Hot Hot Hot

Walking outside to class this morning was killer. First of all, I overslept so I basically ran down the street.  Getting to class can take from ten to fifteen minutes, depending on if you catch a stop light. If you do, then you're in for a good five minute traffic show. At least it's interesting to see the combination of scooters, compact cars, bikers, and people. But mostly scooters. They zip around traffic and people walking on the streets like pros. Another thing is that most people walk in the street like they own it. Probably because the sidewalks are so slim.

Anyways, going outside today was like stepping into a sauna. A minute of being outside and sweat was dripping down my back and beading up on my face. So much for the shower I just took.

I don't think I could make it a week on the job

The first activity of the day was farm practice experience.
NTU has its own farms on campus. Kind of like a rice version of UIUC's morrow plots, that are seven times the size. So we got to pretend we were farmers complete with traditional hats. Though our scythes were smaller than I thought, we got to work harvesting the rice under the scorching sun.

Then we were off to a hat trick of lectures: Geology, Flora and Marine Biodiversity. I'm really excited to see the things I'm learning about in person. I don't think just writing that down can properly express how excited I am. So excited! So very excited!!

Later at night we traveled to a park inside the city. It's a bit strange to get off an elevated train, walk a couple of blocks, and arrive at a tropical forest. I guess it's similar to Central Park in NY. Except that the weather in Taiwan lends the Flora/Fauna to be much more diverse.

Taiwanese Green Tree Frog

Other animals we saw on our frog hunt include a baby daddy long legged Spider, a Formosan Toad (Bufo bankorensis), Olive Frogs (Rana adenopleura), Latouchti's Frogs (Rana latouchii), Indian Rice Frogs (Fejervarya limnocharis) and ummmm a snake.

I would count snails also, but all of the ones that I saw were smashed on trail. Poor slow things.