May 19, Caligraphy class, Tea ceremony, Ernst & Young

After breakfast we headed to the National Taiwan University to participate in calligraphy class, which turned out to not be nearly as interesting as it sounds. The swine flue scare has really limited our interaction with this university. The faculty seem to want to keep us as isolated as possible. So, instead of being actively involved only a few of us actually got to participate. The majority stood in the back of the class and just watched in silence. I got to spend about five minuets attempting it, which was interesting, but I think we all began to realize pretty quickly that this halfhearted attempt to involve us was just a waste of time for everyone involved.

From there we went to tea ceremony class, where we essentially repeated our experience in calligraphy class. The only noticeable difference was that instead of watching the students draw in awkward silence, we watched them go through the motions of a tea ceremony (in awkward silence). Perhaps if someone had made an effort to explain to us what we were watching it would have been more interesting, but we might as well have been watching through a two way mirror. We watched the students pour tea for half an hour and they ignored us.

The day did get better though. The Ernst & Young visit went on sort of like a discussion. Nothing was presented to us, instead we listened while they talked informally about their jobs and what they did at the company. This seemed to go on a bit too long for us, as we were all starving because we hadn’t had much of an opportunity to eat beforehand. It was afterward that our day really improved. Our host treated us to an incredible dinner at a famous restaurant, which was the inspiration for the set of the crazy 88 fight scene in Kill Bill 1. Meagan and I were pretty psyched about it, being fans of the movie. The meal came in five or six courses, and was incredibly fancy and elaborate. Our host payed the majority of the bill (for everyone), which was just plainly awesome.

From there he took a group of us to a bar in Rapongi. The area was more than a little sketchy. Apparently it’s fairly common for tourists to be persuaded into going to a private bar, where they then wake up in the morning with maxed out credit cards. He took us to a bar that made me fear for my credit cards and kidneys, and so I went back after about an hour with Kyle, Haneul, and Meagan, and we headed for our 711 to relax for the rest of the night.