The past couple of days have been exhausting. We've been very busy with classes, homework, and touring Taiwan the past couple of days, and on top of that it's been very rainy. Despite that, I'm still having a great time in Taipei. On Tuesday we visited 龙山寺 (Longshan Temple), a beautiful Buddhist/Taoist temple in the Wanhua District in Taipei. The temple worships the goddess Mazu, the goddess of voyages. The temple, for the most part, is not the original building. The temple has been subjected to earthquakes, typhoons, and fire-bombing by the Americans in World War 2. Interestingly, the statue of the goddess Mazu survived the fire-bombing because she was made of porcelain, which doesn't burn as easily as metal and wood. Thanks to consistent repairs and maintenance the temple stays very beautiful.

After the temple, Dr. Liu took us to a famous dessert place and I ordered a stew of red beans, peanuts, and taro. It was very warm and the perfect level of sweetness, and best of all was very filling. For dinner that night, we went back to the Shilin night market to explore more of the food options there. I had many variations of buns, a sausage stuffed in a sausage, and some more Hot Star fried chicken.

On Wednesday we all traveled to 淡水大学 (Tamkang University's Tamsui Campus). The campus is very beautiful and sits on a very steep hill. When we arrived we went to the restaurant on campus to have a dinner with the Dean of International Affairs. Following lunch, we were all given a tour of Tamkang's beautiful campus, including a visit to their model ship collection. The collection was very extensive and was even housed in a building designed after a boat. After touring the campus we visited 淡水红楼 (trans.: Tamsui's Red Castle), a beautiful castle overlooking Tamsui.

Today, we were all very tired so we took it easy and relaxed at our dorms. We caught up on sleep and avoided the rainy weather outdoors.

An interesting cultural aspect to the trip was seeing how the British made architectural modifications to their structures to account for the climate in Taiwan. Because it is warm year round in Taiwan, fireplaces are completely unnecessary; however, the British found they could use fireplaces to deal with the humidity problems. There was also much more ventilation than normal in order to account for the weather in Taiwan. There were more modifications to allow for increased light, to prevent slipping on the wet stones, and to drain off the excess amount of rain Taiwan receives in the winter. By modifying their architecture, they were able to keep the European feel in order to stave off homesickness while being architecturally effective in Taiwan.

 This weekend we plan on going to Ilan and Hualian. All I know about these two places is that they are on the east coast of Taiwan, so it'll be interesting to go into this trip without any expectations whatsoever.