The arcade games here are… interesting
台灣有很多野貓。最近我去了猴銅貓村看貓。有很多貓跟漂亮的風景。哪裡都有貓，貓也喜歡人。我給了貓吃的東西，真可愛。我驚訝因為猴銅的貓喜歡在摩托車上睡覺！所以我喜歡拍在摩托車上的貓的照。我在買地瓜球的時候，老闆跟一個客人開始對我問很多事情：你是哪裡人？你是學生嗎？你的中文為什麼這麼好？我很開心，也沒想到他們要跟我說那麼多話！
我這個星期也去了買眼睛，因為最近看的不太清楚。眼科也有3隻貓！我很高興因為2隻是橘色的貓，我的在英國的貓也是橘色的，很想他。英國的商店沒有貓，但是在台灣你會買東西，心也會被治癒。眼科的老闆也很客氣，我去收到眼睛的時候，他們在吃飯，請了我一起吃披薩！貓闆也幫了我選一個箱子放眼睛。
Taiwan is full of cats, both wild and domestic ones. At the end of January I went to Houtong Cat Village, an area just east of Taipei that, just like the name, is full of cats. It’s a wonderful part of the countryside where volunteers will feed and look after the cats who live there. The cats are everywhere and far from scared of people – if you’ve gotm a tin of cat food you’ll be popular.
And just this week I went to the optician to buy a pair of glasses, and they had 3 cats in there too! Plus, 2 of them were ginger cats just like my cat back home in the UK who I miss very much. One of the cats even helped me choose a glasses case by sniffing each one. Taiwanese people are really kind too – when I went to collect my glassses the owner even offered me some of the pizza they were eating! I declined as I already had dinner planned but she still sent me home with a guava in hand.
I also recently have been up Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan. Because Taiwan gets a lot of earthquakes, Taipei 101 had to be built to be able to withstand them. The solution to this was to put a huge damper in the middle of the tower that can swing and balance out the weight of the tower as it shakes. I think this is a really cool piece of engineering and really enjoyed going and seeing it – it’s absolutely massive!
Taipei 101 is considerably taller than other buildings
The damper
“Damper Baby”
Next week marks the end of my second of three semesters here, so this week I will be studying for my exams in awe at how quickly time has passed.