Day 76 -- Monday blues

I guess that knee injury I had yesterday caused my really foul mood earlier today. Didn't sleep well and woke up with a HUGE bruise on my knee. But then, I still went for training in the evening and even did jumping jacks. I'm really all out to torture myself, but that's what I excel in :p

Now I'm rushing all my assignments, hopefully I can get them edited soon! I need my sleep :(

Day 75 -- An impromptu trip to 小琉球!

Went to 小琉球 with Miyuki today! To cut the long story short, we had some other plans for this weekend, but due to many circumstances, it became a trip to dong gang and xiao liu qiu at the very last moment. Perhaps it's only a short day trip for 2, we managed to finish planning our itinerary within 2 hours, which includes where to go, how to go and when to go, etc. I really love such efficiency!

Anyway, back to the trip. It's only took us 1 hour to reach dong gang and another 30 min ferry ride to xiao liu qiu. Perhaps what's the most exciting thing about today was just the ferry rides. Sailing in the open Pacific Ocean, the waves were so strong that the whole ferry ride was so rocky! Luckily we made it safe and sound. Just to think about the Korean incident, it must been a terrifying experience for all the passengers, living or dead.

The island is actually quite enjoyable, with the scenic views, the caves and the sea! Not too mad a weekend getaway for locals. Luckily I'm here for exchange, or else, this is certainly no the place I will want to visit if I'm on a tight schedule.

After the day spent in the island, we then went to dong gang for an awesome dinner, with fresh Sashimi and grilled oysters! NTD 150 for a big plate of oysters, just for the 2 of us. And they were so fat and juicy!! This is really bringing extravagance to a whole new level!

But now that the day is over, it's back to another week of studying, training, and school. Good luck to me. Ciao~

Day 74 -- An efficient day!

Went to 新倔江 again this afternoon with Miyuki, Adeline and Alejandra (girls whom i met in dragon boat) to source for our dragon boat tee! And within 2 hours, we managed to get the designs and the quotations done. Now it's just to place the orders and we are almost done! As usual, we walked around the shopping district after getting our things done. Wanted to get myself a formal blazer and saw some really nice ones, but they're either too casual or too expensive. Guess I will have to go again soon, because I need them for the PILOT Global conference I'm attending this coming Friday. (It's so fast I don't even know what to do now :O)

And I came back to dorm with my electricity bill pasted on the door of my room -.- SGD 10 is gone for 1.5 months of EXTRA UNITS of electricity used. Now I really wonder what was the limit given to us, given the fact that I only on the air-conditioning when I sleep -.- And the woes of no roomie = I got to foot the bill ALL BY MYSELF~

Day 73

Had the facilitator training for the PILOT GLOBAL conference in the evening then dinner at some random noodle shop at Yan Cheng Pu with Miyuki. We agree that we somehow always stumble across nice, random eateries along the way. Yesterday was just one of the many times this happened! We then had shaved ice and one of the ingredients was RAW egg! Yes, it's something new, so both of us decided to give it a try and it was good! And for the first time in my life, I tried 'frying' an egg in ice, or rather it is more accurate to say 'freezing'. looking at the runny yoke solidify right in our eyes is just, fascinating. Then again, I believed I'm just being suaku because there are still so many things I didn't see before! 

Ok, so we walked to 新倔江, did a little shopping and chilled at xizi bay. Our conclusion: we love our exchange, but KS can get really boring after a while :(

Day 72 -- End of hell week!

Finished 2 papers today and hello my dear long weekends! I had so much trouble concentrating during the 2 papers today because all I wanted was my bed in dorm. But I still managed to finish the papers on time and hopefully I did not submit any rubbish to the teachers. I can't really do anything to them since I had already submitted them, but now it's party time!

I'm already making plans for the long weekends and I really hope I can fulfil them, one by one. Now it's time to crash 'cause I'm dead beat.

Day 71 -- Mugging day

Spent the whole day (literally!) studying for my 2 papers tomorrow and I'm not sure if it's because I haven't really started studying, it seems like a whole torrent of information that's engulfing upon me. No joke. When I looked at the notes, it felt as though I'd read them somewhere, but then when I reviewed it again, they looked alien to me.

I can't even remember when was the last time I studied so hard for, erm Mid terms? This is really unheard of from me I think. But this only shows that I got to buck up in order to ensure I can get all my credits transferred back in NTU #sadlifedoesn'tendhere

And I do think I'm getting less and less resilient to stress. Looking at the amount  of snacks I had just now and the urge to club right after all these papers are strong evidence I need to build up on my stress management. It seems like the stress-resilient Vivience wasn't brought along in this trip.

Back to my notes again.. And hopefully I can sleep by 3~

Day 70 -- First mid terms

Just had my first mid terms paper in NSYSU today! Stayed up late last night to study for it and went to take it in a half-asleep mode. But thank God nothing unexpected was tested and I managed to complete it without much difficulties. But seriously, we were given ~2.5 hours to complete what is considered a relatively straight forward paper. It's either that the paper was deemed too hard or the lecturer just want to give us a mid term break after our paper as well. Oh well, I don't care, because what mattered the most was the extra time I had for completing the paper early!

So I have another 2 more to go on Thursday and I am done with the mid terms in NSYSU. Come to think of it, I really don't have much time for the next 2 papers, so I better buck up and start studying now!

Ciao~

Day 69 -- Halfway there!

Today marks the mid point of my exchange days. From now on it's going to be a series of countdowns I guess.. Soon I'll be counting down to my last papers, last presentation, last assignment, ultimately that fateful last day. Oh wells, but first let me countdown to my last mid terms. Can't wait for Thursday to come!!

I'm keeping this post really short because I am still trying to squeeze all the information for my test tomorrow morning. Someone wish me luck please, I need lots of it right now. Ok, papers are never my forte. Never were and neither will it be in the future..

Day 68 -- I'm done with my dream board!

Spent the bulk of the day trying to finish organising my portfolio and dreamboard for tomorrow's submission. And this made me realise how  fast time had actually passed. It doesn't seem long before when we were given this assignment and tomorrow it's going to be due. Well, this also mean that I am soon approaching the mid point of my exchange here in Taiwan. Soon enough I'll be counting down to my return back to Singapore, that sunny island~

Despite it being my mid terms week, I'm still chilling and spending so much time on unproductive things instead of studying for the coming papers. Seems like i chillax a tad too serious. Well, I can only redeem myself by doing a little mugging now. Hopefully it helps!

Dream board <3

Day 67 -- Back to Tainan!

Spent the whole day in Tainan with my fellow group mates in Tainan today because of a school project we got to do. For the first time (and most  probably the last), I saw 阵头 and the rituals undergone to celebrate the birthday of a Chinese deity! It's indeed an eye-opening experience for me, not to mention the way they set off the firecrackers. So much firecrackers being set off just in a day! And this is not even the actual birthday celebration (which will be on Monday, but me has exams :( )

Well, spent 4 hours in the temple, running around just to get the best pictures, videos; and for me, actually the spot to watch the whole ritual, since I know I will most probably not make it back for any of such activities in Taiwan in the near future. But those 4 hours felt like a long time. I blamed it to the lack of sleep.

After the trip to the temple, we had our R&R at Anping! Had the famous prawn rolls (not very special IMO), 棺材板, and the Anping beancurd for dessert! Out of everything I had yesterday, the beancurd was indeed dope. I love it when they have the beans on top of them. Frankly speaking, I'm not sure if I liked the beancurd or the beans :p

Yup, that kind of summarized my day and seriously I'm already a walking dead by the time we took the train back to Kaohsiung!

Well, pictures and videos will be up soon, stay tuned~

Day 66 -- Prepping for a long day ahead!

Had a project discussion at Family Mart with my group mates earlier on because we are setting off to Tainan early tomorrow for a field trip. Another cultural learning trip, this time to learn about a local festival which in Taiwan. 三月疯妈祖 -- meaning the craze for Ma-zu in March. And tomorrow shall be the day I experience for myself what are some of the activities they will have for the celebration of the birthday of Ma-zu.

I'm kinda excited for it, but right now, I got to sleep because I got to wake up by 5am later. So I hope I will have more to update tomorrow! Nights :)

Day 65 -- Start of intensive mugging for mid terms!

Done with my last day of lessons and training for the week and it's back to intensive mugging for the coming midterms for the weekends!

So I'm going to list out what I have to complete this week.
4 videos to be watched and analysed
3 mid terms exams to study for
20% left of my portfolio
1 day field trip to Tai Nan

Oh wells, 这真的是名副其实的“时间不够用” :(

I'm already looking forward to next Thursday to come!!!

Day 64 -- A productive day in the library

How I spent my free day -- with my books and assignments. Perhaps I haven't really done much assignment this semester, it felt so good when I am striking off the assignments due one by one. But I got to speed up the process because my mid terms are just next week and I am seriously not prepared at all. What's more, I got 3 videos to complete and analyse by next Tuesday. Really can't wait for next week to end! Then it's another few weeks of relaxation before the much dreaded finals approach!

Day 63 -- What a splashing good training!

So, today is the first pool training I have with the girls team for the Tainan competition in the pool and it was a great one! I started training really tired and seriously speaking, I would have very much skipped the session if not for having pushed myself further. But I'm so glad I'm teamed with a bunch of fun and really awesome girls!

Got to mix around and talk to different people of different nationalities all in NSYSU for different purposes. Some are here for exchange, some for masters and some are just here to study Chinese. How cool! 

Back to the training, it was tough, but like the title mentioned, I really had a SPLASHING good time today at the pool!

Can't wait for more to come, but first let me rest my sore arms.

Anyway, if you are free, do support my friend's video here! It's a parody on #SELFIE! :D

Day 62 -- It's the start of revision week for the mid terms!

Yup, the title shows it all~ The coming 2 weeks are going to be really busy because of all the mid terms quizzes that are coming up! But i believe I can do this because honestly speaking I have only 3 quizzes which is much lesser as compared to what I'd dealt with back in Singapore. So as long as I start early, I should be able to do them (fingers crossed)!

Anyway, had our training earlier on and our instructor told us a bad news. The dragonboat competition in Kaohsiung has been called off due to a lack of funding. Now we can only pin our hopes to the one in Tainan and hopefully we can get to compete in it! Please pray for us too! Or else the trainings for the past 1.5 months will be in vain!

Day 61 -- Assignment marathon in the library

So I spent the whole Sunday in the library trying to get my assignment done. It's just practising how to cite using the APA format, 12 questions but I spent 6 hours just to complete it! OMG, what a tedious process, but I believe this is going to be so useful to me, especially when I'm doing my FYP in my senior year!

And though it was difficult, I was so blessed to have chose a spot in the library where I can oversee the seaview! It's really difficult to capture the beauty of it with my phone camera, but nonetheless I want to share it with you guys! :)

Day 60 -- It's a buddy date!

Woke up early this morning despite getting back to the dorm only at 4am because I had a brunch date with le buddy, Alice!

She brought me to this Chinese tea concept restaurant (天仁名茶) at Sanduo which sells dishes related to tea and gave me a ssurprise treat! And the quality of the food -- mama mia~ We each ordered a set meal which was approximately NTD350 each but the quantity exceeded what I was expecting from a Singaporean standard! I was so full after the whole meal I can barely walk!

While we were casually chatting over lunch, she told me about this internship that she's applying for right now. If she managed to get a place, she will be able to do her summer internship in Singapore! I really hope that she will get it so I can bring her around Singapore just like how she'd been a really good host to me :)

Day 59 -- partying!

Greetings from club lamp!! Finally after 8 weeks I get to experience the club scene here! And im loving every moment of it because of the free flow drinks!! O.M.G! This is something I don't get in Singapore! Ok, I'll update more tomorrow! Ciao~

[/edit]

I really had a great time in Lamp last night! The music was good and not to mention the drinks! But I feel that the locals here seemed to be quite calm, in which I meant there weren't much people in the dance floor as what I'd expected. If I'm to compare, the place seems like a KS version of Butter Factory back in Singapore, but the music offered here is better, IMO. And I tried a new drink which I fall in love with immediately! It's called APPLE SOUR, something I'd not seen back at home (or maybe I'm just noob). It's so refreshing and nice! Despite the name, it's not sour at all, which makes me think that perhaps SOUR is just the type alcohol used to make this mix. Oh wells, I shall google about it and hopefully I can try mixing my own Apple sour back at home :)

Day 58 -- What a tiring day

Thursdays have always been my craziest day. Lessons from 10-6 with only one hour lunch break in between, then dragonboat training at 6.30pm. However, today seemed like the worst Thursday I had ever since I got here.

Firstly, I had a really terrible insomnia. Just imagine it's such a hectic school day for me and all I had was only 4 hours of unfitful sleep. Wasted (literally) 1+ hour at the police station because of some dispute with my debit card, but it's been resolved.

Anyway, I've got a presentation just now, and I SCREWED IT BIG TIME. No exaggeration. I meant it. I thought I was quite well prepared. Yet, when it's my turn to lead the class into the activity I'm in charge of, I couldn't and worse still I forgot what I'd prepared beforehand. Without any notes to refer to, you can sort of have an idea how bad I fare for this presentation. And all I'm left with is the fnal assignment coming in a few weeks time. Hopefully by then I can score better.

Right now, I'm making myself really tired so I can have a proper sleep tonight. Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow, it'll be a better ahead!

Ciao~

Day 57 -- First training in the pool!

We had our first training in the pool today! Oh gosh, I didn't expect it to be so tedious, like seriously! The paddling and the team work involved. This is really going to be tough but I believe we can all make it through!

Credits to a fellow teammate who took this while she's taking a break! 

Day 56 -- I forgot about posting!

LOL! I actually forgot to post last night! I must say it was rather an uneventful day in school, only that we got trolled by one of the lecturers again -.- I prepared for a mini test that was supposed to be given yesterday, but it was 'unknowingly' cancelled and all she said that it will be in the coming midterms. So much for losing sleep just to study for that, seriously -.-

Later in the evening, I went to have some me-time at Xiziwan with a can of beer and some crackers. Just stoning by the bay.. This was exactly the kind of life I'd been wanting to experience for a long time, but not very easy to in the concrete jungle of Singapore.. Oh wells..

Yup, as you can see that's really boring right? :p

Day 55 -- Splitting into groups

Seems like today is the day for me to know my groups for the only 2 international activities I have in NSYSU.

Firstly, I am supposed to know what are my groups for the coming 3 presentations for my cross cultural leadership module. Yes, 3 presentations in 1.5 months. This is a little crazy but I am not complaining, because my lecturer always did her best to deliver each lesson!

Also, we finally received our groupings for dragonboat. I am placed into the international team. It's exciting because I'm alone in the team with team mates of different nationalities. But sadly, I can't be in the same team with the girls. Out instructor 'gladly' split the 3 of us into different categories. Time to meet new people, so YAY :)

(Sidenote)
I was just updating my scheduler and I can see myself being on tremendous stress because mid terms are approaching in 2 weeks and I am not prepared for them at all! Time to start studying and stop thinking about having fun :(

For now, I got to study for my mini test.. There goes my sleep tonight again...

Day 54 -- End of Spring Break

Today is the last day of Spring Break and also our last day in Kenting. Since school is starting and so is all our mid terms and presentations, we decided that we want to take it slow today. So, all we did was to chill at the Baisha beach for the whole afternoon. We rented a huge umbrella (which was kind of a waste of money, since there wasn't any sun at all) and did some people watching, enjoying, or rather freezing from the winds. It was a great afternoon. Allowing time to pass by us just like this, appreciating what nature has for us --  the beautiful seas and skies.

I really enjoy such small treats for myself, especially after spending the past one week travelling from places to places. I never knew travelling can be so tiring! But nonetheless, I must admit I had fun travelling around, knowing more about Taiwan, seeing more of its beauty!

After 9 days of travelling, spring break has finally ended today. I thank you for being part of my journey in discovering more of this peninsula I'm in. I hope I can get the pictures sorted out as soon as possible. There are just too many pictures to share! Ciao~

Day 53 -- Touring Kenting

Today we toured around Kenting, by that I meant some of the more prominent attractions.

As I was researching on this trip, I came across a post on a travel forum saying that we can miss this place altogether because there isn't much to see. Well, I do agree to this if you are not into coral reefs nor are you prepared to get yourself wet or some sunlight.

Nonetheless, I had much fun today just walking around the Eluanbi and getting myself semi wet at 小湾.

After dinner we went to 出火 where we saw land with burning fire all year round. An interesting phenomenon God has created. We had so much fun playing with the fire sparklers and took so many pictures with it! ^^

Tomorrow's gonna be the last day at Kenting, and also the last day of ny Spring Break. I'm gonna miss all the places I'd been but if I can, I'll definitely plan a similar one in the future!

P.S. I'm so in love with the traditional cakes sold in Heng Chun, just like the one I had in Puli a few days back!

Day 52 -- Kenting Spring Wave Music Festival!

I have just so much to tell you guys about this music festival! It's my first ever outdoot music concert and I'm totally in love with the concept! There'll be more to come, I'm definite about it :)

The artistes today were MonkeyPilot (?), 陈珊妮, Hebe, MC Hotdog and S.H.E! Other than the first band which I have completely no idea who they were, the performances by the rest of the artistes were superb! And of course nothing will go wrong with S.H.E ending the concert with a bang (cliche.. I know but it's really that case!!)!

I had so much fun just singing along with them, moving to the catchy groove of their music, and simply just immersing myself in good music and great company, which means the few of the DOC people :))

Tomorrow's another day of exploring Kenting and I just hope that the weather wouldn't be as gloomy as today amd that I can get some sun for tanning!! And of course for the famous 落山风 won't be as strong!

Alright, some pictures before I sleep!

Nights!

Day 50, Day 51 -- 充满古早味的古城：台南

For the past 2 days I'd been in Tainan, the ancient capital of Taiwan. We were lucky to have met a really awesome hostel owner because our trip to Tainan was highly disorganized. We only know about an old fortress and some of the food that we want to try, then that was it. We did not even have the slightest idea of how to commence on our trip! But the owner patiently briefed us about this ancient city and even told us how we can plan our trip around Tainan ( cuz ours was a rather short one)!

So in less than 24 hours, we managed to cover the more famous sites like the Chikhan Tower, the Confucius Temple, Wu Sheng Night Market and the An Ping old street / Fort Zeelandia :) Just as it's known for its historical sites, there are also lots of authentic Taiwanese food available, so this trip was actually a fooding trip! Not a moment were we hungry!

I'm certainly going back there for the food and thank God it's only 1hr train ride from Kaohsiung, so I can always make a short day trip over :D

As for now, I'm slacking in dorm till we make our way down to Kenting tomorrow for the Spring wave music festival! I'm seriously so excited for the concert!! ^^

Day 49 -- Last day at Nantou; Cingjing farm

Went to the famous Cing Jing farm today! Because it's situated on the highlands, the bus ride to and fro was quite a windy one. Thank God for really skilful driver that I didn't really get much motion sickness.

Back to the trip, the farm is known for its sheep! And they were all so cute! It's my first time geting so near to them. These sheep seemed so immune to tourists though. They just continued grazing while we were trying to take pictures around them.

Gave the swiss cottage a miss though because we saw what was on display from afar and decided it's too overrated to be visited.

Later at night we went to chill at this bar (布尔乔亚) which the owner of our guesthouse recommended when we first came. A simple and cosy place which serves a wide variety of drinks which included imported belgium beers which are not much seen in other places!

I should be sleeping now because we are travelling early tomorrow again >.< Ciao!