One-Week Anniversary

And oh, what a change a week can make. I feel like my Chinese abilities have skyrocketed in seven days. Even though I might not have learned that many new words, I am getting better at reading people's accents (news flash, not everyone has the proper pronounciations) and cadences. And I seem to pull words out of my butt that I may have used once in my entire life, but for whatever reason come rushing back to me. Every night I have also made it a tradition of going home to look up as many words as possible that I needed that day and I didn't know (or new words that I learned) and write them down so I don't forget. As my metabolic biochem professor Randy Hampton once said, "Repetition is the key to learning."

Today was so awesome. A bunch of the lab, as I mentioned in my last post, flew to Canada for a conference on stem cell research and ethics. I guess what that means is as soon as the boss is out of sight, the entire lab decides to play hookie. I met Ping and another lab worker (whose name I never learned or just forgot) at Academica Sinica at 10 am (their normal arrival time!). We then caught the Nankang buses to the train station, where we met up with four or so other lab people. Two of them (Christin and Philip) were from Canada and spoke both fluent Mandarin and English so I had them as translators, but I think I held my own pretty well in simple conversation without them. We went out to lunch at this Japanese restaurant, and I had a "Japanese hamburger," which was basically fried pork, complete with rice, a mountain of shredded cabbage, and miso soup. The dessert was mango ice cream and mango juice, which was absolutely amazing! We ate pretty early (about 11 am) and then after finishing headed off to the National Palace Museum.

This was my lunch. The pork was absolutely AMAZING, and I'm glad I finally had some veggies to even things out. In the bottom right corner are pickled things (which I actually forgot were there), and soup and rice were prominent as well.

Some of the people from lunch and lab. On the far left is Ping, one of Dr. Yu's two assistants and one of the first people I met my first night here. I think next is Andy, then me, then Christin (the Canadian), and a really ncie girl whose name I have yet to find out.

The National Palace Museum is home to some of the rarest and most precious Chinese artifacts in the world, dating back centuries and even into BCE. During Chiang Kai-Shek's flee from China to Taiwan in 1949, the most valued artifacts were brought from mainland to Taiwan. The current museum was built in this century, but hosts only 30% of the total collection. Other collections reside in mainland, and some stuff isn't even displayed because there is just so much and not enough viewing area. I would have taken pictures if possible, but the museum was pretty Nazi-ish about refraining from shooting photos. I do understand, though, because when you have a few millenia of Chinese history, you don't really want it being destroyed by the flashes of tourists' cameras.

This is a view of the museum from across the street.

I believe this says "National Palace Museum" in Chinese, but I don't know. Stupid fan ti zi.

Ping is on the right, and in the spirit of the day, I'm not sure who is on the left (someone from the lab). But who cares, I'm in Taipei!

I did see the famous jade cabbage, which is a carving of a cabbage and a grasshopper sitting on the leaf. At first I didn't think it was such a big deal (I had seen lots of jade sculptures nicer than this one), but I was informed that the appearance was actually due entirely to the way the light hit it. It appears green and white to the eye, but in reality is carved from a single material, and the angles of carving are what make some parts green. Pretty amazing, if you ask me. It became harder to communicate in the museum because I didn't know a lot of relevant vocabulary, and museum descriptions of artifacts are always so bloody esoteric. There was even a word or two in the English descriptions I didn't know, and I speak English pretty good (haha, just kidding).

From the museum website, not my own artwork.

After the museum we went to another district in Taipei (which I can't remember the name of) and walked around a bit and ate at an Italian cafe. It was about 5:00 and I was still stuffed from lunch, so I ordered a small sandwich and milk tea. We didn't have that much food, but the four of us who were remaining and didn't go back to lab just sat there for over an hour talking. Philip was there so he served as translator at appropriate times, but all of us at one point or another understood the other, sometimes without translations. Following our 'afternoon tea,' we headed back on the subway and buses (which I more or less know how to use now) and returned to Academia Sinica about 7:45. Tomorrow I think everyone is going into the lab (as will I), but on Saturday I'm hoping to go the zoo (I was planning by myself, but if others would like to come, that's great) and on Sunday morning the lab is meeting for a barbeque in an area near the National Palace Museum. I have a feeling it's going to be a fun weekend, and one drastically different from last week!