adventures

part one: snails are out

today was a slow morning but got out to the gym before heading out for the night. did the core circuit and since we had been skipping it the last two times due to time, it was a bit rough haha. it was arm day and i benched 33lbs! literally just the weight of the lightest bar, but i surprised myself. couldn't do a full set of ten but for my first time benching, i'd say pretty ok. with the core circuit and all the weight/machine stuff, we were there like 2.5 hours. mind you, a bit of that time was just lurking for machines. today was insanely busy. like we couldn't find the dumbbell weights we wanted sometimes, and just space was tight on the mat. it better just be because people missed days because of the typhoon days. that and that it was a friday afternoon.

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then quick change to meet friends at raohe night market – my favorite one. michelin star black pepper bun for the win!! also tanghulu and shrimp/oyster omelets. after, we hung out on the rainbow bridge. unfortunately after a very cringe session of singing chinese classics (literally all breakup songs), we realized shoot, we should not have done that on the bridge dedicated to love. also an unfortunate thing is my friend stepped on a snail 😢. they came out because it's so wet right now. i accidentally kicked one (or a shell at least). but jeez, why come out onto walkways anyway. we also saw some we're pretty sure were mating. but these are like the most giant snails i've ever seen, no joke.

part two: insurance and friends

i had an appointment scheduled to go back to the hospital for my medication but it fell on a typhoon day so i didn't go at the scheduled time. i looked for the next time the doctor was in and it was saturday morning which is so overwhelming. more-so than even my past experience. i again had to hit up the help desk because i don't have an insurance card yet. this confuses them, but eventually, one has time to take me to the clinic room and explain to the nurse. she processes some stuff and comes out with the prescription and a prescheduled appointment for next time because i don't have the insurance card yet. i guess i don't even see the doctor this time. in which case, i wonder why i can't just go straight to the pharmacy for a refill? again, i think it's probably because i don't have the insurance card. anyway, i go downstairs and just immediately go wait at the pharmacy, but for efficiency (i think), payment and the pharmacy is separate. so i waited ages to get my number at the pharmacy to come up and she's like, you haven't paid yet. hopefully, third times the charm and next time i'll do it all right. mind you this entire like three hour commute and the actual time there was like all on my feet.

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later, a friend from undergrad and i finally had time to coordinate our schedules and we talked the whole afternoon into the evening!

part three: the north coast

i was invited to go with a group to the dragon caves and swim! it was a very long day though. 9:00 meeting to leave school and then got back around 22:00. i was craving an adventure since i basically did nothing during the "typhoon", so i said yes and i got to see the beautiful northern coast. we bused to keelung and had breakfast. then a bus ride to the caves. the path was so rocky and you know my balance – better now – but i'm so slow on these big boulders and slabs of rock. this area is used for rock climbing and then the water across for swimming. i swear just getting to the stakeout spot was a lot. ended up at beautiful rocks over a bay. i swam a bit but took time mostly for photography! it was a pretty big group and everyone was super nice. the existing friend group formed last term as far as i know and then a friend of mine is friends with one in the group so we got the invite too. quite the adventure.

unfortunately though, a group member lost my fitbit 😭 so no more tracking sleep and workouts for a while. that being said, this day by itself i think is worth at least two gym sessions ahah. navigating big rocks, swimming, running (a lot). my phone says ten floors climbed and 13,134 steps and that's just from hanging out in my bag most of the day. usually fitbit is more accurate so probably even more!

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after we got back to taipei, we broke off and i had dinner with three others near the bus stop. unfortunately, we were on the wrong side and we just booked it into the crossing to make it. what's funny is that right before that adrenaline rush, my friend said "there’s no use running. we’re not gonna make it".

part four: seniors' wisdom

it kind of hits me at random times that i'm supposed to have conducted research and present it orally and in writing by the end of four terms. and yes, i'm only like five weeks into the first but i need to find an advisor that fits my research ideas. quant vs qual is being pushed a lot in how we should make our choices for advisor and committee too. each have their quirks and you'd then have to prep differently based on what the make up ends up being. ideally, i do qual and a full qual committee. idk it seems both too early and also that i'm behind sort of. in that you should have a relationship with the professor you ask, of course, and that's usually in the form of a class. i can't know every professor in my first term. at least i have my heart set on a research topic. i just need to find the right professors to help. before class today in an IMICS study room, my OIC buddy and another senior give us some advice and shared their experience with certain professors with my friends and i. i need to read some of her publications before asking, but i was recommended one professor to ask. my seniors said i can first just ask if she has any open RA positions to see if we mesh.

in the study room 😂

part five: double ten 雙十節

today is taiwan's birthday! they call the holiday double 10 because of the date 10/10. to celebrate, a group of IMICS students went to hot pot and then went to see the first fireworks display for the holiday at 101. (usually they just do the airshow and parade). i had mid expectations since i'd seen the new years fireworks before so i know what they're capable of but i wasn't sure they would put the same level of effort into it. or maybe since it's the first time for this holiday, they might have logistical things to figure out. i was right, the fireworks were just at the top tier today but either way it was super fun! hotpot is also just a great group activity. while we were waiting for the firework show, i chatted with my friend who's also in my news class about politics, patriotism etc a bit. just that today is most closely like fourth of july in the states. after the show, there were a bunch of news sites roaming around to report on the first double ten firework show. we were slow to get moving because we wanted to avoid the crowds as much as possible so we were just waiting around for a bit where we had watched from. we saw a reporting group pass by and we all were betting they'd come up to us either because we're the last kinda big group left and also one of our friends is very clearly foreigner. sure enough, they spot us and come up to ask our dutch friend what he thought of the show. like all of the group videotaped it, but they promised they'd air it too hahah.

i'm on tv! (sort of) you can just barely see me off to the left

part six: connections

for this month's meet up with my host family, i wrapped dumplings with them. it was organized through their church so i met some others and after all our hard work, we ate it all up plus fruits (dragonfruit, apple, guava), bean curd strips, seaweed and chinese pumpkin + millet soup. after lunch, i played with my two meimeis (little sisters). one is 7 and the other is 8. they were so content playing with each other and doing art – not at all screen babies. we also just chatted all in chinese. that helped them open up to me a bit and by the end, they were asking to spend more time with me.

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after, i grabbed a quick dinner and got ready to go out. me and a friend were invited by a friend to go to their friend's party. (there's a lot of " friend of friend" invites happening lately.) anyway, we kind of lost that group but ran into the friend group we went to the dragon caves with. the night was pretty nostalgic actually because we were all up at the square with the bars + clubs i had frequented in 2022. it was a great time. so much so that i got to see the sunrise hahah.

♡蘇晨