Things in Taiwan that the U.S. Should Have

It is my second month living in Taipei, and there are some things about Taiwan that I really wish existed in the U.S., from the awesome street food to the public transportation here. Of course, there are some things in the U.S. that I like that I can't find in Taiwan, like English books in bookstores and libraries, but there are some things about Taiwan that I will truly miss when I head back to campus. 

Convenience Stores 

Convenience stores in Taiwan are one of the greatest inventions of mankind. In a small store, a lot of essential items are packed in one place, whether it is your favorite snack or a raincoat you need last minute. They don't waste extra space selling things people don't need, as too many choices can lead to decision paralysis. I really appreciate how well-organized the convenience stores are, as no signage is needed. 

Besides the standard food and drinks, convenience stores also sell some personal health goods like sunscreen and basic office supplies like pens. If the convenience store has extra space, they have a couple of tables for you to sit and relax, which is very nice if you are waiting somewhere for a while or the weather is bad outside and you have nowhere to go, or you just want to eat some soft serve ice cream with your friend while waiting for the bus. The convenience store is a safe haven during the hot summers because you can walk in, linger around for five minutes to cool down, then go outside again. 

An interesting thing about the convenience stores here is that they are open 24/7, even during typhoons. So if you want to pull an all-nighter outside for some reason, consider staying in a convenience store. If you are sad after a breakup and it's midnight and you have nowhere to go, go to Family Mart (this is based on J.J. Lin's music video for She Says, not real life). There is literally a convenience store every 250 meters or so, the most common ones being 7-11 and Family Mart. I don't really have a strong preference for either two, but I do have fond memories of this big Family Mart near my bilingual school as there was some nice seating and a patio. 

While there are 7-11s in the U.S., it's a different vibe from the ones in Taiwan. There are pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens that sell snacks and drinks, but there's something about the small, compact, and warm nature of convenience stores in Taiwan that I like more. 

This Insider article does a good job explaining why Taiwan 7-11s are much better than American ones. 

Food Courts 

If I had to rank the food courts in the U.S., I would give them a 5/10. And I am already being fairly generous with my ratings. Some of the factors behind this rating are biased, of course, as I like eating Chinese food or Asian food more than Western food. But some of it is also objective. 

You see, if you go to a food court in a suburban mall in America or in an airport or train station, the options feel somewhat limited. These places may have good dining options, but they tend to be expensive and sit-in restaurants. There's the standard fast food like Mcdonald's or KFC that sell unhealthy, low-quality food. On the other hand, some chains are healthier, like Chipotle and Sweetgreen. From my experience, the food is ok, but I wouldn't say delicious. And the prices are nowadays at least $10 for a meal. For instance, when I went to the Moynihan Train Hall in New York's Penn Station, the only food vendors I was ok with were Chopt and a falafel shop. Part of it is my problem because I am kind of picky. The other options were burgers, pizza, sushi, or ramen, but I wasn't very into those options. 

In the Taiwan food courts, there is an abundance of options. My experience here has been pretty positive, whether it was at Taipei Main Station or Taipei 101. The malls also do a wonderful job. Each food stall specializes in one thing, such as noodles or vegetarian food. If you don't like the first twenty options you see, you at least might like one of the last five you walk by. Another huge plus is that the food tastes better and is priced quite well. A nice thing is that a lot of the shops sell a set meal that includes a starch (white rice or noodles), vegetables on the side, a meat or veg protein, and soup. Therefore, you aren't going to worry where's your daily source of fiber or veggies. 

If you take a look at the links and compare the American ones with the Taiwanese ones, then I think you get the idea. 

Another cool thing about the food courts in Taipei is that some are right next to the MRT station exits. For example, one exit of Taipei City Hall leads you to the basement of Uni-Style Mall, and if you walk an extra minute, you reach the basement of the Eslite Mall. The underground tunnel system here is amazing and I don't think I have encountered this in the U.S. as much, probably because the Taipei MRT system is younger than the NYC Subway. If you are hungry on your commute and want to take a break, just exit the station and walk for two minutes. There are also lots of souvenir/gift stores and a diverse range of drink options like coffee and tea. 

Boba Shops 

I already covered a lot about food above under food courts, but I will just say it is amazing to get your standard pearl milk tea with boba for under $60 NT ($2 USD). The fruit teas here are also amazing, with prices as low as $45 NT ($1.50 USD). The low price is honestly the only reason I am much more willing to drink boba once a week instead of say once a month, which isn't probably the best for my health but oh well I only have 80 days in Taiwan. The density of boba shops is so high here that it's insane, unlike us MIT students that only have a lonely Tea-Do in a 1-mile radius. 

Transportation 

I kind of touched upon how the metro here does a good job connecting exits to underground malls, but I haven't quite described the experience of commuting here. For context, I live on the border of the city, which means that the closest MRT station for me is the Nangang Exhibition Center, which is the last station on the blue line (eastern most). Fortunately, my lab is a ten-minute walk, so I only commute if I plan to explore the city or eat a meal with some MIT friends in the center of the city. 

Where I am for reference 

The walk to the MRT station is 15 minutes for me, but if I am in a rush, there's Youbike, which is much easier to dock and lighter compared to Bluebikes. Each ride is $5 NT, which rounds to 17 cents (1 USD is around 30 NT). If the weather's bad, there are like 6 buses I can take, which means an average wait time of five minutes. Each bus route is different, but for a decent chunk of the route, it's the same thing as they follow some major roads. Therefore, it doesn't really matter which bus I take if I am going from my lab to the MRT station, as the path is following a road from south to north. What I like about the buses here is that each station has a live indicator of the wait time, which sadly doesn't exist in Boston. 

My experience riding the MRT here has also been very positive. The floors are spotless, partly because people actually follow the rule of no eating or drinking in the subway cars. The stations are also pretty clean because of the janitors and each station has bathrooms. The wait time is on average 1-2 minutes on weekdays, and on weekends 2-3 minutes. Delays are pretty rare here, which is another plus. 

Night Markets and Food Stalls 

There are so many food stalls here that it's great, usually located near exits of MRT stations or near some major intersection. Some sell local desserts, while others sell quick meals or drinks like juice or tea. I wish this was more of a thing in the U.S., especially food stalls that are still active at night cause sometimes I get hungry after dinner. 

The night market culture here is a unique aspect of Taiwan's nightlife. Even on weekdays at 9 PM, there are tons of people lining up for food and the night markets can feel pretty crowded. While it is true that food safety and quality aren't going to be the same as what you would find in restaurants, the experience is quite fun. The whole stretch of the night market is around 400-500 meters, so it takes a while to walk through the whole thing because of the slow pace. Like the food courts I described, there are so many options in the night markets that if you were to eat everything you wanted in a single meal, you probably wouldn't need to eat for another day. 

Some night market food in Taiwan can be found in Chinatowns in the U.S. like beef noodles or xiaolongbao, but there are some things I don't see that often in the U.S. or are almost nonexistent, especially oyster omelettes and peanut ice cream wraps. I can go on and on about how eating a peanut ice cream wrap in the Shilin night market was one of the most mind-blowing experiences in my life. I am not exaggerating when I say that. Essentially, there's a crepe-like wrap with two scoops of Taiwanese ice cream (more like sorbet versus dairy), with shavings of peanut on top of the ice cream. Sometimes, people add cilantro to the wrap. If I talked about each food I ate here (aiyu jelly, taro balls, wheel cakes, etc.) that I enjoyed, then this blog post would be too long, so I will stop here. 

And can I just add one last thing about how awesome it is that the Michelin guide here reviews street food and restaurants under a $10 budget? I wonder when Boston will have its own Michelin guide... 

Top: taro and sweet potato balls. Bottom: Fu Hang Soy Milk (Michelin bib gourmand!) 

Conclusion 

I didn't expect this blog post to be so long, but basically, a lot of things that I will miss about Taiwan is the food. Besides the food, I will also miss how nice the public transportation system is here. I just can't have the best of both places, unfortunately. 

Impressions of Taipei

It is crazy that I have been in Taiwan for over a month. Before flying from JFK to TPE, I had misgivings and worried too much about whether I would survive the flight and other things. I felt so comfortable living in the U.S. and didn't want to leave Boston. But there was a reason I wanted to MISTI Taiwan in the first place, which was going back to Taiwan and visiting some parts of my past.

A picture I took with a hazy Taipei 101 in the background 

Getting a SIM card at the airport was difficult, but exchanging currency and other matters worked out fine. The journey was smoother for me since I lived in Taiwan as a kid for a while. Also, my Chinese reading and speaking ability is quite good for getting around places in Taiwan.  

Currently, I am conducting research at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the Academia Sinica in Taipei, which is like the NIH in the U.S. Academia Sinica consists of many labs covering different fields from biology to chemistry to the humanities. My project focuses on improving drug delivery for cancer by using antibodies and PEGs. This project is more interesting than the UROPs I did at MIT. Unlike previous UROPs, this one has forced me to do a lot of self-learning about how to design experiments and read protocols online. It's something that I am not used to, but probably will be good for me in the long run. On some days, however, I don't have anything to do. If I have nothing to do, I prepare for internships next year, like writing cover letters, editing my resume, or reading online resources. 

During the weekends, I spend my time exploring Taipei. Although I lived in Taipei for two years in middle school, my memories became hazy over time, so I revisited key landmarks like the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall and Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. I also went to other attractions like Taipei 101 and the National Palace Museum. A week ago, I got to explore Longshan Temple and Ximen with Karen '26, which was super fun and I got to know Karen better from the excursion. 

Karen and I at Longshan Temple 

Living in Taipei has its pros and cons, just like any other place. When I feel sad or lonely, I sometimes wish I was in the U.S., though such thoughts aren't very helpful because it's not like I can teleport and go back to MIT. But when I am in a good mood, I am happy that I am in Taiwan. Despite having lived in Taiwan as a child, some observations I made of the place feel new. I was pleased that the streets have been pretty clean with no strong odors, as my recollections somehow made this aspect of Taiwan worse than it actually is. When I lived in Taiwan, I didn't recall that many garbage cans around places, which made things super inconvenient. In my neighborhood, however, there are quite a few garbage cans, and people do a good job of recycling and being accountable for their trash. 

I remember Taiwan being humid, but I forgot what it felt like to leave the nicely air-conditioned office building and then walk out with the humidity feeling like a wave that hit you. It took me around a week or two to get used to the humidity. If there's one thing I miss about the U.S., it is the weather. I find it hilarious that my weather app forecast says rain and thunderstorm for the next 7 to 10 days all the time, with a couple exceptions here and there. While the rain makes the environment feel cooler, the rain here is so unpredictable it is frustrating because I can't really plan for say a rainy day or a sunny day. Even the intensity of the rain varies a lot. Sometimes it rains so hard that an umbrella won't be of much help. 

Even though the weather here isn't as ideal, one interesting thing I noticed is that I don't miss the food in the U.S. at all. Not even burritos or falafel or donuts. Sure, these foods are yummy, but I guess they don't carry a lot of stories or nostalgia compared to what I ate in Taiwan. Eating fruits like passion fruit, wax apple, and guava brought me so much joy that it felt so strange. I never had a gastronomic experience in which eating something so simple and ordinary made me so happy. I loved how the sour yet sweet passion fruit juice and seeds made my tongue tickle with delight and how the wax apple had the right balance of sweetness and crispness. These are fruits that I didn't eat in the U.S. partly because they were so expensive and not fresh. Another wonderful experience I had was having lots of local street food and drinks, such as soy milk and mango shaved ice. 

Beef noodle soup, xiaolongbao at Din Tai Fung, and oyster omelet 

In my opinion, the best thing about coming to Taiwan is the culinary experience. There are so many options in the night markets and streets that it is overwhelming, from tofu pudding to grass jelly to stinky tofu. Maybe I haven't looked carefully enough when I explored Chinatowns in the U.S., but it's honestly not that easy to find some local Taiwanese dishes abroad, such as hujiao bing ( 胡椒餅）and oyster omelet (蚵仔煎）. I thought a lot of my nostalgia about Taiwan would also include niche stores, but I realized that a lot of my nostalgia had to do with food. 

Another benefit of living in Taiwan is that I get to practice my Chinese and be immersed in the local culture. I learned a lot of Chinese idioms and slang from my housemate and in return, I taught her some English words. It's a good exchange. I also enjoy conversing with the locals here because they are very curious about life in the U.S. and what's it like being a Chinese overseas. From my interactions in my apartment and lab, I learned a lot about current events in Taiwan as well as other cultural things, such as placing Kuai Kuai (乖乖）corn puffs on top of machines in the hopes that the machines won't break. In Chinese, 乖乖 (guai guai in Hanyu Pinyin) means obedient. It's funny that I never noticed this when I lived here even though the phenomenon was a thing ten years ago. 

What I mean by Kuai Kuai tech culture 

I will be in Taiwan until mid-August and I can't wait to explore more places in Taipei and around Taipei. I have at least twenty more items on my food bucket list to check off before I fly back. 

Snapshots from Belgium

I've mainly been in two places in Belgium: Louvain-la-Neuve (the location of my internship) and Brussels.

Louvain-la-Neuve (LLN) is a planned city, meaning that the purpose of its construction was to house the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL). As a result, the design is very much intentional, and LLN has an ever-present "college town" vibe to it. There are plenty of restaurants, shops, university buildings, dorms (known as kots in Belgium), and also a lake and a park. Everything is walkable; I haven't walked more than 15 minutes to get to anything in town. 

Some wood structures made by architecture/civil engineering students at UCL

A family of geese at the lake!

Since starting work, I've realized that it's really difficult for me to just sit and stare at a screen all day. So, as a way to keep myself more engaged, I usually alternate between 3D-modeling on my laptop and sketching in my notebook. Some results:

As for Brussels, it's less than an hour away by train (the train system is great!). I've been a couple times now—with different people, seeing different things:

Mont des Arts

Grand Place

CityTree: a green initiative by Green City Solutions. It is a 13-foot wall of specific moss cultures and apparently has the "same effect as up to 275 urban trees." 

Visited the Atomium and Brosella (jazz festival)

So, even though LLN and Brussels are great places, I think my favorite part of it all is just riding the train and traveling between cities. The entire landscape is green—the trees are overgrown and plenty, sprawling their way onto train stations and over walls. It's pretty amazing.

If you want to see what else I'm up to, you can find me here:

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Paris Shenanigans

Songtrack:

Paris—The 1975

Paris—Magic Man

As a kid, I grew up dreaming about going to Paris. Now, after having visited the city twice, I still dream about going to Paris. The city is an endless adventure, whether in the form of places, people, food, or culture. Here are some snapshots from my weekend:

An abandoned railroad track near the south of Paris.

Some new friends and one old friend, messing around on the tracks.

Musée d’Orsay, which used to be a train station. Sidenote: I really like the museum's logo.

Paris Pride ingredients: pink hair, semi-nudity, and rainbow flags.

The first time I went to Paris, I had just graduated high school and wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. My interests have shifted a bit since becoming an architecture student. So on Sunday morning, which I had to myself, I wanted to visit some of the architecture spots in the city:

Fondation Louis Vuitton, designed by Frank Gehry.

Musée du quai Branly: a combination of some of my favorite things—green, blue, and plants.

We’ve talked about the Centre Pompidou in all of my architecture classes thus far, but it was a different experience to finally see it in person. The guy with the blue hair was a nice touch to the photo. 

A couple reasons why I like exploring on my own:

(1) I'm more introverted than extroverted, so it helps me recharge. There's less stimulus than from being in a group, so I have more time to listen, observe, and think.

(2) I can plan—or not plan—to go and do whatever.

(3) I get to visit these amazing places!

Overall, the weekend was a good balance of meeting new people, going on adventures, and having some time to myself. As the summer continues, I'm hoping for more weekends like it.

If you want to see what else I'm up to, you can find me here:

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Laura in Germany

Yo. I am in Germany.

This is how I got here:

In case you can't tell, that's plane, airport, plane, train. Then there was another train, but it was uglier, so I didn't draw it. The train that I did draw was pretty cool. It went along a river which may have been the Rhine. Sometimes if you looked out the window there were castles. No big deal. I didn't take pictures of them because I didn't want the four bike-tripping Hamburgers (not hamburgers) I was sitting with to think I was THAT much of a tourist. But they were pretty cool, which is why I drew you a picture.

I arrived here after two nights of sleeping on airplanes. Because I couldn't get my key from the housemaster until the beginning of the next week (surprise!) I stayed with an American exchange student who was nice enough to put up with me for the weekend. Then on Tuesday morning I went and talked to the Hausmeister in German and got my key and moved into my very own room. I am living in a dorm and it smells like smoke and sometimes looks like it too, and I am not sure how to flush the toilet properly all the time. Fortunately, the smell of cigarettes reminds me of Europe and Costco, and I am getting better at the toilet thing, so I am quite happy with my situation. My room has a sink and a view of the park. Also, after an hour and a half-long wash cycle in the German washing machine, my socks have never been cleaner.

It's a pleasant half-hour stroll into the city, made pleasanter by a stop at the bakery for some breakfast bread, where I've been going every morning for German classes-- our real work hasn't started yet, so things are pretty chill. In the afternoons, sometimes we go on planned adventures.

I don't have any good pictures of the climbing forest. As you can't see, the climbing forest consists of obstacle courses suspended from trees, including lots of logssuspended from cables, ziplines, a sled, and other scary things. I did not fall once.

Last Thursday we went to the three country corner. I don't understand why this is a big deal, because Europe has lots of three country corners, but it was fun.

See? This was the best of three attempts at a heel-click photo. You can't see my feet, but it is safe for you t

o assume that my heels are six inches off the ground and clicking. As you can see, the three countries represented were Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.

The three country corner happens to be a stone's throw away from the highest point in the Netherlands, 327.5 meters tall. I have climbed the tallest mountain in a whole country. Shh, don't hate.

We climbed a tower while we were there, because, as the reverend Mother said, "Climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow till you find your dream," and she was right. We were greeted at the top by this dreamy view:

The red thing pointing towards Belgium is a telescope.

From the tower we could also see a rooftop upon which a multitude of obese cats were napping. I have included a picture of them, and also one of some friendly German cows we encountered, because cows and cats are kind of a thing for my posts.

My Life and a Little Bit More

Where to start... well, first an explanation for Sumin:

On Friday night after my finals were over, the Muses went out for dinner and karaoke, lot's of fun, and we ended our adventure waiting for the Saferide in front of ZBT at about 11 pm. Through the door, I spied what appeared to be a creature known as a Sumin amidst the deep jungle of packages and frat brothers... but I couldn't be sure. As I squinted my eyes through the darkness and into the bright building, it only became clear that it was indeed the rare species at the last moment before it disappeared deeper into the recesses of the forest. Fearing to lose my group and miss my transport (and also awkward social situations had I still been mistaken), I dared not follow the adorable beast. Instead, I sought to communicate with it remotely and coax it to come out into the open. I found that unfortunately I did not have a record of it's tracking number, despite my theoretical security clearance to know such things, and before I could think of another strategy the transport arrived to deliver us back to Base Camp MIT. I lamented the loss of this opportunity, but resolved that I would find my one-of-a-kind dear again if it took all summer (which apparently it will since I missed its departure from its former dwelling place).

In other news, I made a huge mountain of stuff in the triple when moving out of my room in an hour and a half, cleaned it up a little bit, then spent the week packing up LMF while neglecting my own copious amounts of stuff... leading to a mad dash to get myself ready to leave. Oh well, so what if my shirts in storage aren't folded as well as they could be.

Of course, the week wasn't ALL work. I went out to dinner with people, ate lots of froyo, watched movies, and made scrumptious dinners twice with JJ, who I'm sure most of you have met by now. Also, I'm pretty sure that one of my menus next year will include the mildly candied mango yams that I invented the recipe for on one of these occasions. You know, when life gives you mangoes and sweet potatoes...

Getting closer to the present day, on Saturday Daniel, Teresa, and I packed my suitcases into the trunk of Daniel's car before hopping in the cab and driving off to look for adventure. We met up with Ashley Brown and Michael, and Julie and Luis, in NYC and hung around Central Park for a while before having a delicious dinner and going to see Catch Me if You Can, the first time I've ever seen a show on Broadway! It was a very exciting experience, and it was also interesting to be in the city when it wasn't cold outside...

On the way back to Daniel's house the highway decided that it wanted our drivers to fall asleep at the wheel and kill us all, so it proceeded to make our exit disappear. Luckily, Ashley and Daniel had more willpower than the glorified piece of asphalt over which we rolled and we found our way without any fatalities.

After a good night's sleep and a nice breakfast, we were on the road again. I was dropped unceremoniously at the Newport airport before my car-mates rushed off to the train station. Actually that's a highly unfair statement, I just like the word unceremoniously, in reality we all said a nice, though hurried, goodbye.

The airport was a breeze, relatively small compared to what I often see and quick to get through security. About an hour later I was boarding my first propeller plane for a short flight to Philadelphia. It turned out that the second leg of my journey was the more interesting, however. I managed to get on the plane and stow my bag relatively early in the boarding call for my section, so I sat down to get settled. After a while a young woman in the aisle pointed to the window seat next to me and said "I think that's me". I, of course, got up to give her room to get by, and as I did, she asked me if I was allergic to cats. I said no, not thinking too much of it, I mean maybe she'd been handling cats and had hair all over her clothes. Then I heard a mew from what looked to be her carry-on bag, but on closer inspection was an animal carrier! She was bringing her cat with her from Philadelphia to Seattle! The cat's name was Angus, as I found out in further discussion, and he meowed occasionally for attention throughout the flight. I saw his head once when she was feeding him in the bag, very cute.

My parents and I had a bit of difficulty finding each other at the airport, as my flight got in 40 minutes early, so they missed me at the gate but all the info boards said I was on-time, so they didn't think that was possible. Anyway, now I'm back in Bremerton, and it's not as hot as Boston but it is sunny, and all I've got to do for now is get off my bum and find something useful to do with myself... I'll keep you posted on how that goes... :)