First Time Traveler

The last night of the trip we stayed at the Grand Hotel in Taipei. It was so beautiful and full of culture. When we walked in to get checked in a couple who just got married were getting their wedding photos done. She looked so pretty and it was so fun to see. Later after checking in we went on the tunnel tour with Dr. Lin. We also got a tour of the hotel along with that which was interesting. I didn't realize  how big the hotel was. We got to go down one of the tunnels all the way to the end. After the tour Abby and I went down to the Shin Lin night market. I really liked this night market compared to the Keelung night market. It was more little shops instead of the mass produced items. I bought some other souvenirs and tried some food while there. It was way cooler than the other night market in my opinion. For dinner Abby and I found the First Lady Coffee shop outside the hotel. We ordered pizzas and ice-cream. The ice-cream was so good! Everyone at the café was really swe

We finally saw the beach! NSYSU is located right on the beach. We got to the university a little early so we got to go see the beach first before going in. The campus is right along the coast and it's pretty. The black sand was a little freaky though. After visiting the beach we took part of the tour of the campus until we got to a classroom. We watched 3 presentations of student's consulting projects. The class was full of students from other countries like France, Bulgaria and others. They all spoke English really well! Their presentations were professional and really in depth. They really knew what they were talking about. I was really impressed. After the university visit we visited a fish company called Ju Lin Trading Co. The company creates bioengineered fluorescent fish. This was interesting and they were pretty to look at. We got to see a few exhibits of different fluorescent fish and algae. The scientists just created the first medium sized bioengineered fluorescent fi

The day we visited KPMG was awesome. We had a cool surprise lunch and got to see Taipei 101. We started the day off by going to the Taiwan Stock Exchange which was also in Taipei 101. We watched a presentation on the exchange and how it compared to other exchanges in the market.  After visiting the stock exchange we got to shop around for bit   until lunch   time. Lunch was amazing! The CEO of KPMG couldn't make it to our meeting today so he had a lunch for us. We had lunch on the 85 floor in the Panorama restaurant which was very fancy. The view was amazing, my table was right next to the window so I got to look out as I ate. We also got to talk to an employee from KPMG that sat at our table. His name was Chuck and he spent a lot of his life in the United States before coming back to Taiwan. It was interesting to here about his life and how he got to where he is now. I also felt it was a lot easier talking to him about our experiences and culture shock. He spent a lot of t

The PwC visit was interesting. The start of the day was very fun. Dr. Lin's dad came and taught us how to do calligraphy in the morning. We each got a paper, brush and ink to try it ourselves. I don't think I'm very good at it haha, but it was fun! Then we took the train to PwC. We were welcomed and listened to presentations from employees there. Frank was the main presenter and he was really nice and answered all of our questions. They really like working for PwC and shares their  experiences with us. They also served us lunch which was so good especially the tomato soup. After the PwC visit we took a bus ride to the O'Right company. I was looking forward to this because I really believe in sustainability and bettering the earth. We watched a presentation on the company and what they do and then we went on a tour of the building. The company seems fun to work for and it's a really interesting method for shampoo and other products. We also got to shop arou

Visiting Soochow University was fun. I like talking to the students that attend the school and getting to talk about Taiwan. During our visit we got to see 3 presentations on various topics. I was so impressed with their English skills, I have so much respect for the students that get up in front of us and speak in another language. I would be so nervous! We also got to talk to the students and get to know them a little. I talked to Toni and Hedy at my table, Toni spoke English pretty well and was able to understand us better than Hedy. It was cool discussing Taiwan and the night markets with them, and they told us what we should and shouldn't eat. After the visit we had one of the best lunches ever! We had a group lunch at the Tokiya restaurant and it was awesome. I really liked that you had options to pick from, it was delicious and one of the best meals of the trip. It was all presented beautifully and tasted awesome. After lunch we went to the National Palace Museum

Our first full day in Taiwan was so fun! We did a lot of tourist things and visited a lot of beautiful places, it was one of my favorite days so far. We had perfect sunny weather! Our tour guide Jun is really cool, he tells us a lot of information about each place we visit. First we traveled to the mountains. We took the scenic route and drove through all the windy roads it was kind of scary to look over the edge when we were getting up the mountain haha. After that we drove to the gold museum. It was really cool and pretty there. There was a lot of forest surrounding the walkways and it had such pretty views. For lunch we went to a restaurant with the best view! The food was delicious, I got the Kung Pow chicken and it was so good. The best part of the restaurant was the view looking down over the water and hills. After lunch we got to go shopping which is always fun for me. I got to buy some cute souvenirs and walk around and see the little shops and food. After shopping, we go