My Exchange Semester in Taiwan: Januar 2015

Sonntag, 18. Januar 2015

Weeks 17-19: New Year & Last days in Taiwan (29.12.2014 - 18.01.2015)

Went to see the new year fireworks with some friends and our location was pretty good. This was a fun evening and a good way to end 2014.

At university I had to write two finals. One was in Japanese Business and the other in Chinese (which had a writing and oral part). I am interested in seeing which grade I get for this exams. So the last weeks were not as busy as the December. But still there were many things to do. At NTU it has a check out process where I had to go to some places to get stamps and get my student card stamped. This is necessary that they send the transcript of records to me.
Furthermore I could go to get my deposit back which I had to pay at the beginning of the semester. So most of the things are done and I am ready to go traveling.

This semester was a great experience and I will leave Taiwan with many good memories. So I would definitely go for an exchange again!

In the last weeks I went to see some places so I post many pictures this time.

Fireworks at Taipei 101

Happy new year 2015 !

Crowded street

Xindian

"Hiking" in Xindian

Gongguan Riverside

CKS

National Concert Hall

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Sunset

Gogguan Riverside park

Sunset

Week 13-16: (1.12 - 28.12.2014)

My December was busy with studying. I had many final presentations from group works and some reports. But at least I finished almost everything in December which gives more time in January.
At NTU it has no break between Christmas Eve and New Year, so for me it was the first time to go to classes on Christmas Eve (only the 1^st of January is off).

Some week the weather was not that good, cold, windy and sometimes even rain. So it was time to go to some hot springs. Went to the wild ones in Yangmingshan National Park, it is not allowed to go there but they were pretty full. To get there we had to walk for like 20 min after the bus ride.

On the way to the hot springs

small stream

"Entrance" to the hot springs with the sign

Waterfall

Waterfall II

Hot springs

No entry

On the way back

A really small lake

Samstag, 10. Januar 2015

Week 12: Back in Hong Kong (24.11 – 30.11.2014)

This week I went to Hong Kong for short trip over the weekend (Thursday to Sunday). With this trip I could as well extend my Visa for Taiwan. I applied for a Taiwanese Visa in Switzerland but it would not have been necessary because my Visa was valid for 90 days and I could have stayed in Taiwan for 90 days as a visitor. If you have a Visa and you want to stay longer than 90 days you have to extend it two weeks before it expires (as I heard it goes really easy and the process is quite quick) or you leave the country and come back as a visitor. That is what I did, went to Hong Kong and came back as a visitor.

In Hong Kong we went to do the usual sightseeing. But this time it was a little bit different because the demonstration camp was still in the Admiralty district (Umbrella Movement).
The time in Hong Kong was pretty nice, the weather was good, warm but a sometimes a little bit cloudy / foggy.