in taidong.. an uber ulu place

day 4 of our trip.. we are at our 3rd pit stop: taidong。this is indeed an ulu place cos it feels like aghost town at 2pm on a saturday afternoon!

1st pit stop: 花莲

• day 1: went to Taroko Gorge on the 1st day on a coach. it was comfortable but felt that it was not as fun as when i went last yr where we could take our own sweet time enjoying the nature there.. this time it was kinda rushed as we had to stick to the timings and we did not go to that many places.. only Tian Xiang, Jiu Qu dong and Chang Chun Si
• at Nan Bin Ye Shi again.. one year on it's still as boring as ever.. haha..
• day2: Rafting (泛舟) it was really fun! we got really dirty and my thighs got burnt but it was really exciting going thru the rapids.. we 5 girls rafted with another family of 3 and the mother was so nervous she kept hiding in the raft and kept stopping us from having water fights with other rafts.. she was overly nervous lah cos she fell into the water twice.. too bad i did not fall into the water.. yah too bad! would be more memorable if i did mah..
• Hualian City area was so much more happening than Nan Bin Ye Shi.. stop telling that is the biggest Ye Shi around.. it's juz boring!
• day 3: Whale Watching (赏鲸). Did not see any whales but saw some Spinner Dolphins and 花纹豚... they were really cute.. hehe

2nd pit stop: 鹿野

• 鹿野 is a village kinda place.. really ulu.. had to walk 20mins b4 we found a decent restaurant for a meal.. and there was hardly any streetlights along the roads.. we 3 girls was walking in the dark in total fear of snakes jumping out of nowhere..
• day 4: went paragliding today!!! it was GREAT! it was so much fun and really relaxing... haha.. we were really lucky to get that kinda winds we had today.. was in the air for like 20 mins? fun fun fun!
• the people in 鹿野were really nice and cos it's a small village every one knows evertone else.. it's a nice family feel.. felt so good there.. the kind of village spirit..

3rd pit stop: 台东

• very ulu.. even near the city.. it's saturday but hardly anyone on the streets.. that's why i have the time and leisure to type this entry..

8 more days to go... will be in 绿岛tml

cya!!

百感交集

明天就要出发啦...正确的来说是今天...12天11夜的自助旅行...5个地区...环岛台湾...
花莲、台东、绿岛、垦丁、澎湖
泛舟、浮浅、飞行伞、一堆水上活动
很兴奋但是也有点不安，总觉得还没做好准备（澎湖那边的行程还没确定）
3个女生，2万台币的预算，1次惊险万分的旅程肯定毕生难忘。



最近真的是只有一个字来形容：忙
忙着赶作业，忙着计划旅行、忙着在台湾累计更多的回忆
礼拜二和系主任吃饭
礼拜三靠了国际关系的期末考
礼拜三晚上就去了夜唱KTV
礼拜四上了在政大的最后一堂课
礼拜五去了台北市立动物园
礼拜六努力的作着黑道报告、晚上去了华西街夜市看人家吃蛇
礼拜天搬宿舍、从7406搬至1234。双手酸痛到今天
礼拜一把黑道期末作业打完，表示我在政大的交换也正式结束
晚上我们六个女生在万寿桥下的‘禁止烤肉‘字眼前嚣张得烤肉，还玩了烟火。
我们6人最后一次聚会。FAREWELL

今天跟Christine说再见。我们2天1夜的室友。下次再见她应该是她到新加坡的时候吧。
今天也跟Ileen聚会。是聚会也是再会。



忽然间大家为了要离别而惆怅。毕竟5个月说长不长，说短不短。
相遇是缘分，能融洽快乐的相处是福分。
很开心在台湾的日子能交到你们这些朋友。
很感激有这样的机会。


我要带着愉快地心情去旅行。不能沉沦在惆怅中。
没时间附照片和video..等旅行回来再补放。

最近觉得要用中文才可以更准确地表达我的心情...我中文的确进步了...

一個字：累

hostel moving has never been so tiring.. bye bye 7406.. welcome to 1234..

where are the guys when i need them? moving alone is so pathetic..
and to think that i moved so hard and clean so hard juz to stay in the new room for 3 nites and i'm going away for holiday...

i;m definitely looking forward to the holidays..

so much so that i'm in no mood to complete my last report on gangster movies..

blessed to be a Singaporean

we the exchange students had lunch with the head of radio and television department today.. with us we also had this student 翠云 from Myanmar who's in NCCU on a degree course.

as we were talking and asking her about Myanmar, that was when i felt really blessed to be a Singaporean.

She hasn't gone back to Myanmar since she came to Taiwan 2 yrs ago.
And her family hasn't been able to visit her here because of the difficulty in applying a travel visa.

When we Singaporeans go travelling, we hardly give a thought able having to apply for visas cos most popular tourist destinations do not require a visa for Singaporeans. Singapore had done a good job in its foreign policy and had established great ties with many countries worldwide, that is why we Singaporeans can take something like travelling without worrying about things like visa for granted.

Taiwan's status internationally is kinda wierd, so when they travel, they always had to worry about visas. The Chinese also cannot come to Taiwan for a holiday so easily.

Something as simple as not having to worry about visas makes me feel blessed as a Singaporean.

anti ah bian rally...

i was supposed to be studying for international relations exam tmr.. but just din have the mood..
so end up spending my time editing this video on the rally.. hahaha..

new look...

getting sick of the look of my blog..
went to blogskin and juz used one of those..
act there're lots of creative materials there..
hope that one day i will make a blog that is really of my own..
for now shall juz used someone else' work..



due to the change in skin, some words became hard to read.. sorry about that..

darn weather

another thing that adds to my unhappiness: the weather..

17 consecutive days of 大雨特报！

can it stop raining??

让人生气的一件事

今天开开心心的到院电（传院的电脑室）去把很努力写好的跨文化作业列印出来，谁知道却遇上的令人生气的政大学生。

不知怎么搞得今天院电超多人，几乎所有电脑都被占据。找了半天才发现到唯一一台空着的电脑，因为是连接彩色列印机，所以没人用。虽然我只是想要印黑白，但是在想反正只有那台可以用就用吧。

那电脑很白痴，每次要开word document都要读取很久。终于弄好了，开始印我的东西，谁知道在我买纸放纸的那两分钟内就有人占据了那台电脑。跟可恶的是他们把我的档案关了！！！还把我的thumbdrive拔了出来！！想怎样？？？

档案开着，书包在椅子上，连thumbdrive都还插着，看不出有人在用是不是？！？

结果我走回去，站在电脑旁，盯着他们看，他们却装作若无其事继续用。可恶！！
后来因为他们的档案有问题，就走了。我也因为纸被卡住，必须再印，所以又往列印机走了一次。

这次，他们又再一次霸占了那台电脑，还想下在什么MSN来传档案。What the heck?? 我气了，就跟男生说：“不好意思，我正在用，你们可不可以等我弄完才用？”
那个男生就装傻跟他的同学说：“eh...人家在用..." 才走开了。

装屁啊！明明刚才就看到我在用，现在还装！生气！

我知道你们要印彩色的，但是你们也应该知道first come first serve的道理吧？

你们不是大学生吗？不懂得什么叫做“问”啊？你好好的问我是否可以让你用电脑我还会开开心心让你用！明明知道有人在用，还装瞎，关我的档案，而且完全不觉得不好意思的你们，应该是小学生吧！

a busy day in Taipei

it was a busy busy day in Taipei yesterday..

First, there was the Anti-Presidential Rally that according to the organizers, attracted more than 10000 ppl.. well us included.. how could we miss something like that while in Taiwan? Plus there was the lure that i could actually see Ma Ying Jiu give a speech but we were too late in the end and missed his speech..

Still, it was a great eye-opener to see politicians and citizens alike scolding the President openly.. i was initially afraid that we might not be able to find the place but then there was signs to lead us there from the MRT.. haha.. the police were juz making sure cars dun enter roads they should not.. everyone was so high shouting "阿扁！ 下台！" and agreeing with whatever nonsense the person was talking about on stage.. it's kinda funny.. definitely refreshing sight for someone from Singapore where congregation of more than 5 ppl are considered illegal gathering..

Well, most ppl that turned up were aunties and uncles n grandmas n grandpas.. we are like one of those few in the 20s that were there.. and we were more concerned with taking photos than listening to what they have to say obviously.. we saw another group of teens who were obviously foreigners trying to understand what is happening.. haha..

and the 2nd big event was 金曲獎.. i wanted to go watch it live so much! but dunno how to get tickets so bo bian had to watch it in hall with the other gals at the tv area.. actually i only caught the last part.. it's been so long since i've seen Yanzi in the media.. tho i would love to see her perform.. (maybe she did but i missed it?).. anyway congrats to Tanya for getting Best Female Vocalist!! altho it's a bit sad that Yanzi din get it (but i feel that her last album wasn't exactly her best.. ), i'm still really happy that Tanya got it! She's Singaporean too! I feel the pride!

alright enough for now.. back to reports!! spent the whole morning sorting the photos of the rally yesterday! can go take a look ppl...

the end of the semester...

the semester has non-officially ended.. cos now there's juz exams n reports left.. no more lessons to go to.. update: i've still got 1 international relations exam left and 2 reports to complete..

the end of the semester also means more photo-taking..

the intercultural masters class.. well i took a masters class! it was not as tought as i tot it would be really.. there are onli like 11 students in the class so this is abt 70% the class size lah..

radio production class' visit to Wave Radio station.. it's one of the radio station with the highest listenership in Taipei.. but the place is pretty small and the PR personnel is really lousy.. there's students from NTU (Singapore and Taiwan.. haha), Malaysians and even a Korean in this class.. pretty interesting combi..

our infomation society tutor.. he is one naggy teacher but his lessons are one of those that i enjoy more.. we chatted away for an hr on the probloems of nccu or taiwans uni system and he keeps saying that he wans to do sth about it but has limited influence.. well, hope his ideals get thru and taiwan's uni students can be enlightened..

from info soc class: Ileen and Michiyo.. Ileen is Taiwanese but spent half her life in South Africa while Michiyo is half Japanese.. we juz haf to do the 'peace' sign.. i used to think that it's a jap thing but now i realised it's a taiwan thing too.. well, taiwanese juz embrace everything from japan.. yes everything...

my masterpieces..

muz show these off.. went shopping around 東區 last friday and came across this shop selling beads in all shapes and sizes so me n Iris decided to try our hands at making our own earrings!

here's my masterpieces..

the one on the left is made from paper clips.. hahah.. ok lah not very spectacular but i'm still proud of my first pairs of hand-made earrings.. my fingers were sore after trying to hard to bend those metal wires..

mourning over my lost t-shirt

realised i lost a shirt today.. a green shirt i really like.. and i bought it the last time i was in taiwan..
i totally have no idea where it could have been.. juz flown out of my closet.. sigh..

makes me even more depressed today..

graduation...

the end is near and so here comes the graduation ceremony..
i've nv gotten to see NTU's convocation (i believe it's pretty boring..), but nccu make everyone notice theirs cos they are to blast music and march across the campus early in the morning at 7am such that those staying in the hostel within the school will definitely be notified.. (thank god my hostel is outside the school compund..)

graduation is another event that calls for photo-taking and hence we shall not miss the opportunity...

but since we are exchange students, don't really know many graduating students, so we had fun taking photos among ourselves nonetheless.. :P


congratulations Wanyu on completing her bachelor's degree in NCCU and all the best in doing her master's starting september..

a bachelor's degree is nothing much here becos lots of them would go on to do master's degree.. seems to be a trend here.. some do it because they still do not know what career they want, some do it because they still do not want to get a job or think that the job market is weak.. of course there are those that truly has the passion for it..

someone once told me, in taiwan 大學高中化，研究所大學化

and i think the trend is so also becos of their pursuit to get in a good uni regardless of what course they are offered.. every course has their own so-called cut-off grade and they can fill up to 100 courses that they want based on their high school results.. so whenever we ask people in nccu ‘你爲什麽會想要念這個系？’, their standard answer will be ‘因爲剛好填志願選上。’ many go thru uni not doing what they really want to do, so they feel lost when they complete their degree..

so in a way it's good that singapore onli has 3 unis, then the notion of wanting to get into a 'branded' school is not that great and we can choose based on what we really want to do.. (or so i think)

the arrival of june...

the arrival of june will soon mark my 4th month here..
it's 11 days to my last lesson in nccu
and (tentatively) 33 days to my returning to Singapore..
(should be back on 7th July.. i like the date.. haha)

here comes the days of counting down..

there's still 2 exams coming up (one of which is tml)
3 and a half reports undone..
but my heart is in Hualian, wanting to enjoy my holiday already!