January 15

Today the other three ISU students and I went to apply for our ARC immigration card in the center of Taipei. Helping us was Jennifer, a Malaysian student who has been studying at Tatung for several years. She is fluent in Malay, Mandarin Chinese, and English and was very helpful. Unfortunately, after we had waited in line to get our papers looked over, we found out that because we were missing the principal's official stamp on the admission letter, we could not get our ARCs. Our trip was for naught. After this we had lunch at a shop specializing in the south-east Asian type of curry. We went back to the school and took care of some miscellaneous business.

Around this time I got very tired, jetlag was starting up. I couldn't go to bed yet though! Peter Scott (the other EE) and I had dinner with some of the electrical engineering professors and our advisor. We ate at Shin Yeh, a restaurant famous for traditional Taiwanese food and seemingly popular with Japanese businessman. The professors ordered many delicious dishes and I sampled them all. The professors were kind to not order anything too exotic, but I was able to try cuttlefish. At this dinner I learned some of the final points of formal dining. It is proper here to hold the bowl of rice in your left hand and using chopsticks in your right hand to take food from your plate to the bowl and then from your bowl to your mouth. Also if you need to use a toothpick, you must shield your mouth with one hand while you pick your teeth with the other. By the time dinner was over, I was so tired but I forced myself to stay up until 10 so that I would be getting used to the time.