Today we had a tour of Shih Hsin University (they specialize in communications). The school is in a phenomenal location- literally in a valley and the buildings are built on staircases. You had to walk through a tunnel to get to the school from the street. It felt a little like walking into to Dinotopia (if you’ve seen the movie). Sadly, there were no dinosaurs around. Just a bunch of Chinese students eager to meet us. We’ve had welcomes like we were Prime Ministers and Presidents everywhere we go. It’s going to be a let down when we finally come back to the States and aren’t special anymore. L
We were there for a while, what with the tour, lecture on Taiwan’s educational system and improvements (which started awkwardly for us since we had to introduce ourselves in Chinese. Let me restate that none of us have confidence in ourselves speaking Chinese. Though I complimented their campus, so hopefully that earned me extra points).
Lunch was also with them at a nearby restaurant. I sat by the guy who was in charge of our visit and rather important on campus. It’s been happening more than occasionally on this trip so far. I figure it helps them remember me and I get more information than the people sitting elsewhere. Yay for networking! Anyways, he was very nice and I was rather pleased with the fact that he didn’t know my English name, only my Chinese name (but knew the English names of the others of us at the table).
Two students offered to take Tram, Becky, Tina, and I to a nearby temple for folk religion. We’re going to visit it as a group later on, but we won’t get the inside version of what’s actually going on like we did with the girls. Like everything else even vaguely Chinese, religion is mad confusing. No body actually know’s what’s what because there’s a lack of distinct guidelines. This temple was used for popular folk religion. Lots of incense and bai bai-ing (the Chinese equivalent of kneeling for prayer. Only you don’t typically kneel…only sometimes…). You could ask the gods for good health, prosperity, help with your studies, children, and finding significant others. I declined to request a boyfriend but Becky and Tram did. Now Tram wishes she didn’t after I reminded her she might get a boyfriend while she’s in China.
Not much else to mention except we found dark beer flavored ice cream (which was disgusting. But maybe that’s because I find dark beer disgusting in general) and Tram and I did laundry. Lots of trekking up a flight of stairs and riding the elevator back down (because we were both too dense to figure out how to open the stairwell door from the inside). Not to mention the dryers were ineffective so we ended up laying out all our clothes on every available surface to continue drying. It looked a little like a bomb blew up and very precisely scattered clothing. Which may be against the definition of what bomb aftermath is…
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