Pre-Breakfast Update

Quick update before I meet Penny for breakfast.  First of all, Penny's cool points keep growing.  When she picked me up yesterday, she was listening to the "F*** you" song by Lily Allen.  It amazes me that people here are listening to that artist when I don't consider her all that well-known in the United States.  When she and her boyfriend picked me up at the airport, they were listening to Maroon 5 so they are definitely familiar with American music.  That and 7-Eleven's.  There are some 7-Elevens in the US but nowhere near as many as here! I've also seen a couple Starbucks in the train stations, a deluxe McDonalds from a distance, and certainly people wearing American brands (it embarrasses me a bit that "Playboy bunny" brand is one of most frequent American stores I see).
So the conference starts today- hopefully everything runs smoothly for CCU.  Apparently yesterday, they realized the room where they were going to have the poster session had no lights. The last day of exams was yesterday so most students are home for the winter holidays but the physics students were busy working like Santas elves to prepare the folders  and get the space ready for today's meeting.  I have no idea how many people plan to come but they've erected huge posters and a blow-up welcome thing so I anticipate quite a few.
Ok time for me to! It's wet but not raining so it looks like the day is off to a good start.

Touring Cheng Chung University campus

Another action-packed day so I'll give you the brief overview.  I spent all morning with Dr. Kan looking at their TEAL (Technology Enriched Active Learning) classroom which was absolutely gorgeous and made me a little jealous.

They had whiteboards that knew when you were writing on them and projected the information on the TV screens, microphones at each table, the students were slippers to class and so much room to wander between tables!  (It only takes a couple lectures in the NCSU SCALE-UP rooms to treasure not having to squeeze between tables, accidently pushing students into the tables as you hop over a pile of backpacks and jackets.)  It was fascinating to hear about the professors experiences setting up and teaching in these classrooms- the education design specialist stopped by to talk about all the data they are using to track student progress.  She said she is happy to share the videos, test scores, papers and assessment instruments my way- all in Chinese- but I guess that's incentive to speed my language learning along.  All the professors were really excited to talk to me so hopefully my summer project gets funded because they are more than willing to contribute.

Lunch was beef noodles, served sizzling in a hot pot, and a red bean roll.  Yum!  After some more TEAL talk, Professor Lee gave me an extensive tour of campus- he's so busy he said he doesn't get out much so he was seeing some of these places for the first time.  They have the most mammoth buildings here with mazes of staircases (kind of like Harry Potter's Hogwarts but at least they don't move!) with uneven exits to the outdoors due to the hills.  It's such a gorgeous campus with interesting architecture and so much green.

When we hiked along a path that lead to this little hut and it smelled like a campfire in the background, I felt like I was on the set of LOST.  The gym was another highlight- a huge indoor and outdoor pool, bowling alley, gymnastics room, the most ping pong tables I have ever seen in my life and a dance hall.

We explored museum about the history of the University at the top of the library (which was very well hidden away), a secret courtyard and got an excellent view of the campus, as you can see.
After a lot more visiting with people, Professor Lee and one of the grad student friends took me to the night market which is the Taiwanese version of a carnival but it happens every week (almost every day in the cities).  They sell everything from scarves to dishes to tools to underwear, of course have tons of food and have games for the kids.  I tried Stinky Tofu and a bite of a Taiwanese hamburger.  I still can't believe how much these people eat- my stomach is not big enough for this country!

Conference starts tomorrow but I don't present until Wednesday.  I just found out that most of the talks (perhaps all of the talks...) will be given in Chinese so I don't know how much of those I'll be seeing outside the education section.  I guess I assumed that because they wanted me to speak and English is the language they write all of their exams in, the conference would be in English.  Apparently not!  Oh well- free trip to awesome country- I'm not complaining.  Talk to you soon.

More details about exploring Taiwan's oldest city

Oh dear, it's raining again.  I've already made peace with the fact that my hair is going to be one huge frizz-ball during the duration of my stay.  However, the shampoo they provided has a picture of the Virgin Mary and Jesus on it so maybe by some miracle, divine intervention will keep it under control.  At least today should be mostly indoor activities.

Shrine to the God of education

Anyway, I promised a more in-depth description of some of yesterday's fun so here we go.  As I mentioned, after we got some special tea (which is actually juice even though everyone calls it tea), the first stop was the Chihkan Tower and Kaijilingyou Temple.  The tower was first built by the Dutch to safeguard the city, evolving under the various dynasties to now include a shrine to the God of education (since they used to prepare students to take the Civil Service Examination here) and to the God of the Sea.  Originally, the city was much more island-like and surrounded by water, making it a very strategic location back in the day.  It was surprising to see how dramatically the waters have receded over the decades.  There were gorgeous fish ponds and landscaping and some very-permanent looking granite blocks were used to train military men... I tried to see how I matched up but those granite blocks weren't budging so I don't think I would have made it very far!
In transit, we passed the first to serve bubble tea, which was invented in Taiwan.  I was way too full to stop and buy a beverage but I'm certainly going to have my share of exotic beverages before I leave here!  There's such a wide assortment of delicious liquid treats everywhere you look.

The next stop was Zeeland Fort.  Once again, it was built by the Dutch but today's version retained much of its Japanese character.  They had a nice new museum about the various occupiers of the area (and actual English captions unlike the last place which was a treat!).  I enjoyed a free concert from a band based in Thailand which was comprised of mostly Englishmen but an American drummer.  They were the first white people I saw all day and their jams had a really groovy South Pacific feel.  Outside the fort was a major tourist, market area.  Professor Lee said today's amount of visitors was about a quarter of the typical amount which was pretty amazing- I don't think I'd want to be there on an average day!  I told you these Taiwanese people eat a lot and they were trying to feed me here too (after they ate ice cream at the Fort).  This meal was a tofu oyster pancake- the English description that my buddy googled for me said it was supposed to be a dessert but it wasn't.  I tried it but found it pretty strange.

After the snack, we went to the Rabbit and Bunny Japanese garden which I discussed a bit in the previous entry and then to the harbor.  They were just wrapping up some Sean Lion festival and I was excited to see some of the sweet rice wrapped in bamboo that I made with Ling on one of our Chinese cooking classes back in the day.  Supposedly they used to throw some overseas to appease the dragons or whatever lurked beneath.

I'm going to hunt down some 咖啡 kāfēi (coffee) and investigate the chanting outside.  (Turns out it was martial arts- various students practicing). Talk to you soon- hope all of you Americans are enjoying the three-day weekend!

Tainin: Taiwan's Cultural Center

            What a great day at Taiwan’s oldest city and it’s capital center! I’m burnt out at 6:30 PM but, in my defense, the natives were dropping like flies before I got tired.  Our most awesome tour guide Professor Shieh noticed right away that I could handle his action-packed itinerary (I was raised on Foote family vacations, after all!“She went to India- she’s tough!”- it’s better he associates an India survivor with “tough” as opposed to “insane”.  Taiwan looks different than the US but it feels incredibly safe, welcoming and tourist friendly.  Besides the language barrier, I would feel very comfortable living here.  Reflecting back on my trip to India, which was none of those things, confirms that traveling to India alone was absolutely bonkers.  But I survived, loved it and want to go back so I guess its fine.

            Anyway, busy day so I better get reporting!  After a bunch of train hopping, Penny and I met up with Professor Lee and two other physics graduate students, who were super shy to begin with.  Fortunately, they warmed up to me after my earnest and friendly but jilted attempts to speak Mandarin.  They ended up being very devoted luggage watchers and obscure-food-google-rs which came in handy!  The weather turned out to be excellent. A humid and drizzly morning turned into a beautiful 70-degree day, a real treat! 

            First stop was lunch and boy, can these people eat!  Here’s the first round of lunch- little did I know, this quantity of food would triple over the course of the meal.  I didn’t eat close to as much as everyone else but it put me in a food coma for the rest of the day.

Japanese food for lunch- this is a third of it

Kaijilingyou Temple
The afternoon was filled with walking which felt amazing after all that traveling- to the Kaijilingyou Temple, flower & bunny garden and Japanese house, Fort Zeelandia, assorted markets and Sunset Harbor.  I didn’t realize that the Dutch first settled this city, it was taken over by two Chinese dynasties then the Japanese then the Taiwanese.  What an interesting mix for architecture, sculpture and landscaping!  

The flower and bunny garden was probably a favorite- I felt like I was in Japan with the serene, shaded gardens and house that looked like a Tea House but was actually a house for students.  Although the sites were entertaining, I was probably equally entertained by the tourists. There were some no-nonsense Japanese tour groups, one of which had three women with the most unfortunate hair coloring that I had ever seen!  Blotches of red, orange, yellow- eick! Speaking of interesting fashion decisions, there was a middle aged women in a black one-sie that had the phrase "hot lips" printed all over it.  Not an attractive outfit but hot lips?  Really? It makes me wonder people think it means.  Penny says all Taiwanese people take English starting in elementary school but she didn't feel like they did a good job teaching it.  We've definitely had to play some charades to communicate and all my "tour group" preferred conversing in Mandarin.  The weirdest thing I've seen so far is a huge sign for "Hamburger Pudding".  When I saw that huge sign, I immediately did a double take expecting to see a sketchy fast food place of some variety.  But no, apparently Hamburger Pudding is a school for Americans... Whatever inspired that title, I can't even imagine!

Well, I certainly have more to report from today's travels but I also want to run through my talk a few times and I'm pretty sleepy so I'll post a couple pictures and fill in the blanks another time. Oh, I am now settled at my room at the University! They have a hall of guest rooms in somewhere connected to the Student Union.  I'm actually the only person in the entire wing right now which is a little eerie... but I've got a normal toilet, Internet and water so I'm not complaining!  As you can see, they thought I needed three beds.  

Tomorrow I'm heading to the physics building to see the active learning classrooms and meet with faculty.  晚安 Wǎn ān! (Good night)  

Adventure is beginning!

Adventure is beginning!  I’m currently on the high-speed train to Tainan, where the professor and a group of university students will be waiting to give us a tour. It’s been a pleasant morning so far.  We stayed at the Taoyung hotel last night, which I will be returning to near the end of my stay.  It’s a huge hotel that hosts a lot of tour groups apparently.  The rooms are heated and Penny didn’t know what Dr. Kan was talking about when he warned me of those temperatures- the room was heated and it's supposed to be around 70 degrees outside today.  Every thing in the hotel was pretty normal except I felt like a giant in the shower.  The ceilings are already low and I was reminded how tall I am compared to Asians when my head was only an inch away from the lights.  We ate breakfast at the hotel before departing for train station.

Hotel lobby

What a random assortment of foods!  I had some fried rice, pineapple and eggs but they had everything from French fries, to an extensive salad bar to fried beans, pickled beets, etc.  I laughed when I saw how some things were labeled- “thousand iscald” dressing and “icey lettuce”.  Penny laughed at me when I asked her whether she normally eats things like this for breakfast but she says she tends to stick to bread and hamburgers (not sure if that’s really what she meant) for her morning meal.  I made sure to save room because we are supposed to eat at a famous, popular Japanese restaurant for lunch.

I was surprised when I woke up this morning and the election is over already!  Blue party won.  This morning on the news, they showed a bride, in her dress with a bridesmaid holding her veil placing her ballot as the honeymoon car waited outside.  It would be awesome if people got that excited about voting in the US but unfortunately democracy is something most of us take for granted. 

I found a great magazine about Chinese New Year in Taipei- I’m especially enjoying reading about all the traditions at various temples around the city.  Fortunately, I don’t have any exams coming up but the Wenchang Temple is supposedly really popular for students praying to the God of literature.  Students tend to bring their exam ticket, green onion (“cong” sounds similar to intelligence), celery (associated with “diligence”), “elite bearing” osmanthus petals, tangerine for good luck and they drink mineral water so they can be a “spring for ideas”.  It’s interesting how they don’t sharply distinguish between Buddhist and Confucian temples- some I can’t even tell which faith they are associated with.  

Turns out I ended up going to a temple to education Gods later that afternoon- here's some of their prayers for tests this weekend

Made it to Taoyuan!

It’s raining which it looks like I better get used to- that’s what the forecast predicts every day for the next ten days.  We did not land mid-fireworks display… it would have been an explosive beginning to this trip but I think I’ll get my share of fireworks with New Year's Eve.  We did get election updates mid-flight and it sounds like over half the votes are counted so we should have a verdict soon.  I’m currently waiting for Penny, a university student to arrive to go to our hotel and I’m feeling ready for action!  I’ve got a free map (which is more than I can ever say in India) and I’ve already exchanged some of my currency. 

First impressions?  Nothing too notable yet.  Starting in Japan, I noticed people wearing masks and there’s big quarantine health inspection stations.  Wireless access has been free and readily accessible so far and getting through customs was supersmooth.  Although my internet has converted to Chinese characters, and the airport is probably more well-translated than elsewhere, I don’t foresee language being a huge issue.  Especially considering that various students and university professors will show me around throughout the week.  From my interactions so far, Taiwanese people seem incredibly hospitable and accommodating so I look forward to getting to know them.

It’s 11:40 PM here and lying in a bed is the last thing I want to do after spending 24 hours sitting on a cramped plane.   Adjusting to this 11 hour time difference is going to be tricky- its weird how two days vanished in transit.  

Tomorrow, I’m touring Tainan, Taiwan's oldest city with Professor Shieh and Penny.  I can’t wait to start exploring and stretch these cramped legs!

En route to Taiwan

Hello everyone- back to India you ask?  Not quite- I was invited to give a talk on Active Learning Environments at the 2012 Chinese Physical Society conference so I’m currently en-route to spend 10 days in Taiwan.  Friends and family requested blog updates and 10 days isn’t enough to start a new one so I decided to adapt what I had.  Thanks for visiting!

Although my journey has barely begun, it is already apparent that it will be significantly different than my trip to New Delhi- a plane half full of Americans as opposed to being the only white person on my Air India journey.  Having just finished my qualifying exams last week (I passed!), started the first week of classes at NC State, I’m in a similar state of preparation for foreign travel than I was last summer.  No maps, no travel books, my Chinese dictionary inconveniently remains in my attic in Connecticut.  But at least this time, there’s some sort of pre-formed agenda waiting for me on the other end.

I didn’t choose my visit- the conference did- but it turns out that I’ll be visiting at a very exciting time.  I’ll arrive during a very tight election that the whole world is watching- I’m pretty sure I read Obama was here last week.  Since Taiwan doesn’t acknowledge absentee ballots, flights have been sold out and people have been chartering private flights from the mainland.  I read about a Hong Kong tourist organization who took this as an opportunity for sightseeing and planned a trip around the related festivities.  I’ve been warned to expect a ton of fireworks.

Speaking of fireworks, I’ll be here until Chinese New Year day so I’m already looking forward to a traditional Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner hosted by one of the professors of Cheng Chung University, the host institution for the conference.  One of my old bosses stopped by the house the other day and mentioned his daughter-in-laws’ parents live in Taipei.  They’re excited about showing me around the last couple of days, even though they think I’m in Taiwan to give a talk about “physical activities”.  I blame the gym teacher for mangling that message in translation.  So I don't know if they figured out I'm here for physics but I just learned that her mother was a high school physics teacher.  Not only did she teach but apparently, she wrote books on the subject and is highly respected in the country.  What an amazing coincidence to connect like this to an expert on Taiwanese high school physics teaching.

I’m getting warm fuzzy feelings about this trip already and I hope the weather will reciprocate- snow in Michigan delayed the plane’s departure.  Dr. Kan (the faculty coordinator from the conference) warned me that the weather could be funky- although Southern Taiwan should be pretty warm, he said it does get cold in Taipei and they don’t heat the interiors of buildings.  I've got leg warmers and Tibetan yak hair mittens and we'll see if they can handle temperatures that could drop below -12 degrees Fahrenheit!  That was the last thing I was expecting, given my grandma got me gearing up for summer-like weather, given Taiwan's close proximity to the Equator.

The Japanese airport is entertaining- sumo wrestling on TV, Pocky and Hello Kitty in the shops.  I definitely hope to return to Tokyo to actually stay awhile.  But not this week- places to go, people to see, things to do!  再见!  Zài jiàn!  Goodbye!