Taiwan Day 9: Bopiliao

Day Nine
(Late post for Monday)

Hui Chee, Olivia and I have been trying a new place for breakfast everyday and we're not even close to trying all of them. So far all of them have been good except for one where the Chinese doughnut was very oily.

Soybean drink

Pan fried dumplings

We decided to do more for our project in Taiwan so we went over to Longshan Temple to take photos and video clips for a website we will publish in the end. There were many people of different ages there and they didn't seem to mind the humidity in the temple.

Longshan Temple

Then we went to a cultural centre to learn more about Bopiliao which is a street in Wanhua. The place was actually closed on Mondays but through some connections we were still given a tour. We learned more about the history of Wanhua and important people who lived here. One of the focuses was on the Taiwanese education system and its evolution. There is an entire temple dedicated to Confucius and an emphasis is placed on his teachings in the curriculum. Ironically, the next morning (Tuesday) I saw an interview of local high school students on the news and they said that they hated Confucius because he is so boring and his teachings are irrelevant. 

Sometimes things don't always work out to our expectations or others don't put in the effort that is expected of them. There are admittedly problems with this project that I am involved in and those back home all repeat the same advice when I tell them what is going on. Although I realize that they say that just to make me feel better, I cannot help but think that they just don't understand. I am not one to just lower my standards just because others are unwilling to meet the expected standard. Instead I will push those who aren't performing to perform better in order to meet the expectation that was promised us. If everyone just lets things go so easily then there will be no improvement.