7.20 Say goodbye

Oh... How time flies. Today is the last day we get together and tomorrow most of us will go back to their own home. It's really a sad day.
The morning is still the free time, every group is busy with their presentation. So as our group.
In the afternoon, firstly, we have a final exam for the whole course, and then is our presentation time. I think every group does a perfect work in these days.
Then is the closing ceremony, we all enjoy the last time we share together and the humor speech from the minister makes all of us laughing. As to the pity of mine, it's about the milk made by NTU, and the professor promise to me that I will get one tomorrow morning. Although it proves that I don't get one but maybe that's the reason I will come back again in the future.
The farewell banquet is held in a good restaurant near the school. We are all so happy until we finish the meal. I can't remember the taste of delicious, but I can remember the tears from Jiling and Andria.  Everyone try to take more pictures to record this time.
So I know it's time to say goodbye , I will miss all U guys and the days we share together. I love Taiwan and I love this program, it's so lucky for me to know all of you . I believe we will meet maybe in some other place and some other time. So keep in touch and wish you all good!!!

7.19 Taipei zooooooo

Today is the last second day of the course and the schedule became more and more leisure.
In the morning, it's our visit to Taipei zoo. As we all known , Taiwan is an island with high biodiversity , so we can see many different animals in the zoo. Firstly , we take a lecture which makes a brief introduction about this zoo. And then, it's time for us to see the real animals. We visit a special house which is not open to the public. For the animals here are really rare so taking photos is not allowed. We see many beautiful snakes, lizards, turtles and frogs in that house. Although I don't remember the name of  those animals, but I really love these beautiful wild life. After that, we go to visit the place to raise animals , there we see very huge turtles. The biggest one is about 160 kilogram  in weight. Later we also see a tiger. In the panda house, we meet the lovely panda named "團團" which is given by mainland China. He is sitting on the ground, eating bamboo.
After all the visit, it's our free time, we can keep visiting the zoo or just go back to continue our project. We choose the later one.
All the afternoon , we make effort to finish our project. It's tiring but interesting to work with my "小夥伴" and I will alway remember these days we work together.

7.18 rice day

Today, all the activities are about rice.

In the morning, it's rice seedling experience. We go down into the field and seed the rice. The weather is so good that it is not very hot. I haven't done it before and at the first step into the field, I feel it's so disgusting. Moving becomes so difficult because of the mud is so sticky , if you don't move slowly and carefully, you may fall down into the muddy field.  It takes us about 2 hour to finish the seedling work. And finish it is our free time until lunch. So our group go to the lab to continue our project, I have to say how hardworking we are!!! 

It's soon comes to lunch time. Nothing so interesting.... In the afternoon, we take a lecture about rice culture in Taiwan. And dinner is all the rice food!!! There are rice dumpling, fried rice, noodles and so on, I really love them!! The dessert is "芋園" and it's DIY. You can add whatever fixings U want to make it more delicious.

So another day goes by and we are know that the course will end in only a few days, which makes us a little bit sad. We all hope that time can go slowly so we can have more time together.....

7.17 go back to Taipei

Today all the students are so happy because we are going back to Taipei after two weeks traveling around Taiwan. That means we can go to the night market again!!! Its seems that the delicious food and milk tea are waiting for us. But before going back, we have to finish our lectures first. 

In the morning, it's a visit to 921 earthquake education centre. The 921 earthquake is one of the biggest earthquake happened in the world. It happened in 1999.9.21 and the center of the earthquake is Jiji. The education center is build on a totally destroyed school. As we all known, Taiwan is an island where earthquake is common. So Taiwanese emphasis the education of earthquake. In the center, we can see the remain of the school, everything seems just happened. We also see two movies about earthquake , and one of the movie even enables us to experience it. We can feel the movement of the ground and it shakes so strong. I can feel the fear and hopelessness of the people who really experience this disaster. 

After lunch, we head to the agricultural research institute of Taiwan . There we have a lecture but I am so sleepy that l can hardly focus on what the professor says. And the temperature goes higher as we come down from the mountain area. 

Then the bus keeps going on and on, and finally we arrive in Taipei at about 7 o'clock in the evening. At night, we have a big meal and go to the Shida night market.  We are so happy to come back!!

7.12 Phoenix tea garden & Bamboola Taiwan & Sitou

Today the schedule has some changes because of the coming typhoon.

In the morning, we take a walk in the tea garden. There are many different tea tree in this garden but to me, they look so alike that I think they are all same. The tea garden is not a very big area or maybe we just visit a small part of the garden. There is a small trail in the garden from which we can see the Jiji town. After the walk, we come back to the tea room to learn how to make tea. It's so complicated that I don't want to write all the details. Basically there are two small cups for each person, one is for smell and another one is for drink. When we make tea, the first pot of water is not for drink but to clean the tea leaf. And we drink from the second time. We try Oolong tea and Oriental beauty, I think the later one is better.

After tea time, we head to Bamboola Taiwan, a bamboo product company. The boss show us some boxes made and designed by himself . And each box has a gear to open the box. It's so well designed that we can't find the way to open it. And the products are also very good and expensive.

After saying goodbye to the Bamboola, we directly head to Sitou. It's another long way. And in Sitou we are told that the typhoon will come soon and we have to stay in the hotel until the typhoon is over. That night, the wind begin to blow but everything is ok and I also have a good sleep.

7.7 Huhuanshan hiking

Still hiking time, after walking for several days, today's main activity is still walking. The difference is this time, we have to hike in a high elevation. Because of lack of air, the situation can be totally different. In the height of about 3000 meter, it's easy for you to get tired and short of breath. So the hike can be a hard trip. However, the view on the Hehuanshan is so magnificent. You can see the white cloud under your foot and the endless mountain around you. That's the view I can never see in Shanghai, and in that moment , I feel human being is so small and it seems nothing is worth worried. It's not a quite long distance but it takes us a lot of time. At the peak of 3416 meter . The temperature is not high but everyone is soooo exciting. We take photos with each other to record this memorable time and I think everything is so nice.

After the hiking , we go back to dorm and take a long break. In the afternoon ,it's not that tiring. The teacher gives us a complete introduce and let us fully know this farm.

And after dinner , there is no more activities, we just enjoy the night in the high mountain and fall asleep sweetly.

7.5 Shakadang Trail and Swallow Grotto Trail and Nine turns Trail

Today is a day of trails and we just walk and walk and walk. 

In the morning, we go to the Shakadang Trail, it's not very long and easy to walk. Next to the trail is a stream, the water is very clear. And when we walk alone the Trail, something sad happen, a dead goat lay in the trail. We can't tell how it died but we all feel so sad for the accident. Then, we have to leave it there and go ahead. During the hiking, a teacher of plantation introduces many kinds of plants which are common in Taiwan and I learn a lot from him. At the end of this trail, there is a pond where the water moves not so fast. So.... All the students take off their shows and walk into the water~ it's really cool and nice. Some foreign student even swim in the pond with all their clothes on!! That's so crazy!!!

And in the afternoon, it's still hiking. A heavy rain makes the mountain more fantastic. After seeing these, I have to say that the nature is so beautiful and we have to do our best to preserve it. 

Because today we walk a lot ,so we are all very tired and in the evening, we just stay in the new hotel and sleep early.