Sunday night (a week ago) we arrived at our university and spent the night in the guest hotel. Liu Laoshi met up with us for dinner, but none of us were hungry so we went out to eat ice （吃冰）. It's shaved ice (?) with things in it and some sauce. You can get things like red beans, fruit, jelly things, tapioca pearls, and such. I'm not sure if it's really coming across but it's delicious. Then we went and played some pool. However, nobody really knows how to play it very well at all. No big deal though. :-)
The next morning we dropped all our things off in our dorm room then left on an overnight trip to Xitou（溪頭） - which is a little east and a little more south of Taichung（台中）. That first day we went around to various establishments seeing the various stages of making tea. We saw it laying out in the sun, a farm growing the tea plants, and a factory drying and breaking up the leaves (?). By the way "we" means the five students from UPS, two of our tutors/teachers, and our tour guide for the day.
We stopped for lunch at some place and everybody had the chance to set off a way of communication - bamboo explosive - thing. It was rather frightening the first time because nobody really knew what was going on slash what to expect.
We ate lunch out of some pretty awesome bamboo bowls that we got to take home. After lunch we took a ridiculously stressful hike through a bamboo forest. First there was a dead snake that was poisonous and bright green at the bottom of a stream next to the path. Then there were a ton giant spiders just hanging out. There were next to the path, over head, and between trees. They were legitimately the size of a hand - the legs were crazy long and the bodies a few inches long.
After that, our tour guide lady took us back to her house where her husband served us tea and her daughter played an instrument similar to a piano (?). Eventually we left to go to our hotel. I'm pretty sure we stayed at the Shi-tou Youth Corps Activity Center and/or in the Sitou Nature Education Area (Sitou Forest Recreation Area). Those are the two brochures I have anyway. We just hung out and chatted and played a bunch of cards all evening.
The next day we hiked around the recreation area all morning. There was another snake - also poisonous and alive this time. It was rather traumatic for me. We walked on the skybridge in the trees, saw a giant tree, saw a pretty sweet pond and semi-sketchy bridge. It was really beautiful walking around in the trees and such. Fortunately it wasn't too hot that day and we were in the shade much of the time. Lunch was wonderful and delicious - I have a picture of the table. They kept bringing out more and more dishes.
We arrived back at school in the early evening of Tuesday. We met up with another student from UPS who has been in Taiwan for a few weeks staying with family. So the six of us and another kid from the US who's living in the boys' dorm room went out for karaoke - which is always a good time. :-)
So Wednesday we went to the Language Center for the first time. The teachers talked to us a bit and gave us a lesson to prepare for Thursday's class. I can't remember what all we did the rest of the day. It was our last free day - I feel like we explored the campus a bit, and walked around Dongbie (a market-type area just up the hill from the school). Ah, I think we went and bought some necessities for our dorm room to get settled in a little more.
The first day of class was alright. It was somewhat frustrating. At this point a lot of things weren't going well. None of us could get online in our dorm. We (the three girls) were alone in our room. Our fourth roommate was completely missing. She had some things here but we hadn't seen her and we didn't know when she would come back. It was lame because with no Taiwanese student in the room we had no real incentive to speak Chinese in the room. And part of the whole experience is to speak Chinese (oddly enough) and we didn't know how to make more Taiwanese friends without a roommate. Anyway, by Thursday night we were all very grumpy and called our professor back at UPS, but didn't get a hold of her. She called back the next morning while we were in class (taking a test actually) and I talked to her. It's wonderful how many problems were solved in less than two hours. My internet sign on still doesn't work, but the other four all are able to get online - I'm actually on with Leechew's info because she doesn't have a laptop here. This is mostly why I have failed to blog or update much in the last week. We were able to check email briefly before or after class but that was if for the first few days.
Friday was more successful and we all have two textbooks to work out of, except Leechew who rocks and has three. Her classes are super intense though. Friday night Courtney and I went out to play and Leechew slept for 13 hours. For serious - she didn't sleep the night before because she already had two tests and a presentation to prepare for. Saturday Liu Laoshi took the five of us the the Science Museum and around the town a bit. We had lunch and drank tea at a teahouse, sitting on the floor and everything. Everybody had their turn at pouring the tea too （泡茶）. For the fourth of July, the boys were lame and stayed in while the three of us girls went out to find a hotdog to eat （熱狗）. Sketchiest hotdog ever. Really. Get this: under the hotdog in the bun was cabbage, apple, corn, onion, pickles - then the hot dog. On top was ketchup and possibly mustard, possibly something else. The best part is the menu said this was "american style". We have pictures. Well I think Leechew has them. Our celebration lacked any sort of fireworks or sparklers though.
Sunday (yesterday) we spent the entire day studying. Truly. I don't remember spending so much time sitting at a desk in one day. It paid off because I rocked my 聽寫 （tingxie） test this morning. Classes went well but I have a bunch of homework still, which I will return to shortly as soon as I finish this epic blog. This is what happens when I don't update for a week! By the way, if you want more detail (!), pictures, or more frequent updates I kindly direct you to Ryan's blog: ryantateintaiwan.blogspot.com. I may see about setting up a flickr account. That's really testing my motivation though. I'm pretty proud that I've put up a few pictures on facebook and written this entry. :-) I will try to be more consistent now that things are settling down and we're getting into more of a routine.
好了。再見！
PS. I like how I already directed you to Ryan's blog in the last post. It's mostly for the pictures. But I'll let you know if I set up flickr or something.
PPS. This website lies about the time. Currently, I'm posting this at 6:30pm on Monday July 6.
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