Day in Keelung

Hey everyone! Can you believe today was December 30th already? I am having a hard time really believe tomorrow is new years eve.
Today we traveled outside of Taipei to Keelung to visit the National Taiwan Oceanic University. Keelung is about a 40 minute train ride north of Taipei. When we arrived at the University we met up with 6 students who are in the life sciences program at the University. They took us on a brief tour of the campus, and then we were able to tour their aquarium that is on campus. We then joined the students and some of their faculty members for lunch, after which we left campus to go on a tour. We stopped at the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology. It was the grand opening of the museum,  and I think we all wished we could have had more than 30 minutes to explore the museum. We then took a bus to a park to look at rocks. The park was right on the coast, and the view of the ocean was beautiful. The pictures just do not do it justice. After we left the park we returned to Keelung to meet up with three of the students to go to a night market. This was an interesting experience. I personally think there were WAY too many people there, but it was cool to see nonetheless. Beth, Kayla, myself, and one of the students, Lin, went to do some shopping. Kayla and Beth both ended up buying a beautiful scarf. Beth and I tried some strawberries dipped in boiling sugar, and I also tried a tomatoe dipped in boiling sugar. The strawberries were really good, but I wasn't as crazy about the tomatoes.
Taiwan is currently hosting a giant, inflatable, rubber duck. It. Was. Awesome. I would track that duck down if it was ever in the US. We got some really cool pictures in front of the duck. It was a great way to end the night.
We are currently on the train back to Taipei, but I can't upload this until we get back to the hotel so I can have some wifi. Tomorrow I probably won't be able to upload a blog until pretty late. We are going to celebrate the new year by watching the fireworks off of the Taipei 101 building, which should be awesome. Have a great day everyone,  I am going to get some sleep!

Pictures- Nemo fish at the aquarium; view from the park; Beth, Lin (our student guide), myself, and Kayla at the night market; night market street; giant rubber duck.