Citiport is a website which combines locals and travellers together. http://www.citiport.net/
The website is created by people all around the world. We want to record the real things in every city. After I came back from Turkey, I think we should have a platform to share, to communication and to learn the local cultures. Thus, citiport is born. I sincerely invite everyone to join us. Share your special experience with everyone. The followings are simple user guide. Please take a look when you have free time. Citiport is still tested now.
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New destination/ New delicious/ Cool stuff/ New event
Click the bar at the top of the main page for the NEW and fresh items.
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Have you ever....
Swallowed down snacks by a small night-market booth in Taipei?
Cat-walked the fancy road of Star Boulevard in Hong Kong?
Lost directions in the labyrinth of hutongs in old districts of Beijing?
Listened to the holy songs from majestic St. Sophia Church in Istanbul?
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With the development of technology and transportation, the connections among people become closer and closer. When you open a computer and link to the Internet, you can surf different websites from all over the world and chat with your foreign friends. You can also read international news and check your emails. Thus, the information from other countries will not be lost and delayed in front of you. There is a new noun describing the 21st century, the era of global village.
Before we keep talking about our topic today, I would like to ask you a question. What’s the meaning of “International”? To be honest, there are a lot of definitions. Some people say if you study abroad, then you are very international. Some say the person who can speak good English is so-called “international”. Recently, more and more schools promote exchange student program on campus. Some organizations also provide good exchange opportunities for excellent students. If you are not a student, you can also join international volunteer program or become a backpacker to travel abroad.
However, why need we exchange? Why need we spend short periods staying abroad? I believe that the most important answer is to know different cultures. There are some points related to the answer as follows.
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1. The Chairman of the U.S Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has warned that the economic growth will slow down before the end of the year. But he says the economy was not heading for recession and the fall-out from the credit crisis could lead to a healthier financial system in the middium-to-long term.
2. The North sea coast of the Netherlands and Britian are facing their worst flood threat in decades, from a storm-driven tidal surge. The British government has warned the flood defences could be breached in Eastern England where police are evacuating elderly and disabled people.
3. A group of former pilots and government officials has called on the U.S. government to reopen an investigation into claims of UFO sighting, which has being closed since the late 1960s. The groups all say they have seen the UFO or have conducted to research into the phenomenon.
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Where is Czech Republic? I think some Taiwanese will ask me this question. Czech is a country located in eastern Europe. If my guess is correct, Czech Republic had diplomatic relations with Taiwan before. Therefore, maybe some people know its name.
On the middle among us is Jaroslav, who met in Istanbul. He belonged to AIESEC Prague and had been a ceeder(AIESEC noun) in Turkey.He was our dormmate, so we know each other very well. I still remember many things happened in Turkey. Because our periods are almost the same, we joined many activities together, such as Nagiele(Waterpie), club, and meeting.
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Interacting with Harvard students is a very special experience for me.”
A special opportunity
As for the opportunity to meet those Harvard students, it can be traced to the beginning of March. One day, Catherine Lu, who is the chair of Harvard-NTU conference, told me that Harvard law school students will visit NTU on March, 29th. To know more Taiwan culture and interact with NTU students, they are going to hold a small seminar with us. What we need to do is country presentation. I thought it’s very interested, so I promised her request.
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Some say life is continuing in the face of alternative;
Some say: conquer; some say: accept; and some say that life
This is easily explained: once night comes
At home lamps are lit. And in the light there is no glance
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In general I feel that Taiwanese people are very friendly and willing to help you out in any way that they could. Whenever you need something they are willing to help you get it or they even offer their help when you don’t need anything. They are very proud of their country and especially their foods. For instance, they like to have foreigners taste stinky tofu, bubble milk tea and all the types of night market food. They also love to collect things and think everything is “cute.” They are also very trendy and like to look stylish and cool. Taiwanese people work very hard so sometimes I feel that they don’t really get a chance to enjoy their lives a bit more.
Also, sometimes I feel like they don’t really express all of their emotions. For instance, if they are angry they won’t tell you. For me, that is a bit of a problem because if someone is angry I would like to know why and how I can help them with their problem. Overall, Taiwanese people have been very welcoming and nice to me. My parents also expressed how nice they were treated when they visited Taiwan.
Abner Montoya Canada
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A new year, 2007, is coming.Some people might ask you what your new plan is.Before I answer the question, I'd like to review my last year, 2006, first.
I think I had a totally different life.I graduated from NCTU and went to Turkey within two months. Then, I entered NTU and began a new study TOUR. It seems like a normal student. I have to go
to school and have summer vacation on July and August. However, the most different thing is that I know how to record my life. Writing and photograph are my useful tools. If you are free to visit my blog, then you can find many articles and photos on it. I don't know why I did it. Just a passion encourages me to do those things. I like the feeling of share, because I know Giving is
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I've used a free Internet phone for a week.
That's really a fresh product. As soon as I downloaded it, I was attracted by it.
I called to my friends from Taiwan to Canada, from Beijing to Singapore.
Everyone who got my calls felt so surprised. Actually, so am I.
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I've talked with a Japanese friend, Satoko, today.
She told me that many Japanese learn the Chinese and like to visit Taiwan.
Most of them like National Palace Museum, especially the location in the hill.
Because I'm a volunteer in the NPM, I'd like to share some websites to my friends.
Hope Taiwanese can spend little time reading them. It can improve our Chinese literature a lot.
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Turkish bath (hamam)
The tradition of the Turkish bath extends far back, to a time before
Turks had reached
Anatolia. When the
Turks arrived in
Anatolia, they brought with them one bathing tradition, and were confronted with another, that of Romans and
Byzantines, with certain local variants. The traditions merged, and with the addition of the
Moslem concern for cleanliness and its concomitant respect for the uses of water, there arose an entirely new concept, that of the Turkish Bath. In time it became an institution, with its system of ineradicable customs.
For the Turkish bath was much more than just a place to cleanse the skin. It was intimately bound up with everyday life, a place where people of every rank and station, young and old, rich an poor, townsman or villager, could come freely.
Women as well as men made use of the "hamam", as the bath is known in
Turkish, although of course at separate hours.
From the individual's point of view, the hamam was a familiar place from the earliest weeks of life right up to its very end. Important occasions during a lifespan were, and in some township still are, celebrated with rejoicing at the bath. The newborn's fortieth day, the brides bathing complete with
food and live
music, and the Avowal are instances. The latter requires some explanation, for it involved the custom common in
Anatolia of making a promise or vow, contingent on the fulfillment of some important wish. The celebration of this in the hamam was arranged and paid for by the person fulfilling his vow, and was open to one and all.
The hamam ceremony of mourning, on the other hand, was far different, but also widespread. The Hospitality bathing was simply the taking of one's house-guest to the hamam for a wash. Then there were the
Circumcision, Groom's, and Off-to-the-Army bathings, and others besides. As we see, the whole culture of a people had the Turkish bath as one of its important nexuses.
Naturally, there was a range of equipment associated with a hamam visit, and until recently one might count from 15 to 20 articles in the bundle which a
woman brought along with her. Let's see this bundles:
The "
pestemal" (pesh-te-mahl), a large towel fringed at both ends and wrapped around the torso, from below the armpits to about mid-thigh , as the
woman made her way to the "kurna" or marble basin. The pestemal would be striped or checked, a colored mixture of silk and cotton, or pure cotton, or even pure silk.
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Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
--Thomas A. Edison
Hell, there are no rules here-- we're trying to accomplish something.
--Thomas A. Edison
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Forwarded from http://www.gopetition.com/region/237/8314.html
The Chinese language has many dialects spoken yet Mandarin has always been the official language.
In Mandarin, there are two present types of writings: Traditional and Simplified Chinese characters.
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I didn't come back to my home this weekend. To avoid the lonely feeling here, I went out to watch a movie, "keeping mum", with AIESEC trainees, Jorge and Augusto in their house.
The summary of movie is as follows:
Walter Goodfellow, the vicar for the small English country parish of Little Wallop, has allowed his marriage to Gloria go stale and he is so detached from his family that he has not taken notice that his 17-year-old daughter Holly is going through a succession of inappropriate relationships with unsuitable boyfriends and his son Petey fears going to school due to being bullied. Out of desperation for affection, Gloria begins to fall for the advances of Lance, the American golf pro that is giving her "private" lessons. The problems upsetting the family start to fade away after Grace Hawkins, the new housekeeper, arrives and starts tending to matters as an older, and rather darkly mysterious version of Mary Poppins.
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On the noon of March 31st, Chalmers Asia office held a special birthday party for both swedish people and Taiwanese. I was invited to join the big celebration. It was really nice there.
At first, the head of office, Jacob, invited our president to deliver a short speech. President Chang appreciated the cooperation and exchange between the Chalmers university and Chiao-Tung university. Those programs helped the two schools know each other better and give the students a good opportunity to open their minds. At the same time, Jacob also presented the Chalmers to say "thanks" to him. After few minutes, the party began. Everyone enjoyed the cake and coffee in the office.
Actually, this was my second time to celebrate the day in NCTU. That's really wonderful. Although the swedish people were different from their seniors, I still felt the same passions from them. They are all kind and easy-going and like to share. I had ever played the uni-hock with their seniors. It's just like a hockey without skates. Maybe I should play it again before I graduate from here.
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