It’s hard to believe that I have already been back in the states for a whole week. The last few weeks of my stay in Taiwan went by so quickly but I hardly had any time to ponder over it because of finals and final presentations and papers. It seems like I still wrote blog entries but for some reason didn’t bother to post them. The next few will be a recap on my final weeks in Taiwan with the last being a final goodbye. So…here it goes.

Sunday we went to the forest park of 溪頭. It was really pretty there too but the long hikes to the different sites weren’t particularly welcomed after the 1st hike from Saturday. My shoes were still wet so I had wear flip-flops the whole day. Just a side note, I wouldn’t recommend wearing flip-flops to go hiking. Seems like common sense but when you have no choice and try it yourself…

After 溪頭 we went to 集集火車站. It was a really old train station that used to be an artery for goods and shipments all over Taiwan. I think I went there with my mom and dad when I was really little because I recall seeing pictures of some of the sites at the train station. I shall compare them with my baby pictures when I return home.

After visiting the train station, the tour bus returned back to Taipei. Vacationing with a tour guide sure is tiring.

On Tuesday, my chinese class went to 西門町 to eat hot pot together. It was an all you can eat hot pot place with all you can drink beverages, including Taiwan Beer. That was a first for me to see. It was…almost heaven. Better than any other buffet I’ve ever been to in my life. Words cannot describe how much I love that place. I would totally go there again if I could, but sadly, chances of that are very very slim. Gah…so good.

Tomorrow is the last day of finals and the last day of my Chinese class. I look forward to not waking up every morning before 7 but I will definitely miss all my classmates. Since the class was composed of 11 people, I got to know each person and hear their stories. All of them are so diverse in backgrounds and personalities that each person brings a different taste to class. If any day, a classmate is missing, the class that day has a different feel to it. It seems like a cliche thing to say, but when you have that small of a class, you really get to understand that feeling.

 

Location: Xitou, Taiwan