Culture Galore!

In today's segment of the lecture series, we finally moved away from the theme regarding natural landscape of Taiwan. Professor Okuyama taught us the fundamentals of experimental design and hypothesis testing. Although it was a little dry as compared to earlier lectures, it is a useful tool that I believe will come in handy for our project discussions later in this programme. Following that, I was sorry to hear the tragic story of the death of 2 students in a traffic accident. I wish to offer my sincere condolences to their families. Nevertheless, I still had an enjoyable time at the Agricultural Museum, helped particularly by the delicious red bean ice-cream and egg rolls.

The next segment was a tour of the Yingge Ceramics Museum. I felt that it was an exotic one given the absence of such museums in Singapore. I was enlightened on the origins and history of the ceramic industry in Taiwan. We even got an opportunity to have hands-on sculpting of our own masterpiece. Even though creativity is not my strongest attribute, I still accomplished a decent task which I am proud of. I even managed to purchase some beautiful and exquisite souvenirs for my friends back in Singapore.

Thereafter, we had a sumptuous dinner at an eatery within the university itself. What particularly impressed me was this humongous waffle with green tea ice-cream, topped with red bean, that I ordered. Andria, Jessica and Jiling joined in the 'feast' as well. It was intriguing watching us get mesmerized by the sheer size of the waffle. And it's only equivalent to S$3 back in Singaporean currency!!! Too cheap!

Summing up the day was a calligraphy lesson. This struck in me a realization. Jimmy, Jessica and I were the only Chinese that have not had prior experience in calligraphy. This goes to show how Singapore's education system and syllabus have deviated from our traditional culture and roots. It was a great opportunity for us to rekindle ourselves with our past. Had a terrific time writing my name, university and other phrases in Mandarin characters. Ole! :P