catching up and 端午節

唷～ sorry for being MIA the last couple weeks. to be honest, not a lot has been happening other than my weekend excursions.

two weekends ago, i headed down the red line with some friends to 中正紀念堂 which is a huge building memorializing 蔣中正(Chiang Kai-shek), a former president of the Republic of China. inside there is a ginormous statue of him with men standing guard (i barely caught the end of the changing of the guard). the memorial hall has a giant square out in front and is otherwise surrounded by gardens. across the way, the national performing arts center and the national theater are easily spotted. this little trip totally gave me my architecture fix.

(side notes: 1. read the writing top down, right to left in all these pictures, 2. my internship is near here and according to students there now, they come here often on lunch break!)

on the way, we ran into some fish friends 🐠

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/f148f6_31e49de10e4b4168a777ed732e281789/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

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and just this friday, june 3, was 端午節 or dragon boat festival and my sole goal was to find 粽子(glutinous rice balls with various fillings wrapped in bamboo leaves), but it turned out to be a total "treat yourself" day. we started off the day at my favorite brunch spot near school and then went to the taipei botanical garden. we entered the garden on the northeast side meaning we hit the lotus pond almost immediately! as we continued to explore, we found a succulent garden, zodiac plants and a variety of birds along with a bunch of squirrels. the zodiac garden wasn't super impressive at this point in the season, but the concept is cool! they took the character for the animal and found plants with that character in the name. so for dragon 龍 for example they had 龍牙草agrimonia pilosa、串鼻龍 gourian clematis etc. many bug bites later, we headed out in search of 粽子 at the nearby 南門市場 (nanmen market).

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/f148f6_113e4f9e818f4f7aad944bdec18833c1/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

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nanmen market is kind of a wet market vibe. one half is dried goods but they also have fish and meat just hanging out and the top level is a food court. so many stands were selling 粽子 but a lot of them were not ready-eat–you'd have to heat them up. we did eventually find a pork one that was cooked and wow it was so good! 粽子 come in both savory and sweet versions but i prefer savory.

by this time, we were all dying from the heat and the humidity so off we went in search of cold treats. near 士林站 (shilin station) we found 刨冰 (shaved/crushed ice dessert). the only way to describe it is that its a mix of ice cream and shaved ice. i haven't had anything quite like it before and i am in love! we also had heard from a fall cohort student that matcha prince by the station had a BOGO deal on ice cream, so ofc we had to stop there too.

since we were in the area, we hit up 士林夜市 (shilin night market) again. this time, we focused less on food but more on the shops. night market shopping for clothes is much harder, as there aren't usually multiple sizes and they are more likely to follow asian sizing. not to mention the limited space with so many people! despite that, the styles are so cute and we did find some great deals. to finish off the night, we had thai with a side of good conversation.

academically, classes are still online and final presentations are almost upon us. one big update is that we will be registering for out direct enrollment course next tuesday! this is the class we take next semester that is a gen-ed at the university here. if it wasn't clear before, so far all my classes have been with students and teachers from my program exclusively. next term, we choose a class that is open to the entire university and is taught by university professors. we already looked at the class offerings and my first choice is 大眾傳播概論 (intro to mass communication) and my second choice is 臺灣政治概論 (intro to taiwan politics). it's a little nerve racking to know we will be doing this and an internship so soon. i really think these both will have a fantastic influence on my chinese but i can't help but wonder how hard it will be, especially in the beginning. what if i come across vocabulary i've never heard before, what if the people around me speak too quickly and i don't get it right away? will everyone be as patient and clear as the program's teachers? language teachers know how to go about explaining advanced words or concepts with words from lower levels, whereas other people in life usually try english next if i don't get the specific word they were saying. no use dwelling on what ifs but just wanted people to know i'm an overthinker in case you didn't know :)

on another note, summer is here for my friends at UO which means some will be joining me in taiwan shortly for summer programs and even more will be in the following fall cohort of my program! i can't wait to show them around and just have more friends over here. i heard from them that quarantine is reduced to 2 weeks compared to my 3. with a quick search i checked entry rules, and it seems that family of a current resident card holder can get visas. now i didn't read the fine print, but i am a resident card holder...so message me if that intrigues you.

fun fact:

~each MRT station has it's own unique music to announce the train's arrival. i particularly like this one from 小南門 on the green line

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/f148f6_c2bdf9f0c8ab455ba701ea1bdc684ae3/720p/mp4/file.mp4

thanks for reading!

♡蘇晨