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

Hot springs

No entry

On the way back

.

A really small lake

Weeks 7-10: Studying at NTU (20.10 – 16.11.2014)

I take 4 courses from the collage of Management and the General Chinese Course. All together this makes 15 NTU Credits which equals 30 ECTS credits. My timetable looks like the following, school on Monday morning, Tuesday to Thursday afternoon and the Chinese course on Monday and Wednesday evening.

Comparing the course level to my home university (FHNW) I would say that the level of the courses is higher at the FHNW. Here the lectures are not that interesting, and in around 50% of the courses I did not learn that much. But all of my courses have at least one group work with a presentation, some require term projects and final projects. Two of my courses had a midterm and a final, and that are the only exams I will have here (one of them is the Chinese course). The midterms were held in the week 10 (10.11 – 16.11). In the other courses the grades are made through the group work presentations and assignments / homeworks.
In one course I was busy over the whole semester because we had to do a presentation or a case report almost every week, and it even had a term and final project.  

To learn Chinese takes for me a lot of time to learn to write the characters, normally every lesson has a dictation or a review test. In addition to this we have to do homework as well, so learning Chinese really needs a lot of time and effort.

Here are some pictures from hiking and the university + campus.

Maybe not the best weather

Yangminshan

Hiking in the fog

Mt. Cising Main Peak

Way down

NTU Main Entrance

Library

NTU Sports Complex

Drunken Moon Lake

College of Management - Building 1

College of Management - Building 2

Street in Gongguan

Taipei 101

View from the roof deck of the dorm

Week 3: Taipei and Keelung 21.09 – 28.09.2014

The third week in Taiwan and this week was the first “real” school week.
I was enrolled in a math course called “Management Mathematics” and I attended the class in this week. My math background was not on the level what it should have been and I thought that I would need too much time to fill the gaps. Furthermore the teacher said that he is not sure if he will continue to do this course in English after the mid terms so I decided that it is not worth the effort and dropped that course. And with this I had my schedule together.  
This week was also the start of the general Chinese course. I have Chinese classes twice a week on Monday and Wednesday from 18:30 – 21:15.

On Saturday I was in Keelung City and also visited the Yehliu Geopark. Keelung is one hour train ride away from Taipei and to get to the Yehliu Geopark from Keelung  it took around 45 minutes by bus. In the Geopark you can see many stones and rocks but it is definitely worth a visit.
Keelung has some temples but they close at 5 pm and I was there too late so they were already closed. I think from there you might have a good view over the city so next time I should make sure to be there earlier.

On Sunday I went to the Baishawan Beach (white sand beach). It is close to the MRT station Tamsui and from there you have to take a bus. The beach was really beautiful and the waves were not too high.

Keelung City

An eagle

Harbour front

Yehliu Geopark

Rocks

Yehliu cape

More rocks



The park 

Coastline

Lion statue

Temple (主普壇)

Statue of Goddess of Mercy

Statue of Goddess of Mercy

A bell in the Jhongjheng Park

Baishawan Beach

Baishawan Beach

@ Shilin Nightmarket

@ Shilin Nightmarket

@ Shilin Nightmarket

@ Shilin Nightmarket

First Days in Taiwan 09.09 – 13.09.2014

 

I arrived in Taiwan on 9^th September in the afternoon. From the Airport it had a shuttle bus for the International students which went directly to the dorms. The checking process for the room was rather slow, standing in lanes getting many papers which had to be filled out. Then waiting again paying the 2 month deposit, go to the room and check if everything is there what should be there and go back to the lobby to get your passport back.
The room had no mattress so I had to buy one.

On Thursday (11.09.14) there was a campus tour and the Orientation day. The campus looked big in the beginning but if you know where you have to go it feels not so big anymore J

On Friday (12.09.14) there was the registration. I had uploaded all the required documents before so I just had to show the receipt for my tuition fee and I got my NTU student card. The student card is also an Easy Card. You can load money on it and make payments  or even use it for the public transportation system in Taipei.

The other days I spend mostly with traveling around Taipei. The weather was hot (up to 35 °C) and humid but at least it was not raining so much. 

On the way to Taipei

NTU Orientation

Gongguan Riverside Park

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Bronce statue of Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

The front gate

National Concert Hall

Taipei 101

"Hiking" on the Elephant Mountain

Taipei

View from Elephant Mountain

 

Sunset

Taipei 101 at night