Home

Most people would say "home is where the heart is".
But for Third Culture Kid (TCK), "home is everywhere and nowhere" - Ruth Van Reken, 2004

Some of you may have heard about TCK, but if you haven't I'll explain it briefly and you can read more about it from wikipedia (click here) or other sources.

Based on Wikipedia, 

"Third culture kid (TCK) is a term used to refer to children who were raised in a culture outside of their parents’ culture for a significant part of their development years. The experience of being a TCK is unique in that these individuals are moving between cultures before they have had the opportunity to fully develop their personal and cultural identity."

And yes, I'm one of TCK. I may not be as extreme as others who spent their childhood in more than three countries and their parents have different nationalities, but I experience the same feeling as most TCK do. And home is one of TCK's challenges.

"Home is everywhere and nowhere"

That is so TRUE!

Each places that I've lived in has special places in my life and heart. I feel that I belong to those places - all at once - because there were some bonds that we shared. Those places were my witness of all my best and worst times. No place can be replaced by the other.

At the same time, I feel rootless. Though I may have my nationality, but somehow I don't fit in perfectly there - nor anywhere that I've lived in. In fact, I could never perfectly fit in anywhere, as I didn't stay long enough to adopt all their attitudes, behaviors and languages.

So it's kinda in between.

I feel home wherever I go to Indonesia, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

I can't never decide which one is my first, second, third and fourth home.

These four will always be my home.

-Source: Google (the first two), my own (the last two) 

Meilun Science Park

It's located in across from National Taiwan Science Educational Center (click it for reference) and beside Taipei Astronomical Museum (click it for reference).

It's a park, obviously. But there are also some other things related to science -well I don't know what is called. Hopefully the pictures below could explain more :)

It's really a nice place to chill around, for families and friends :)

Taipei Astronomical Museum

It is located just across National Taiwan Science Education Center (click it for reference). You can go here by the same way as you did when you go to Science Museum. Actually when you walk from MRT Jiantan or Shilin, you will pass by Taipei Astronomical Museum first, then you'll walk across the street to go to Science Museum. 

Okay, I'm gonna review briefly about it.

It's actually a really nice place with 4 floor building. But almost all of the explanations are in Mandarin!
Too bad I can't read Mandarin, so I can't enjoy it. I got a little bit disappointed, since it's on tourist travel book, so expected more from it. To be honest, I expect it to be as good as Science Museum. Well it turns out that I got not even half from what I expected.

If you want to go there and can't read Mandarin, just don't expect too much. 

This place is also well-known for its special activity on a Special Occasion, such as New Year or Chinese Moon Festival. 

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.

The four of us :)

Recently, I have 3 close friends to hang out with. We're about in the same age, but with different background and personality. But when we come together, everything fits. We have a lots of fun together. We can talk and laugh about anything. And with them, I forget about all my sadness. All I can do is just have fun!

There are two kinds of friends: the one who listens and gives you advice and the one who doesn't know about your problems, but they can cheer you up. Sometimes a best friend can do both, giving advice and cheering. But some of them can only do one. Like the four of us.

You can't say that they're my best friends, because we barely know each other, but we're close enough to spend the whole two days in a row together :)

And last time, I just realize that actually each one of us has a problem, especially about love, but no one bring it up. No one wants to talk about their problem and neither asking about it. Even when we want to talk about it we're simply saying it with no emotion attach. Then we forget about it and have fun! or sometimes, we're making fun of it, so we can laugh at our own sad stories. Together, we are really good at building a positive energy surround us. We turn everything into something we can laugh about.

These friends tell me that everyone has their own problem. But it doesn't mean you have to be sad all the time. Sometimes you have to put your problems behind and have fun. When you're happy, you can think and act positively, so then you can solve your problem. Like the advice from my previous post: throw away the things that can hurt you and be happy!

I would like to thank them for being around when my days are going down. They help me to go through the path that I used to go with him. So now I'm walking down that road with a smile on my face. Because, the memories about him is no longer exist, it replaced by them :)

First Destination: Taiwan Nougat Museum

When I asked my lil brother, -which place should we go today?- he picked Taiwan Nougat Museum. For those who don't know what that is, it's a small snack made by milk and peanuts, the texture is smooth and kinda sticky and you can chew it till gone :)

So here we go!

It is in Yongning Station, the last MRT station in blue line. So first, we took a MRT until Yongning Station. It took us an hour by MRT to go there. We got there around 3.15 pm. In that booklet, from MRT Yongning we were supposed to "take a bus and took a 5-minute walk". Well, at first I thought it said "take a bus or 5-minute walk" so we decided to walk. The road-name-signs are not clear enough, so we didn't know which way to go - left or right. First we took left, but after 10 minutes walking, and I saw the map, I think it is the wrong way. Then we decided to go back where we started and took right, I'm sure this is the right way. According to the map, when there is a highway, I should find a way to turn right. But when we found that green highway, there is no way for us to turn right! and the situations are all dark and creepy. So we decided to go all the way back to where we started. I know it sounds silly 'cause we go back and forth so many times, but I guess, that's the best choice we can choose rather than get lost - literally - and have my mom to pick us up - which she could probably lost, 'cause she doesn't know that area either.

and guess what? We finally turn left which was the first way we choose! In the map, we are supposed to find a way to turn left. After a 20 minutes walking, we couldn't find a big road that turns left! So we decided to turn left in a small street. It was all these factory noise, then we finally realized that this street is probably a place where all the small factories run their business. The factories that made wood interiors, bed sheet cover, towel, and others - you name it. All the workers were looking at us wondering what are these two-unknown-tourists doing in here. I just wanna get outta there as fast as I could, it's not a comfortable place ever! So we took right and voila there was the big road. Even though we don't know where we were, and those road names weren't in the map, but it was a big relief that I can get out from that noisy-dark-factory street.

We met two branches of road, we don't know which way, so we took a quick break to catch our breath and to think clearly which way we should go. After 5-minutes break, we finally choose the right branch road -there were no names for that road. We are so tired and exhausted, so when we found 7-11, we entered it directly, no hesitation. We both grab our drink and snack and pay it in cashier, and we took a rest there. Since it was summer, so it was sooo nice to just sit and relax in an Air Conditioner room. After we got our energy back, we continued our journey. It was only around 7-10 minutes walked, and voila! We FINALLY found Taiwan Nougat Museum. It was 4.30 pm. Yup! We took an-hour-and-a-15-minutes walking! The place was in the middle of no where! We should've taken the bus! haha!

We kinda dissapointed when we got inside. It was really a museum with no game or activity that we can do. But we were also excited, proud and relief 'cause we finally got there by ourself. Inside the museum you will know how the nougat was made. We were only took photos and have a rest, then we go back home. In total, we were only spent 30 minutes in that museum.

We tried another way to go back, just to find out maybe there is a shorther way. But we still met the same road afterall, the road that has 7-11. And we were entering it again. To take a rest for a while and have some drink and snacks. Then we continued our walking. We went straight, followed the big roads, and passed the noisy-dark-factory-street, I don't wanna go in there twice. We discovered some bus stops for the bus that we should've taken! so we just follow the bus stops, 'cause it leads us to the MRT. After an hour in MRT we finally got home! and we all immediately took a bath!

Oh well, it was a long and exhausted yet fun journey!

The adventure begins!

I spent this summer holiday in Taipei for about 12 days. The first 5 days, since my mom is working, so most of the time I was only with my lil brother. I get bored easily, so I looked into a small booklet that says "Taipei City Travel" in the cover. There are so many places (with pictures) that are recommended for tourists, so I picked some of them that is new and interesting for me and my brother, and we decided when will we go there.

The places that we picked are: (click for reference)
1. Taiwan Nougat Museum
2. National Taiwan Science Education Center
3. Taipei Astronomical Museum
4. Meilun Science Park
5. Zhishan Cultural and Ecological Garden
6. Taipei Fine Arts Museum
7. Zhongshan Arts Park
8. Dajia Riverside Park
9. Taipei Water Park, Museum of Drinking Water
10. Wulai Special Scienic District
11. New Banqiao Main Station Commercial Circle
12. Scienic Park at the Mouth of the Dahan River
13. Taipei Young Party
14. Huashan 1914 Creative Park
15. New York New York Shopping Center
16. Wefenpu Commercial Area
17. Miniature Museum of Taiwan
18. Taipei Zoo

yes, yup! there are alot of places that we picked. We were only deciding, we haven't go to all of those places, yet. We were only able to go to 4 places, and the rest will be scheduled in our next holiday :)
and here we gooooo!! let the adventure begins!!