For Those Who Are Away from Home
Alvin Dahn
And yet, we are making an exception for this issue. As one of the few English publications on campus, on line or in hard copies, we are feeling obliged to help foreign students here on their exchange projects. Particularly, we’d like to be of help in aspects of recommending places to go for daily necessities and relaxing hangouts at reasonable prices.
Interesting Places Around Shih Hsin University
By Florence Huang
Everyone needs a break from a busy schedule. There are quite some places around Shih Hsin University, places we can go to for relaxation and stress relief. Some of them are comparatively nearer while some are further off from the campus. Hey, but with the MRT system accessible, why do we need to worry about the transportation? These places are there for us to visit for shopping, having fun, and getting close to the big outdoors.
Shopping is the most popular among people, after school or after work alike. Right in the neighborhood of our campus, the Jingmei Night Market is our first recommendation. It is so close to school that we can get there for eating for shopping within minutes of walk after school. The Jingmei Night Market is full of all kinds of food stands, offering a wide selection of local food. There are vendors selling fruits, barbecue, fried food,only to name a few. However, you will be sorely mistaken if you think it is only a place for food.
Further down past the Jingmei Night Market is a shopping building named Edora Park. There is a Uniqulo branch on the first and the second floors, with a food court down below. In addition, there is a third floor selling daily necessities and furniture. Inside the building of Edora Park, you do not find a lot of stores, but only a few stores with very considerate floor plan and considerable shopping space. It is simply a comfortable place to shop in. It is always clean and air-conditioned, even if you do not have a shopping list at hand or anything to shop for in mind, it still makes for a good
The next recommendation will take us away from the Jingmei. You do not want to wear out a good shopping area all at once. If we are looking for another place for both food and shopping, we should turn to Gongguan. Students from Shih Hsin University can take the bus or the MRT to get there, and it only takes some meager minutes. Similar to the Jingmei Night Market, the Gongguan Night Market offers a wide (but different from Jingmei) selection of food; unlike Jingmei, there are some decent or even high-end restaurants in Gongguan. That way you are actually given a bit more choices.
When you are done with shopping and dining, it is highly recommended that you find a good place to sit back and relax. There is a second-run movie theater back in Jingmei—Jia Jia (佳佳). It is exactly the place you need. It has been in business for over 30 years. It was a very popular movie theater when first in business. When bigger and newer theaters were open for business, it then shied away from the competition and re-opened as a second-run movie theatre, popular among students and nearby communities up till now. The interior décor of Jia
Next to Jia Jia is the Holiday KTV, where people go for a good time singing. It is not cheap though, and the buffet there is not impressive. Yet, for people who sing for hours, it is still a reasonable choice. For people who are not interested in singing for leisure, there is still another place nearby for
Finally, it is time for the big outdoors where people can have fun while enjoying nature. Almost every student in Shih Hsin University knows that the mountain beside the school is called Xianji Yan
Most people relax themselves and have their stress released by going shopping, having some fun, and enjoying nature. And yet, how often do we forget that good places for those purposes are just around the corner or only some distance off? And how often do we travel farther than necessary to seek fun? Start your fun exploration from around our campus!
Knowledge Trip
By Florence Huang
Staying in the classroom for one full day is boring and tiring. Some students want to learn new things, but not in a tedious way. A good way to do this is to take a walk or arrange an outing. There are some worthy places near Shih Hsin University to visit for the purpose of extracurricular learning. Some of them are really near and some will take you some time to get to. These are places for gain of knowledge and for learning in an easy way. They are exactly temples, a theater and a museum.
Not only this, there is yet another temple which is really famous in the Wenshan District (文山區), but quite distance from Shih Hsin University. It is the Chih Nan Temple (指南宮). The Chih Nan Temple shrines and worships Taoist, Confucianist and Buddhist traditions within its four main halls and five
Visitors should be prepared for a serious hike up the mountains to the temple, as it is known for its 1,000 staircases up the way, though in fact there are even more. Alternately, you can ride the Maokong Gondola (貓空纜車), the MRT Sky Tram,
Close to the Jiying temple, there is a theater—the Wenshan Theater (文山劇場). It is the only theater in
Still one to place to go for a knowledge trip, again some distance away from Shih Hsin University, it is the National Human Rights Museum (國家人權博物館). It has academic collections and audio-visual services of the White Terror that had happened in Taiwan. The museum also organizes human-right-based speeches among other recordings. There is a White-Terror Memorial Park next to the museum. During the White-Terror period, the park is the place where political prisoners were detained,
Temples, theaters, and museums are places where can learn something and gain knowledge. Some of them are very actively informative. Some of them are passively documentary archives for us to retrieve what we need. Still some, with horrifying ambience and haunting memories, take us back to a time when
Excerpt from "My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is" by Edward Dyer (1543-1607)
I've always liked Edward Dyer's "My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is." Though a renowned poet among his contemporaries, Dyer has too little surviving verse to sustain his fame in modern times. This poem, likewise, is only arguably attributed to him. While some scholars like William Oldys (1696-1761) argue that this poem speaks for the typical Dyer who despises greed for money and life at court, some like Steven W. May (contemporary) argue that this is a poem by Edward de Vere (1550-1604) but misattributed. So? We stay out of the weeds.
Two things I like about this stanza: the way the poet perceives reality and the way the poet feels about himself. This is not a voice of a die-hard Romantic who defies or denies reality; this is a mature and cultured tone that utters awareness of one's limited storage of material wealth and yet suffices on that. "Little store" is his awareness of meager resources; "I am rich" is his contented mind speaking.
With such awareness of reality and sagacity of a contented mind, the poet feels, beyond self-sufficient, that he has more than he needs and therefore offers to give, to leave something for others. Having little-->feeling plenty-->willing to share; having much-->feeling in want-->craving for more. Before positive psychology came to be an independent field of study, Dyer had made clear some happenings and becomings of the contentedly rich (the poor-yet-rich) and the mentally impoverished (the rich-but-poor).
The former are blessed with joy and wisdom to give and to live; the latter are destined to yearn and to earn, pining themselves away. Sounds bitter, doesn't it? Not if it comes from the mouth of a nobleman who witnessed enough spurn and snobbery for him to serve his poetic justice.
Fancy A Cup?
By Shan Chien
If you would like to take brunch or to have a cup of coffee, while you don’t want to go too far away from your dormitory, then Zoo Café（鹿咖啡）might be a good choice for you. Zoo Café is close to the Dapinglin(大坪林) MRT Station, Exit 3. You can takeBus 647 and get to the Dapinglin MRT Station, and then start walking from there. Though the price in Zoo Café might not be as cheap as you think, the atmosphere of coffee shop is peaceful and quiet for thereis hardly a noisy crowd. Accordingly, because it is not a busy place, you can go there anytime without a reservation. The main attraction and my
Reading a book while sipping coffee must be comforting. Next to the Jingmei MRT Station, there is a coffee shop named Wenshan Roasting (聞山咖啡). When you walk in, you will first sense the aromatic
What if you fancy a cup in the evening or at night? Tenshima Café (天島咖啡) would be a good choice for you and it is also somewhere close to the Jingmei MRT Station. The feature of the Tenshima Café is
There are comparatively fewer coffee shops around Shih Hsin University than there are around around National Taiwan University orNational Taiwan Normal University. However, Wenshan Roasting, Tenshima Café, and Zoo Café all deserve your visit at least once. Of course, there must be some good coffee shops in our neighborhood yet unknown to us. Maybe one of these days you’ll be wandering down an alley and seeing a signboardthat wins over your attention to a special coffee shop for you!
by Emily Dickinson (1861)
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I've heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.
Caged Bird
by Maya Angelou (1983)
In a profound show of resilience
The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
Night, Drinks, Chill
By ShanChien
After a tiring day filled with presentations and part-time jobs, people may want to have some fun to relax or reward themselves. Going to a bar would be one good idea, whether going alone or going with friends. Honestly, there are few bars around Shih Hsin as you can imagine (what life is like after sunset on the outskirts of Taipei). However, there are still some to recommend.
The second recommendation of a bar is 89 Loop Sports Bar, a fairly new bar that just opened about
James Joyce, 89 Loop, and H&W are the three bars near Shih Hisn University. Though their cocktails do not appear like those you see at the Daan bars, they are perfect choices for a relaxing, casual night out. Value for money!
