Food, Running, Lectures....

Boring everyday school life. Still good food, though. Thursday had our first lecture, by Dr. Gary Chin, on Economic and Industrial Development in Taiwan. It was more interesting than it sounds, with Dr. Chin going into detail on the good things and the problems with Taiwan's economy and world economies, in general. In the afternoon I gave a mediocre presentation on What I've Learned In MATLAB. Unfortunately, some of the material in the textbook was incorrect, and I was corrected by my professor during my presentation. Nothing I could do but nod and change my notes, but it was a little frustrating. I am learning a LOT, but unfortunately still have a long ways to go before I'm going to be where I need to be for the project.

This morning, I got to the track a little late (5:15AM), and was greeted with "hellos" by some of the track "regulars" who recognized the tall white guy who wakes up early. I also saw Dr. Chin out there running :)
It of course rained before I finished my run again, so I came home soaked. They are also ripping up the track to repair it, so I may not have a track to run on pretty soon. That would be a problem, since it's dangerous to walk near the streets, let alone try and run on them.

Quick visual recap of some recent Sean's Meals of the Week:

Dilla's noodles and beef. A staple in these here parts.

Pork Dumpling Soup (drool)

So this is what Lychee looks like in real life.

Basil chicken with corn and veggies. This was one of the best meals I've have this week, and they've all been good.

Our waiter Friday night. He was running to each table to make sure we all had enough to eat.

The Group plus Gading at the best fried rice place in town

To die for beef fried rice with hot red pepper. They chopped up an entire Thai pepper and fried it in there for me. You can see all the red chunks. That's not bell pepper! It was awesome. I'm going back next week, for sure.

Otherwise, it's been a pretty busy few days with project and lectures. Tomorrow we take our first cultural trip to a traditional city, Lugang, for temples and such.