Taiwan: July 19, 2016

Tuesday 

If I had to pick a favorite field trip this on would be it!  We started the day out with a bus ride to Taipei and while on the bus I got to watch a bit of the Royals game!

I heard that this turned into a pretty awesome game. Unfortunately, the only parts I saw of the game they were losing. But I'm really glad they won! I was a little too exuberant on the bus saying, "That's my home! That's where I live!"

When we arrived in Taipei we went to the Taipei Main Station, the hub of all transit in Taipei. It was amazing what we were about to experience. We were given a private tour of the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation which is not something many people get to experience. This corporation is also known as the MRT and is the subway that runs through Taipei. The subway system is government built and operated by the corporation. The MRT offices are in a secure area of Taipei Main Station and we were honored to take the tour and learn more about the subway system in Taipei. We got to see the control room where many people monitor the five metro lines that run throughout the city. It is so fun to ride the train after seeing all that goes on behind the scenes, I feel a little safer knowing that there are men and women who watch the transit 24/7 to make sure it operates correctly. In my opinion, I think this is not an opportunity I would have in the United States, I probably couldn't take a tour of the subway in New York or the "L" in Chicago. But I get to experience this in Taiwan and that is awesome!

This summer I will have been on three vacations by the time I go back to school. In May I went to Washington DC for the first time with Josh and Jake, right now I am in Taiwan, and in August I get to go to Myrtle Beach with my soon to be husband (#lowesinlove). I will have experienced two places with large scale public transportation. In Washington DC the public transportation was very expensive and in Taiwan, it is very cheap. But I have found it interesting that both places have the same kinds of transportation; public buses, subway systems, and rental bikes. Maybe to some, this isn't fascinating but to a girl who grew up in the suburbs of a car-heavy city and who goes to college in a small town; riding the subway, renting a bike and riding on the bus is actually kind of fun! I love getting on the train to go to Taipei from CYCU and I love taking the MRT all around Taipei. I haven't experienced renting a bike here yet because I'm terrified of what it would be like to ride a bicycle on the streets here because of things like this...

Before I leave I will take a video of the road I walk on every day and hopefully, that will convince you that riding a bike in Taiwan would be terrifying! I call this "moped madness". I'm also not the best at riding a bike so there's that too...

On Tuesday we also got to visit the Taipei City Traffic Control Center where they monitor traffic throughout the city, control parking garages, determine bus schedules and manage the city's rental bikes. Here is the video we watched when we took the tour, I thought it would be informational for you to watch! 

Our third stop was a visit to the National Development Council where we heard about how the Taiwanese government is promoting more education about technology among people of all ages. We also heard more about how their government works. In Taiwan, the people are provided an opportunity to participate in their government through a program called E-Participation which is a lot like We the People in the US. Both are petition programs where citizens of each country can post petitions to their government and get signatures of support in hopes that the government will respond to their requests. In the US we must get 100,000 signatures in 30 days for our petition to be discussed and reviewed and a response given. In Taiwan, the people must have 3,000 signatures in 60 days (as of this year because Taiwanese citizens believed 5,000 signatures in 30 days was too difficult). Now before you get ramped up like I did the population of the United States is 318.9 million people and the population of Taiwan is 23.51 million. In a month, to make the deadline, US citizens will need .0003 percent of the population to sign their petition and Taiwanese citizens will need .006 percent of the population to sign their petition. I think this is an interesting way to give the people a voice by using technology! However, I'm not sure it is always successful in the US because many people petition the President about things that are outside the scope of the We the People program. You can find more information and sign live petitions at petitions.whitehouse.gov

Finally, we went to visit the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. This was my second time visiting the memorial and I actually got go inside this time because I didn't have to wait for Amy Li to stop taking pictures. ;)

The above is from last summer, below is from this summer!

Since we were in Taipei we decided to head to Miramar where there is a large mall and a giant Ferris wheel! 

We walked around the mall for a while and then we went to dinner at TGIFriday's, we were craving American food! We had a pretty good time but the food was very expensive compared to the three dollar meals we've been having every day. Then we rode the Ferris wheel. It had rained that day so the car had water drops all over it and my pictures didn't turn out very well! The view was beautiful though and we really enjoyed the night. It was a late night once again but we had a lot of fun that day!

I'm hoping to catch up by Tuesday! Stay tuned! :)