Taipei from above

Today was my best day in Taiwan so far. We climbed Mt Qixing and saw a birds eye view of Taipei. At the peak it was blowing a gail as you can tell in the photo but it was very refresh after sweating your ass off on the hike up. Then on the descend there were holes in the rocks that release sulphur gas and deposit yellow crystals, and that really got my geological nerd senses going. But it smelt so bad (sulphur does make rotten egg gas) and you could really inspect the crystals will out being stink out.

After we visited in hot springs in Beitou and they were so beautiful. The springs are around 90 C and the pH of the water when it firsts bubbles from the cracks in the earth is 1.2 - 1.6. That is so low that if it touched your skin is would burn through to the bone. The low pH therefore dissolves the rocks and I got a good photo of that.          

The Cicada buzz

I got a strangle sense of home today as I first heard the buzzing cicadas as I opened my bedroom window. I guess it was a just a reminder that I'm just a little further north in Pacific and home is not as far as you think. I was further reminded of home on when we visited the sea, a lot of the creatures are very similar but I think Australia has a nicer shoreline. The Taiwanese shoreline is a maze of ugly concrete but I guess its to protect it from typhoons. In a country of this size you cannot afford to have an erosion problem.

I also saw a temple up close today. The designs are also detailed and the colours are so bright but it does kind of look like the place is made out of play dough from a distance. I hope we learn a little about religion in Taiwan or at least about how they make the decorations!

This is part of the temple design ( I have to find out what village were in.)

This is the view from my dorm window. I live on the twelfth floor. I thought it looked so cool how the sun was beaming through the clouds.  

   

The Frog Hunt

Today we went caught frogs, and I mean really caught frogs, the poor things were handled to death almost. I'm racking my brains trying to remember their names but all remember is the Taipei green tree frog and the Formosa (taiwanese) toad. But never mind the frogs, all the other animals were way better we saw a tree snake that eats birds, fireflies that glow in the dark and these massive snails. Unfortunately the snails are not locals but imports from Africa but they were still my favourite!

 

The First Smell

Today was the first day I really experienced Taiwan or Taipei to be more exact and it was great. I called this post The First Smell because that is what I really noticed as I adventured around the street of Taipei. On every corner you can smell noodles or friut and just food in general and I know I have to appreciate those different smells while I can still smell them because over time you just don't notice them as they fade into part of the scenery.

So today started with a little information about the program and I finally meet Jack. It is weird finally seeing in the guy you have been emailing for months. I imagined him as an old academic... but he's not.   I find it a little funny too when the other non-native english speaker find it hard to understand my English. They pull the funniest facial expressions trying to listen. I really have to remember to slow down when I speak and pronounce my words properly. I think they have learnt American English too which pronounce some words differently and Americans talk slower in general. Just as a bit of fun here is a youtube video of someone with a Scottish accent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vgBZPdWL3U) so you can how much harder it is to understand them ( sometimes even Australians struggle to understand them).