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Bringing in the New Year with some Lanterns

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So, Chinese New Year was celebrated earlier this year in February, signifying the transition from the year of the Dragon to the current year of the Snake. Every year, the Chinese/Taiwanese people celebrate the New Year for fifteen days, with the official end to the celebration being the Lantern Festival. I got to go see many of these lanterns that were displayed in a part of Taipei known as Yuanshan. It wasn't the biggest display of lanterns in Taiwan though. Apparently some time ago it was decided that different cities in Taiwan should have the honor of hosting the biggest shindig, and this year that city was Hsinchu. But there were still lots of neat lanterns here Entrance to the Lantern show   Some kind of god / heavenly official. The local deities in Taiwan kinda have a kind of bureaucracy going on, and I'm not exactly sure of this guy's role ^^^. Chinese Dragon Environmentally friendly lantern A goat lantern, because I was born in the year of
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Time flies (like an arrow)

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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, Hond
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Things you might not know about Taiwan... (part 1)

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So, since many of you, I would imagine, may not have traveled to Taiwan yourselves or studied much about Taiwanese history, culture, etc., I hope to enlighten you regarding tidbits of info you mayn't already know about this land here. I'll be learning lots of new things myself as the semester progresses, so the list that follows is by no means an exhaustive one. DID YOU KNOW??? 1) In Taiwan, it is currently year 102. In addition to using the Western calendar and dating in terms of A.D., the Taiwanese follow the "Minguo "  calendar (meaning country of the people). This dating system uses the founding of the Republic of China (aka Taiwan) in 1911 as year one. So, if you wanted to know the current year, or any year after 1911, in terms of the Minguo calendar, you would simply take {year} and subtract {1911}. For example, 2013-1991=102. 2) Ice cream trucks don't play music as they drive around; garbage trucks do. Usually when Americans hear a truck outside th
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Assorted perspectives on Taipei thus far...

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Here's a little bit of a recap on the first week or so of my life in Taiwan. And just so you know, my first week has not been overwhelmingly jam-packed with excitement at every turn. It's been slow, but being so void of busyness it's allowed me time to think and prepare for a rapidly approaching semester. Some preparations have included:  recuperating from jet lag (because waking up at 6am every day and being pooped by 8pm is not conducive to college life) reading things that I enjoy (because, being an engineering student, I anticipate having much more school-related reading and writing this semester) running and getting lost/exploring (because that's the best way to get familiar with a new place real quick, and I hope to run a race later, maybe) trying to use Chinese in normal, everyday activities, like buying food and riding the MRT (i.e. the subway), which has been harder than I imagined getting a working phone  etc. And now, as you've probably alrea
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Welcome (back) to Taiwan!

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If you've stumbled upon this blog, I'd say there's a good chance that you already know of my plans to study abroad in Taiwan this semester. But, you may very well be wondering, "why choose to go to Taiwan?" Great question, and thanks for asking. Instead of giving a long, drawn-out, and rather dull answer, I'll do my best to keep it short and simple. As someone once said, "Good things, when short, are twice as good." When I was ten months old, my dad moved my family to Taipei, Taiwan, as missionaries to pursue a job teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) at an English institute. That job prospect fell through after a year or so, but God provided another job for my dad teaching English with a organization called Overseas Radio and Television (ORTV). We ended up living in Taiwan for nine years, and both of my sisters were born there. Through my time spent there, I acquired a love for the people and the culture and the food and the language and
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