ulrichjohannes

This post has been pending for a year now. This is probably related to some sort of Goodbye Anxiety (as long as you don’t say goodbye it’s not over yet). But like all good things my time in Taiwan has come to an end and it’s better to move on a go on new adventures before the present wilts. In...

Most of my posts are about places I visited or my travels, but how is actually to study in Taiwan at the National Taiwan University (國立臺灣大學)? The first impression of National Taiwan University (NTU or Taida in Chinese) is great, a beautiful green and quiet campus right in the middle of Taipei. NTU is the Taiwan’s flagship university and leader...

As I wrote in my last blog post, my parents arrived in the mid of march and I went on a roundtrip to show them this beautiful island. After we spent two nice days in Kenting (if you want to know more about Kenting, check this blog post), we drove up the east coast to Taidong to get to Green...

In my last entry I mostly spoke about my experiences at Yanshui Fireworks Festival, but something more important changed in comparison to the last term. Around 90% of the people and friends only stayed for one term in Taiwan and left in January. The first days being back in Taipei were therefore quite strange without having your old friends to...

After my trip through South East Asia I returned to Taiwan in the middle of February, right after Chinese New Year. There’s quite some confusion about Chinese New Year and its characteristics. First of all, Chinese New Year is every year on a different day (depending on the lunar calendar), but more important Chinese New Year is less of a...

Around Christmas a lot of people left Taipei to travel in Taiwan or abroad, so we decided to escape Taipei and its horrible weather forecast for the upcoming days as well and travel to the south of Taiwan — Kenting for some serious beach action. Kenting is located on the southern tip of Taiwan and is well known for its tropical climate...

Being away around Christmas time is something which bothers a lot of people and Christmas is usually a homecoming to get together with family and old friends. A lot of people are asking me, how it’s like to not be home on Christmas and if I’m homesick and missing my family and friends. The answer is not that simple. First...

One of the biggest difficulties in hiking the Yushan is actually the process of getting a hiking permit. Around 30 days before the planned hike it is necessary to complete an extensive application (including pictures of hiking experience over 3000m, health condition, etc.) and then hoping to get one of the limited permits via a lottery. We were lucky on...

The third weekend in october I was on a trip, which was organised by the nice students of the NTU International Student Association. The destination was the Alishan, a mountain in central Taiwan, which is famous for its sunsets and sunrises. Our trip started quite early at 7 a.m. on Saturday with around 20 other international students and the people...

Thursday afternoon —  the gas tank is full, the bags are stowed and we are sitting in the back of the car. It’s time to let the road trip begin! 4 days, 3 nights and around 900km on the road lie ahead of us. Our route will take us from Taipei to the scenery east coast, which we will follow down...

After we got back from our trip from the Taroko National Park, we received the fantastic news that tropic storm Dujuan significantly increased in strength and was now rated as class 4 hurricane. This message contained a mixture of feelings. We were excited and also little bit feared of an intensive typhoon like that. While it was raining non-stop in...

While Taipei is a great city to live in, just staying in Taipei wouldn’t pay enough justice to the rest of Taiwan. Back in the old days Portuguese sailors used to call the island Ilha formosa, the beautiful island. Of course we have to convince ourselves that this name is justified by exploring the island. After we went to Jiufen...

After two weeks in Taiwan I still have sometimes the feeling that there’s a huge invisible question mark above my head. Everyday has at least one of those moments, when I have no idea what’s happening around me, what I’m eating, how I’m supposed to act or what the person in front of me is saying to me. While I...

Frankfurt, Terminal 2, Sep. 5th — After a little bit of stressful packing in the last days (packing your life into a suitcase can be hard) I’m finally sitting on a plane seat, waiting that the propulsion is pushing me into the seat and into a new chapter of my life. Thoughts of doubt and excitement are fighting against each other, was...