Day 1. Settling in.

Today was the first day of planned activities. The morning was free time as we waited for the remaining arrivals, though the combination of jet lag + excitement + cold air conditioning + other people waking up resulted in being up and functioning at around 5 a.m.

After some unpacking and cleanup, a refreshing shower, and an update on the news (Governor General chosen!) and a habitual visit to sporcle.com, we were ready for breakfast. To our surprise, (we were expecting congee or some other Asian-style breakfast), we were greeted with french fries, white toast, jam, and some sort of ham/spam. But since the last food we ate was the [mediocre] airplane food, anything seemed inviting. 

But more inviting than breakfast was Taipei, just outside the door of our building. Less delirious and exhausted than the night before in the five step registration process after a long, long day of air travel, we were now ready to step outside and explore. Some were less ready for the humidity, though coming from a recent extreme heat alert in Toronto, 8 am regular Taipei was bearable compared to noontime heat wave Toronto. Camera in hand, I was ready to take photos. 

One of the buildings at the Youth Center

Left: Residence Building; Right: a small shrine? just outside our main building

Within a few minutes, I bumped into a friend of mine from Toronto also participating in the summer program. We walked around the area, passing the Grand Hotel, a fruit market, and a few street vendors, ending up in an air conditioned 7-Eleven. And if you know the density of 7-Eleven's in Taiwan, than I guess you've probably figured that we didn't get too far  =P. Anyways, I bought my EasyCard that would allow me to take the Transit system (with a subway stop minutes away from our program residence), and also enjoyed one of those Egg Pudding cups, one of my favourite childhood treats, reminding me of my past visits to Taiwan =).

Lunch was definitely an improvement from breakfast, and dinner was even better. Between the two meals was our opening ceremonies, which mainly included speeches from organizers, the choosing of our cultural workshops, and... our Mandarin Proficiency Tests =P. More on the latter two later. 

Evening included orientation (rules, and introductions to the staff and counselors) and a few ice-breakers. Classic conference/program like stuff. Once the events were finished, we had about two hours before a 11 pm curfew. Many, myself included, decided to head out to the night market, within a fifteen minute walk from my room.

Shilin Night Market

I wasn't too hungry after dinner, but I managed to have a small serving of stinky tofu (~$1.60 Canadian), which was hard to resist with the smell filling the air, along with a green milk tea (<$1 Canadian). =D. I would've taken a picture, though taking the food to go - in a plastic bag, while holding the tofu and tea in both my slightly sticky hands, in a crowed busy night market didn't provide me with a great photo opportunity. I will try again sometime later.