#hsinchu

July 29-- Hsinchu

Hello! This blog is also late because July 29th was my second allergic reaction in a row!!! I hope that is a reasonable excuse... I am sorry...

Today we got on the bus at 10:30am! I slept in a little bit! Yay! Then we took a long drive to Hsinchu County. During the rest stop, there was a large building full of food shops and some merchandise shops. The sign on the outside said "Nice to see you Hakka." My people!!! There was a Hakka restaurant on the second floor, but we only had thirty minutes, so I did not go there. I got a parsley bread and a bread with cheese. They were sooooo yummy.

At 12:45pm, we got to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) Museum of Innovation. We had a tour guide to explain everything! I really liked the exhibit where we could see how each technological device developed throughout the years. We could see how a fridge developed from an ice box to a smart fridge! To be honest, I do not see the appeal of a smart fridge. It can keep track of expiration dates and how much stuff you have in your fridge, but can't you do that with your own eyes? Am I old for saying that? Oh well. I also did a VR trial of a water world university. Very interesting... We also got a

For lunch, I ate seafood pasta at Beppin Pasta. It was soooo yummy!!! It had salmon, clams, and oysters. Uh oh... oysters...

Right after lunch, I went to Poya to stock up on gifts and products to bring back to the United States. I bought so much stuff that I felt bad for the cashier. I saw the register at the end, and it said I bought 52 items. Sorry...

When I got back to my hotel room, I started feeling very hot and itchy. My ear was so itchy! Eventually, I looked in the bathroom and saw that I broke out into hives AGAIN! It was so bad! My ear was so swollen. Uh oh! My neck and chest had a lot of hives... arms... back... legs... uh oh! I took a lot of Benadryl and slept until the morning.

Academic Reflection

The reading was about the TSMC Museum of Innovation. I learned a lot from the reading and the museum visit. I learned that TSMC makes up 9% of Taiwan's GDP, which is a lot!!! I also learned about how each technological device developed over the years. For example, I got to see how watches evolved from pocket watches, wristwatches, fitness wristbands, to smart watches. I also saw how cars evolved. However, something I noticed was that the advanced cars presented were not very common in the United States. There were electric cars and self-driving cars. There are not a lot of those cars in the United States besides Teslas and hybrids.

Another thing I learned from the museum is that TSMC produces most of the microchips included in devices, such as smartphones and Apple Watches. I also learned that a specific microchip produced by TSMC allows people to use Google Pay and Apple Pay. I also saw the development of chips and their sizes. I saw the smallest chip produced, and it was very hard to even see.