Day 13
We've had two days of school so far, which is a nice break from being on the go. No motion sickness in the classroom, although there are 191 steps to climb to get here. the campus we are visiting in Taipei is Ming Chuan University, an International University, where most courses are taught in English and the student body is comprised of mostly Taiwanese. The campus is also located on a steep hillside, which means instead of buildings with separate floors, there are tiers of buildings with stairs to each tier. the only flat land is the classroom itself! now i've spent 30-40 minutes on a stairmaster so it really shouldn't be a problem right? but 191 stairs really is a lot, esp. in 90-degree heat and 98 percent humidity.
Day 2 in the classroom featured Dr. Steve Fisher, the chair of the acctg. dept at long beach, and Dr. Thomas Sy, a management professor. They were both pretty interesting! Fisher talked about the difference in financial reporting and financial statements between taiwan and the US and we compared two airlines -- China Air and Jet Blue -- by looking at their income statements, balance sheets, cash flows, etc. Did you know when listing assets, in Taiwan you can change the valuation of your land, and the government can even arbitrarily do it for you! And in China, they don't get to list land as an asset, since all land is owned by the government! Dr. Sy spoke about the different qualities of leadership in the East and West, as well as cultural differences. He's very engaging and entertaining, and looks like he's about 28 so he fits right in with the rest of the group.
Tonight we went to the tallest building in the world -- the 101 building in downtown Taipei. It's called 101 because of its 101 floors. I guess the tallest building changes quite frequently, but this one is tallest for now since they added like a few feet to their radio tower at the top. We didn't go up to the top, but took advantage of all of the shopping a the mall inside. It's basically the South Coast Plaza of Taipei with all sorts of high end stores. There was even a line outside the Gucci store -- complete with velvet rope! I totally got a pic.
For dinner we totally Americaned it out and ate at the food court. Except you know how in food courts in the US there's the token japanese or chinese restaurant? here, there were about 100 food court choices, and approx. 98 of them were taiwanese food. subway and mcdonalds were the two rebels!
I ended up having something just because it had melted cheese on top! it was rice in some sauce, served in a hollowed-out pineapple with shrimp, calamari rings and clams with a layer of white melty cheese on top! i was so excited ..... except the shrimp still had their faces on and were peeking out of the baked cheese, like they were bobbing. anyway, i pulled them out and gave them to a dining companion, but their attenae and feets/legs/arms/whatever stayed stuck in the cheese. it required some picking, but i was just so happy to have cheese.
we walked around to do window shopping and noted all of the really cool cell phones over here. they really do make us look like dorks -- their phones are so fashionable and chic! i wish i could buy one here and use in the US but i guess they don't work that way.
on the subway to the 101 building we ran into some texas A&M students. they're over here studying stuff like physiology and biotechnology and other stuff i don't really understand. i was telling them about the duck blood soup and they about died. all of a sudden i felt really brave. did i mention this soup? at the lunch place we went they served it with every meal .... you just walked over and helped yourself. everyone got some but me.
Me: "what is it called again?"
others: "duck blood soup"
Me: "what do you mean, blood. is that really what you said?"
others: "yes. blood."
Me: "oh, duck butt? is that what you mean? it's duck butt, like meat?"
others: "no! blood! you know blood. they chop the head off the duck and let the blood all drain out. they collect is and let it sit and it turns more solid, like tofu. then we cut it up and put it in soup. it's very good for you."
i ended up having a spoonful of the broth part, but none of the blood, which actually looked like a plum-colored tofu. it just totally grossed me out. of course they sensed this and told me my lunch was all sorts of things that it wasn't .... but i was too scared to eat the real tofu, out of fear it was something other than tofu. i just stuck with chicken and rice.
Day 2 in the classroom featured Dr. Steve Fisher, the chair of the acctg. dept at long beach, and Dr. Thomas Sy, a management professor. They were both pretty interesting! Fisher talked about the difference in financial reporting and financial statements between taiwan and the US and we compared two airlines -- China Air and Jet Blue -- by looking at their income statements, balance sheets, cash flows, etc. Did you know when listing assets, in Taiwan you can change the valuation of your land, and the government can even arbitrarily do it for you! And in China, they don't get to list land as an asset, since all land is owned by the government! Dr. Sy spoke about the different qualities of leadership in the East and West, as well as cultural differences. He's very engaging and entertaining, and looks like he's about 28 so he fits right in with the rest of the group.
Tonight we went to the tallest building in the world -- the 101 building in downtown Taipei. It's called 101 because of its 101 floors. I guess the tallest building changes quite frequently, but this one is tallest for now since they added like a few feet to their radio tower at the top. We didn't go up to the top, but took advantage of all of the shopping a the mall inside. It's basically the South Coast Plaza of Taipei with all sorts of high end stores. There was even a line outside the Gucci store -- complete with velvet rope! I totally got a pic.
For dinner we totally Americaned it out and ate at the food court. Except you know how in food courts in the US there's the token japanese or chinese restaurant? here, there were about 100 food court choices, and approx. 98 of them were taiwanese food. subway and mcdonalds were the two rebels!
I ended up having something just because it had melted cheese on top! it was rice in some sauce, served in a hollowed-out pineapple with shrimp, calamari rings and clams with a layer of white melty cheese on top! i was so excited ..... except the shrimp still had their faces on and were peeking out of the baked cheese, like they were bobbing. anyway, i pulled them out and gave them to a dining companion, but their attenae and feets/legs/arms/whatever stayed stuck in the cheese. it required some picking, but i was just so happy to have cheese.
we walked around to do window shopping and noted all of the really cool cell phones over here. they really do make us look like dorks -- their phones are so fashionable and chic! i wish i could buy one here and use in the US but i guess they don't work that way.
on the subway to the 101 building we ran into some texas A&M students. they're over here studying stuff like physiology and biotechnology and other stuff i don't really understand. i was telling them about the duck blood soup and they about died. all of a sudden i felt really brave. did i mention this soup? at the lunch place we went they served it with every meal .... you just walked over and helped yourself. everyone got some but me.
Me: "what is it called again?"
others: "duck blood soup"
Me: "what do you mean, blood. is that really what you said?"
others: "yes. blood."
Me: "oh, duck butt? is that what you mean? it's duck butt, like meat?"
others: "no! blood! you know blood. they chop the head off the duck and let the blood all drain out. they collect is and let it sit and it turns more solid, like tofu. then we cut it up and put it in soup. it's very good for you."
i ended up having a spoonful of the broth part, but none of the blood, which actually looked like a plum-colored tofu. it just totally grossed me out. of course they sensed this and told me my lunch was all sorts of things that it wasn't .... but i was too scared to eat the real tofu, out of fear it was something other than tofu. i just stuck with chicken and rice.
posted by christine at 9:18 PM
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