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