Time flies (like an arrow)

NTU's school emblem
(read right to left)

大家好! Hey everyone!

Thanks for bearing with me and waiting patiently for the next installment of "what in the world is Caleb doing in Taiwan?" One of my good friends recently told me, "You have been slack on your blog postings!" and indeed I have. Part of the reason I've not been consistent with the updating you all is that life can be so stinking busy here, but the other part is that I suffer from occasional bouts of laziness. But no longer! Here is the general overview of my first six weeks in Taiwan, soon to be followed by more detailed accounts and pictures.

So, I've now successfully completed five full weeks of classes at NTU. The beginning of the semester brought with it a flurry of activity, and these past few weeks have been filled all sorts of happenings and assignments. There are students from literally all over the world studying here at NTU, including but not limited to the USA, Canada, Honduras, Colombia, France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, Finland, Iceland, Russia, Jordan, mainland China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mongolia, and so on. And would you believe that, out of all the students here at this school, I've ended up living right next door to a fellow North Carolinian. Despite our differences (namely that he's a UNC student) we've been able to get along and even become friends.

I'm taking classes on just about everything Taiwan-related, from music to history to fiction literature to language. There are so many things that I've learned just in these few weeks about Taiwan's culture and society and historical events that I never knew before. Pretty much everything I learn in my classes is completely new to me. For example, did you know that there are 14 officially recognized aboriginal peoples in Taiwan, and that the Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese each considered Taiwan a colony of theirs at some point or other? We really don't study much about Asian history or culture much at all in the US.

We took a field trip recently to listen to some traditional Taiwanese music, a style known as, "Beiguan". Here's an example of the type of Beiguan Music that we had the privilege of beholding. This kind of music is often tied to temples, like in the case of temple festivals, funeral processions, and other kinds of parades. Much different than traditional American music. Another significant part of Beiguan music style is the incorporation of puppets. These puppets can do just about anything, or so it seems. They can be controlled by either one or two hands, depending on if they are fighting each other or not.

And that's all for now, but pictures are coming soon!