大家好! The exciting, exhausting, and event-filled first week of HTA has come to an end. My flight arrived early (4:30 AM) on Friday, June 16th and I met up with a Harvard student (Cai-Ning) to travel to our dorm. Our accommodation is quite comfortable; single rooms at the Prince House Shuiyuan Campus. Nestled on the edge of Gongguan, we are a 10-minute walk from the Green Line MRT station and 15 minutes from the classroom building, Boya.
The first week was particularly exhausting. I have been waking up around 5:40 AM, studying before class, going to 5 hours of class, breaking for lunch, doing 2.5 hrs. of homework for the day, then spending about 3 hours to prepare for the next day. We learn new content on Monday through Wednesday, have a review class on Thursday, and then take a written and oral exam on Friday. Then comes the most fun part!
Harvard has done an excellent job arranging fun excursions for us. For the first three Fridays of the program, we have our “interest groups.” With different itineraries each week, we have multiple destinations to choose from. This Friday, I chose the food-related trip (美食). NTU students took us to Beimen, located at the Northern gate to the old city wall. After walking around for over an hour to explore the old business district, we ended at the Dadaocheng Pier Plaza, a riverside spot with bars, restaurants, and tables. Aside from the rain, it was a great way to end the week.
On Saturday, we met in the student lounge around 8 AM for our trip to Yingge, a town located in New Taipei City famous for its ceramics. We toured the ceramics museum, walked down the shop-lined old street (老街), and even tried our hand at the pottery wheel.
Until next week, 悦珉