Final Week

This was my final week in Taiwan, and I'm starting to miss it already. Monday we started our final unit in class which focused on the school and university terminology. Because we also have our final this week, this unit was expedited, we would have our exam for this unit on Tuesday, so I was set to learn all the material Monday night! But first, the opera that we'd all been excited for was Monday night! We dressed semi-formal, and took the metro down to the opera house. It was to be Beijing Opera (京劇), one of the most celebrated styles, and very different from others like Taiwanese Opera (歌仔戲 koa-á-hì). The one we watched was called the Legend of the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea (八仙過海), where the Eight Immortals, after getting drunk at the Mother Goddess's (王母娘娘) Celestial Peach Banquet (蟠桃會). In doing so, they meet the Goldfish Queen, whose kingdom they are disturbing, and decide to fight her and her army. They are soundly defeated in a wonderful fight on stage, where the Goldfish queen singlehandedly fights off each of the immortals.

The day after that lovely performance, we had our chapter 12 exam in the morning, which went decently well for all the studying I got done. Following that, we went to the Dongmen xiaolongbao place for lunch, which was of course delicious (as we'd been there twice before). Following that was a very relaxed day during which I began studying in earnest for the final exam on Friday, as well as completing other small tasks here and there. Wednesday, we had class and went over our exams, and after, we met up with Zero to go the National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院)! This museum holds some of China's most ancient artifacts, covering about 4000 to 5000 years of documented and undocumented history, going back to the New Stone Age and covering up to pre-modern China. Artifacts of extreme historical and cultural significance are housed here, and we were able to see some of the most beautiful displays. We were able to get a guided tour of the jade, ceramic, and bronze displays, seeing how each of these artforms transformed over the ages, and what styles were popular when. It was a stunning collection, and one that I must go visit again sometime to learn about.


A porcelain teacup with a Devanagari inscription which reads (masamadādakaddava, with an om in the center)

Today, me and Nadia decided to go buy tea! We went to Shing Hwa, a very nice store right next to Ten Ren's, to sample many different teas, and to buy some as well. We both some several teas (and managed to wrangle a discount for it too). Afterwards, we walked to Yongkang Road, and went to many different shops and stores, looking for gifts to bring back. We finally came back, and began practicing in earnest for our performance tomorrow, while I also studied for my final. And this was the last week at TKU! I can't believe it's already over, the three weeks started slow, but flew by.

我很愛臺灣!!