was soooooooo delicious I must say that. How could we have such wonderful meal on the Hehuan Mountain. In addition to the vegetables and the chicken, there were guavas and soup! The cuisine was super nice!

After the lecture in the night, we had stargazing in the front of the hotel building. The weather was nice, no clouds or fogs, so we found the Big Dipper, Summer Triangle, and Scorpio in the sky. Lying on the ground and watch stars in the sky was a great experience, as if I was in the paradise. Teresa was good at recognizing the stars. I learned a lot from her, just like a small and special lecture in the night!

0707

Today was for leisure time! The original plan was that went to Lyuchui Trail in the morning, Bilu Sacred then. Since the typhoon hit Taiwan in June, the road was limited to buses. Therefore, the plan changed and we almost spent a whole day staying on the bus. Thanks to the karaoke, we did not just sleep on the way to Meifeng Farm. I think the quality of the karaoke on the bus was quite good, but the English songs were so few, so the foreign students could not enjoy it as well as we did. The surprising thing was that Tom sang very well!!!full of the motion in his voice and allow us to recall the beauty of the old Western songs.

Finally we arrived at Meifeng Farm. I have been looking forward to being here since I was an freshman. The weather here was so nice, just like the weather in New Zealand. How can it be so comfortable in the hot summer in Taiwan. I really fell in love with Meifeng Farm! I wanted to explore Meifeng more, and I have heard that the sky in the night was beautiful. However, the night was really foggy. We can only recognize some obvious stars in the sky. Fan and I even found the way behind the hotel. The moon was large and beautiful in the platform in the trail. I really enjoyed our stay in Meifeng. Hope I will find more exciting things in the following days.

0703

National Museum of Marine Science and Technology- Provisional Office was located in Keelung. I would never find this place if I visit Keelung by myself. I even asked my friends living in Keelung about the Chaojing Ocean Center, and they had no idea about it. Maybe when it officially open in September will attract everyone's eye. The whole Ocean Center might be very large because the brochure showed that there were at least ten sites we could visit. But the main reason we came here was to have an understanding about the marine life related to Taiwan, so we spent most of the time staying in the main building. The tour guide was nice and conveyed what she knew as clearly as possible. Then I found that the volunteer or the tour guide in each site we visited always said that,"Taiwan is so unique....","Taiwan is number one....".Well, if they could provide us some specific facts, that would be more convincing. For example, the guide said that our aquaculture is number one in the world because of the "complete aquaculture". But that does not mean there is no complete aquaculture in other countries. "Number one" is because of the number of species we raised. But we have to think about the reason why we need so many kind of species to raise. I think the reason is that Taiwanese is uses to having them as daily meals. In fact, it is strange to say we are number one. This technology is very common. The different is that there is different purpose to apply this technology.

0702

This day we went to Yeliu Geology Park and I got tanned seriously, even though I wore sunblock frequently!!! What' was going on the sun there>///< The last time I went to Yeliu when I was in my elementary school, and there were few tourists. Maybe the reason was that Yeliu was not a common tourist site in the past time. It was for education, studying, and doing research. However, nowadays there are hundreds of tourists and most of them are Chinese! The phenomena is absolutely accredited to the fame of the Queen's Head. With more and more tourists coming to Yeliu, Yeliu is getting destroyed. You can see the red painted line on the ground to alert people not to cross over. How ugly the line is! No one will treat the "geology park" in this way.

We had a excellent guide with us. Mr. Chang studies the geology very well, so I learned a lot from him and reviewed my geography taught in high school. Mr.Chang was so kind that when he finished his lecture, we came back together, then he told us additional information about Yeliu and the Northeast Coast. Thanks to his explanation, I know the north of Taiwan even better!

The food in the seafood restaurant was great!But Jenny, Stephanie and Corinne ate so little. The interesting thing was that they could not believe how could we eat so much every meals.

0701

July first was the only free day during this summer program. Mary, Jack, Emily, Fan, Tracy, 曉朗, 鄒琦, 紫微, 韻雯 and I were so excited that there was not any classes in the morning, so we decided to sleep-in and visit Dansui in the afternoon. I joined them at about 4:30. We took the bus to the Fisherman's Wharf. Hanging around and taking pictures on the Lover's Bridge was so romantic during the sunset. No wonder all couples in Taipei loves to go dating here. We also met Flora, Ivy, Jenny, Stephanie...... after the sun dropped into the sky. We also took a group photo on the renowned bridge (everywhere is group photo... ). Then we took a boat back to the shore of Dansui, having seafood as our dinner together. We came up with a really bright idea that people loved spicy sit together and others sat in the near table. 曉朗, 文潔 ordered several fine dishes. I love the spicy scallops (though it was really hot for me, 鄒琦 and 韻雯 thought it was not spicy at all!!!)  How come! It was a wonderful day to hang around with them in Dansui, too many things to explore and too many things to chat with.

0630

This day we went to the National Palace Museum. I have not been here for about half an year. Basically, I visit the National Palace Museum twice a year, so the exhibitions are quite familiar to me. However, this trip really opened my eyes: it was the first time I saw so many people there, and there were plenty of guards and controls to make sure that no one would get some trouble. Jade Cabbage and the meat-like stone were not my favorite. I love Ju ceramic wares of the Northern Sung, which is fired in the 12th century. Ju ceramic are porcelains renowned for the warm and glossy sky-blue glaze.

Then we went to the Shilin night market in the evening. It was my first time to look around in the night market after renovation, but the food there was delicious as well. Every time I go to the night market, I always find something new to taste. This time was no exception. Especially we went to the night market together. I noticed many things that I would not observe before. For example, I had no idea that they were so interested in the T-shirt with slogans and propaganda. And the bargain power of Tracy was really great. I must learn something from him!

0629

Dr. Tom was a really great professor with a good sense of humor. He gave us a lecture about the research he did during his working. He did not use some academic terms and difficult words so I could understand what he wanted to conveyed to us. The animals he introduced in his slides were so cute. Even some of them did not attract me at the beginning, but Tom always told us something more detailed, there food, movement, how do they reproduction. Every creature in this world is so amazing. We should understand them not just use them. I like the way the owner of the ranch did. He used to hate the rats in his ranch, but after he recognized the ranch is also the home of this kind of animals. He decided to live in harmony with them and found how interesting and unique of the species. Nothing in our world is worthless, and we do not have the right to choose whether this species should exist or not. Sometimes we just need to change our mind or look things in a different way, them we will find that how fool we were in the past time full of stereotypes and discrimination.

0628

This day we had an art work at Jingshan. With two hospitable locals there, we did have a great time doing our blue dye. The blue dye came from a kind of leaves growing in the mountain in New Taipei City, and the locals are used to soaking the leaves into water to extract the pigment in it. The lady taught us several ways to make the white sheet show different patterns after dying. Everyone can be an artist while dying. I really love the atmosphere in the mountain in New Taipei City. Without hustle and bustle, we enjoyed a leisure and carefree time. Then the Dharma Drum  Museum was also great. Not only because of the food there (how could they cook the meals so yummy especially for vegetarians!!! ), but the deep meaning of Chan, the calligraphy hanging on the wall, all of them gave me another experience to understand the meaning of Buddhism. For example, the nine "levels" of lotus means that there are two levels in the Buddhism's heaven, and you must to do something good or help people a lot to allow yourself to company with the "God" forever. That was so cool!

0627- the tour guide in Siaoyoukeng

I was so exciting that the elegant, beautiful, and knowledgeable tour guide in Siaoyoukeng Volcanic Scenic Site was the sister of one of the most famous writers in Taiwan as well as the professor in the department of Liberal Arts in NTU.

The family name, Chi, in Chinese was quite unique so I was wondering the relationship between the guide and the professor Chi  from my first sight on her nameplate. Nora, our tour guide in Siaoyoukeng was absolutely an experienced tour guide equipped with a lot of knowledge. I checked her information on the website and found that she retired from business field and took some training in Yangminshan National Park before becoming a tour guide there. She said that climbing was her hobby and were very glad to provide tourists with knowledge in this National Park. She was familiar with bamboo shoot, the sulfur crystal, pigeons’ habitat near the cliff and explained them to us in a very explicit way. After the guiding, she said that she was the sister of the professor Chi. No wonder that she could speak in English so fluently, which came from her family and from her own diligence with no doubt: her family was a legend in Chinese world. Her father was an important statesman in the early time of Republic of China. Literally, he was the hero against Japanese during World War II. I admired her father very much so when I recognized that Nora was his daughter, I could not help release my respect toward him. Nora was wonderful and had a good sense of humor. Besides learning a lot from her explanation on Siaoyoukeng, I really appreciated her kindness and generosity to share some little and interesting stories about her family with me!

06262012

I was a little late in the morning!!! It was a pity that I missed the explanation from our tour guide at the beginning in the zoology museum, which was about a kind of sea mammal. Therefore, I needed to take a look at the words by myself. Well, that would be fine because the remaining part were fantastic. There were so many bones, skeletons of mammals in the room (I thought the room was not open for public). The most impressive on Tuesday was the NTU insectarium. The smell of camphor in the building was strong enough to protect over the 300,000 collections there! I enjoyed the specimens there, and the biggest kind of dragonfly in Taiwan, Anotogaster sieboldii. We were very lucky to have a look at this insect for the students just caught it in the morning downstairs. Then I found that the species of cockroaches in the world are so many, and the species in Taiwan were pretty (at least not so ugly I thought before). Maybe the next time when I see one in my house, I will not be nervous or anxious about its appearance!

We went to the Shida night market after class, which was just beside the National Formal University, enjoying several snacks there. At least there were morn than five food in my stomach. The meals there were all delicious. I love to eat in the night market and chatting with friends while waiting in line!!!

0625-Scavenger hunting

 I found that I have a problem with balancing! Maybe my cerebellum was damaged so I could not stand still after spinning around and around. I really think so because I remembered that it took me a long, long time to learn how to ride a bike~ (alright, that’s not the point….)

Looking around in the gallery of NTU history was a wonderful experience; maybe some classmates would not think so for there was rare English on the wall introducing our university. I thought it was not so friendly to foreigners. The guide was nice and really knowledgeable. There were several facts I has no idea until her explanation. But the real exciting activity was “scavenger hunt-getting to know NTU”(quite a weird name in English!) Anyway it was a game to allow us to gain an insight into the whole campus with several contests. Everyone highly participated in these contests and the award of the champion team was super great!!! The lovely postcards from Yang Min Mountain. Jealousy J

                    

                   

A Great Beginning~

It was the first day to meet every member in this summer program!!! I was looking forward to this day after realizing that I would be one of the members. 

  We first had an introduction to everyone during our delicious breakfast. It was worth noting that Emily must learn Chinese during this program in Taiwan or her parents would be mad at her; Heng-An and Flora were so well-prepared to present their departments (the ppt were awesome!); and everyone looked a little nervous at the beginning. Then we visited Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. Though it was so unfortunate for us because the main hall was undergoing renovation so we could not see the famous guard changing, I did enjoy the time we spent in the National Taiwan Museum. It was the first time I realized that I could explain the feature of Taiwan to foreign students (hope they understood what I said…). It was so excited to know Jenny worked at the rescue center in Taipei Zoo and have rescued reptiles! Ruisi and Fan were so interesting that every conversation they got into always made me laugh.J Everyone was so nice. Hope we can have a lot of fun in the following month!

  I also deeply appreciated the generosity of this program allowing us to pick up the meal we wanted at noon and provided us with ample budget!!!

  By the way, I hope that Fan will get some new idea form the book he bought today!

  Pray the road in Hualien will be accessible!

                                                                                 Sharon      Jun. 24 2012