First day: June 21st, 2010 (Jakarta - Taipei)
Monika - my cousin who also participated in the trip - and I met at the airport and encountered the other participants. Since I attended the briefing on early June regarding the trip, I had at least recognized some of them, but at that time we still just smiled to each other and grinned everytime we wanted to talk about something. Anyway, Monika didn't, so I decided I'd introduce my new friends to her.
Throughout our departure from Jakarta to Taipei, we spent time trying to memorize each other names and tried not to mistake someone with someone else. That'd be embarrassing.
Anyway, this is what I like about long distance flight: the plane provides movies for us to watch during the flight :D. These are a few of them I got to watch on board:
1. Alice in Wonderland
2. How to Train a Dragon
3. Percy Jackson (partially)
While waiting for our bus to arrive at the airport, we took our moment to take a picture after our arrival.
We arrived in Taipei quite late in the night. After receiving our name tags in the bus, we finally reached our destination - hotel - which was Taipei Armed Forces Hero House. It wasn't actually a hotel. Maybe it's safe to say that it was a dorm, but the interior and everything looked really neat, clean, and comfortable! (with air conditioner!) Unlike the kind of dorm I've been imagining.
Taipei in the evening
The bed might not be soft or puffy. It was hard, like a mattress placed on top of a board (well, it was). But strangely, since the blanket was quite in contrast of the hard mattress (the blanket was effin' thick and made out of comfy fabric), the bed became my most favorite hotel's bed during my stays in Taiwan.
Oh, after dropping our luggage and stuffs off in our room, we were required to go to the lobby and lined up to fill some registration or confirmation forms, stuff like that, and took a picture for our upcoming nametag (the nametags we were wearing at that time were temporary ones).
Then, since we got a bit hungry after 12, we went to 7-Eleven, which was located a block away from the hotel!
Second day: June 22nd, 2010 (Taipei)
Since the hotel didn't provide a large restaurant enough for hundreds of participant to have breakfast in, the fu dao yuan (counselors) gave out breads and onigiris for us to munch in our rooms. Then, we took off to Presidential palace, which sadly, we were all prohibited to bring cameras so we left them at the hotel. So, no pictures taken from this place.
After the short visit, we all went to NTU (National Taiwan University) by MRT. I'm telling you, it was such a big university campus. Well, maybe not as big as University of Indonesia at Depok but, I'm talking about the nice environment, the warm study-ish vibe, bicycles passing by (not to mention couples riding on bikes), and the tall shady trees. This campus also got an effin' huuuugggeee library.
It was a rainy day, so we had to stay for a few minutes in the classroom's corridors, watching the uni students having exams, and then when the rain had stopped, we walked down an empty alley towards a small mini market, where we were recommended to munch on these yummy ice cream breads (the kind of ice creams in Singapore) specially made by the uni students.
Look at us, still in our yellow rain coats after munching on the ice cream breads.
Later we had an evening stroll in Gongguan Night Market. It was still raining, but then we all decided to stop by at a noodle resto and I had a bowl of beef noodle while waiting for the rain to stop. Also, we had a surprise that night.
Guess who we met: the waiter in the restaurant WAS INDONESIAN! Apparently he happened to eavesdrop our conversations and later he approached and spoke a few words in fluent Indonesian! We once thought he might be another Taiwanese who happened to be able to speak Indonesian, but then, he had no accent at all, which indicated that...he was an Indonesian :)
Third day: June 23rd, 2010 (Taipei - Taichung)
The next day, we took off to a suburban city outside Taipei. But before that, we stopped by at a legislative building, sort of like that MPR building here in Jakarta, except that in Taiwan, it was open for public.
Taichung was actually a county located quite a few miles away from the capital city. Once there, we headed towards Tunghai University to attend the opening ceremony of the whole study tour program.
Shortly after the ceremony was over and the group picture was done, we were given the opportunity to take pictures around the campus environment, where there was this huge yet uniquely designed chapel. If you noticed the building, it looked just like a tent, with no vertical walls or pillars. Apparently this was the mascot of the university.
Also, there was one more thing that was unique about this campus - the fact that it had a time capsule.
No, it wasn't like any other time machines you've heard that would take you to the past nor future. When told by Lao Shi that we were heading towards this so-called time capsule, I felt estatic and curious at the same time. He mentioned that the time capsule looked like the one in the movie "Knowing" which sadly I hadn't watched it yet.
The time capsule itself turned out to be an overturned huge frying pan-like bronze, that looked as if it covered something inside it. The bronze surface was full of writings with two years written on it: 2000 - 2050. I was sure that this time capsule had concealed hidden treasures and sealed on 2000, and later it would be opened on 2050. For those who hadn't seen something like this - no matter how simple it looked - of course it could be very exciting, like I felt.
Fourth day: June 24th, 2010 (Taichung)
This day might be a bit boring since the activities were held at the hotel, and we were practically stuck there all day long. But turned out, it wasn't really boring! The morning activity began with us making our group flag, which required someone from the group with drawing skills to design the flag.
My group finally decided to draw a picture of our two fu dao yuans. It was a funny picture as you can see Crayon Shinchan (which depicted Xiao Xin, our fu dao yuan) slipping after stepping on a banana peel, with a picture of a bespectacled girl (which depicted our other fu dao yuan, Xi Bao) in the opposite way yelling for him to be careful.
The day continued with more group activities such as games, dances, Mandarin class (probably the most boring activity in the trip since we happened to study, for real). Too bad I didn't have the pictures.
Fifth day: June 25th, 2010 (Taichung - Taipei)
Today, we were heading back to Taipei, but since we were going to return to Taichung the other day, we stored our large luggage in the hotel's warehouse and instead brought a smaller travel bag. I might say today was fascinating, especially with the visit to the probably most amazing museum I'd ever visited.
Anyway, in the morning, we took off from the hotel and headed towards the memorial hall of heroes in the past. We didn't enter it though, because the highlight of this place was actually the shift changing guards that took place at the gate. Since it was drizzling, the walking guards needed to be shaded with umbrellas by their assistants. A really unique insight!
Aww...our fu dao yuans looked really sweet together.
From the cemetery, we moved to the most awaited place throughout the whole trip program, which was National Palace Museum, where we'd see the legendary Chinese cabbage jade displayed in the museum, with several other historical items dating back to the BC era.
Up until now, I still couldn't figure out what was so special about the Chinese cabbage jade. Seemed like it was the center of attention of all tourists visiting the museum. People all wanted to visit the museum to see the jade as the main exhibit. I even heard from my older cousin who joined this trip last year about the jade, and she said that we really should go see it.
Apart from the fact that it dated back to the BC era, and the fact that it still looked flawless, perfect, and stayed in color and shape, I had no idea why it became utterly famous. Maybe because it brought luck and the symbol of a cricket and another bug besides it laid on top of the jade symbolized vertility.
Anyway, although I didn't know much about the cabbage jade, still it was a thrill to know that it was the main exhibit in the museum. Possibly it had concealed a great deal of historical records I hadn't known just yet.
Another interesting item I found there was this meat-shaped stone, which quite played tricks to your eyes. You might think it was a piece of real meat whereas it was actually a stone with layers and details that resembled a real meat. Wow
The museum basically displayed historical items dating back to Neolithikum era. It felt as if I was learning history back at school! Haha suddenly I missed my killer history teacher.
At the gift shop, I bought the cabbage keychain for souvenir, and guess what, Monika got lost for a moment, resulting panic attack all over the group members. Eventually, she was found much to our relief.
In the evening, we went to the most famous night market in Taipei, possibly Taiwan, called Xi Men Ding, where you could find cheap stuffs all stretching before your sight. I managed to buy a pair of ankle boots in reasonable price.
Guess what...when I was trying my boots, turned out the shoe seller was an Indonesian!!
We also tasted the so-called tastiest noodle in the world, according to the Lao Shi.
The Jadeite and Meat-Shaped Stone pictures are credit to: Wikipedia.
>> Part 2
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