taichung, part 1

whew. starting at 1:40pm, i waited 1 hr for the bus, 2.5 hrs to travel from the bus in checheng to the kaohsiung high speed rail, spending about 40 minutes on the HSR to get to taichung, then taking about 30 minutes on the bus to the SOGO stop, then waiting another 40 minutes to get picked up, i finally arrived and met up with robert and michael in taichung at 8pm.

the day and 2 nights i've been here has already been so freaking amazing and fun. after getting picked up, michael, robert and i, hung out with some of the guys that worked at NCHC at a japanese restaurant place, and later going to a pub. WHEW, pub, haha... it was very interesting for sure. the alcohol was ok, but ohmygoodness.. stupid boys. they had the pole dancer come up and dance... on my face. like, literally, on my face. she took my glasses off, put it in her panties and told me to take it out with my teeth. !!!! hahahah, oh man, i have to say that though it was super awkward and very very embarrassing, it was hilarious haha. got back at 2am, tired and a bit drunk, but had so much fun.

today was fun too. michael, robert, and i went to the national museum of natural science. when we met up with lydia, it was already 40 minutes past our original meeting time (we were unfortunately both waiting at different entrances). it was really fun and awesome. lot's of cool displays about chinese/taiwanese history, saw a 3D movie thing of planet earth, and toured the museum grounds outside the botannical garden. then we went and ate at a good restaurant and shopped around the night market. we finished off by going to a supermarket and buying lots of beer and such.. for the guys at NCHC of course, haha.

and now, pictures. there will probably be a whole lot, so bear with me.

[on the road to kaohsiung. the gray towards the water is the rain from the typhoon]

[strange boat like things on "water farms"]

[random temple in city street of kaohsiung]

[clock with moveable face parts at the SOGO mall in taichung]

[great hotpot food at the japanese restaurant]

[nice hotel room]

[random tea(?) station on the way to the pub]

[some local singers]

[on the street walking to the national museum of natural science]

[ONE of the entrance to NMNS..]

[living fossil tree, called bottle tree. originates from australia and was a gift to the museum]

[giant elephant that was endemic to taiwan back near the ice age]

[giant clock made especially for song dynasty emperors. operates by gears turned with water.]

[astronomical gazer sitting atop of the water clock]

[preserved baby giant squid]

[cool diorama of ancient, agricultural village]

[model of ancient fabric making machine]

[dried out, dead cicada]

[night market!]

[view of the street on edge of night market, very very busy]

CHEATED

ok what the freak.

i know that i should be really happy that i'm here in taiwan doing an internship, but i have to say, that feeling has somewhat wore off.

in a way, i feel like i'm being brushed off, or just put to the side as an afterthought, especially since the taiwan tech trek kids are here. i know that it's hard to give many people equal amounts of attention, but i feel like it's been like this even before the TTT kids came along.

i have been so unproductive, and i dont think that i'll be able to produce the results i'd want in the time that i have left (8 weeks, i know). but still, especially with ecological experiments, everything takes time and repetition to gain solid evidence and results of the created hypothesis. i feel like many things are unorganized and not completely thought out in a way where recording data would be neat and efficient.

also, what sucks is that michael and robert both left for taichung yesterday, while i'm still at nmmba. i was under the impression that all of us PRIME kids would be able to go together to visit NCHC and see their tech, but i guess not. i mean, ALL of us were allocated funds to support these external host site trips, which would be really cool to go to and to experience the culture in other cities. but i guess not, at least not for me.

i can't help but feel that i've been brushed aside. today, we had our weekly lab meetings, and the ttt kids were introducing themselves. allen had mentioned that he wanted to go scuba diving, and everyone was interested in it too (robert and michael would be too if they were there, especially michael). the option of getting group scuba diving lessons was presented to them later on, but it was never mentioned to us PRIME students when we arrived at the host site. i can't help but wonder if there's some reason why... especially when we were told that we would be able to do these activities and visit these other institutions.

i know that i'm just ranting right now, but i can't help but feel like i'm being left out, and just toss into the wild and uninhabited lands of southern taiwan. there's no night life, and the closest market would require 10 minutes on a motorcycle to get to, and it's not as big as it should be.

*sigh* maybe tomorrow will be a better day. i AM going to taipei this weekend though... still need to deal with my visa and stupid return plane ticket problem. i'll probably end up staying in taipei for like 5 days or whatever. i almost don't care about sticking to my experiment itinerary anymore...

1 week anniversary

hello all, it has officially been 1 week since i've left the U.S. and i'd have to say... nothing productive in terms of lab work has been done.

it's kinda frustrating.. especially since the experiment/project i have is "simple" and easy to assemble. the big problem i have with this is that i want to be able to set up the coral and algal samples correctly so i don't waste samples and time. although i am able to get help from the graduate and PhD students, they don't know exactly what i am allowed to use either. UGH. hopefully this will all be settled before wednesday... that's when my first weekly progress report is due to the PRIME directors and my mentors.

let's see... this past weekend, i was quarantined in my own apartment, but not by choice of course, haha. on saturday, robert, michael, and i took our bikes and we rode around a few places, and ended up in checheng, stopping at the closest 7-11 to NMMBA and bought some junk food and got some boba. after getting back to the apartment, i took a nice long shower, went online, talked to a few people, and tried to leave again. keyword "tried." what had happened was that the door knob on the front door jammed, and i wasn't able to get out at all. how ridiculous. i had to IM michael and robert next door, but apparently, they both weren't in front of their laptops, so i had to occupy myself for about 3 hrs by watching the extended edition of the return of the king that i had dled.

so unfortunately, the door wasn't able to be fixed, and i spent all of sunday indoors keeping a close eye on my stuff. i tried dling some games to play, and was halfway through dling half-life 2, when the internet cut off at noon.. and remained that way for the rest of the night. SUCKS.

anyway, here are a few pictures, probably very uninteresting and such, lol.

[another empty road..]

[it's so green! some sort of crop field]

[local elementary school, michael and robert in the background][closest 7-11, about 20 minutes away by bike]