Second Destination: National Taiwan Science Education Center

It's been a long time since the first time I wrote about my summer vacation. Oh well, now I'll continue. We went to this museum on the third day, because the second day we were too tired. It was Wednesday afternoon, we took a bus from in front of Miramar Mall in Jiannan Rd MRT station to Jiantan MRT station. That bus arrived in every 10 minutes and it is free! After get off the bus, we took MRT to Shilin station. Actually, the place was in between Jiantan and Shilin, but when I saw the map, it is nearer to Shilin station. And well, my choice is correct. It only took few minutes walking and there we are! This time I was so happy and proud to myself that we were finally get to the museum without getting lost or taking an hour walking.

We get there at 3 pm and it is closed at 5 pm. Since it has 6 Floor of exhibition, so we needed to be hurry. You need to pay to come inside. I forget how much, but it's cheap for what you'll get inside. It's totally worth it. They also have a discount fora student in Taipei and a little kid. The ticket fare is different between the weekends and weekday. So when you don't have anything to do, it's better to go in weekday. There will be less people also, so you can look around and play more freely.

We looked around, amazed and took photos as much as we could. There are lots of things that we can play around with. Not only to play with it, but also to learn what is really going on with those simulation and games. It's more like learning while playing. They have English description too, so it's really convenient. It's also really complete, they have all parts of science: Biology, Physics, Chemistry. Everything you want to know about science. Since we have a little amount of time to look every floor, so we plan to go there again. And the next time will be with our parents. Because there are things that we want to share and ask for more explanation. It's so much fun if you go with your family. There are many interesting things to do. The next trip we spent more time and go to the part that we haven't got a chance to go there in the first time.

Another way to go there is to stop by in Jiantan station and walk straight ahead. It's a little further than walking from Shilin station, but if you don't mind walking, then it's a better way, since Jiantan station is nearer to the main city than Shilin station.

Indonesian Culture Exhibition 2012

Last 2-3 weeks, me and other Indonesian friends in NTUST (National Taiwan University of Science and Technology) was so busy preparing this event. It is all about Indonesian culture. We want others to know more about Indonesia and we might even attract tourists to go to Indonesia. For committee, this is the way we can get together as a team to do something nice for our country, to appreciate and remind us how beautiful our culture is. This event was held on 5-7 March 2012.

On the first and the second day (5th - 6th March), we were having an Exhibition. We have 8 booths which represents 6 biggest islands in Indonesia (Sumatra, Kalimatan, Jawa, Bali, Sulawesi and Papua), Edutainment and Culinary. In each island booth, visitors are given the brief information about that island - the traditional clothes and music - and each island has their own unique interactive way. In Edutainment, visitors can take a picture with traditional Indonesian costume, play traditional games, learn how to make "batik" and how to make "ketupat". In Culinary stand, we have lots of Indonesian foods and snacks, such as: "soto", "nasi kuning", "wajik" and others.

On the third day (7th March), in evening, we were having a cultural performance. We gave the audience a story about "The Journey of Gadjah Mada to Unify Nusantara" which we put traditional dances (Jathilan Dance, Saman Dance, Papua Dance, Kecak Dance, Janger Dance and Kayau Dance), choir and "pencak silat" inside the story and in the end, we have a modern dance.

What makes this ICE 2012 different from previous ICE? We have our own theme song originally written by our friend! How nice! I'm really proud of her. The song called "We are Proud Student of Indonesia".

After the performance, we were beyond happy to receive many great compliments, such as: outstanding performance, best performance ever and I'm proud of you guys.
We were really doing a great job. And yes, our 5 months preparation was finally paid off. We were all satisfied, the committee, the performer and the audience. Even though we were far beyond perfect, but we did our best and we reach our target of more than a thousands visitors!

We were really making it happen. We did it! I'm so proud being a part of ICE 2012 team! I'm proud to be Indonesian that has many beautiful and unique culture inside.