Traveling

July 20^th-We made our trip back to Taipei today. This was probably the longest time we have driven straight without stopping, but I got the opportunity to take a nice nap on the bus. We made two stops today; one at the earthquake museum, and a biodiversity center. The earthquake museum was a really interesting place. They museum was centered on an old junior high school that had suffered terrible damage from the 921 earthquake. The strength of natural disasters is overwhelming. The old track had been partially uplifted during the earthquake and the many of the buildings had collapsed. In the museum we got to experience a simulated earthquake. It didn’t really seem too terrible but I think that was because I knew I wasn’t in any danger.

After the earthquake museum we went to the Agricultural Research Institute. Our time there consisted of a lot of discussion about GMO’s. This is one of the current issues that I have been really interested in lately. It was interesting comparing the US to Taiwanese outlook on the GMO future. The Taiwanese people seem a lot more conservative when it comes to GE food. I really enjoyed taking the tour around the facility and seeing a lot of the research that they perform.

The rest of the day we spent driving back to Taipei. My face definitely lit up once we got into the city. I feel a connection to Taipei and I’m definitely going to miss it here.