Status Report

I've been in Tainan for 2 months so I thought it would be good to give a status report:

Weather

The weather is getting cooler, I haven't had to use the air conditioning for about a week now. There's often a strong breeze that cools everything. It still hasn't rained much. It still hot in the afternoon. With the cooler weather I can wear some of the long pants I brought, until now I have wearing shorts for 2 months. I also have some long sleeve shirts that I haven't worn yet. People in Tainan think it's getting quite cool but for people who have lived in Minnesota and Alaska it's still very nice.

School

We have now completed week six of our 10 week quarter. I neither at the top or bottom of my class of 12, I think I'm about in the middle. I spend a lot of time studying because I don't think I'm as quick as my fellow students. On the other hand, they are all still youngsters with much more than class on their minds.

Food

I can eat very well on less than 300NT($10) per day. And that 300NT might include some beer on the weekend. I'm still making holes in my belt as I lose weight. I walk like a fiend for exercise. I'm being more selective about what to eat, going back to favorite places. The fruit stand it where I stockup by refrigerator. I like the pamello, Lian Hu(wax apples), Asian pears and New Zealand apples.

Lodging

My rent is less than 6000NT(~$200) per month. I pay for electric but the last month's electricity bill was 680NT(~$20) and it should be less in the future as I use less AC.

Visa

I paid next quarter's(8 weeks) tuition 2100NT($650) and extended my tourist visa until December 30th. I have to extend it every 60 days, and have to maintain a good academic record to extend the visa.

Summary

All in all it is way cheaper to live in Taiwan than in the US.

I've kept up the blog fairly consistently for 2 months now, but I think there are some other projects I'd like to do so the blog with become more irregular. Nothing in the blog is ever very urgent so I think if you just check it once a week that will be more than enough.

New projects

1. I found the NCKU Math library, I would say it's at least as large as the UW Math library but not as big as the UM Math library.

2. There's a group of old men playing Xiang Qi(Chinese Chess) in the park, I'm hanging out there more.