Lecture Day Mostly

We started the day off by visiting the NTU Zoology Museum which was established in 1928 during the Japanese colonization. Although it seemed rather small to me, surprisingly this small room had many specimens such as the skeleton of a toothed whale and various bird species. It was interesting to find out from some of the NTU students and Jack that taxidermy is somewhat rare here compared to the states, especially Texas (although personally I do not care for it much).

On our next stop we visited the NTU Insectarium. This was the highlight of my day because I was very fascinated with the Entomology preservation/storage room despite its very strong odor. The insectarium holds over 330,000 specimens! It’s hard to believe that all these insects were captured by just very small groups of people over time. We were even lucky enough to have seen an insect that had just flow into the building earlier that day. Dr. Thomas seemed very intrigued. 

For the rest of the day we had three lectures which included the Geography of Taiwan, Flora of Taiwan and lastly the Marine biodiversity of Taiwan.  Out of all the three lectures, my favorite was learning about the flora. I especially remember Dr. Jer-Ming Hu's reference of Taiwan's size as smaller than Maryland but slightly bigger than Switzerland. It was a very interesting way to put something into perspective. I was amazed at how many species were endemic to Taiwan such as the Taroko oak and they even had a plant called the Biting cat that created formic acid, which causes great irritation to the skin. He even mentioned another endemic species called the Yushan barberry that made me think of wheat rust caused by the fungus Puccina that Corrine and I learned in plant pathology and molds and mushrooms back at A&M. I think Heng-An Ling, Corrine and I found this lecture very interesting since we are all in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology :) 

Today was a long day especially with our second class of Chinese for the international students. We even played bingo today, learning 1-25. I have to admit I need to practice but only wish we had more time. Hopefully before I leave Taiwan I will be able to go back home and talk to my chinese friends somewhat. 

Happy Late Birthday Janet! :)