Bookstores and Some Good Coffee

The needle in the haystack. A simplified bookstore. 

Perhaps some of you know a little bit about the Chinese language. The first thing to be aware of is that there is no such thing as an all encompassing thing as a "Chinese Language". It is in fact broken up into different dialects that vary from region to region. The largest two are Mandarin (What I study) and Cantonese (which is spoken in Southern China). For all effective purposes here, lets just stick to Mandarin.  Even with this one dialect there are several differences from region to region. One of the biggest differences is the use of its written characters. In Taiwan they use older and more traditional forms of writing characters. However, on the Mainland (China) the written language was simplified due to the Cultural Revolution. This means that while these two spoken languages may be very similar (they are not completely identical) there is quite a bit of difference in their respective written styles. For example, the word for "book" is shū, which is written in China as  书 and in Taiwan as 書. Pretty different no? They are pronounced and used the same way but the forms are quite different. Now, I won't lie to you. Most of the simplifications are quite intuitive, but getting to the point, this distinction makes it quite difficult for me to read books published in Taiwan. Thus I have been on a search for a simplified character bookstore. It has taken be 4 weeks, but I have finally found one (with the help of my teachers of course). I bought a couple of well needed books and have made sure I remember where it is for return visits. 

My classmate Rob with his classical
creeper look.

In other news, as we have been looking around our little town for new and exciting restaurants we have been surprised that the few unexplored ones are very good. One wouldn't think so, but there are quite a few good western style cafes hiding around town. These little Bistros have fresh baked goods and some very good coffee. It just so happens that the people in Asia love their sweets, and I (alongside my cup o'joe) completely agree. So a couple of guys and I have been hitting up these little cafes and enjoying some very nice and evenly priced treats.  

Now that Exams are over, (we finished the last of them this past Friday) we are having plenty of time on our hands. So, in the meantime before we go on our big trip around the island next week (Yes it is coming and I am excited) I expect us to take full advantage of some coffee and some warm conversations.