Taipei, Taiwan

So, I flew from our nice relaxing trip in Canada directly to Taipei. It took about 18 hours to get there, but it was worth it! (international travel always is). I met up with Fiona, a fellow USC graduate student, and Dr. Anderson, a professor in my program.

Fiona and I were participants in the ICC3 - International Cultural Camp. There were about 120 undergraduate and graduate students from all over the world. There were 3 Americans total. About half of the students were from all over Taiwan and the other half were split between lots of countries - including - India, Indonesia, Vietnam, UK, Italy, Korea, The Philippines, Nauru, Cambodia, Russia, Guatemala, Lithuania, Honduras, Thailand, & Jordan. It was so great to be surrounded by people from all over the place. Everyone spoke English, so it was really easy to communicate. I definitely felt a bit ignorant not knowing another language. Maybe this will inspire me to study one! I was fascinated learning about everyone.

Our days were filled with lectures about globalization and multiculturalism - two topics I am extremely interested in. The first day and the last day, Fiona and I had an opportunity to be tourists in Taipei, other than that we were focused on the camp.

Here are some photos of the trip:

This is the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall site. On this site are the National Theater and the National Concert Hall (both under construction in these pictures). Inside is a museum that gives his history about almost single-handedly defeating the Japanese empire. Inside is a sculpture of Chiang Kai-Shek and there were 89 steps to walk up to the sculpture, representing his age when Chiang died. Currently, Taiwan is breaking from the Chiang Kai-shek era. They have changed the title of this place to the "National Taiwan Democracy Monument" but the change has not been totally implemented yet.

This is the Longshan Temple - The temple dates back to 1738. As the story goes, a passer-by left an amulet of the Guanyin (goddess of mercy) hanging on a tree in the site of the present temple, and the amulet shone so brightly, even after dark, that all who passed by knew the site was blessed. This is a multidenominational temple, like most in Taiwan. The Guanyin is the central deity worshiped, but 165 other deities are enshrined here as well.

These pictures are of my group. We were split up into groups of 10. I loved having the opportunity to really get to know these 9 other people really well. 7 were Taiwanese, one Indian, one Korean and me. These pictures were taken at our meal table. We ate all our meals together and sat in lectures together. This isn't everyone, maybe I'll find a picture with us all soon.

Many of the girls were super excited about baby Ely, so they often wanted to take pictures holding my belly. This is Harn, our group leader.

I enjoy video of what the everyday sites are of a different place. This was taken on my way from Taipei to NCTU - a university right outside the city.