Taiwan Day 10

Today we found out our class schedules and bought our textbooks. We all take three classes - two group classes and one individual class.

These are the textbooks for my two group classes, and they're 400-level based on ICLP standards, which means that I placed an entire level higher than I thought I could, yaaaaaay. Thank you 中文桌子 for improving my oral speaking skills, which ICLP cares about a lot more than written I think. Which is good, because my written skills are noooot great. Eric, Charlotte, and Daniel all have the same books, even if none of us are in the same classes, so at least we can all study/suffer together! :D ICLP is known to be absurdly difficult though, so I don't know if skipping a level bodes well for me....

Anyways, another exciting thing today, was Eric's 19th birthday! So he planned a trip to Jiufen so we could all go 玩。This started off well when he called me in the morning and goes "My SIM card ran out of money so I can't text or ca- *phone goes dead*" Womp womp. It was a sad sad moment. Thanks to modern technology, we figured it out through Facebook, and were eventually on our way.

Happily on the train to Jiufen

 Once we got there, we took a really bumpy bus up part of the mountain, with these tiny little narrow roads and sharp turns with buses coming down the opposite direction. Safety! Then we got to the top and saw this innocuous sign.

Can I just say though: what is with all these places in Taiwan trying to disguise themselves as fun things? Yehliu Geopark was kind of legit because it did have all those rocks and nature things. But it was still a lot of upwards movement :P. And then "Nangang District Hiking Trail" aka Elephant Mountain aka one of the Four Beasts Mountains of Taiwan?! And now for this Gold Ecological Park. This is not a park. It is a mountain. Remember when I said no more mountains?!?! 

Horrible.

Saw the steps and was like....

But it was Eric's birthday so I had 没有办法 Q______Q

Already sitting down before we even start. Typical.

Cool views at the top, as usual.

This is where you could throw coins into that little bowl to make all your wishes come true. I think only Alyssa was successful. A lot of us got coins in the bowl but then they bounced out. So I guess that means we'll almost have our dreams realized only to have them be taken away at the last second? :'(

Went back down the mountain and did shopping in Jiufen!

Jiufen is pretty touristy, so it was packed, especially because most of the shops are in these alleyways. Lots of cool things to look at though, and we eventually got to this cool temple.

Logan's school, Centre College, is really big on study abroad. So apparently they have a contest of who can take the best picture in the place they're studying abroad with them spelling on the school's name.

Obviously getting 1st place

At night, the lanterns turn on, and thus Jiufen was apparently partially inspiration for the movie Spirited Away.

At the end of the day, got bubble tea at our favorite place. So Char, Logan, and I went one entire day without it. Haha.