johansvennung(臺灣)

Open but closed

I went to the ISC today...

It was a strange moment...it said "open" but was closed...as usual around 12-13...

Adviser is in Hawaii

My adviser is in Hawaii...

He told us before...

My program secretary told me that I had to get a signature form him today...sounded like mission impossible...

I handed in a blank paper writing "N/A" at the place for signature...she later on agreed that I could wait until he comes back...to get his signature...Hawaii is not around the corner...

Errors in the dorm...

NTHU job fair

I made a short visit at the job fair for foreigners at NTHU today...

5 companies were represented...and they served food, no wonder many students showed up...

I gave my CV to a company..."Will I contact you, or you copntact me?" i asked..."haha, we will contact you" they said...unsurprisingly...

Final presentation in Profit model class

The Stephen

I have presentation tomorrow...

In my group is the gut called Stephen...he is know as "the Stephen" among some classmates...(i have been in his group many times before...) Stephen was the guy I found a look-a-like for at the Armin van Buuren concert last december...

Graduation dresses has arrived

It is graduation soon...

And the graduation dress that we are suppose to wear has arrived and was ready for pick-up today...

Now I just need to start working on my thesis...and pass a certain chinese course, then im done...

Night snack...

At campus there are many convienient stores that are open 24-7...it is nite if you are studying in the lab...

My school mate Johnny lives not far from my lab...if i have 5 minutes over, I make a quick visit to family mart and have a milk or two...

Hectic week

This week I have a chinese midterm, and a final presentation, and maybe I will find out the deadline for my thesis that I barely started writing :S

Im dealing with 2 subjects at the same time...

Many people are catching cold in these days, due to high AC or other for me unknown factors...I might have catch a cold aswell...

OMG, Im heavy...

Im heavy for the moment...

My new lifestyle is treating me well...98 kg...I wonder if i will get over 110 kg i visit sweden this summer...

Lucky me that I have easy to lose weight...(I think)

3km swimming at Green island...

I was invited to join a 3km swimming competition at Green island at the east coast of taiwan...

Early morning the train was heading to taidong...

I could see turtle island from the train...near Yilan...

Many ppl slept on the train...

I saw the mountain I ran up on some weeks ago...near Jiaoxi

I really like going by train in taiwan...it looks kind of the same...but still some places feels so isolated...

I brougt some beer to enjoy the ride...going on the eat coast reef...

With mountains on both sides...(by road number 9)

I found a Giant store near Taodong train station...

We got a taxi pick up from the trainstaion to the harbor where the ferry will leave from...

It was very touristic at the ferry terminal...

They had alot of boats at the place...

Many fishermen sat at the shore...

I guess its from here all the fish comes from...that they sell at taidong night market...

Some coast guards watching over the passengers while entering...

This is how the ferry looks like inside...its famous for that people get seasick here...

This is how green island looks from from Taiwan...I didnt know that I could c the island from here before...

I went outside on the boat...to easier enjoy the ride...

This is how the island looks like from far away...its a 40 minutes ride...it takes a while...

Other ferries are carrying cars...

Far away is hualien...

Many people came outside as the trip went along...

Each seat was offered a bag...

And there was TV for those who wanted to watch (and could)...I heard many people puke...

Alot of flying fishes were flying around...not captured on my camera... :(

We got picked up the the hostel manager at the harbor at green island...

They guy gave us emplty scooters, so we needed to fuel up...

This seems like a systemaic thing...and reminded me of laos...

Where everyone gets a empty scooter ready for fuel up...I wonder if they empty it on purpose...

How to find a local person from a tourist? locals dont use helmet...

Even the locals told me...

Its kind of fun...just like Nan ao...its a contrast from Hsinchu...

Or have a hat that looks like a helmet...

I can see why they cal it "green island"

They also had interesting cliff formations...

This is the hotel...a very small place very cozy...many people living there...

More or less each cliff had a name...I think the one to the left here was called "the dog" or something...

The island is not that big, about 19km to drive around...and from a view point on could see this side (south east peak, (far in the horizon one can see Orchid island))...

And also the norht east peak...

The island had alot of animals and insects...

A conveinient road that went around the island...as made for the toursits who gets a scooter directly when they enter it...

And some times the road was really near the water...

Historical sites...telling about the strong current...

Some fishing boats were also driving around on the ocean...on the "risky" streams that causes many Qing dynasty ships to go aground...

Here is one of the worlds few hotsprings near ocean (some one said there are like 3-4 places like this)

They had cool caves from the road...

No wonder there are this many scooter parking lots...

We went to an "all you can eat" restaurant, hosted by the hostel, the first night...

They had a fridge of food that we could pick from...

I focused mostly on deer meat...since its special for this island...

We fried if on aliminium...

More people joined up after a while...they had been snorkeling (or diving as they called it)...

Some store had a sealed dear as an attraction...

We met up later on outside the hostel...

We followed the hostel managed on the road that takes up around the island...

There are super many scooters driving around every night on green island, trying to find deers...

The guide had a very strong light, to find the animals...

He also showed pineapples and said that we could pick if we wanted (I sneaked up the night after, and took one...but at a closer look it didnt look like apineapple)...

The guide spoke chinese and taiwanese so I had to listen carefully to understand...

We also visited some temples caves...

...come containing water...

And he showed us a stick insect that was unique for green island, taiwan has a similair, but its brown...

The day after we ate breakfast at some green island restaurant...

They had alot of cats in the island...some expecting human treatment...

This was said to be typical local food...

And flying fish...

We also picked up out T-shirts and swim caps...

After that we went for snorkeling...

We needed to sign some insurance paper...but my classmate pablo didnt know his ARC number...so he wrote his student ID...plus some random letter...I did the same...

We went to the north beach...its where everyone dives...

Later on that day we went to the city (there are a 7-11 and a family mart, that creates the night life of green island)...everyone asked for a Mcdonalds...I guess it will create a new city center...

I bought seafeed icecream and slized ice...

It was said to be famous, and we got discount from the hostel...it was ok...

We later on ate some dinner, where a big bus tour of retired taiwanese people shared tables...the food similair from before...

We contined to one of the few "ocean near" hot springs in the world...

They had normal pools...

But rejected my classmate to swim with his surfershorts in som pools...

But girls could have skrits...not bacterias...

We headed down towards the ocean...

25 meters from the ocean three pools were established...with different temperature...

This is how the "pineapple" looks like that I picked...

In the day of competition, we left early...since the swimming started at 8...

Some used sunblock, others thouthg its just a 1 hour swim...(later on i realized that I burned my self heavily...)

They said it was less than 500-600 people participating...so it was very small compare to the sun moon lake-swim...

And oceanwater is so salty...many people brin extra water to the water...

Just like in kenting they had balloons to follow...this is the one at the start and finish...

A relaxed police...seems like  anice job at green island...

This time we swam along the beach...popular aming divers and surfers...still alot of boats watching the swimmers...

After some hour I was done...people kept dropping in for a long time...its easy to swim here, sinceone can chose to return whenever...however the stream was very strong...many people took a rest...

A TV team was reporting, and the president sent a messaged to the participants (according to the staff)...

Also security on a aterjet...that picked up tired people...

Here is the start and exit...

The fastest people used a super small floating equipment (its manadaroy to have one...)...

about 1.5 km away was the other balloon...

Many people are using diving equipment when swimming in taiwan...and fens..on the feet...

Some are using the flotaing badges to hike on others...

And some are covering their full body, not to get burned by the sun...but still super warm...its like 30 degrees here...

After the race we got a taiwanese lunch box...we also got to send message in a bottle...to friends...

We swam in a team called "GMBA"...but no sponsorship...we got our space near the start to but our bags...

Some people also used life jackets...

After the race we went eating some slized ice...so warm and salty after the competition, it was good...

It was a warm day...

Many locals are walking in the sun...on the "city center" of green islands biggers village...

We passed by the prison that the island is so famous for...they still keep prisoners here...

They rebuilded it some years ago...unfotenetely taiwanese people killed all the aboriginals here when they came..and later on kept the island as a place for execution....

But today they earn alot of money from tourism...and people can buy cute statues of the prisoners...

On they way back, it was logt of queues...seems like they fery traffic is scarce...

Johnnys family met us up when we came back...

Johnnys home was very nice...alot of furnitures...made it look like a real taiwanese home...from my experience...

We got to borrow their old car...it was nice

I were heading downtown...ans saw a scooter accident...fortunately the driver had a helmet...

We passed by the "old trainstation"

Some homeless guy use to live in one of the buildings there...its a tourist attraction nowadays...

And they also had some bunkers from the japanese area...

We also passed by an aboriginal market...with alot of "krimskrams"...

And a Starbucks coffeeshop in the middle of Taidong...cool!

The high buiding behind the tree is abandoned...

We passed by a sweet potatoes chip store...but decidede to return here later...and buy some stuff...they ahd a philipponi waiter whos english was good, taidong people had in gerneral poor english skills...

We also passed by Johnnys grandparents home..(and uncles)...

His 2 uncles were preparing Baizis (steam buns) for this evening...they have a family business here...it smelled like cinnamon buns in their home...

They were very good with the dough...

This is another taiwanese speciality...

And this are some organs from a pig...

We god the bun and some tea, it was super good...

They also had a big house...its cool with wooden stairs...i heard its common in taiwan, but to have the house built of wood is more rare...

They also had a room with glass floor arn ceiling...for energy purpose i think...

we there after went to the shore...where they had some cool monuments...

and aboriginal house...where the aboriginals has meetings once in a while...

I was told they the aboriginals drinks alot of alcohole (maybe just like in australia)...

We there after took a walk to a forrest park near by, i think it was here my start for the iron man was...

It had a long history from some occupation period...I also heard some taiwanese maffia brought some guy here 3 years ago and killed him in a local pond...becasue they looked at them in the wrong way...I hope I can learn how to look at taiwanese maffia...so that I can feel safe...

AFter the park visit we took of to an aboriginal restaurant...

They had a dance floor in the middle...

And the waitresses had colourful clothes...

And they had the same instruments I saw in sun moon lake last year...I guess typical aboriginal instruments...

JOhnnys parents picked the meals for us...

I wanted local drink, and rice wine was the only options...it was sweet and good...

We also got some other local dishes...

Of any kind...like pinglang flower etc...

And some kind of tofu that tasted sour, with some sauce...

And soup...

And rice in babmo or leafs...I got that in the mountains in Hsinchu some years ago...

And a fish, its common here to have atleast one fish on the table...

Then some cute aboriginal girls started to perform dances...

And some guy as weill, it reminded me of the dane i saw in New Zeeland...

And i also ate bees...with peanuts...

It was interesting, maybe I tried it before...i dont remember...

After the restaurant, I wanted to try the night life in Taidong..we were recommended 1 pub, that Johnnys mom knew...

While the local KTV was crowded with taiwanese people...the pubwas empty with only5 foreingers...

The meny was only in chinese...

They had some special offers on the wall..

The other foreintgers were germans, french and spanish, one guy from mexico who were here on a conference...

I brought pants and shoes specially for my night life experience in taidong...i was super curios about what people do at night in this city...

We there after went to a near by family mart with the othe people, to buy beer, and later on heading to a place called "the beer garden"...

They were experienced, a 500meters walk can make any beer become warm in taidong...

Here is beer garden, it turned out to be the same place as the aboriginal market, but by night...they didnt erve anything, so everyone brought their own alcohol...

After this we went to Mcdonalds quickly...it has become a tradtition for me...sine some years ago, everytime im here...

When I met Johnnys parents the day after, they gave me ALoe vera, since I burned my back when swimming on green island...I was also recommended to eat it...itsgood for the skin they said...

And they ordered breakfast...some hamburger and tea...

Pablo didnt feel well, so he wanted fruit...I think its his new life style with lack of sleep...

The mountains are cool, and can often be seen in the background when dricing in Taidong...

We also went to a local Slized ice place...

They recieved alot of national awards...

I prefer to eat frui with my ice..not beans oe other slimy things...its good that one can pick their own flavours...

We were there after heading back to the sweet potatoe shop...on the way I saw an abandoned 7-11...the 3 colours red green and orange...

They were out of many things....

But usually they offer 3 kinds of sweet potato...

I bought this bag of chips...

Next stop was a local temple that was super big...

And there after we went to a pre historic museum, however the lack of time left here made us jsut walk around the museum, not enter it...

Johnnys brother joined ut the whole day...

It was a big resort a little bit out of town...

They also had a restaurant at the resort...it has been awarded a star in "guide rouge"...so cool, I wanna eat here some day...

And they had some statues looking like tha maois of easter island...I heard that the people from easter island originaly come from Taiwan...that is cool...

This it the entrance...

NAtional museum of pre history...in taidong...I have to come back here...

A sun watch was placed at the main entrance...

At the train station I saw this sign...it wasinteresting...waiting zone for female passenger by night...cant guys wait there?

We took the same route back to taipei...passing many green mountains...

Its very mystique...

And it started raining near Yilan...does it always rain here?

PAblo thought it was cold in the train...usually they always have AC, independentl of the outside tempereature...its always cold...stange policy...

I tried to study chinese...but it was hard...

I also had a fruit beer left, that I finished before I came home...

Got my laptop back...

I got my laptop back...

It is always interesting to go to this place...I hear Asus computers causes alot of trouble...

This is my old broken screen...that I got back...separately...from my new computer...

Improvised "farewell dinner"

I had a farewell dinner with the swedes today...

The guys to the right will leave soon...

We ate "internatioanl food" at nctu...its my favourite place...I think...spagetti and sometimes burger as well...

Last class for my classmates

I have soem classmates who are having theiru lsat class this week...

My chinese teacher is here in the front...doing V-sin with her hands...all tai-style...

Birthday party at Feast

I went to a all you can eat restaurant yesterday, since my friend had her birthday...

It was a big buffet, but maybe (compare to taipeis alternative) the price was in the upper level, for beeing taiwan...

It was in Sheraton hotel...so everything felt very up class, I felt like i was in a restaurant in sweden...

It was easy to "break even" at this place, since compare the price of the amount of things I ate like steaks, suchi, desserts and drinks...(not alcohol thought), I saved alot of money...

They also had shark...

And culinary delights...of all kinds...especially desserts...

They didnt have this...but I ordered it anyway...and got it...a pizza...

People from all over the world came to the dinner...and most of us joined up to the mountains afterwards...becasue they wanted to go to some hotspring...

We had to drive around for a while, before we found a place that was open 24/7...

I told the party crew that I didnt intend to swim, just drive and prepare for my chinese quiz that I had the day after..they said they were ok with that.

I left at 3-4 am...to bad it was dark, I really wanted to see the mountains in daylight...

Eating interesting food leftovers...

The GMBA program held some internatnal presentaion lsat sunday, and had alot of left overs...

It was from croatia...and maybe some other country...I used the oven to heat it up...it was nice...

Sign up for graduation party.

I signed up for a graduation party at NCTU...

I often get told that I am in a rush everytime I visit the international service center...but this time I stayed for atleast 5-10 minutes, showing pictures of taiwanese girls using alot of clothes in the swimming pool...and compared to guys who needs speedos...

Interesting email from western perspective...

If I hadnt lived in taiwan for such a long time...i would maybe take this email as a joke...

There are often a trash can to put papers with shit on in the toilet. Many people from western countries finds this strange...its a cultural experience (I guess they wont adapt the pipes, so why dont adapt the paper)...there are also funny signs (from western perspectives) in the toilets, about sitting techniques...when I find one, I will post it...

Interesting invitation card

I got an invitation card from a classmate today, from the schools graduation...

Some times i feel discriminated in this country...and some times I dont...everything is in chinese...i asked my international classmate whos chinese "could" be better than mine, if he could help me translate...but he didnt understand either...the swedish expresion "hur tänkte de här...?" is useful in this case...I will ask the program next week for a translation...

Warm days in taiwan

My screen broke

My screen on my computer broke...

Its was an accidental misshot of a bottle...

I went to the royal club for Asus...I have been here many times before since my asus computer often causes me trouble...

Its a pity that they dont speak english so well, i hope they wont format my hard disc...I didnt bring a USB...

Meanwhile, I have to hang in my old neighbourhoods for a while now on...its nostalgic...

I had to fill in a from, to change my password etc...its always complicated that they have different systems here at nctu for the students to login in...


But they have changed their previous policy to a new a new super stupid "login function", it disconnects you every 5 minutes from internet, so email and blog updates needs to be rewritten a couple of times...this update took me 40 minutes and 5-6 attempts...
"The engineer who designed the program, made it disconnect every 5 minute" they told me here, when I asked if it was anything wrong with my computer...they really dont have any sense of "customer knowledge" at this place...in average people stay at least 20 minutes...

My tent is back..

My tent that was stolen by local people in Xueshan was returned to me today...

So far they havnt charged me for the shipping cost...we will see what happens...they acctually appologized for the way they administrate their huts at the mountain...it was kind of cute...

Dirty dishes

My GMBA program seldom buys things that I want...so I buy them myself...

But yesterday they had an activity, and used my oven without washing it after them...strange that they keep on insisting that we should keep their items clean when they dont clean other items...

A visit to Jiufen...

Last year when I was travelling in Tibet, I saw a traveling program on the chinese TV where they visited Juifen in Taiwan, and since then I wanted to go here and see the worlds largest gold bar...

I started they day with some soup at a famous soup restaurant in Hsinchu...

Juifen is on the east coast of taiwan, we took a car, me ans some old frieds...this is kris, who knew the road, I met him when I was an exchange student here 4 years ago...

Its always cool to see the east (and north) coast of taiwan...

It was a small road up to the mountain village, where gold was found some 100-50 years ago...

It was a great view from here, over the northern landscpae of taiwan...

The roads here in the city was super small, more like a south european path...

And small stores everywhere, kind of expensvie and touristic...

They had some slow made coffee, same as in a restaurnt in Hsinchus Qingda night market...

Signs of modernity...every now and then these signs appeared...

And there were alot of other pathes crossing the main "path", leading to some hidden stores and restaurants...

They say that at sunset, this is an "epic" place to be...

I had a map and brochue about this place from a visit at a tourism bureau in Taipei (banqiao), without a map, it is easy to get lost in this city...

There were some squares at some places...and small roads for cars to pass by, but most places were very narrow, no place for wheel chairs...

This is a statue of a guy digging gold...

And there were some caves at som places...also leading to restaurants...

Some important restaurnats had my Family name..."shi1" (施)

MAny of the pitoresque restaurants had a great view, and super cool interior designt

And modern toilets...dont know what the buttons on the panel will do...

We planned to pass by Danshui (Tamsui in taiwanese i think), but time was running out, since some of my friends were heading to some massage place in Jhubei. So we went to a burger place at Xida in Taipei, one of my favourite burger bars...however it just closed when we came...

Instead we went to this restaurant, and took away, eating while driving...

The burger was typical "sandwish" like...

soft bread etc, not top 10...

This is the place in Jhubei where my friends had a massage...a local girl who lives in Jhubei, who went with us in the car from Taipei, had a father who told us that this place was the kind of massage place that offers happy ending...

The massage room, looks like a bedroom...with pillows etc...

They were open until 3 am...

(some friend confirmed later on that night that they were offering "happy ending" from his experience)

Its funny, maybe we should bring our GMBA professor here, he always talks about massage...

A birthday party at Spirit...

There are alot of birthday parties in these days...

I had many apointments this night...I had a meeting with my friend Gilian before I went to Spirit, she offered me some job some weeks ago as english teacher.

I came to spirit around 24, the (in taiwan) famous singer MC Hotdog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC_HotDog) was performning this night...so they had alot of extra tents outside...(my pics are a  ittle blur)

It was crowded near the stage..I saw people there today from school who never goes to club usually...

The birthday took place in a room in the club and a stripper was there to...(she ended up bare naked)

And we were hanging thre for a while...they had a flat screen so that we could see the stage downstairs, but no music from there was played...

It is an "all you can drink" club, so people usually get very drunk in here...

This night it was Champions league final...I joined some other friends in a bar, up town later this night...it was according to them a kind of boring game, until I came...(1-1), it ended with pentalies...

Many people were excited and they usually take the game very serious...

They had a small flat screen, but its better than streaming it from the lab...since if it is raining, the connection is bad...

I was offered hotpot etc at this place...it was nice...

It was only people that I knew who were at the bar...

Wine and cheese while reading...

Its stressful to not finding good articles for my thesis...

Wine and cheese is nice to eat and drink...

I gaines alot of weight recently...im around 96-97 kilos...I wonder how heavy I will be if i go home to sweden now...(last summer i was arount 90, and gained 10 kg during my 3 week visit (mostly on purpose)...

A visit to the pool

I payed a visit to the NCTU pool today...

As usual the girls are wearing textiles...pyjamas alike...while guys need speedos (not swim/surfer shorts), due to bacteria reasons... :S

Stupid logic...and discrimination...but I have to accept it...

I asked the international service center again about the rules...but I havnt got any answer yet...

I got tea stamps...

I got tea stamp from a friend...

So I might get a free drink soon, I just have to add my old stamps...

Mashed potatoes in the lab again...

I made mashed potatoes in the lab again...

Even if I also ate burger...

I went frency on garlic again...(barely half of them are on this pic).

It was almost a dozen potatoes...

I put alot of butter on my steaks to make it more european...before I heated them in the oven...

And covered it with the potatoes/garlic paste...and let it be in the oven for another 15 mins...I remember I made something similair in school when I wat 14-15 years old...thus its a classic dish...

Morning class on a saturday...

I had a make up class today in my special topics of profit model class...

It was my swedish chalmers friends who held a "management consultant" look alike presentation...

They gave us things from the companies thatthey analysed, P&G, Nestle and Unilever...

Sing along dinner...

I went to a minor dinner last night with the guy who won a singing competition in NCTU last week...

The only thing missing was a camp fire...

I tried some chocolate and brought my own beer...

I also made some henna tattoos on myself...its fun...they last for about 1 week, and my old ones were about to disapear...

It was heavy rain the whole night...even with a poncho I was soaking wet...but its ok...summer temperature makes it easy to cycle in any weather...

1st year students prepares "knowing the world"

Last year I held a speech about Sweden for my gmba program...

This year they will do the same...I dont know their algoritm for picking countries, but they are not using the students who are payed for helping the program...

Mostly local students are fixing the event, they were in the lab until late to prepare this...

A visit to A-mart

I made a quick visit to A-mart yesterday...to buy butter and garlic...mashed potatoes needs these...

I was about to juice as well...but there were no good offers...

When I came back to the lab I added alot of garlic when I prepared the meet which expired today...

I smells in the whole lab...

Lady Gaga in Taipei

I went to a Lady Gaga concert in Taipei yesterday...

Of course they were selling Lady Gaga stuff...

A long queue strecheted out at the exibition center where the concert took place...

It was easy to get there, usually we need to take taxi when we go to Nangan exibition center for concerts, but this place was just at the MRT station...

I waited the queue by buying a burger...but mosburger didnt have any burgers...and the one I bought...took super long time...atleast there was not queue when I walked in to the hall...

The audience had some lamps in purpule colour...

Gaga brought a lot of dancers with her...and it was a big castle in the background...

She had alot of costumes as well...

The audience was divided into many sections, where the prices differed from more than 10000nt in the front to about almost 2000nt in the back... (2500SEK to 500SEK) which is alot for a taiwanese concert...no wonder Gaga was the most profitable performer last year...

One issue was that most places were seats...and the slope was not that good, so people in the front had to stand up, forcing the people behind them to also stand up...meanwhile some staff continously asked the crowd so sit down...

Gaga also talked inbetween some song and become personal...

Fortunately they had 2 big screens so that we could see the performance...she was very focused on her gay fans...

The castle had alot of colours...

Some people said she played some extra songs this night...

When she was done...it was chaotic...

Outside there were alot of cameras interviewing people...

Many people were dressed up, and my schoolmate Abby used a Gaga video as inspiration for her face...

We went to my favourite burgerbar quickly before we had to take the niight bus back...

Its soo good. I ate it horizontaly so that i wouldnt break...

The bartender BiLi was there as usually...so cute...

When I came back to hsinchu I went to Spirit, since its students night...

This night some inconcistent guy who maybe worked at the club, who thinks all foreingers look the same, approached me and forced me to delete all my pics from spirit, claiming its forbidden to take pics...I guess he only ment for white guys, cuz there were many ppl taking pics there...things like this makes me lose respect for people...

Meat sauce leaking in the fridge...

I bought alot of steaks some days ago...and some meat souce was leaking in the fridge...

I had to process the meat...

I just burned the surface...

I will make them in the oven later...with garlic and butter...

I also made some fried potatoes...just for fun...it tasted like home...

Lots of snack in my profit model class...

I use to bring alot of snack to my profit model class...

I brought my pineappble cake I nought near Xueshan...

And my mandatory M&M´s...

I always bring tea...most often I make it myself...

Its a very relaxing and entertaining class...

I have a new roommate

I have a new roommate...he moved in yesterday...

He started by cleaning the room, epscially the toilet and shower...

It was fun, I wonder how long it will remain clean...the attitide before before was more "if my roommate think his mom lives and cleans here, so will i think"...or something...

A short visit to the lake...

I went to the lake to have a beer with some friends...

It was nice...some people went down town...I planned to stay in my lab for a while...after the lake visit...

A visit to costco again...

I passed by costco shortly this afternoon...

They were promoting the same beer as they have in the german bar in taipei bus station...

They also had the "pinguin" bottles...so cool...

They were promoting Europe, and the staff was wearing tiroel hats...so cool...

I bought some steaks...my steaks i made yesterday was good, it reminded me of home...so I gonna make some more...

I also bought the cheese that aged for 24 month...its gonna be exciting to try...I will drinkit with a Cabernet Savignon from Chile...

Go frenzy on tea...

I drin kalot of coffe and tea nowadays...

I have to consume it faster than I buy it...and I buy alot when im travelling etc...

I saw the Dabajianshan sigh on Guangfu road...

I saw the Dabajianshan sign on guang fu road, its thus not that far to Xueshan from Hsinchu...

Its only 112km to that place...I have to check it out...

I had a super cheesy burger for lunch, it was good...

A quick visit at 7-11

The school wanted to remove a problem some years ago...it was how to deal with drunk students...so they stopped selling alcohol in campus...(more or less), I suggested that they could offer a place to drink, instead of offer a place not to drink (since they will remove the life of the students instad of renew it)...the school seemed to hope that foreigners will msn with each other instead of talking face to face, and go to ktv when someone has a birthday...all tai-style...but ppl just went of campus to hang out...

Now they dont want students to drink alcohol outside 7-11 outside campus either...its easy to move this further, until the nctu will look silly...

I had some fiber drink at the north gate anyway...they cant force the students to starv...

I also passed by Mcdonalds...I found the burgers super cheap...compare to home...just like 8-10 SEK...

Mashed potatoes in the lab

I bought alot of potatoes yesterday...

I made my standard, garlic and potato mix. And added fried garlic and cheese in the oven...

It was good...the fatter the better...

Painting Swallow

I helped my classmate Swallow (the noun) with a henna tattoo today...

It was fun...

I added "CHIEM" its her vietnamese name...

Ate my steak to lunch

I had some food left from last night...

Its nice with a steak that is 3 cm thick...and mashed potatios with garlic and some cheese...I rebaked it in the oven today...

My adviser was finally in office

Taiwanese robots

Mashed potatoes and steak in the lab

A giant visit

I wanna take road 122 to Dabajianshan (大霸尖山)!

I want to go back to the mountains!

Its accrually road 122 from Hsinchu that leads to the mountains from the west side...

Here is tha range...some are in Hsinchu county...

I wanna to back here!

Dinner at harry´s

Delayed payment

The shanghai trip i did for mmy gmba program in februaryhasnt been repayed yet...it costed me more that 20000nt to do it...and i was affraid that the inconsistend university would just cheat me again...

I found out that it will be payed before graduation...I hope I have time tp spend the money...it sux to get cash some days before you leave the country...

Steak house visit...

I visited a steak ouse in Hsinchu last week...

I have been here before...

Its known for beeing expensive...ohowever, steaks are not that comon in taiwan, so this is one of few places where they have very good steaks...

I had some japanese named steak, but it tasted like a swedish "Flintastek"...it was super good!

They cusotmers pay per oz (weight) not per steak...so it becomes expensive in the end, last time I payed 1300nt something, tpday 700-800nt...(a lunch at campus is like 50-60nt)

 

I try to find my adviser...

I have tried to find my adviser for 1 week now...

No one there...he prefers me to just come unannounced...he told me...I have to be done soon, it will be an "asian" thesis, my other classmates finished his in 2-3 weeks...i guess thats how some ppl do here...

I returned 2-3 times...but no progress :(

Slow elevators...

My chinese class is on the forth floor...but I never take the elevators...

This will take 10 minutes r something...if one press the elevator button, both elevators goes to that floor...so useless...they could reprobgram them to be more efficient...

Super cheesy burger

I went to a recently opened burgerbar some days ago...(Ricks in Hsinchu)

They try to create an american atmosphere...showing western movies and play old american songs...

I had a water melon slush...

And a burger with extra cheese...wow so much, it was awesome...

Eating local peanut butter in da lab

I opened an old peanut butter jar in the lab...

It is not as salty as other peanut butter...

I also found more coffee from indonesia, this one is organic and with coconut flavor...

Back from Xueshan...

"that trail takes 4 hours"....we made it in 1-2 hours...omg, next time I will plan further routes when trekking in Taiwan...

We took the bus from Hsinchu, to taipei, and from there we took train to yilan on the east coast..

The train went where I cycled some weeks ago when i cycled arond taiwan...

From Yiland transtaion we took a bus to Wuling a place from where trail begins...

It was me, Saamet and Vlad, two other Chalmers students...they had professional equipment...I had broken shoes and a tennis bag...but it was ok...climbing in taiwan is more like a walk in the park...

I ate some food in yilan, since people said there are not that many stores up in the mountains...

We were suppose to walk for 3-4 days...so we needed to buy alot of food...

The we went on a local bus taking us up to wuling...

It was rainy weather, and we couldnt really see that much...but the road went up hill, I like the mountains in taiwan...

They had a lot of farms and plantage along the road...

Dont know if the bus driver was payed to do it, but we always made a stop at a local store in a small village in the mountains...

I bought some local egg...and steam bun...

Then we came to the park entrance, and we had to pay 100nt per person to enter..

We met a professional guy who made us change our route...

We had to take a car another 5km from where the bus dropped us of...and our new friends helped us arrange a driver and car...

I also saw some signs telling which snakes that were common in the park...

And a map over the park...next time I will walk to hsinchu from here...

We had a chat with our friends, who were waiting for some other friends. initially we were suppose to wait here in wuling until tomorrow and start our hike, since our permit started from tomorrow morning, but our friends, told us to wait until 17, when the ranger station close, then we just leave our persmit in a postbox and enter, some day before...

He alo gave us some cherries...while inspiriing us to join him...

Vlad thought that the berries were a little to bitter...

We started to walk for a while, since the friends that we were waiting for were delayed...

it was raining a little, but i didnt want to put on any rainsuit, i would just sweat to death...

We were offered a car to take us further up the hill to the ranger station...

It was small, and we were 7 people, so our taiwanese freinds squeezed in the trunk...

It was steep and many busses went on this crappy road...we met some of them...it was creepy how narrow road it was...

We dumped some papers that our friends recommended us to dump in the post box...(we left to many papers, we found out later...)

The path had stairs, it was a 40 mins walk to the destination of the day...so interesting, the taiwanese ppl always say atleast 2 or 3 times longer that it acctually is...

We decided to sleep in this cabin, called Qika hut...

they had electricity but it was turned of at 21.30, and alot of mice running around...

We initiallly never planned to stayin this hut, however there were spaces left here (one reason ppl need ta permit is that they need to prebook beds in the hut, and only ppl who can prove that they can walk on a mountain may use tent...its kind of silly, but it is how it works...)

Here are my team mates...the first rainy night...on the first hut (there are totally 2 cabins on the way to the top)...

We were suppose to start at 3 am the day after...I was bored at this hut, since it went faster than expected, so i opened my rum from Bhutan to end up my miseries...

Each hut has some rangers watching it...this guy, whowas super drunk was the host of this cabin...(it turned out that this guy ws not a ranger, he was just a portier, who pretended, offering us sleeping bag for 200nt, and he took my tent)

He pretended to kill a mouse with my water bottle, but later on he said "its my friend" and let the mouse walk away in the room were were sleeping in...

He was telling stories and treating us rice wine...

The cup we drank from was a little broken, so we had to hurry up to finish it...

He gave us more and more...(when calling the park administration, they told us that they dont know this guy, ifi return to this place...I will b far more suspicios about local rangers...and ask for ID from every one of them)

After a while our taiwanese friends friends arrived, they took car from Taizhong...and they told us they were going the same route we originally planned. however, by some reason we changed it so just go to the top and back...I also planned to swim in the lake, that was taiwanes highest..

I was recommended to leave my tent here since we would not need it if we were suppose to go back the day after...(u know the story)

They ranger put it in his room and said it was safe...I never saw my tent after that...they stole it... :(

I also treated our friends friends some Bhutan rum...they were really nice...

They boiled some water here in the kitchen of the hut...I guess if we were making a longer route, we would also bring equipment to boil water...even though I think its drinkable on the creeks uphill as well...

From this moment, my camera broke...so some times I borrowed my friends camera...

We were served noodles from your friends...

We left form the Qika hut super early, like 3-4 in the morning...and reached the next hut "369" about 2 hours later...where people were still sleeping...

They had a sign of common animals...I felt likehome...where I often encounter deers and elks...

They had a kitchen where the rangers and visitors were cooking food, I think they got free gas from the high tech toilet that generated gas from the shit...

I was filling up some water...from the aluminium bottles...it tasted a little aluminium aswell...

It was super foggy this day...however, people said that it was an awesome view from here on normal days...

Our friend was talking to some kids, who didnt want to walk further, they were waiting for their classmates to come back from the peak...

We could see some blue sky...but just some small fragments...

My friend Vlad reached the top around 10, I was some minute after...

Walking in the fogg, it was interesting, they had alot of information signs...on the path up...

I felt like Frodo, walking in mordor...

Finally I reached the peak...faster than expected...thats why I wanna go back, walkingall the way to or from Hsinchu...

We coniued to walk further, in order to find taiwans higest lake...since I was walking in my swimming outfit...I wanted to take a swim up there...

We walked on on a steep path...taking us downhill...some where...

I had alot of swimming equipment in my tennis bag...

I wsa maybe not "100%" fitted by the book, but I was still wearing a "fältmässig" outfit, for a civilian...

We found a path back to the cabin "369" but didnt know if it was the same as where we came from..so we walked back to the top, finind the real path, but then it was raining heavily, soi we decided to walk back...

I was hesitating and joined some other people back up on the top a third time, but realized that its safer not to walk to the lake alotm since it was slippery and steep...

I went back to the hut where I met my friend, and suggested to continue downhill...however after some discussion we stayed in this hut...

When we came to the hut, our old taiwanese friend were taking a nap...

We knew we had to wait here until tomorrow...and it was about 1-2 pm...

We started to walk back early the day after as well...

We planned to see the sunraise at the east peak, it is on the way back to wuling where we started...

It was a very clear day...we kind of picked the worng day to climb...even if, by rumors, it was uppose to be bad weather today aswell...

We could now see many other peaks...

We could now also see the "369" cabin and the peak of Xueshan...

Here is the team "hunter", every application needed a name...and our group was named "hunter"...

When you are on a 3000+ mountain in Taiwan, you can often see most of the other high peaks...

I saw Hehuanshan, the mountain that I climbed 2 years go with the NCTU mountain climbing club...

I also saw the cool village I saw from Hehuan shan...that I wanted to visit...where it might be snow eery winter...thus the houses looks like home...or something...

After this peak visit, we coninued downhill...

We went down to Gika hut to pick up my tent...this is the guy who slept in the rangers room...dont know f he is a ranger...since the regulation here is chaotic...random guys sleeps everywhere apparently...

...and FUCK!!! my tent is gone, the tai guy who acted like a ranger stole it! If i come back here, I might empty the palce on sleeping bags and equipment for the same value as I evaluate my tent!

Just some 30 minutes later, e came back to the park entrance...where they had a pool...

We needed a car from here, like last time...and our old friend made a phone call to one of the other taiwanese friends, who rushed down to us to give us a lift to the bus, that we thought might leave in some hour...

Even from here it was a great view.

And on the way to the bus stop, we passed alot of tea plantage...

And from the bus we went to Yilan, then taipei and back to Hsinchu...some day earlier than planned...

It was fun and I want to go back to the mountains, its a big contrast compare to the citites...

However, I got disapointed with the taiwanese national park authorities...since I can easily climb the highest mountain "yushan" in one day, its said to be easier that xueshan...however they still force you to apply for some permit, even if i wont use a hut...

due to the limited space in tha cabins that i apparently never will use...they always treat people like kids in this country... :S

But neverthe less...

I wanna go trekking again...

Packing for xueshan

I started to pack for Xueshan today, im leaving tomorrow, its the second highest mountain in taiwan...

I printed some permits that we needed to have at the chaomers office...

I went downtown to pick up train tickets to yilan, from where we are suppose to take the bus...I also passed by coldstone and had a pinapple coconut icecream, it was not as good as I hoped...

I ended my day with a beer at 7-11...

Burger and wine...a normal monday...

I enjoy my burger diet...

Some burgerbars gives the burger in a paper cup...its a little different

I also opened a ner wine from argentina...it taste as a Cabernet Sauvignon should do...awesome...

The song of the day is Nicki Minaj - Starships

Another night in taipei

I went to taipei to meet NCTU alumnis etc...

And people from Chalmers Asia and the swedish Chamber of commerce were there...

We were divided into differnce tables...and played a drawing game initially...

And people from the chamber were presenting some new ideas they had...

About the future for the NCTU and Chalmers relationship...

And we ate Smörgåstårta...

They had differnt flavours...

And alot of it aswell, so I took 2 times...or 3...

The winner of the competition won chocolate, I think it was from ikea...

The event was at Milomilo...

But Mansen, my swedish friend had a birthday event, so we decided to go to a bar...

We went to a german beer house near Nanjing East road...

We were 14 people, so they had to arrange some seats for us...

I had some special beer and some half fried tuna...

He got a cake...

He got Binlang from his friends...

He opened it, and He tried, I tried, and most people at the table tried...

Everyone did not like it...(or if anyone liked it, i dont know...)

It was nice to sit outside, it reminded us of a swedish summer, especially since it was a little chilly outside...

On the wasy back home, we passed by ikea...

They were about to close but we managed to enter to food store...

They still had Glögg...so cute...

I bought herrljunga cider, one beer and icecream, then we were heading back to Hsinchu...

Tomorrow is another day, school, school and school...i need to start writing my thesis i think...

4 university football game

I went to Zhongli today, with my school, to support or participate in the football game...

We had to gather 8 at the north gate...

...to take the bus 8.30 to zhongli...

2 other teams were already there...playing...(it was 4 teams in the tournament)

It was only foreigners in the game...

People started early to warm up...our first game was around 10.30...

We got green shirts, our competition NTHU had blue shirts...

As usual there were alot of opinions and discussions, when many culture meets, there are always argues about how to play, some ppl like to dribble the ball, others to pass it...

It was probably 30 degrees in the shade...and I burned myself heavily from yeaterday so i but alot of sunblock on...

My aim was only to support the team, not to play, since other ppl wanted to play more...

I knew I had to leave earlier, since I had an appontment in Taipei...so me and a french guy who wanted to vote in the french election ordered a cap to taipei...

The taxi charged 1000nt to taipei...it was ok...compare to taking High Speed rail, and taxi it was maybe the same price...

Seesaw hamburgers...

I went to another burger bar in Hsinchu some day ago...

It was said to be just a "normal" burger bar, on some blogs...

I was going for the biggest burger as usual...

It was 3 meats and 4 bachon layer and some cheese...and onion rings on it...very strange...

And some potatoe stew aswell...it was interesting...

53km marathon Taipei - Jiaoxi

I joined a marathon between Taipei and Jiaoxi (at the east coast on northern taipei) yesterday...

It was only about 1000 people joining the event...

Some people start to recognize me from other sports even in taiwan...which tells how small the marathon (running, swimming cycling) industry is in taiwan...

This is the name of the race, i think...

We had limited time to finish, but the extended it, i thinkg because it was very warm, so many people needed more time...

I ran up there...somewhere...on the raod between Xidian and Jiaoxi, pass Pingling...it was a very hilly road...and like 30-35 degrees, the problem was that it was barelyt any shade ion the road, and without sunblock, i burned myself alot...

But it was ok...as usualy I think that I should never do things like this again..but I always forget the physical pain...to bad...

Taipei visit

I went to taipei yesterday to return the floating equipment from the swimming race in kenting. I also went to meet Enrique, my el salvadorian friend...it was fun...

I went to my fanvouties burger bar Cosby Taipei...

They dont have M.S.G...a chemical that is suppose to increase the "freshness" of the food, but can cause cancer...according to rumors...

I also went to Cafe Dalida again... and had a by Enrique recommended Mango slush...

I also visited a lake in taipei...with a bridge over it...or it was more like a broad river...

Spirit, week 2

I visited Spirit yesterday...its to cheap not to go, only for one or two drinks...

I had my "disco disco" shirt, that I bought from Bali...since I was going to a disco...

It was not as many ppl here today, some internaional student had a birthday party else where...so maybe thats why it was a ack for foreigners today...

This it the logo of the place...i dont know why they changed the name from Savage...

This is the car of the owner, if u see a car with low profie tired and shaded windows, its brobably maffia relatied, like night club owner, binlang retailer or night market protector...

I found a new favourite drink...its like a pinacolada but with beer instead of pineapple...

They told me they didnt have any milk drinks..but then i found out that they had anyway...strange...

In the beginning there was only on bartender who could make my drink, but since I kept on ordering it, the other bartender als learned...

AFter a while, my friends also ordered it, so we got a big carafe...

I also got to borrow my friends name tag...he works there...its fun, they have similair things in Luxy at taipei...

Dinner tin Taipei

My friend had birthday today, and we went to a restaurant in Taipei to celebrate

It was just near Taipei 101, that currently was used as a advertisment pelar for Louis Vuitton...

I was first among the guests...only Nicole and Yuriy was there...he has a Canon Mark II camera...so impressive...I might buy one of these as well, if i dont buy a Mark III that is recently released...

The restaurant had an interesting paying system...when i got in to it, i was given a plastic card...

You went to their kitchen...

Picked your dish...

It was an german owned italian restaurant, they had past and pizza but no lasanga :(

They u pressed your card to this machines, and it would register our order for you, so it will be easier to pay later...

i had a tomoato and garlic pizza with milk and honey, from a glass that looked like a water tower...

It was a nice dinner...mostly swedish people, and some international students...

We also ate cake...some other people were also haveing birthday there...seems to be a popular restaurant...

We stayed for a long time, having interesting converations, braggin around about our historical knowledge and discussing interesting topics...

When we went out, I saw alot of foreigners...

I realised that it was at the nightclub Myst...now wonder...maybe i will go here some time, it use to b expensive...but its still popular...

Taiwan beer goes innovative...

Taiwan beer has released some new flavours...

I tried it during class. one flavour is pineapple, and the other is peach...

Another burgerbar in Hsinchu

Yesterday I treid another burger bar in Hsinchu downtown...

It was a famous place, where you could not reserve a table...

The burgers tasted like Burgerhoods burgers in Taipei...

It was not easy to find...but tawianese people often write food blogs, so a roumor spreads quickly...