Day 137 -- Final day in Taiwan!

It's my last full day in Taiwan! Time passes so fast and I still remember how lost I felt when I first reached Tao Yuan Airport with the fellow Singaporeans 5 months back! Now, I am back at the same place, blogging using the free wifi available here while waiting for my flight at 1 AM  (So technically I am still 138 days away from home.. LOL).

Spent the whole day idling around Taichung city and had lunch at my favourite 宫原眼科 for its awesome sundae and I tried its special milk tea concoction. I had mine named 半梦半醒之间.. I was thinking, how apt is the name to describe my last day in Taiwan.

Walked a bit to find the last of the local specialties to bring home, and yes, I bought a whole bag of them, then went back to the hostel to retrieve my luggage and headed off to the airport.

I'd such a great nap on the bus when I woke up all of a sudden. Shortly after, the bus stopped at one side of the expressway to restart and I realised that the speedometer wasn't working (I was sitting at the first seat, that's why I could see it) and we were only halfway to the airport. Needless to say, I was afraid that driver could not estimate his speed and it was pouring somemore! But thank God, we were stuck in a jam afterwards and this sort of controlled the speed of the bus and the rain stopped too...

So here I am, in the airport, safe and sound and waiting for my check-in. I hope my last minute baggage increment can save my pocket from burning a huge hole for being overweight. Till I reached Singapore in a couple of hours, see yea!

Day 136 -- Unexpected day tour

Met up with my cousin in the morning with no concrete idea where we will go to for the day. All we knew was that we want to visit some lavender garden and we were completely clueless about the itinerary for the rest of the day..

Our first stop was Yi-zhong street because le cousin wanted to look for something, but it was a futile trip because the shop wasn't open. Afterwards, we went to 心之芳庭 and had an awesome time walking around the theme park, which was essentially a huge garden with romantic settings apt for holding weddings and for couple photo shoots.

Just when we were lost about our next stop (it was still quite early to end the day), my cousin's roomie came to the rescue. She was out with her brother and sister-in-law and was intending to do visit the carton king and asked if we were interested. Of course we said yes and joined them! And the best part of it, they drove so we were all seated comfortably in her brother's car for the rest of our trip. And it seemed like my cousin asked if she could stay over at her place (quite last minute), and the family was like 'SURE!' They even included my accommodation but I'd already booked mine at the awesome N JOY Taichung ( I think I may dedicate one post for the hostels I'd stayed during my trips around).

Ok, I'd sidetracked too much.. Carton King was interesting! As the name suggest, everything was made from carton in this theme park! Even the furniture in the restaurant we had our dinner at were all made from cardboard! If you have the time in Taichung, I certainly recommend you to pay this attraction a visit!

During dinner, the brother and sister-in-law was suggesting to end the night at the Jin-Cheng night market in ChangHua and visiting Tung Hai University in TaiChung. Factoring in the fact that I was staying in Taichung, they decided to make a detour by going to the night market then back to tunghai before returning home (which is in Changhua). For this, I was truly grateful for their hospitality! And not to mention they were so funny during the whole trip! It was really enjoyable to travel with awesome locals!

Photos will be uploaded after I return to Singapore because the hard-disk is currently safely (i hope) tucked in a corner in my luggage :D

Day 135 -- Goodbye KS, Hello Tai-Chung

Woke up early to help Miyuki with her luggage and I couldn't sleep afterwards, so in the end I decided to finish off my packing earlier... Gosh, it was harder than what I thought. Not to mention carrying all my belongings to the ground floor! Just in case you don't know, I stay on the 4th level with no elevator and I carried all my bags alone. Thinking about it, it's really crazy but oh wells, I did it, so yay!

Another crazy thing I did was to take the TRA to Tai chung with all my barang-barangs -.- How dumb can I get, but after today's experience, I'd learnt my lesson.. I will not try to take TRA with too much stuff ever again.

And the theme today was -- E.A.T.

I spent the whole day eating! I had the railway bento (like finally!) on my way to taichung. And because I already had the plan to eat my day 1 away in Taichung today so yups, the only part of my body that moved the most was my mouth :p

Had nice ice cream from 宫原眼科, the original bubble tea from 春水堂（本店 somemore!). And the eating continued after I reached 逢甲夜市. Had the famous 大肠包小肠, which was also my first; 红茶臭豆腐, which I ordered because I saw that they had korean kimchi in it; Matcha red bean egg tart which was MEH~; and a lemonade in a box. It was so so, but I bought it because the packaging looked cute *facepalm*

Was so full from all the eating but I'm not regretting it at all. If I don't eat them now, I will truly regret it when I return! So, let me grow fat and enjoy all the nice food now then worry about the massive weight gain later :p

Day 134 -- Final Farewell with friends

It seemed like it was the day for final goodbyes with new friends made in Taiwan.

I had lunch at this restaurant called 异人馆 in a district near 左营。Other than Xin fang (who was the classmate who treated all of us), there was also her other friends, Li chun and Zhu laoshi. Didn't expect it to be so many people, but it was during lunch that she mentioned that it's a lunch with combined purpose. Firstly, a farewell to me, then a celebration of her getting 1st in some competition, and to thank her friend for supporting her. But nonetheless, I was glad to know new people even though it was technically my last day in Kaohsiung. Li Chun was a really friendly girl, and perhaps our ages are relatively close, it seemed like we can relate to many things. Zhu laoshi on the other hand, was a very wise lady. If I have the opportunity to talk to her more, I believe there will be so many things I can learn from her! And as usual, Xing Fang was the life of the group. With her, there's no need to worry about a lack to conversation topics :p

After lunch, I met Miyuki at the beach to catch our last sunset in NSYSU. Just idling on the shore, looking out into the horizon, watching the setting sun and listening to the waves as they hit the shores. It's a feeling I will not forget. Neither will it be an experience I will get to enjoy in the near future (assuming I am stuck in Singapore most of the year).

After the sun had set, we went to meet Alice for one final meetup this exchange. We had Shark Bites, as were craving for the awesome Chocolate Banana Waffles we had in the beginning of the semester with the Japanese neighbours. But dinner was disappointing. We ordered the waffles only to see that it wasn't anywhere near to what we saw or ate a few months back :( But nonetheless, it was good to meet my buddy for the last time on the last day in Kaohsiung. Take care my dear buddy and hope to see you soon!

I had such a long day, yet it felt so fast. Too fast, too soon, I am bidding this awesome place farewell.

Day 133 -- Goodbye Minyu!

Sent Minyu to meet her family! It seemed only a short while ago that we arrived in Taiwan together and now we are heading home one by one. This is simply too fast! But luckily we're all in the same university and still able to see each other next semester!

Enjoy your time with your family and see you next sem, Minyu! :)

Day 132 -- I'm finally done with the semester!

Had my last presentation and I am finally done with school! It had been a grueling few hours before the presentation as I was still trying to edit the final draft to be sent to the lecturers. And to top it off, the weather was so hot I thought I could melt anytime!

But nonetheless I'm so glad I'm officially done with studying in Taiwan and it's time to pack and say goodbye to Taiwan soon :(

Day 131 -- Happy Birthday to me!

HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY TO ME! It's my first birthday spent abroad and thank God I have a bunch of awesome friends to celebrate it with me :)

We were having a gathering at the international dorm, enjoying Pepa's food and alcohol from Czech when the lights were off. At first I didn't even suspect anything (my phone wasn't with me and I'm not very time conscious even with my watch on :p) then I saw the candle lights. Surprise surprise! Guess the 武嶺girls are getting more creative with their surprise planning! Thank you all who were involved! I'm truly blessed with the love showered!

Went to the salon with Miyuki in the afternoon to get our hair done. After a long and painful 3 months wait, the end of the semester is finally here for me to dye my hair! Did something daring this time round because I was really tired of the red/copper/blonde hair I had for the past 5 years! So, cheers to a new change :)

We then met up with Alice after doing our hair for dinner :) We wanted to try the pasta shop recommended by Maggie near Pier 2, but the sudden rain forced us to have our plans changed. In the end we had Korean cuisine, which was affordable and nice!

Thank you to all for the birthday wishes, be it online or offline! Ciaos~

Day 130 -- Last Trip to Taipei

Disclaimer: This did not happen in a single day but I'm just going to squeeze in the events into one post because it's going to make life easier.

My first stop was Ximending after settling in Lamb Tour House. I wanted to spend some time at Shihlin initially but I reached the hostel too late to explore 2 places in one night, so I decided to go to Ximending instead. I was practically there just to eat all the good food, things I didn't get to eat in my previous trips to Taipei or food that I missed so much. So if you read my previous post, you would be amazed at the amount I had on top of my dinner.. It was so so much! But so satisfying!

I visited the National Palace Museum the next day and the exhibitions were really nice! It's not common to see stuff that's dated in the 6th century and it really made me wonder how dedicated the craftsmen were to be able to create such delicate pieces. But I wasn't able to enjoy the trip much because my whole body was aching from the race! Thank God I was given free entry because I'm a student in Taiwan!

After visiting and getting some specialties of Taipei, it was time to head back to Kaohsiung. I'm glad that I managed to cover most of the places in Taipei this exchange, but I'm certainly coming back for more Taipei goodness~

Day 129 -- Taiwan Conquered!

Didn't slept a wink after Lamp to prepare for my first ever obstacle 10KM course with the dragon boat friends, Hannah, Arnaud and Sebastian, and also 2 other friends of  Sebastian, Iris and Misa. All of us, other than Sebastian who overslept but still made it in time at Taipei, met up at 6AM to catch the northbound coach. The only rest Hannah, Arnaud and I had was just the few of sleep on the coach because the 3 of us were at the dinner and the after party just a few hours prior to the meeting time!

Before we can even reach the starting pen, we had to go over a piece of wall! And there were 20 other obstacles we had to pass for the remaining 10KM. Some stations were really easy, and some were hard. And the rest were just made harder with the heavy rain. that accompanied us throughout the race. We were so pumped up in the beginning of the race, running from stations to stations, but after a few stations later, we decided to finish the distance by walking. And when the rain started, it was just a legit reason to continue walking.

It was a great experience getting ourselves wet and muddy, and it was a great experience to have with friends, because you need some kind of teamwork for almost all the stations.

On the side note, due to poor baggage management, our bags were drenched from the rain and I meant soaking wet. Thank God we were given a finisher tee so we still had a dry clean top when we went back.

Had dinner with the group before I left for my hostel in Taipei (I'm writing about the trip in the next post), and we were all famished and deadbeat from all the workout and the rain. But it was an awesome experience!

Day 128 -- Farewell was made easier with partying

A few of us surprised Dunia with dinner at Mr. Onion... It was a good mix of her friends from Guatemala  as well as friends made during dragon boat. So guess which one do I belong? (No prizes for the correct guess though :P) It was a great dinner, and perhaps a memorable one I should add. It was the last dinner in Taiwan for Phillippe and many girls were leaving on Monday or Tuesday, so it was really one of the last few moments we can actually sit together for a proper meal. It seemed like time passed so fast with good company. We ate and chatted till the restaurant was closing and it was so hard to say goodbye to some of them. But goodbyes were inevitable and who knows perhaps in the future, our paths may cross.

The after dinner activity was at Lamp and it's more of enjoying the moment with the company than to enjoy ourselves. But nonetheless, we all had our share of fun dancing and drinking together for the last time. But I have a race on the next day (read about it on Day 129!), so I can't party for the whole night with them, and had to leave halfway.

So if the physical goodbyes weren't enough, goodbye my dear friends. Take care and God bless. I certainly hope to meet up with you guys again in the future!

Day 127 -- Finally Finished!

After 2 papers and 1 presentation squeezed in a day, I am finally (unofficially) done with all my papers! Reminiscing the past week, it was crazy! But it is also only in Taiwan can I start studying for my finals just one week prior to the papers and still try to manage it. I can never do this in NTU, never.

Perhaps I looked offended (blame it on my 'default' face) when the teacher or classmates side-tracked to other unrelated topics during class, my drama review teacher actually asked me into her office and apologised (?) to me for side-tracking. I didn't mind because I felt it added life to the classes, but oh wells.

Went for Pavel's rooftop (farewell) BBQ party after lessons and I'm so thankful that I got a free ride to Love River from one of my favourite classmate from creative drama! She was always so helpful, especially when I was struggling with ideas for my assignments she actually helped me with it. Not to mention the free ride from the Fine Arts Building to the Gym every week so that I will not be late for my training every Thursday!

Back to the BBQ, Pavel was a really great host, making sure we had food and was comfortable, which wasn't much of a problem because the people present was either friends or friends of friends. In short, we were all connected. We had a great time eating and hanging out as usual, and I tried this national drink of Czech Republic, Slivovice, for the first time! It was so nice! The alcohol content was really high, and it did burn a little, but the taste and texture was so smooth! I'm certainly going to try more if I ever have the chance to visit the country! 

Day 126 -- Sleep deprived

I concussed last night at 10, and set my alarm to 5am, thinking I will have ample rest before doing another day of revision. But I guess I screwed my body clock, and I only napped for 2 hours before I realised I couldn't sleep anymore! So I mugged till 5 and decided to go for a morning run. It was crazy, but I'm glad I did.. The fresh air and the endorphin my body generated after the run certainly did wonders for my revision afterwards.

After revising for more than half the day, I made an impromptu decision to go to the beach for a short sunset gathering with the other international students! It was great meeting up with some of them because people were leaving, and though we say we will meet again, what's really the chances of us meeting again in such a huge group?

After the short meetup it was mugging again. As usual, I was disgusted by the sight of the books.

Day 125 -- Guardian Angel?

I had lessons till 7PM in the Fine Arts Building and as usual I was just making my way down the hill to get back to the dorm when a bike stopped in front of me out of the blue. Initially I thought the motorist wanted to ask for directions (I get a lot of such questions), but to my surprise, he offered to give me a ride down the hill! And I'd never seen him before! It was very much a blessing because I'd been having so little sleep and at the end of the day I'm so tired that I sometimes wish I don't have to return to my room!

So, whoever you are, I'm really thankful for the ride down the hill! And of course, I also want to thank another classmate of mine, Sylvie, who always asked if I need a ride to the Fine Arts Building or out of that place whenever she saw me! So yup, thank you! And if you are reading this, all the best to your future endeavours and happy graduation!

Day 124 -- Last cross cultural leadership class

This week marks the week of finals... (Note: It's not the final week because I still have one lesson next week -.-) And it's also my last lesson of the cross cultural leadership class. Perhaps the class that I enjoyed most this semester. I'm not sure whether it's because of the weekly presentations or is it because of the professor who is always so filled with positive vibes!

I'm so glad I was introduced to this course under very random circumstances because Ii get to know so many people from different nations and during the whole semester we were introduced to each other's cultures! This is certainly something I loved!

In this final class, I did a presentation on Croatia with 2 Taiwanese and a Croatian group mate. It's a rather dynamic group I must say and I'm really amazed b the effort put in by the Taiwanese! They were really dedicated in trying to do their best in the presentation! Also I got back the grades for my portfolio and dream board. I can say I did a great job (I have no qualms praising myself! LOL), but I decided to pass my dream board to the prof as future teaching material because it's just too bulky for me to bring back to Singapore.

What's last lesson without any pictures taken! Yup, you can guess what we did in the end of the lesson... If not, continue reading~

Day 123 -- Gathering at Phoebe's

Went to Phoebe's place this evening for a mini gathering before our exams and before all of us started leaving.

She was such an amazing host! And those food prepared were great! Mushroom and bamboo shoots salad, homemade strawberry jam, fried noodles, and that cocktail she made.. All of them looked and tasted so good!

We wanted to watch a movie at her place and Dennis even got the projector ready but we ended up playing some card game cuz the movies weren't streaming at all.. Oh wells. I don't know what is the name of the card game we played but we certainly had lots of fun. And the loser for each round had to be drawn on the face. Yup, so the victims of the forfeit were Miyuki, Ruiwei and I. It was hilarious looking at our faces, but YOLO! It's the last few chances we get to gather anyway.

Had a great evening, and now it's back to my report. Time check -- 2AM. Wish me luck guys..

Day 122 -- Rainy day

It seemed to have rained for more than 24 hours. But the weather is so cooling and it's great for hibernation! Just that, it's exams week next week and I don't have the luxury of time to hibernate :(

Went to Carrefour to stock up on some exams rations by that I meant breakfast for the next one week and of course some snacks to go along all the crazy mugging days ahead! Well, there had been alerts for typhoon, so I'm sure if it really hit Kaohsiung, I'm not going to starve :p

This is crazy but it's time for me to complete my report again.. Ciaos!

Day 121 -- Friday the 13

Before I start on anything, I want to wish my dear cousin HAPPY BIRTHDAY! She's the only relative I have in this foreign land. And I really cannot imagine how she managed the past 4 years without any relatives around her. But congrats for finishing your studies in Taiwan and embarking on a new phase of your life!

And Friday the Thirteen wasn't too bad a day for me. It was just revision and presentation meeting for the whole day.. But it ended really well with a drinking session at Family Mart with Maggie and the Chinese exchange students. I must say it was a fun and insightful night spent with them, especially when the guys started sharing about stuff in China. It's through all these interaction that I start to realise how small, how naive my view of the world is.

I'm really amazed at how much I'd gained from this trip and awed by the fact that I am still learning new things every single day despite having to leave soon! Indeed, I'm blessed with opportunities :)

Day 120 -- Study week no more!

Day 120, the day all classroom studying ceased. Now I'm only left with 2 final presentations and 2 papers and I'm officially done with school!

Gonna be a busy weekends ahead, judging from the amount of work left undone/ not revised :O Wish me luck please ><

Day 119 -- Meeting the Dean!

Met the Dean of NSYSU with the rest of the Dragon boat members because he wanted to meet us for clinching the first position in the Tainan race. And we were treated pizzas too (which I believe was the main reason why most of us turned up today).

It felt good being able to meet with the team members again, perhaps for the last time, before we all leave Taiwan, for good or just for a short trip home.

Day 118 -- End of my first module!

It only seemed like last week I first arrived in Kaohsiung, not knowing my way around. And now, it's almost the end of exchange, and I'm even done with my first module here in NSYSU! I managed to take a picture with the lecturer but my phone's camera went cranky after the picture was taken and the file was corrupted -.- Even now, my camera can't work properly...

Because of this module, I'm introduced to festivals and culture unique to Taiwan and even got a chance to cover one of such events in our end-term report! (Though the process was somewhat grueling as well :p) Also, there was so much about the Chinese culture that I was exposed to in this module that I kind of doubt the authenticity of my ethnicity -- whether I am Chinese enough to be considered a Chinese. 

No matter what, I'm glad I am officially down with 1 module! :D

Day 117 -- Back to KS

Took the same southbound train with my cousins but with different destinations. They were heading to Taichung while I headed back to kaohsiung because I had a group discussion on in the afternoon. And they went to the famous 宫原眼科 for lunch! Seriously, that's the main reason why I want to return to Taichung after exams. Not much of the sightseeing because I'm done with the attractions there.

Oh well, I got to set my priorities right, isn't it. I'm here, after all, to study, not to play. Perhaps I can make another trip back to Taiwan again next year and just focus on the places I didn't cover during this exchange :)

Day 116 -- It's Taipei (again)

Went to Taipei again because we thought Neiwan was too much of a repetition of old streets for their 1-week trip.

Our first stop on the rainy day was C.K.S memorial hall, which I got confused with the S.Y.S memorial hall... Yup, so in the end we explored a new place which none of us went before! There wasn't much to see other than the exhibition about Chiang's presidency in the early days of Taiwan, which I really enjoyed!

After that we had 麻辣火锅 or spicy hotpot which my cousin sourced online before the trip. Unfortunately, the original store was replaced by another vendor selling the the same stuff. It's called Dancing Spicy I think, the food was rather fresh, nothing really noteworthy about it. But I must say that the service provided was great!

Our last stop for the day was wufenpu and Raohe night market! I was so stuffed when we returned from Raohe and not to mentioned we also took away food back to our hotel as well!

I'm glad that every time I'm back in Taipei there are always new things to be discovered. Talking about this, I'll be back again before I return to Singapore :p