Well, I just got back from a fun filled weekend. It was really neat to see another side of Taiwan, the beautiful side. But first I will talk about the days leading up to this weekend.
My job has been fun and a great experience. Like I said before, I have finished my design. I have been designing a mechanical hoist that will raise and lower a projector. I am working for Tatung but for a sub company called Toes. Toes does designs for robotics. For my job, the university is having Toes make a mechanical hoist for a research project. They are doing some research on projecting a 360 degree image. The projector will point up at a cone mirror and will display an image on a circular screen. They need a hoist to vary the height of the projector. I have been assigned to design this machine and to assemble it.
The guys in the research lab, my work friends that I talk about, showed me what they needed made and I got to design it. It has been a long process of finding ways to make my design better. I am very happy with the end result and a few pictures are now posted. On Thursday, I gave my design to another company to get an estimate on the cost for materials and for manufacturing the metal plates. Once we have the cost I can present this information to the research lab and they will have to give the okay to order the parts. Once those parts come in, I can fully assemble the robot. Until then, I can do some pre-assembly with the parts we have.
My classes have been fine. Thermo keeps me busy. The green energy one has been insightful. I enjoy learning about alternative energy sources. It is exciting to get a preview of how we will be getting our energy in the future. I will be doing a company visit to Green Energy Co. They make thin film solar panels. I get to see how it will be possible to wear solar panel clothes. Thin Film is flexible and can be shaped to anything. I got sized for a complete clean suit, that I will be wearing in the company. This will be a two day company visit.
On Thursday, I got with some friends and we made dumplings. Dumplings are very popular here. We just stretched the dough and put meat in them. It was then a trick to try and fold them up to look pretty.
I seriously had a blast at the water park. It was a great park and there was a lot to do. The slides were fun and our group of friends just had a good time with one another.
Then there was this weekend. Roger, Sam, Eric, Anne Sophie, and I went to Rogers city. It was near Taichung and happened to be the exact center of Taiwan. We took a charter bus there, a four hour drive. We then took another bus to a lake. We spent the day at this lake. When we were on the bus we happened to meet some teachers from Canada. We always meet the English speakers in Taiwan. They wanted to have lunch together so we ate at a local restaurant there. I had some more weird food. After that Roger, Sam, Eric, Anne Sophie, and I rented bikes. We started riding around the lake. We would stop at temples and any other sights we found interesting. We had to split up for a while and Eric, Sam and I went on a gondola ride.
Later that night we went to a restaurant near Roger's grandma's house. The restaurant had a hot pot at each spot you sat. You would get the food you wanted and then cook it yourself. We spent the night at Roger's grandma' house. I liked the fact that I got to see the inside of a Taiwanese house.
On Sunday we went to the top of a mountain. It took about an hour to get to the top by bus. The top had a farm area. It was a tourist place and there was lots of food venders there. There was even a Starbucks. The view was unbelievable. We took tons of pictures.
I have posted a lot of pictures from all of the activities that I just talked about so take a look.
My job has been fun and a great experience. Like I said before, I have finished my design. I have been designing a mechanical hoist that will raise and lower a projector. I am working for Tatung but for a sub company called Toes. Toes does designs for robotics. For my job, the university is having Toes make a mechanical hoist for a research project. They are doing some research on projecting a 360 degree image. The projector will point up at a cone mirror and will display an image on a circular screen. They need a hoist to vary the height of the projector. I have been assigned to design this machine and to assemble it.
The guys in the research lab, my work friends that I talk about, showed me what they needed made and I got to design it. It has been a long process of finding ways to make my design better. I am very happy with the end result and a few pictures are now posted. On Thursday, I gave my design to another company to get an estimate on the cost for materials and for manufacturing the metal plates. Once we have the cost I can present this information to the research lab and they will have to give the okay to order the parts. Once those parts come in, I can fully assemble the robot. Until then, I can do some pre-assembly with the parts we have.
My classes have been fine. Thermo keeps me busy. The green energy one has been insightful. I enjoy learning about alternative energy sources. It is exciting to get a preview of how we will be getting our energy in the future. I will be doing a company visit to Green Energy Co. They make thin film solar panels. I get to see how it will be possible to wear solar panel clothes. Thin Film is flexible and can be shaped to anything. I got sized for a complete clean suit, that I will be wearing in the company. This will be a two day company visit.
On Thursday, I got with some friends and we made dumplings. Dumplings are very popular here. We just stretched the dough and put meat in them. It was then a trick to try and fold them up to look pretty.
I seriously had a blast at the water park. It was a great park and there was a lot to do. The slides were fun and our group of friends just had a good time with one another.
Then there was this weekend. Roger, Sam, Eric, Anne Sophie, and I went to Rogers city. It was near Taichung and happened to be the exact center of Taiwan. We took a charter bus there, a four hour drive. We then took another bus to a lake. We spent the day at this lake. When we were on the bus we happened to meet some teachers from Canada. We always meet the English speakers in Taiwan. They wanted to have lunch together so we ate at a local restaurant there. I had some more weird food. After that Roger, Sam, Eric, Anne Sophie, and I rented bikes. We started riding around the lake. We would stop at temples and any other sights we found interesting. We had to split up for a while and Eric, Sam and I went on a gondola ride.
Later that night we went to a restaurant near Roger's grandma's house. The restaurant had a hot pot at each spot you sat. You would get the food you wanted and then cook it yourself. We spent the night at Roger's grandma' house. I liked the fact that I got to see the inside of a Taiwanese house.
On Sunday we went to the top of a mountain. It took about an hour to get to the top by bus. The top had a farm area. It was a tourist place and there was lots of food venders there. There was even a Starbucks. The view was unbelievable. We took tons of pictures.
I have posted a lot of pictures from all of the activities that I just talked about so take a look.
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