The Final Days

We’re in the finals 3 days of the program now in Taiwan. Yesterday was spent learning about Taiwanese food security and Today was spent in the Taipei Zoo. The food security lecture fell into the same problem as the research center guy from before. Again, they were closed minded about GMO’s and serious alternatives. I tried to bring up some valid points but it wasn’t going anywhere so I kept quiet. The zoo today was really cool. I got to see the giant panda house making their two panda the second and third that I have seen in my life. Later we got to head to the research part of the zoo that the general visitors never see. We saw monkeys and tigers super close up and even got to go pet the giant turtles. The rest of our time has been spent, clubbing, karaoke, and finishing our project. Tomorrow is our final days were we’ll present our project and say goodbye to everyone.

Earthquakes and GMO's

Today was our return to Taipei. On our way back to the city we stopped at the earthquake museum. The museum was created in the former site of a destroyed junior high school from the 921 earthquake. The museum was really cool and had a lot of exhibits for young and old alike. The best part of the museum was the earthquake simulation room that helped us to recreate the feel of the 921 quake in our room. It was super cool! Then, we traveled to the Agriculture research institute. I have to be honest; the lecturer at the center was way too against GMO’s for me. He refused to understand our points about the benefits to GMO’s and was too ground in his ways. But hey, his loss. Hopefully he’ll come around.

Monster Village

Most of today was used writing our report and making our PowerPoint. Honestly, most of that is kinda boring to blog about so I'll skip over that and talk about what I did over my afternoon break from writing. I kept hearing rumors about this place just outside Sitou called the "Monster Village". I really had no idea what to expect but I asked some of my friends who went the day before and they suggested I check it out. I went down with two of my friend and  must say what I found was awesome! The monster village was constructed back during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. When the Japanese left the island the owners of the village stayed behind and created a miniature Little Tokyo. All of the building make it look like a small Japanese village. Its called the monster village because there are these giant Japanese cartoon monster statues around the village. We eat at the buffet there in the village and it had everything we eat the entire trip in one place. Great times, great food, and great souvenirs to give to friend from the local shops!

Surveys, Surveys, and More Surveys

Today was survey day. We woke up early to hike up to some of the higher parts of Sitou for our surveys. My group covered the giant tree area and the Sky walk. I hadn't been to the sky walk prior to today and it was really cool. We were 7 stories up int he air at times on this catwalk that allowed you to literally walk through the forest canopy! We surveyed for several hours until lunch time and then meet as a group after lunch to compile our results. So far, it seems like we were right about our predictions that mainly people come to Sitou for tourism and it should make for a good report. Gotta get back to work on the results. Check back for more.

Project Time!

Our project weekend has finally arrived. After talking to both my group members and our professors we have finally settled on a topic. We'll be conducting field research at Sitou about the park's educational effectiveness in teaching the tourists that come to the park each day. We'll create a survey to test there knowledge tonight to see how much these people are learning in their travels. This topic really interests me simply for the fact that one of the main purposes of the park is for being an education area. However, when you look around, most people just seem to be here for the scenery. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow when we pass out our survey.

Sitou Forest

We've arrived in Sitou Today. Sitou is the experimental forest in central Taiwan that is co-run by NTU. I must say that after coming on this BACT trip I know a lot more about all the sites NTU owns here. There are so many! Anyways, Sitou is basically a giant national park. There are trees and trails to walk around in but that's about it. There's really not a whole lot to do there but it's peaceful and a nice change of pace. We'll be staying here for the next 4 or so days so it should give me some time to explore around here. Plus, there's a convenient store here which we haven't seen for awhile. Speaking of which, I gotta go run there now but I'll catch y'all later!

Tea Plantation

Today was our trip to the Phoenix Tea Plantation. The plantation is owned by NYT and an experimental tea plantation. We got a tour of the grounds by the staff and they explained to us that part of the land was being converted to experimental fruit planting which was sort of surprising to me. After our tour we learned a proper tea ceremony fro the staff including how to position the cups and pots. There are so many rules involved with the ceremony like how the tea pot must be constantly kept at a 45 degree angle with the set at all times. It's so weird. Afterwards we traveled to the Farmer's Association where we learned about tea judging. We analyzed the tea leaves and the smells of tea with expert tea judges and then could buy some tea! Overall, a great day!