School Starts
Today we're back in Taipei and it feels so nice to be in one spot for awhile. We'll be here until Junee 22 when we depart for Hong Kong. We're staying in a youth dorm/hostel type place, but it's newish and on the nicer side. There's some rooms with bunk beds and some communal bathrooms and showers, but i am quite relieved to report we all have our own private accomodations in our rooms.
We had our first lecture Friday at Ming Chuan University, which is about a 15 min. walk from our hotel/dorm. Dr. Jwang from long beach is just finishing up his year at a visiting professor here, so we were happy to hear his final lecture, which was on supply chain management. he told us to read tom friedman's book "the world is flat." and today is his 38th wedding anniversary, so after class he's hopping on the next flight to LAX, where he'll actually arrive three hours before he left Taipei, just in time to take his wife to dinner!
the afternoon lecture was by dr. stolentberg, also from long beach, he's been travelling with us on the trip and lived in tapei from 1986-87. the talk was about the WTO and GATT, and only two students feel asleep. I noted that bells go off on campus, not at the top of the hour, but at random times. 2:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 3:45 p.m., 4:20 p.m......
tonight we hit the night market, which is about a 15 minute walk away, to get some dinner. i wasn't feeling too brave so i just had a pork dumpling and some fresh papaya juice (i actually asked for "uno papaya" and felt like an idiot when she looked at me like i was crazy .... johnny said the word uno is close to something like a million, so she was probably confused). the others had some steak and chicken dishes with an asian flair.
on the way back i stopped at a fresh produce stand and pointed out one rose apple i wanted slices. does anyone know what rose applese are? they are the best! my favorite thing so far on the trip .... look like an apple in the shape of a super big strawberry and are crunchy and juicy but not too sweet! anyway, like a total rookie i didn't ask for the price first, so he started chopping away. i was like "uh .... how much was that again?" and he's like "100 dollars" (which is $3 U.S.).
Earlier in the trip we bought them for 50 cents U.S. I knew it was too late to negotiate, but i tried anyway. "No, too much" i say. "not 100, too much." he's like staring at me like i'm crazy, pointing to the fruit like, i just chopped this for you, dork. i'm like "how about 50; 50 better price" and he's like "50? ok" .... wow that was easy. he must know i am savvy taiwan veteran by now! ha!
i dig for my coin, hand it over and grab the bag. my satisfaction was short-lived as i realize he just put half of the apple in the bag. if i was paying him half as much, i was getting half as much. so round one goes to the produce guy ..... but i'll be back! you only need to learn that lesson once.
We had our first lecture Friday at Ming Chuan University, which is about a 15 min. walk from our hotel/dorm. Dr. Jwang from long beach is just finishing up his year at a visiting professor here, so we were happy to hear his final lecture, which was on supply chain management. he told us to read tom friedman's book "the world is flat." and today is his 38th wedding anniversary, so after class he's hopping on the next flight to LAX, where he'll actually arrive three hours before he left Taipei, just in time to take his wife to dinner!
the afternoon lecture was by dr. stolentberg, also from long beach, he's been travelling with us on the trip and lived in tapei from 1986-87. the talk was about the WTO and GATT, and only two students feel asleep. I noted that bells go off on campus, not at the top of the hour, but at random times. 2:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 3:45 p.m., 4:20 p.m......
tonight we hit the night market, which is about a 15 minute walk away, to get some dinner. i wasn't feeling too brave so i just had a pork dumpling and some fresh papaya juice (i actually asked for "uno papaya" and felt like an idiot when she looked at me like i was crazy .... johnny said the word uno is close to something like a million, so she was probably confused). the others had some steak and chicken dishes with an asian flair.
on the way back i stopped at a fresh produce stand and pointed out one rose apple i wanted slices. does anyone know what rose applese are? they are the best! my favorite thing so far on the trip .... look like an apple in the shape of a super big strawberry and are crunchy and juicy but not too sweet! anyway, like a total rookie i didn't ask for the price first, so he started chopping away. i was like "uh .... how much was that again?" and he's like "100 dollars" (which is $3 U.S.).
Earlier in the trip we bought them for 50 cents U.S. I knew it was too late to negotiate, but i tried anyway. "No, too much" i say. "not 100, too much." he's like staring at me like i'm crazy, pointing to the fruit like, i just chopped this for you, dork. i'm like "how about 50; 50 better price" and he's like "50? ok" .... wow that was easy. he must know i am savvy taiwan veteran by now! ha!
i dig for my coin, hand it over and grab the bag. my satisfaction was short-lived as i realize he just put half of the apple in the bag. if i was paying him half as much, i was getting half as much. so round one goes to the produce guy ..... but i'll be back! you only need to learn that lesson once.
posted by christine at 5:06 AM
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