Day 4

12:30 Am
This will probably be brief since it’s so late and we have to get up extra early tomorrow. Today was a fun day! We went to Tamkang University for a campus tour. Of course it was on a hill so we got a great work out. It was a beautiful campus-I’ll post pictures tomorrow when I’m awake. During the tour we got to visit the marine museum and see lots of scaled models of historic boats.
While this trip is super fun, it is also academic so we sat through a lecture on financial risk management….or as we call it International Finance. I started to pick up on how to read the Chinese characters and can now count to 10. I’ve learned over 20 characters which leaves 5,880 more until they say I will be conversational…that’s disheartening. We broke into groups and were assigned a problem to work on. Mine was regarding risks associated with hedging. I felt rather stupid trying to explain that sometimes it is ok to hedge your risks because they were adamant about it not being necessary. Later on I was informed it was a cultural difference, so I hadn’t been wrong, just different.
Everyone on the tour was super nice. They took us on a tour of the old city which was like a nice version of the night market. It was a great experience! We got to visit a fisherman’s temple, see some brides getting their wedding photos taken, and walk through the market. After the ‘official tour’ was over we broke into group and headed out for dinner. I’m pretty sure most the group got the most Americanized food they could find. I settled for Dominos Pizza which took 20 minutes to cook. It was worth the wait.
Next we backtracked to a little shop in the market that gave foot massages. Ah-mazing doesn’t cover it! The Taiwanese people believe that different tender spots in the feet mean different aliments. Arianna was told her liver was bad, Pat had bad circulation and Josh had issues with his male anatomy. Curious, I asked the lady what my feet meant and her response was don’t even ask, your whole body hurts. I found that funny since it was pretty much true.
Arianna wanted to get a facial so I told her I would get one too so she didn’t have to stay there alone. We probably should have asked the definition of a facial before we bought one because it ended in pain and Arianna crying. They take two strings and pluck out every individual hair off your face. Ouch!
But to make it all better I got bubble tea afterwards.
Arianna, Gannon, Dion, Pat, two of our tour guides and myself all climbed a small mountain (not really but it felt like it after a zillion flights of stairs) to this wonderful restaurant. The view was profound from the balcony-mountains behind the river with the lights of the city below.
It was a long, but wonderful day with some really great friends. I’m finally back in bed ready to crash for the night. I’m a little nervous about going to sleep because there are a zillion mosquitoes and this morning I woke up with some bites that are very suspicious. I don’t know what they are from, but if they are what I suspect my mother won’t ever let me come home. Anyone want to let me move in when I get back?