Classic@l Phenomena: taiwan. as i discovered. n many more..

FINALLY HAVE THE TIME TO SIT DOWN N NOT FEEL GUILTY FOR GOING ONLINE... *SIGH*

i reli want to talk about taiwan. n the whole conference trip!! so totally awesome i must must share it here. didnt wana write some lousy post bout it so i saved it to after test period to write. :)

things i discovered. while in taiwan!

(i went to taiwan 3 wks ago for a medical conference under AMSA w 11 other coursemates, 9 seniors and 21 other medical students from IMU, UMS and monash. met medical students from 20 other countries.)

- my fav grp photo

1. taiwanese students speak english with the american accent! they had english language classes watching Friends.

the guy is taiwanese.

my taiwanese group moderators, Pika and Arthur. they basically carried the burden of herding 15 noisy lost sheeps thruout the conference. these 2 r reli cute wei. :P

speaking of sheeps:

2. they use a reli awesome purple coin to slot in at the MRT station instead of the conventional plastic cards we use here.

3. they drive on the left side.

- nice yellow cab. :P n nice roadside park artistry. minus the terbalik umbrella.

4. lots of good food

- STinKy tofu. imagine eating tofu beside the rubbish bin. erm. dun puke yet. hehe. i'd actually say this tastes pretty good! i mean, if u can ignore the smell, it tastes just like fried tofu in sweet sauce. the pickled cabbage that comes w it gives a fresh tinge to the taste buds.

- taiwan coffin box. consists of deep fried bread cut opened 2 made look like a box. then they fill in this super sumptious chicken (i tink) gravy thingy into it. slurps.

- strawberrylicious shaved ice!

- the mango ice is so good that it offsets pau's expression n leaves a surplus of awesomeness. a heap of fresh mango on a heap of syruped ice topped with mango ice cream.

- n only they can afford to let customers ravage such an amount of mangos to satisfaction bcz their mangos r super damn huge.

- lime desert thingy. fresh to the bones. (i ran out of expressions hehe)

- pearl milk tea with real sago gula melacca-ish pearls. not the rubbery-can-die-chewing pearls we get here.

- triangle food thingy. :D the triangle stall sells a triangular thin crispy wafer thing that contains paste in a flavor of ur choice like red bean, cream cheese, mung bean, pulut rice, chocolate or even ice cream.

-the ultimate power PAUs

- smaller version of the power pau. its man tou whr they stuff meat n veg (anyting from ur dinner plate actually) into this wrap ard flat pau n crunch them to delight!

5. taipei 101 has a picture of Petronas twin towers on 1 of its staircase walls. (in between the 87th and 88th floor )

-Taipei 101 with the cute ribbons on its body?

6. taiwanese press is super efficient.

7. In Taiwan, Pukii is a name of a cute cartoon pig. Thank goodness it isnt Msian.

8. expensive Evian water

what i did in taiwan:

- was part of group 24! n we:

1. learnt how to count from 1 to 10 in korean, japanese, arabic, thai, cantonese.

2. crammed 17 ppl into a 1m x 1m box to take those photo machine mugshots.

3. visited St Anne's home for disabled children.

4. was exposed to stigmatised diseases in various diff countries. the Korean government actually allowed mass killings of Leprosy patients to be carried out by the military in the past. i learnt of the existence of sanatoriums whr leprosy patients are being sent to, like a place of no hope n return.

-us in formal wowed by keynote lectures on stigmatisation.

5. experienced stigmatisation 1st hand.
- i was down with fever on the last 2 days n had to be quarantined on the hotel's 11th flr. any1 with H1N1 symptoms werent allowed to leave the floor, or join anymore activities. we were brought to the hospital but had to leave the hotel from the basement exit using the service lift. i missed Cultural Night. but we compensated by having mini cultural night on the 11th flr whr there were enuf quarantined ppl to put on a show. :P i nearly missed the Farewell party. but went down anw. ehehe... the hotel staff din allow us to enter the lobby, or use hotel facilities for fear of bringing panic to their other guests.

- my fellow quarantine-mate with a HIV virus stuffed toy

- we couldnt bear being trapped in the hotel any longer. me n hou che on the escapade.

i vow never to stigmatize.

- farewell party nite on the quarantined floor. Kevin came to visit. haha.

- Escapade II to the farewell party. witnessed the wacky Japanese para para sakura with adorable human size care bears & winnie the pooh & doraemon. n red underwears stole the show lol.

- n later the whole group went to the quarantine floor to visit my other 2 groupmates. group photo :)

6. had the best time of my life exploring, shopping, eating and sharing my culture with awesome groupmates and friends thruout the trip!

-chee inn n kevin promoting our next eamsc conference in kl next january. whoops 4got to rotate the pic.

- business style Bento box lunch set. its a good idea to hav 'tapao' food in paper boxes. reli green frenly. recycable!

- very handy to carry lunch. guess wads this.

--its ur lunch all handily wrapped up in seaweed thus resembles sushi. giant megamole sushi.

- the colourful Maple Story drinks.

- painted my own lantern in cultural workshop. besides the lantern, they've got wind lions (the colourful mask the korean guy-Paul is holding :P n we can paint design our own chinese fans.

- n pound stuff to make Hakka tea. the wooden bowl contains a mixture of grains n nuts n u gotta pound them to powder then mix in hot water n rice puffs n walah! Hakka tea a.k.a. cereal.

- opening dish in the opening party

- opening troop. pre-conference tour. us UKM 2nd yrs. minus pau, juin yi and yi rong who went to visit the Sun Yat Sen memorial hall and Yu Zhen who was taking the photo

owh here's a complete 2nd yr photo. haha. the airport.

- n since we're on the topic of openings n no. 1s, ks khoo came into my mind. grins. this is hau wei challenging the smart eat-kiasu-ppl's money stuffed toy machine. well guess whose $$ got eaten. :D