Day 2 basically consisted of learning Chinese. All in all four sessions done by the students here. Although they put in a lot of effort to teach us the basics, it was a lot of material to cover. And even though I had some previous experience, it was just too much. And I think for those that never learned any Chinese before, it was way too much as well.
If I remember correctly from the reports of the year before, the Chinese sessions were spread out over several days and taught by a teacher from the language center. I wonder why they changed and condensed it into one day. I believe it would have been more effective if we get to learn a little and practice this little bit first in real life before we continue with other lectures.
In the evening then, we all went out to a nightmarket, where a lot of things can be bought and tasted. The nice thing about nightmarkets is that you are able to walk around, although it is very crowded. But walking around is just something that we Western travelers are used to do when we are at a new place. Of course doing this during the daytime in a South-East Asian city will result in a lot of sweating and overheating. So no one really does that here and there is also no city center to explore like in many European cities. I am digressing. I only tried a little bit of food:
Stinky Tofu, although in a fried version (so it did not stink, but did not have much taste either) and some shared seafood dish with friends. And while I know and like to drink Milk-Tea, here was the first time I tried the
Bubble Tea, which originated in Taiwan. The bubbles are basically some tapioca pearls and I have no idea why this got so popular in Asia. You suck the pearls up your straw while you drink and then get to chew on them, they have a consistence of jelly and not much taste in my opinion. Oh well.
). I really do appreciated all your comments and questions.
