Taiwan Big School

Every day since I arrived it's been in the 80s, but today the humidity makes the heat evil. A hundred feet in any direction the air becomes hazy. Reluctant to pay $4 for a cup of coffee again, I opened up my computer at the MRT station, but had no luck. So here I am in the coffee shop, drinking the most expensive drip coffee I've ever had, listening to the same 10 muzak'd pop songs on repeat. At least there's AC.

Something I've been meaning to mention is that every fifth person on the street wears a surgical mask. Some of them are the generic light blue that you find in hospitals, but other people have demonstrated more flair, with masks in bright colors and designs (polka dots seem particularly popular). At first I wondered if Taiwan just had a disproportionately high number of hypochondriacs, but then Ivy informed me that it had to do with the H1N1 scare. This sign was on the campus of National Taiwan University (AKA Taiwan Daxue (short: Tai Da) "Taiwan University"; the word for university literally translates to "big school"), in front of the library (you can see it in the background):





A student on campus told me that the library was built by the Japanese when they occupied the island before WWII, and that, at the time, it was very difficult for Taiwanese to get into the university. Now, she said, Tai Da is not so exclusive, although it was recently ranked 95th worldwide.

Tai Da has a big campus, so this is a fairly typical sight:






Shortly after I arrived, it was lunch time (by my stomach, if not by the clock) so I went into the school cafeteria and looked around at the different "stations". Most of them were closed, but there was one with several students standing around, and a couple of elderly ladies cooking behind the counter. They had a gas burner on which they'd put a metal bowl filled with some kind of light brown sauce. They would then add onions, mushrooms, and another unidentifiable vegetable, and the sauce would start to boil. Some kind of meat would be added, and finally a scrambled egg would be dropped in. After a while, they would pour the whole mess on top of a bowl of rice. When it was my turn I asked if they had a vegetarian version, but I ended up settling for eel.





After wandering around campus, around 5:00 I went across the main street to a crowded student shopping area. There's a lot to talk about, but I have to get out of here, so I'll just post a couple of pictures for now:








Last night Ivy took me to the Shilin night market and guided me through the different types of food. What an incredible experience! I'll write about that later too.

Here are some photos from yesterday: