Neo university student

The photo on the right illustrates my rather serious attitude towards study.  This is out of character, but when you look on the right you can see that, without considerable effort, no progress will be made at all.
I don't know what it says; although when the words are spoken I do understand them, usually.  It was some questions about today, alcohol and speaking Chinese.
I'm hoping to maintain my attitude of present moment awareness now that my life has become more comfortable and routine.  The classes require complete focus for three hours (with breaks) because everything is in Chinese.  She does a lot of repetition so I can understand it, but only if I keep my concentration all the time.

We had the lantern festival.  In Taipei they put candles in paper balloons to carry your wishes up to heaven.  In Tainan they throw so many firecrackers around that some people look as if they are in the heart of the fire.  Here in Taichung all I saw was a parade,  a charming part of which you see on the left.
To continue with my bicycle theme:  This is what one of my fellow students is riding to class.  its designed specially to keep the back straight with the high handle bars.  It also has electrical assistance to the front wheel.  The battery is in the brown bag.  This isn't the only bizarre bicycle I've seen.  Taichung seems to be fertile ground for innovation and it remains, after all, probably the best place in the world to mass produce specialty bikes. See the video below.