The rains are coming....

I had to pinch myself when I walked outside and saw this view this morning... 

 So I put on my runners and went up to the Sports centre on campus.
They have a massive indoor lap pool, basketball courts, a running track, three tennis courts, and an amphitheatre type set up. And there are SO MANY STAIRS! Interval training!

 Just the views while you jog around the track... This makes it too easy to get up early and go for a run. How can you resist?

And Amy is finally here! She picked a really beautiful morning to arrive, but shortly after 9am the rain started. There was nothing else to do but rock out the ponchos.

We were trying to make the best possible first impression that we could at orientation! 

After Orientation we were treated to the most epic feast at the restaurant at campus. Each faculty had their own table so we could get to know the other dancers who were here on exchange. There were about 10 courses to this meal! The food just didnt stop coming.
I didnt get pictures of them all but there was bubble tea to start, rice, steamed chicken, squid and veggies, some sort of sizzling beef, omelette, a type of scallop thing with veggies, another fish dish cooked in a broth, steamed cabbage and carrot, fish sticks with sweet and sour sauce, and to top it all off a steamed tofu and mussles soup.

While we were resting and digesting from this we caught sight of a fire not too far away from the University grounds.
Lucky we live on the 6th floor of a building and have such epic views of the city.
We had been planning on going down to do some grocery shopping but we thought we'd better wait till the fire was put out.

We had our first tourist experience today when we decided to venture out of the Uni grounds without a Taiwanese guide to help us. Armed with nothing but dismal Chinese and interpretive dance skills we took the bus to town, missed our stop and ended up at Guandu station. An interesting detour past the sight of the fire!

I found this little guy in a stationary shop....

And this little treasure in a store that sold the most obscure selection of things! The writing on it say "Theodore the Original - name of Teddy"

I knew I had to have it!