Back to School

Arriving back on campus felt strange, yet familiar. We've been outside of city limits for so long that even at night the crowds felt huge. This morning was less hot than I expected. Maybe the weather knew we were coming back and decided to cool off. And by cool off I mean stay in the 80s. 

I am unlucky because the alarm clock that I brought to wake me up stopped working about three weeks ago. I brought a small battery-run clock because I wanted to save electricity by not charging a phone. In fact, I didn't have a cell phone with me this entire trip. Partially because the one I left at home has only half a visible screen and also because I didn't feel like spending money here. This worked out alright and it was a relief to not be so dependent on an electronic device. Sticking with my friends at night and making plans ahead of time was all it took. Luckily I've made a friend that calls me at my dorm room in the mornings. A big surprise is that my body usually wakes me up about five minutes before the JiLing wake up call! This would never happen back in the states.

So around 6:45 I get a call from JiLing. She sounded as drowsy as I was. 
We headed to the NTU farm, rushing because we thought we were late. When we arrived, no one was in sight except for Jack. He came out of a building and towards us. "Oh, no, he's going to tell us to hurry up," I thought. But in reality, we were the first ones there! I guess that traveling had tired out the rest of our group.

At least I'm ahead of Ken? He woke up late

We were in the fields again today. It seems backwards that during the first week we harvested rice, and during the last week we planted them. But there are two harvesting times. Free labor for the University.

Shin (sometimes knee) deep in muddy water, we made our way down the lines. Planting straight rows was difficult for me, seeing as I couldn't see the marked lines very well. I worked slowly and efficiently, digging a small hole for the 3-5 rice plants and burying them so they wouldn't float away. 

Good work, Jimmy & Vico

It felt quite relaxing to stand in the mud. It also felt better on my back than some field work we've done. Probably because we didn't have to squat down as far. Our sunken legs helped with that!

Our work was finished within two hours and we had a break until eating a rice based meal and dessert. I decided to rush to the bank to exchange money. My first 100 USD had lasted one week, then while we were out of Taipei City for two weeks I only spent another 50. But now that we only have two more nights here, I need to think about buying some souvenirs for friends and family. I excited to get back to the night markets! Maybe I can bargain for something good tonight. 

Working on finalizing our group project took up most of the afternoon. We holed ourselves up in a classroom, buckled down, analyzed our data, and created a power point presentation. By about 4 pm I think our minds couldn't handle it anymore, so we took a break to draw a bit on the board. Sketching each other definitely brought about some laughs. The caricature-like figures brought out the truly good and truly bad characteristics of each person. For instance, my eyelashes were drawn super long and the shape of my body was a rectangle. It's interesting to view yourself from other's perspectives. 

Dinner was at one of my favorite restaurants in...I don't remember. I just know that through translation, the name means Nine pieces of paper...something...

This place is often visited by business men and their co-workers and boss. I learned on the taxi ride there that it's considered rude not to finish a drink if you're offered one. Sounds like a lot of pressure. Luckily we weren't eating out for business, just for the pleasure of enjoying each other's company. The only beer I've tried here is called Taiwan Beer. It was decent. Still, beer is beer and beer is not often great.

Riding U Bikes back was our choice of transportation. Finally, I got to ride a bike by myself, instead of balancing on the back of Hulda's or carrying JiLing on the back of Kevin's. Rental is free, as long as you have a valid phone number and school id. I borrowed Richard's phone number and was soon registered to ride. We all took turns registering at a Kiosk, which is apparently a difficult word to pronounce. When Vico tried, it sounded like key-osk-ee. English is confusing sometimes!

Bike Parade

If you're used to riding bikes through Taipei, you'll ride in the street alongside small cars and hundreds of scooters. We opted to ride along the sidewalk, ringing our bells to warn people that we were coming. 

It was still early (around 9 pm) when we arrived back at campus and returned our bikes to the train station. Andria, JiLing, Vico and I wanted to do some last minute shopping, so we decided to head to the nearest night market! By the time Vico changed into pants and proper shoes, we arrived there a little after 10. Whoa, did it seem deserted. Our fear of shops closing made us shop quickly, splitting off when I wanted to shop for my brother. 

When I was shopping with Vico, he did most of the talking in Mandarin, even though his first language is Cantonese. I could still understand when he and the shop owner were talking about me. 

Yes, I am American. No, I'm not his boyfriend. 

We decided that the best method for bargaining is if we both try to speak in Mandarin.  

Good night.

Out of the Forest, Into the Sun

Leaving the forest along with the Alpine conditions, I was mentally prepared for the heat and humidity. I forgot to physically prepare myself and soon found myself thirsty and sleepy. 

I can't believe that the program only holds four more days in Taiwan. Growing closer to my classmates has made me feel like here could be a second home. All I can do now is stay present in each moment and try to appreciate the time I have. 

JiLing's hat making its rounds, as per usual.

Damage from the 9/21/1992 Earthquake in Ji-ji

 

Damage from the 1 am Earthquake was so destructive! I can't imagine being in Junior High and discovering that my school is no longer in tact. Instead of rebuilding the entire place, a museum was built around the rumble and remains. It felt strange to observe this sort of this in an educational museum, but for the Taiwanese, Earthquakes are a common natural disaster. There was actually an earthquake when we were staying back in Taipei, about a 3 on the scale. Just like when I experienced an earthquake an Illinois, I slept through this one. ZzzzzzZzzzzZzzz.

3 D movies hurt my eyes

    +

A delicious lunch

  = Happiness

A walk in the park

After lunch, we traveled to an Agricultural Institute. Coming down from the forest, the sea level weather felt hot, heavy, and humid. Combined with a lack of sleep, our BACT group was definitely ready to take a doze. Funny thing was that our lecturer told us it was alright if we napped through his introduction. That he understood it was a warm and sleepy day.



Here at the Institute, local researchers carry out crop experiments in various green houses. We got a sneak peak at some, but I wasn't exactly sure what was going on. Could've been genetic engineering, modification, or transporter induced gene expression. This pictured room was kept at 40 C/104 F. Oh baby.

We were glad to be back in the AC (referred to as Air Con here), but still had one more stop before heading back to campus...a soil museum.

I don't remember much. Just that there are various kinds, containing various amounts of water and composed of various materials. Sorry that's not very descriptive.

Running back to the bus in the rain was one of the most exciting moment of today. Just like in Chicagoland, it smelled like pollution or ozone. 

Here we come Taipei!!

Sitou Experimental Forest III

One down. Three to go.

That was my mindset as we left the building today to finish our research. 

The method of our plotting changed, because yesterday took too long. Instead, I would walk out into the middle of the forest, taking two 70 m lines along with. From me (aka the center point), my group members would fan out towards each direction, line in hand. Forming an X was not only fun, but I think it was more accurate. When they couldn't find me, I sometimes had to raise and wave my umbrella over my head. New umbrella-best-friend, I might add. When they reached the center I gave my group members a cracker. Good job. It felt good to work together quickly and smoothly and soon we finished. 

Sorry poisonous plant, I hacked you down for fun.
It looks like Taro plant, but you don't want to eat this one.

The sunny, dry day gave us energy to continue. Even when plotting our line involved climbing over boulders or through vines. Thanks to Jimmy for catching me when I carelessly climbed up into some thorny vines. 

The Typhoon's wind is coming from the NW.

We believe that plot 1 will have the highest number of damaged trees, 

followed by plot 2, plot 3, and plot 4 consecutively.

Even with a full day of work, we still have enough spirit and energy to hike up to the Giant Tree. Why not? The trail we were on for the past couple of days is called Giant Tree Trail. Man, was it giant, logging in at a height of 46 m (props to you if you caught my pun). Sorry for not having a shot of it. Unlike my group members, my camera battery became exhausted around noon. Believe me that it was a sight to behold. Maybe we can go back to Taiwan together to see it?

Jimmy longed to see the Giant Rock, but with the advice of our favorite student-volunteer/helpful equipment-holder during our experiment, Jean, we didn't go past the trail whose signs stated "Don't cross, Danger." Something along those lines...I didn't bother to try and read the Chinese.

We did get to see a Giant Dog named Lucky. Jiling's many attempts to take a picture with him looked more like her chasing him around. I say giant because even though Labrador Retrievers are common in America, here in Taiwan large dogs are more rare. This one had all of its hair too.

Even more rare of a specimen! I must study it for my next research project. Along with reading every one's mind. Thanks to all on the trip who perpetuated this hilarious stereotype of Psychology majors.

Then for some reason we decided to stay up until 1 am, even with the knowledge that we'd be leaving Sitou bright and early at 7:30 am. I think we were cherishing our last night where we'd all be staying together. Cozying up in one bed, we settled in for another scary film. This one was real. Nicole Kidman played a mother of...well, you can just watch it for yourself.

Then for some reason we decided to stay up until 1 am, even with the knowledge that we'd be leaving Sitou bright and early at 7:30 am. I think we were cherishing our last night where we'd all be staying together. Cozying up in one bed, we settled in for another scary film. This one was real. Nicole Kidman played a mother of...well, you can just watch it for yourself.

Sitou Experimental Forest II

The schedule below describes the next two days. In between the meals we have time with our teams to perform whatever research is necessary, utilizing the forest. 

Baker's catch phrase is Basically, spoken in a British accent.
He attends school in Leicester and is trying to change his accent from standard English to British.
Our group uses this phrase to basically describe everything, basically.

Instead of having free research time like we thought, we took another tour of Sitou. This time we learned about how to prevent landslides and natural erosion by using man made structures such as walls, logs and dams. What would've taken about an hour to hike to took us a mere twenty minutes via golf cart. I felt like we were the royal family of Sitou Experimental Forest, passing all of our subject who were struggling up the hill. Thank you! Thank you! Have a great morning!

This driver spoke to us in Chinese. 

Sad to say that although I could understand him,

I wasn't as fast as Jiling to respond to his questions.

While we waited for the rest of our group to arrive, I taught everyone the ridiculous dancing game called Boom Chicka Boom Boom. I always seem to draw the strangest games from my memory. They're usually entertaining, luckily. When one person starts a dance move, it gets passed around the circle. The first dancer has to switch every time we finish singing, "boom chicka boom boom." It goes fairly fast, so our moves ended up being more silly than good looking. Both Shengyu and Vico did different poses for each round, instead of dancing. Too fun. 

Okay, so every one finally came and thus began our outdoor lecture. Although the information was great, I had a difficult time seeing the pictures our guide brought with him. So instead I listened while looking out at the dam. Man has tried for centuries to help nature when it comes to erosion. What I've learned is that  planting things that are actually supposed to grow outside can help, if you don't want to deal with the up keep of man made structures. The guide seemed to have traveled to various places, including Japan and Europe, just to study this. I guess what you love to do can really take you places...

Daaaaaaam.

After a nice lunch (they still serve us like every meal is a special occasion), we finally started our project. Have I mentioned that we switched our topic again? Yep we did, for probably the third time. No bother, because this time I made our group promise to settle on this one topic. We only had one and a half more days to research. Aiyaaaa!

So our final topic is something along the lines of Wind Damage to Japanese Cedar Trees in Sitou Forest, Based on Their Proximity to Typhoon's Wind Direction. Long title, but it'll be cut down for our final presentation. Hooray! I feel relieved that we have a solid and workable idea. Thanks to Judy who helped up work this out.
The setup of our four plots involves taking a 50 m measuring tape...or tape measure. I had a disagreement with Jimmy about which one is correct. Anyways, we acquired one and measured out another 50 m with red nylon string. Taking the real one and jank one, we found a plot off the Giant Tree Trail to start measuring our space (with a compass of course).
This took longer than expected, probably because we were being extra careful and none of us were that experienced in our method. What took even longer though, was counting the trees. Walking through the dense and wet jungle forest was fun at first, but could have also been dangerous if we weren't careful. Soon it became wetter, as the rain came down along with the sun. I'm sure that our data wasn't that accurate, but we finished and got out of there.

Brave men trekking through with our Northern plot line.

Enjoying the outdoors

Ahhhhhh. It felt so good to take off our wet clothes and shower. A friend came back with me...a leech. At first I thought it was a bit of dirt, but after much flicking I had a realization and pulled it off. Turns out that the proper was is to let them finish sucking your blood and they'll fall off. Either that or burn them off with a lighter. I think this is what Shengyu and Kevin did. That would've been fun?

I live with an elf named Jiling

Later at night many people were watching a dumb horror movie in my room. I mean really dumb. Even Andria, who is afraid of a lot of things, was amused. I saw clips of it as I made my rounds doing both my laundry and my friends'. A good time was had by all, and I guess we have Andria's bat if any Bat/Scarecrow/Human creatures from the movie come a crawling. 

Sitou Experimental Forest I

We get to play outside today! 

Okay, not play. But it feels great to be able to breath fresh air once again.

Breakfast was decent again, because cars can finally come through to the Forest. Before, trees had fallen over the road and power lines. Hence, our lack of diverse food and internet connection.

Today we were looking forward to actually getting outside again to view some plants. Our plan was to find smaller ground plants that have been damaged. These ones will be our specimens for the experiment, meaning we're going to dig them up to bring inside.



Before we had a chance to do that, our academics took priority. Dr. Lin from NTU gave us an extremely interesting yet complicated lecture about soil biodiversity. She even said herself that you need to have both a background knowledge in Soil Science (her concentration) and Microbiology to understand the topic.

Time for some dirty talk...

Soils are divided into six categories by the USDA, but also into twelve orders. Surprisingly, eleven out of the twelve can be found in Taiwan! The only one missing is only present is extremely cold climates. Soil is a micro habitat that serves as the environment for small animals, arthopods, neeeematodes, protists, bacteria, fungi, and even viruses. After learning this, the lecture became much more detailed. I only remember the concept that plants and animals are in a beneficial Nitrogen cycle together. We need each other.

For our tour of Sitou, we walked uphill for around half an hour to the Sky Walk. The walk wasn't a piece of cake, but also wasn't as tough as our first ascent up Yangmingshan. Chatting with friends about life and watching Ben attempt his Alpine exercises helped to pass the time. By the time we made it to the Sky Walk, I think some of us had exerted too much energy. We were too excited to finally be outdoors! Climbing gave me a slight headache and made Jiling tired as well. 



Some sights on the way there -

Castle on the hill

I genuinely thought these were real

Take a rest under this shelter

I loved the Sky Walk! What an experience to be able to have a different perspective of the forest. I didn't feel so small while walking close to the canopy, but I still felt a sense of awe. 

My efforts to teach the Hong Kong boys how to moon walk were done in vain.

I think Andria is always super happy. Either that or its her signature pose for pictures. Cute. 

After a casual proposal of our project, we felt confident enough to trek outside and search for plants. Our energy seemed to diminish because even as we walked further, no small damaged plants were visible. I felt like our group was on the verge of having an argument, but we stayed mature and tried to talk through the process. I'm really glad that I get to work with a group of such different people. Not just because we're from various countries, but also the age range of our group is 19 - 25 years old. We are in the same university going stage of our lives, yet somehow age sometimes makes a difference.

Returning back to our rooms, we asked the advice of Dr. Yu. He prefers to be called Simon, so I just called him Dr. Simon. He gave us the idea of measuring the diameters of the stems or surface area of leaves. This seemed good to us, so we settled on seeing if diameters of stems affected the amount of damage. Looking back, it seems obvious that it would.

Lucky us. The forest identifies it own plants for us!

Lazy Saturday with Typhoon Soulik

When we woke up this morning the power was out.
In my sleepy state I tried clicking all of the lights until I realized that it was futile.

I slept through most of my first Typhoon.
Let's make a cake to celebrate!

The three main activities of our day were eating, sleeping, and playing games. It'd be neat to say by candle light, but it was actually by Flashlight. We weren't allowed to go outside last night or the entirety of today, because of the heavy rain and dangerous winds. Although as the wind let up, I began to doubt the danger of falling trees while my urge to step outside grew. I stayed inside like a good student, don't worry Jack.






With no Internet or power, we had no choice but to spend time with each other. Not a bad option! I think this day was a gift. We were lucky to have another free day. This one was filled with many indoor things to chase boredom away. I think Baker was the only unhappy one. He kept coming into our room, saying, "An-dra, I'm so bored!"

List of activities -

• Learning to play Bridge
• I stink, but I'm getting used to the game
• Teaching the group Egyptian Rat Slap
• Jimmy thought this was hilarious. Probably because he was a beast...
• Walking around inside the building
• Scaring each other by hiding in closets, then jumping out
• Trying to nap
• No matter how much I want to nap, it just doesn't come naturally to me :(
• Watching over dramatic Taiwanese dramas
• Making human sushi by wrapping our friends in blankets
• Playing more made up games
• Trying not to pee in my pants because of how hard I was laughing
• Thinking a bit about what our Sitou research topic should be

Aaaaaand of course -

• Eating snacks
• Eating cup noddles
• Eating meals

What a Pig's Life

Careful where you're swinging that bat, Jean.

Our lethargic state was broken when Jack announced that we needed to start finalizing our research topic. Finalizing?! We hadn't even started thinking about one. Not to worry, because our group gathered around the girls beds to brainstorm some idea. I was getting a tad impatient when after the first two hours we didn't have a solid thought, but I'm used to brainstorming at school and should have remembered that good ideas sometimes don't come quickly. Two ideas that were funny but got thrown away immediately were: researching the difference between toilets in the East and West and seeing which products from the convenience store are the most popular. Although these were hilarious to us at the time, they didn't really have anything to do with the course. Later, we settled on trying to test the wind resistance in plants via an indoor fan! Jiling thought of this...maybe because she studies forestry at UBC? 

Well I hope that our plans runs smoothly and that minor details (that come with conducting your own experiment) get worked out. 

Actually, the last half hour of our brainstorm was filled with napping. Of course this needs to be included. It's always nice to sleep on a good idea.
Although I was definitely filled with disappointment at not being able to visit the forest, I soon forgot about the weather as I laughed my worries away with my new friends. I will dearly miss this type of atmosphere when I return home.