So I finally had my orientation at NTNU's Mandarin Training Center yesterday, and it went really well. I met a lot of cool people from around the world--New Zealand, Toronto, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Italy, and even Raleigh, NC! That's right. There's a UNC Tar Heel alum in the program. It's a small world after all.
Other than socializing and speaking in English at what is supposed to be Chinese school, I picked up my course schedule and books. The administration had originally told me that there were no intensive courses available (3 hours/day, 5 days/week), but I somehow got in, so we'll see if I can handle it. As of now, I'm scheduled for 10:20 AM-1:10 PM, M-F. There are also a bunch of free courses and electives like calligraphy, strokes, bopomofo (haha, MoFo), dance, and cooking. Suh-weeeet! I was also pretty glad to hear that there is a gym available, since I'm worried I might be developing asthma from running outside.
After orientation, my aunts took me and my cousin YoYo (a junior in drama school in Taipei) to Chiu-Fen, a really beautiful mountain village overlooking the ocean.
Like everywhere else in Taiwan, the food was amazing--dan dan noodles, fresh-made mochi, and gelatinous icees. Not surprisingly, the next event of the day also involved eating. Din Tai Fung has always been one of my favorite restaurants, but the famous dumpling house on Yongkang Street in Taipei was also named one of the top 10 restaurants in the world by the New York Times in 1993. They even have a copyright on how they make their steamed dessert dumplings (filled with sweet red bean and taro root), which are a little bit smaller than a ping pong ball and each have 18 tiny folds at the top to enclose the paste. As usual, pics are here. More soon on my first day of school Monday! xx
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