The Typhoon has come and gone. I suppose I should be lucky that we weren't hit by it very hard, but I secretly wanted their to be a few trees flying around - it would have been a good story to tell. As it was, all that affected me was that my umbrella got broken. Fortunately here in Taiwan, the demand for umbrellas has created an economy of scale, such that I can get a decent umbrella for under $3 US. Additionally, I wasn't really planning on bringing an umbrella home with me, so again, no great loss.
As I mentioned to a couple of you, I had my last final on Friday. I still have class until Wednesday, but I don't think that we will be doing much. I'm also taking some time out of classes on Monday and Tuesday so that I can tour Taichung on my own - the National Science Museum is nearby, so I think I might check that out.
Some people have been asking what life is like here. To be honest, it's not that much different than what you might imagine life at college in the states being like, except that the food is cheaper, and you find yourself illiterate when looking at menus with options fancier than beef fried rice. We've also had some great trips on the weekends, but during the week, we have four hours of classes each day, and then we're on our own for food, homework and sleeping - and some nights bars. The drinking age is 18 here, so it's been nice to be able to go down to the local expat pub every so often.
One of the next videos I'm taking will show the local street market - and the best place to get cold noodles!
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
The calm before the storm?
Well, as some of you might know, I have my finals coming up in 13 hours, so I'm not going to make a long post. I am however very excited that we have a class 5 hurricane arriving here in about 36 hours. As I'm on a hill and somewhat inland, I won't be experiencing the full effects or really be in any danger at all. Anyways, you can have fun following the progress here - http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/ click on "SEPAT" on the right.
Best of all - The official term for a class 5 hurricane here is "Super Typhoon" - I'm so pumped!
Best of all - The official term for a class 5 hurricane here is "Super Typhoon" - I'm so pumped!
Friday, August 3, 2007
New Video Goodness!
I know it has been a while since I last posted, sorry about that.
A much longer blog entry to let everyone know what's going on will be posted in not too long, but for everyone who has been waiting eagerly, here is a new video!
A much longer blog entry to let everyone know what's going on will be posted in not too long, but for everyone who has been waiting eagerly, here is a new video!
Monday, July 16, 2007
LOTS more videos
I love my camera, and I've gotten lots of compliments about it. Not only that, but it's light, fast, and takes great videos! However, EDITING those video's is a pain in the arse. I think I might do a process piece next on actually making the videos.
That will have to wait however, because in the mean time I have FIVE new videos for you all.
We start out this video expedition near Xitou, where we conducted a little chemistry experiment. The rocks in the tube let off an unstable gas when sprayed with water. Let's see what happens when that gas is bunched up in a tube, and then introduced to fire by Lynn:
For best effect, turn the volume WAAAY up for the last 5 seconds.
Next, back in Taichung, we visit some fish at a teahouse we are eating at. I was particularly amused with the gaping mouthes of these fish. Kim had some other choice acronyms to describe them >:-)
This weekend, we took a trip to Sun Moon Lake. To be honest, the lake wasn't at all impressive. It was hazy, not particularly scenic, and surrounded by small vendors selling wooden penises (I kid you not - here's just one example, thanks Liz).
However, after the somewhat dull park, and a 10 minute stop at a temple, we got to go to an amusement park! Just as the Native American's have started running casinos, it seems that the aboriginals here have taken up running amusment parks, this one being a CLEAR knockoff of Disneyland. The rides included Space Mountain, "Gold mine adventure" - which is a log ride, and my personal favorite "Space tours" which is a rip-off of Star Tours, although they forgot to include the horizontal tilt axis, making the ride more akin to whiplash. I was able to record the opening of the ride before the dirty looks I was getting compelled me to turn my camera off:
For those of you not familiar with the Disneyland ride, here's a video of it:
Another thing this park didn't have was lines! I was so happy to be able to ride the twisty, turny, upside down and everything roller coaster, and then be able to run around and do it again! granted, they didn't have 2 hours worth of scenery to watch as you approached the ride, but I think thats a good trade-off.
Once thing this park had more of was...er...skin. Here's a video of the dance from the Brasil Festival:
Finally, it was time to call it a day, so we hopped on our bus to return home. To keep us entertained on our 2 hour ride, we had karaoke! Here's Dan and Rachel getting down to "Let it Be" performed by Jacob S.
That about wraps up the videos for today. If you can't already tell, I am having a great time here! Hope everyone back at home is going well too.
That will have to wait however, because in the mean time I have FIVE new videos for you all.
We start out this video expedition near Xitou, where we conducted a little chemistry experiment. The rocks in the tube let off an unstable gas when sprayed with water. Let's see what happens when that gas is bunched up in a tube, and then introduced to fire by Lynn:
For best effect, turn the volume WAAAY up for the last 5 seconds.
Next, back in Taichung, we visit some fish at a teahouse we are eating at. I was particularly amused with the gaping mouthes of these fish. Kim had some other choice acronyms to describe them >:-)
This weekend, we took a trip to Sun Moon Lake. To be honest, the lake wasn't at all impressive. It was hazy, not particularly scenic, and surrounded by small vendors selling wooden penises (I kid you not - here's just one example, thanks Liz).
However, after the somewhat dull park, and a 10 minute stop at a temple, we got to go to an amusement park! Just as the Native American's have started running casinos, it seems that the aboriginals here have taken up running amusment parks, this one being a CLEAR knockoff of Disneyland. The rides included Space Mountain, "Gold mine adventure" - which is a log ride, and my personal favorite "Space tours" which is a rip-off of Star Tours, although they forgot to include the horizontal tilt axis, making the ride more akin to whiplash. I was able to record the opening of the ride before the dirty looks I was getting compelled me to turn my camera off:For those of you not familiar with the Disneyland ride, here's a video of it:
Another thing this park didn't have was lines! I was so happy to be able to ride the twisty, turny, upside down and everything roller coaster, and then be able to run around and do it again! granted, they didn't have 2 hours worth of scenery to watch as you approached the ride, but I think thats a good trade-off.
Once thing this park had more of was...er...skin. Here's a video of the dance from the Brasil Festival:
Finally, it was time to call it a day, so we hopped on our bus to return home. To keep us entertained on our 2 hour ride, we had karaoke! Here's Dan and Rachel getting down to "Let it Be" performed by Jacob S.
That about wraps up the videos for today. If you can't already tell, I am having a great time here! Hope everyone back at home is going well too.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
My adventures thus far...
So thus far I've been in Taipei, Taichung and Xitou (and some surrounding provinces). Thanks to the help of my friend Sean back in Corvallis, video should be coming soon - this time for real - but in the mean time, here are some pictures from around Taiwan!
This is a shot of the Happy Family hostel where I spent my first two nights in Taiwan - behind me is another bed. Although it's not much to look at, it had A/C and was only ~$30 US/night - split three ways that was pretty cheap.
Here's a shot of a big square in Taipei - I counted at least four ads for the new Harry Potter movie there, and the big one in the upper left is for Transformers (which I saw before it came out for all you folks in the US :P) or as it is know in Mandarine "Powerful Robots which change shape"
These two shots are from when I stopped by the Artist Village - a small studio with ten resident artists in Taipei. I was amused when one of the assistants walked up to me and asked me if I was there with the press.
Here's me at the National Palace Museum.
That covers my stint in Taipei - I need to run off to class - Next time I'll post some shots of me since arriving in Taichung.
This is a shot of the Happy Family hostel where I spent my first two nights in Taiwan - behind me is another bed. Although it's not much to look at, it had A/C and was only ~$30 US/night - split three ways that was pretty cheap.
Here's a shot of a big square in Taipei - I counted at least four ads for the new Harry Potter movie there, and the big one in the upper left is for Transformers (which I saw before it came out for all you folks in the US :P) or as it is know in Mandarine "Powerful Robots which change shape"
These two shots are from when I stopped by the Artist Village - a small studio with ten resident artists in Taipei. I was amused when one of the assistants walked up to me and asked me if I was there with the press.
Here's me at the National Palace Museum.
That covers my stint in Taipei - I need to run off to class - Next time I'll post some shots of me since arriving in Taichung.
Monday, July 2, 2007
More coming soon!
For all my dedicated readers (I'm guessing there are about two of you if I'm lucky ;- ), I'm sorry that I haven't been posting this more frequently. I've had amazing trips to Xitou, learned far more than I ever wanted to know about making oolong tea, and even taken a few motor bike rides. I also just moved into a new dorm, and don't have internet access there. That problem should be resolved tomorrow, at which time I will post pictures, more stories, and a long rant.
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