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This is being Swiped on an Galaxy S4 which is my first smartphone. Italics and bolding retroactively is a noble challenge.

First Days of PhD

There comes a time when oatmeal just doesn't cut it, and this is not that time.

Oct. 29, 2012
- Class: plants' endogenous factories of insect repellant
- A few leaky Sandy clouds send students fleeing off campus, to haul home super-sized packs of bottled water from downtown markets
- Classes, and my five-hour lab and final exam, are cancelled abruptly
- Graduate students scurry back to lab to save essential equipment
- First-year graduate students return home, act scholarly
- Read, write, tea - reflect, research, more tea - forget tea, rewrite
- Break to consider how the storm may affect grass: waterlogging of roots, reduced photochemistry, anoxic signaling, a dash of cytokinins?
- Emerge from cave, see life
- Return hastily to cave

Oct. 30, 2012
- Class: drought stress and plant memory (they never forget...)
- Enjoy free pizza, not from the annual blood drive
- Bike drippily home, walk bike into house; roommate X is mopping
- Resume scholarly productivity
- Consume emergency cookies

Classes began in August, thus this entire adventure should be labeled "First Days of PhD Beginning with Hurricane Sandy, When Time Magically Reappears, Moving at a Digestible Pace"

Last Days of Tainan

A whole month just flew by.

Day 36: Wed., 7/30
- Mah Jong day! We, being a culturally comprehensive class, decided to learn mah jong. Well, half the class learned; the other half got right to it.
- Now every time somebody "pong"s the card, I'm seeing "PWN!" in my head.
- We kind of anglicized it.
- Drew trees in Chinese painting class. You do a whole bunch of dots, draw branches, let it dry, blot it all into one connecty mess again, and draw a few lines of grass at the base to ensure a lack of floatage.

Day 37: Thurs., 7/31
- Final exams!
-...were alright.
- Tai chi - more translating, more shifting of strength/weight/chi/The Force; can now defend my self against guys who try to attack me by 1) trying to capture me by hugging, 2) leaving their toes vulnerable for stomping, or 3) attempting a slow, ponderous sidekick. [As in a kick that goes sideways, not a glorified minion.]
- We celebrated after class by going to the South Park area, which is actually just a wide strip of shops with an outdoor sitting plaza-esque area, and lots of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi-ish malls and shops. Had some food (there's no way to go wrong with won-ton soup. Well, at least where we ate. It was really good, anyway.)
- Went to the massive arcade level and spent a bunch of cents playing air hockey and video games and weird basketball throwing games which are actually very good for developing arm strength. I definitely felt my lack of arm strength after one round.
- Did a huge group photo-booth picture; they call them "da tou tie" or "big head sticker", literally translated, here. You go in front of a green screen, pick your background colors and whatnot, then you get to edit it (draw funky neon lines, add words, whatever) and choose your size and print out a sheet of the photobooth pictures in sticker form.
- That's more arcade-ing than I think I've ever done in my life.
- Went shopping round the other streets for a bit, looking at various electronics and memorabilia and standout deals. A lot of the smaller shops straight-out tell you that their value is in their service, not their awesome prices. Those places have been around forever, and are great for those who live a bike ride away, but not as much use to the once-in-ten-years traveler.
- That said, most places can definitely perform basic services for free if you just ask. (My only experiences fall in the 'adding additional chain to a necklace' and fixing glasses [and gifting you cases and cleaning cloths, yay] and watches range, though.)

Day 38: Fri., 8/1
- Last day of class:
- Sang a bunch of popular Chinese songs.
- Went out as a class, along with both teachers, to the little soup dumpling place that is all kinds of awesome. On Dong-an Road for anyone who ever treks to Tainan and wants some great food, albeit a tad pricier.
- Ended up playing rounds of mah-jong together till 5pm (skipping calligraphy) and then saying our goodbyes.
- Aww. Goodbye people I'll never see again unless I visit Russia or Hong Kong or Australia or Canada (again) or Japan (later) or Taiwan (again, again) or other states in the U.S.A...
- It was a great program and a great class, anyway.
- We have a slideshow our teacher put together for us that's pretty cute though, so I'll never have to forget what everyone's...made-up Chinese names are. Or what they look like. Not that I would've, especially with the ones with Facebook.
- I'll stop here and just say I'll miss Cheng Kung University and all the friendly people.
- Went out to get a haircut after (friend of the family hair-stylist, and therefore a better deal) and loved the whole hair-washing/massage thing that always costs extra in the U.S. and therefore never do. Also enjoyed the ability to actually seem to communicate my thoughts to the hair stylist, considering most haircuts end up with me doing weird hand gestures and trying to guess how many inches I want off.
- It went smoothly anyway, and the price was all kinds of awesome.
- I'll now drop my general silent comparison of haircut-getting and dentist visits. (Dentists seem to feel that you should be able to answer their questions when your mouth is full of pointy metal things and spit. It's the whole feeling painfully misunderstood during the process, but ending up a bit healthier and shinier at the very end thing.)

Day 39: Sat., 8/2
- Went to a restaurant that is historically themed, with old-style school desks pushed together as the tables, all intact with the chalky line down the middle of each desk that would separate the boy from the girl, since boys always sat next to girls, and the girls were supposed to be all "Hey, you can't cross this line!"
- The fire alarm went off, demonstrating the wonder of fire exits, as everyone rushed to the front door despite many back and side exits.
- Fine, I did it too. But I was facing the front, so technically...
- Well, it was a false alarm.
- Then it went off again, and no one moved.
- Also a false alarm. Apparently the dishwashing takes place within an elbow-knocking distance of the fire alarm?
- The tofu happened to be a bit sour, so they made it up to us with free desserts.
- Really, all in all, it was a pretty cool restaurant, though.

Day 40: Sun., 8/3
- Finished the 1,000 piece puzzle my cousins and I have been working on for around 3 days (with a long hiatus between the first day and this weekend).
- Let's not speak of the cheating.
- Anyway, it's a pretty view of the Manhattan Bridge.
- Packed, packed, bought some bread, played some badminton, packed, ate some bread, ate some fruit, packed...
- Last day in Tainan!

Now leaving for Kyushu, Japan! Southwest island area, birthplace of porcelain, home of hot springs and, well, a lot of things.

Laptop-less till Aug.10, when I get back; will update then.
Sayonara!