Day 4 at NTOU

Today is the fourth day of my internship here at NTOU, and I haven't done anything at all. I've been getting into the research lab at around 9:30 everyday and do my own thing on the computer and chat with the grad students. So far, every time I went to find my professor in his office he's never there. I've only seen him twice this entire week. Through talking with other interns here at NTOU, and other places in Taiwan, all the internships are very relaxed and doesn't require much effort. A lot of professors encourage their interns to go out and see different places in Taiwan. My friend at Taichung got tickets to a museum from his professor. 

Yesterday I asked a grad student to show me some of the projects he's been doing. The project he showed me is for first-year Masters students. NTOU works with the local hospital and receives periodic recordings of patients talking, and the goal is to conduct a speech analysis to determine if the patients' speech skills has improved over a period of time. It's an ongoing project and NTOU reports its' results back to the hospital every few months. To get me more familiar with the project, the grad student first gave me a few pages of paper to read about the four standards NTOU uses to conduct the analysis: pitch variation, average frequency, noise-harmonic ratio, and jitter. I haven't seen how they actually work on the project yet, but I know it involves MATLAB and simple programming on MATLAB. Hopefully I can work on this project over the summer and brush up my MATLAB skills. In a week and a half there will be a summer camp for underprivileged elementary school students here on campus. I'll be helping out with that and it should keep me pretty occupied for that week at least.  

So I started my workout plan yesterday: swimming in the morning and gym at night. Yesterday morning I swam 2000 long course meters and felt super exhausted afterwards. After work, the grad students and I played badminton for a bit and went to the gym. It's actually really nice here and they have all sorts of equipment. It feels nice to workout again, except I feel so weak not being able to lift the same amount of weight as before. This morning I swam another 2000 meters and plan on going to the gym later at night. Seven weeks to get myself back in shape. 

Happy me after my morning swim. 

Summer Workout

Yesterday:

5 miles around track

6 x 6 pull-ups

Today:

3 miles around track

6 x 6 pull-ups

Tomorrow and Beyond:

1-1.5 hour morning swim, hopefully at least 1000 meters (long course)

Gym/jog at night

Feels good to exercise again.

National Taiwan Ocean University

Today is the first day of my internship at National Taiwan Ocean University in Keelung. I got to my professor's research office at 8:30, and only one grad student was here. The professor didn't come until 9:30. We talked for an hour when he came, and he showed me the different departments in our building and gave me a tour of the building. First thing he said was that there isn't really anything for me to do... He gave me a list of departments and what kinds of research they are doing, and said he'll have me tag along whichever group I'm interested in. Besides that, I can help out with a summer camp for elementary school students in two weeks and help other Masters students fix up their English thesis papers. I told him I'm interested in GIS research, but I don't know when he's going to talk to the professor in charge of that department.

The other grad students in the research room are all really nice. They were all surprised at why I chose this university over other schools, and confused at what exactly is my major. Only the professor has heard of Operations Research, and I have to explain to the grad students what I am studying. They treated me to lunch and they're trying to get me free access to the swimming pool. The office is pretty empty and most of the grad students are pretty laid back since they just finished presenting their thesis. Hopefully they'll take me to fun places around Keelung some time in the summer. And I hope my professor will find me something to do in the next few days...

Taiwan Tech Trek: Group 12

For the past six days I toured around Taiwan as part of the Taiwan Tech Trek orientation. After meeting people on my bus and in my group at the registration place, and after an awkward dinner, Group 12 felt more comfortable together. We had a very diverse group, with people from the States, France and the Netherlands. 

The first two days of orientation consisted of speeches by CEOs of large technology companies and tours of different manufacturing factories. It was the boring parts of orientation. I felt like it was at Feng Jia Night Market where most of our group really bonded. We walked the night market together and shared the food we ordered. Of all the groups I saw, we were the only group that stuck together in the night market. The second half of orientation was mostly visiting touristy locations around Taiwan. We visited Lu Gang and watched Neon Gods danced to Techno music in front of a temple and walked through a historical street. We stayed at Xi Tou Youth Center and took over all the cabins in the area. A few of us stayed up till 2 or 3 in the morning playing Monopoly Deal and watching TV. The next day we toured around the ecological trail around our cabins, made wooden baskets, and visited a pottery factory and made our own cups. At night we had a farewell party event, where all 298 of us and counselors attended a campfire-like event and danced to group dances. We also got glow sticks and had a mini dance party, for like three songs. On the last full day, we visited Sun Moon Lake, but literally just took the ferry across the lake and left and didn't really explore the towns much. At night we had our farewell dinner, and each group presented a 3-minute skit. It was really bittersweet at the end when we all shared candles and shared our thoughts on orientation. We took group photos, celebrated by eating the watermelon we won on the first day, and stayed up till 3:30 in the morning playing games and chatting. All of us were exhausted the next morning, but it was well worth it for the last night. 

I'm glad to meet all the new people in Group 12 and Bus D. It was really nice spending a week with all of them and now I can finally hang out with people my own age in Taiwan. I really look forward to a Group 12 reunion some time in the future and hang out with all of them again. 

Group 12 at West Lake Resortopia with the watermelon we won.

Monopoly Deal gang!

Candle light gathering.

Orientation

Tomorrow morning I will be taking a train from Taipei to Zhongli for Taiwan Tech Trek's orientation. It'll be six days of traveling and touring around Taiwan, visiting popular attractions and listening to speeches by different companies along the way. I'm not really sure what to prepare for or exactly what the logistics of orientation and the internship are, but I'm sure I'll figure it out when I get there tomorrow. Everyone else is probably as confused as I am, so it should all work out in the end. 

I wonder how college life will be like in Taiwan. I heard that there are curfews in college dorms and if I don't get back by a certain time I'll be locked out of the dorm. That sucks; I hope my dorm is different. Keelung should have a lot of places to visit and tour during my free time. I've heard from a lot of people that the night market there has really good food and the view around National Taiwan Ocean University should be pretty nice. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about food and laundry... It should be an interesting two months living in Taiwan college dorm.

Taiwan At Last

I landed in Taipei yesterday morning. My flight from San Francisco went very well and I met a few people on the plane. While waiting on line to board, a few of us got bored and started talking a little. The guy behind me was going to Singapore to visit his father-in-law and transferring at Taiwan. The girl in front of me was my age, going to Vietnam to visit family. I chatted with the girl in front of me and we talked about college, majors, summer plans, etc... It was like meeting someone for the first time in college. On the plane, I got an aisle seat by the emergency exit. I talked to the Taiwanese dad next to me about the typhoon hitting Taiwan, and our conversation turned into talking about what I'm studying, college, plans after graduation and why I'm in Taiwan. His son is a year younger than I am at Brown. The dad was a pretty cool guy and we talked up till the take off, and then each watched our own movies.

Yesterday, I met up with Kelvin at Taipei Train Station and we hung out around the area, looking at small stores and in shopping malls. We then took the bus to another less high-end mall and then walked to Rao He Night Market. Because it was rainy and right after the typhoon, so many stores did not open and the night market was pretty empty. We still got to eat typical night market food and shopped around the stores along the street.

I got two more days until my orientation begins on Sunday. Tonight some relatives are coming over for dinner, and tomorrow I'm eating lunch with my uncles at this supposedly really good restaurant.

Rao He Night Market.

蝦仁煎. Kind of like omelette with shrimps?

Delicious mango Taiwanese ice!

San Francisco: Day 6

I spent the last day at San Francisco on Angel Island, the so-called "Ellis Island of the West." Unfortunately, the Angel Island Immigration Station museum is closed on Monday and Tuesday, so I was only able to walk around the immigration area and read the signs explaining the significance of certain areas. After that, I walked along the Perimeter Road, a 5-mile path going around the island. The next landmark I came upon was Fort McDowell, an abandoned military fort now in ruins. The island is not very crowded to begin with, and the military ruins area was very deserted; I only saw two bikers bike pass the ruins. The further I walked into the military area, the creepier it got. Buildings were completely empty and there were no doors or windows at all. The buildings were not structurally safe, so I didn't enter and just took photos from outside. As I walked around one of the larger buildings, I came upon a sign saying it was the military hospital which housed many soldiers during the war. It freaked me out and gave me the chills. Other buildings included Guard Houses, Administrative Building, Post Market and a Visitor Center with a "Closed" sign nailed on its door. After I left Fort McDowell, I just followed the Perimeter Road and enjoyed the view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito and the towns across the bay (Tiburon, I think?). It was a nice hike and the weather was very comfortable.

In five hours I will be leaving for SFO and take a 13-hour plane ride to Taiwan. I hope my flight won't be delayed because of the two typhoons hitting Taiwan.

Angel Island

Beautiful view across the bay.

Angel Island Immigration Station.

Words etched into the ledges of the immigration station.

Abandoned military building at Fort McDowell.

Picture perfect?

The bridge.