聖誕節 and Everything in between

Hello!
I'm sorry it has been so long. I have had many affairs to attend to and now I'm enjoying my new room, a five minute walk from my school. It is truly a blessing to be so close. I marvel every time I can walk to the metro without waiting in the cold 20 plus mins for a bus that has no set schedule. Now that it's colder, I had to admit, the wait was less bearable. I still need to pay the new landlord the rest of the deposit. Thankfully, I had a random subbing position for 10 hours teaching English to two classes. The money helped me a bundle. I believe God had a hand in arranging for the meeting with myself and the lady who arranged the subbing position. I felt that way the most when on my way to see the school to learn the curriculum. I passed for the first time in Taiwan the scene of the Nativity. Christmas is all commercialized and secular here unless you are near a church. So seeing this on my way to my destination in the metro gave me hope to my lousy week and the stress of finding a new place to live. Now that I have a new place I'm focusing on buying tickets to Hong Kong in order to "renew" my visa, which is another pain that I never had to deal with in Spain. Here they require you to visit the immigration office every 3 months or so to get your visa extended. I have already gone there twice because they didn't extend it fully when I hadn't yet paid tuition for the following semester to continue my studies. In order to keep my visa from expiring I must go outside the country and re-enter it. That will automatically reset the days for another 2 extensions. It is the most convenient and least stressful manner for me. Otherwise going for a Resident Visa would be another boatload of work.

Well, as for my Christmas. It was standard for being away from home. I went on Friday evening with my friend to attend church. I got to see a Christmas concert and hear Latin, English and Chinese song. My friend sang "Holy Night" in Japanese and I sang it in English. Although she doesn't attend mass, she is that special that she would go with me just so I wouldn't be alone. She is definitely a special friend. Christmas day, my friends arranged for a Christmas picnic that went indoors because of the rain. All week it was sunny and warm until Christmas! We enjoyed ourselves for lunch and then we got donuts from Mister Donut and went to a nice coffee shop near my friends' apartment. We talked and played cards into the evening before I went home to pack for the move.

I have my language exchange partner to thank for helping find a nice price for a short walk away from school. We found this place within two days. It is great knowing people who live here for sure. I find that people are often stunned by the rapid pace that I'm learning Chinese. It's not rocket science. I just hang out less and less around English speakers and more and more with my Taiwanese and other friends who don't speak English often or well and must use Chinese.
Since I'm not so thrilled by my new teacher this semester, I find it all the more important to do my best where I can outside of it with my friends and the people I meet.

Today, I don't want to forget to look more into the spiced milk tea I drank at the Indian Restaurant near my new place. I ordered the tea 印度奶茶 which just translates to Indian milk tea and it was amazing! The spices and milk blended made it creamy and yummier than any latte. I asked the waiter about what was put in it. My Japanese friends' language exchange partner was there to help us but I didn't get the answer I wanted. We just found out it had spices in it. I want to know how it was made so I plan on going back with a list of spices translated to ask what they used.

Holiday Trip South

Hi Again,

This is another quick blog to talk about my holiday between classes. I start my next semester in the middle of the second book tomorrow. I hope I like my new teacher. If not I have every intention of changing. I will not stay if I have any doubts. Some of my friends did not get along with there teachers and our learning experiences were like night and day. It's important that your class is like a family I believe in order to learn together well. My class this past semester was great and I'm going to miss that.

As for the places I went to. I started in one National Park 楊明山 near 台北 Taibei and ended in another National Park 太魯閣 near Hualien 花蓮。

The first day in 楊明山was exhausting but beautiful hike up the mountain. Kristyna wanted to go to the very top but my lungs where starting to give out and I haven't built up my endurance entirely so I said lets turn here and we went left along the easier road that went to the clearing instead of the steep climb upwards to the top. We "plan" to go back for the Cherry Blossoms and Azaleas that come out in the springtime. It's a very popular place. While we hiked a fast pace, we passed many elderly people with back packs that held a stereo blasting old Chinese classical music or something relaxing... Not am radio Mom. Haha! They had very nice hiking sticks and they were steadily making the climb. I had to take breaks because Kristyna was zooming up the mountainside. I would have taken my time on my own. At least I'm not sore anymore because of Judo. My legs are feeling fine. But I want to have more stamina. Anyway, as we reached one marked point of our climb one of the many stray dogs that we see everywhere took a liking to us. Kristyna was not happy about it but it was funny because the dog specifically followed her. It was a cute dog and I find it sad that most stray dogs are the typical black short haired, pointy eared dogs that owners decide to leave on the side of the road. They look well fed for the most part, so I believe they survive for some time but I am nonetheless heartbroken that it's always the same breed. The fluffy little lap dogs are mostly favored with the families and are normally decked out in ridiculous clothing.

About half way back down the mountain the dog stopped following us so we headed home. I was exhausted and still coughing from my cold. I didn't feel like getting up early the next day...

The next day, I did get up early. We found a bank that finally allowed me to take out some money. It has been frustrating looking for atms now that my scholarship has ended. Our plan was to wake up and make the train, which we did. We made the train and once there we were met with locals wanting our service. So we so happened to stay in the first hotel that the worker there showed us. He walked us to the hotel and showed us different rooms for options. I hesitated because it was the first hotel we checked. However, we were tired and the place was decent for the price so we stayed for 600 NT for two in one room with a bath. After dropping off our things in the hotel and setting out we found a buffet for lunch, which is always the cheapest when eating out. I ordered my food and the lady at the register asked me if I knew where I was pointing to my shirt with a map of Taiwan. I pointed to Hualian. And then she asked me from where I had come and I told her Taipei and pointed there. She was really excited that I could talk to her in Chinese and it made me smile. We sat down to eat and at the table next to us a business man was eating. He mentioned to us to get some of the soup behind us and later offered us paper napkins. We ended up talking for awhile and he was impressed with our Chinese. And that was the beginning of our adventure around Hualian with our tour guide for the day. He was very kind to us and drove us to the beach and all of the best sites to see the ocean since we planned to walk he insisted to drive us. He laughed saying we couldn't possibly walk and that the buses are not like in Taipei, where they barely ever come by and are never on time. As the day went on, we wondered if he was an important official with nothing better to do at the time. He had been to countries all over Europe and then he mentioned visiting Hartford, CT. Which shocked me because nobody knows Connecticut and definitely not Hartford in Taiwan. They know NY, so that is where I always say I'm near.

The next day we got on the hotel's tour bus to 太魯閣. At very good price we were brought to the most famous areas of Taiwan's most famous National Park with lunch included. We were happy about this because the gorge is very long and there was no way for us to see it all on foot within a day. So we were dropped off at areas that we could explore and take pictures before going to the next destination. We had our bags with us on the bus and the tour guide dropped us off at the train station afterwards so we could go straight to Taipei. I will remember the place we ate for lunch because it was a gemstone and jewelery shop with a restaurant in the back. The food was typical Taiwanese but for the first time I found everything to be very savory and yummy. I can never compare my mothers food to anything at a restaurant but I finally had something satisfying. And because we were in a gem shop, they owners gave us a demonstration of the inner qualities they believe in Jade and coral and everything in between. As part of one demo, I tried a small sip of sake and then after dipping this particular rock into the cup to try it again. He told me it would taste lighter, like water. I believe it tasted light probably because I was tasting it off of the stone instead of out of the cup. Afterwards, a lady showed us how to check for real Jade. She demonstrated with a strand of human hair wrapped over the gem. She proceeded to burn it with a lighter but it didn't burn. She tried again on a replica of a Jade stone and the hair snapped in two and a piece of the gem stone also broke apart. After some more talking she told us there was a discount of 60% for our group and she seemed to have me pinned down as her next buyer. I was not happy but tried to be polite. I didn't want to spend money. So we bargained in Chinese for a good while ~mainly me saying sorry, it's pretty but I can't buy anything. She acted sympathetic to me being a student and poor so we set the price down on a sapphire ring that I am happy with... The part I enjoyed was talking in Chinese about money. She was impressed by that too. But it seemed unfair that she didn't pin down the German girl on our tour. The Malaysian men had no interest so it was Kristyna and I that walked out with jewelry.

The people of 師大

大家好！
It has been a long two weeks. Going with the events of the pictures. I put up two of my favorites the night I walked out to see the 台北夜景 (Taipei's Night-scape) from the second tallest building in the world 台北101. I decided to go on my own with my Nikon camera to take about 100 pictures or more of the view from the top floor. I was truly happy to go alone and to explore the city scenery as I walked there and then to see it from the sky. I watched the cars go by and took pictures on a low speed so the headlights blurred together. I would love to do professional photography but know I am not anywhere near as experienced as I should be for it. But I often ponder the idea of traveling the world taking pictures and speaking in other languages to write articles for a travel magazine...or National Geographic. At least those were the thoughts running through my head while I was on my mission.

While I was walking around the top floor I had to laugh at all of the glamor and style that was put into the layout to attract tourists to buy expensive souvenirs. My eyes spotted one stand that looked very familiar and I laughed and took pictures. I didn't put them on this blog but it is a shop from a Taiwanese show I had literally just finished watching and it is so classic. It is a ice cream shop called Big Tom and the workers wear cow printed hats and aprons. It was exactly as it was in the show so I really enjoyed that moment. I watch Taiwanese dramas often and find my vocabulary and usage of words I learn in class expands quickly as I make connections. Just arranging and rearranging words previously learned there are new words. One word that isn't practical but funny is 草包 or "blockhead" which I learned yesterday when watching my new drama.

As for this week I was happy with my final test grade and I said farewell to classmates going home as was the original plan for me. But I found myself saying goodbye to some very close friends I have made here. I find that I can relate to people from other countries very well not only because there is so much to share about my own but we have so much in common about us all. We are the people that wish to explore and have an adventure. We are not the home-bodies. And to hear their reasons for being in Taiwan are interesting. I am meeting new people now too since a new semester is starting. I said goodbye to one good Australian friend that I promised to visit soon as possible and welcomed a new Australian! They are all very laid back and I decided, because I love linguistics, to make a list with my friend who just left of all the words he uses in his every day speech that I am not familiar with. I learned words like "Star-jump" (jumping-jacks) when we were in Judo class exercising. There are many words that end with "ies" too. "Sunnies" "Wetties" "Boardies" and the list goes on. I started saying "footpath" instead of "sidewalk" after awhile but I will never say "a-lu-min-i-um" instead of "alum-in-num." I also picked up Spanish terminology that I will not forget. My friend taught me great colloquial words from Spain such as "La chocolatina" for a guys six pack. Or "Tiene la cara del perro/la seta/el juez" for someone who has a serious face. I record them because these phrases were used at great times.
My Spanish friend is on her plane still and I am happy she left Korea before the fighting began. I received an email about the fighting going on and she had just left Korea days before it started. I am very worried about this and hope that the people of South Korea will be okay.

That is all that is on my mind at the moment. I hope to update again soon after I get back from site seeing with my friend in these next few days I have off.
I wish everyone well and hope that Thanksgiving was a great time spent with family and friends. It was my first Thanksgiving eating pizza with friends and not Mom's delicious Turkey!

A Wonderful Ordinary Day

I have lots of fun ordinary days that I want to record but especially today because so many different events happened today. As some people are aware of, I am trying my hardest to find work teaching English so that I may continue studying further with my Chinese. It makes me happy to partake in simple conversations at the International House such as yesterday and today and I know only time will help me and immersion.

So starting with yesterday, because this ordinary day lasted for no ordinary amount of time. I asked my good friend Emily who is JBC or CBJ depending on how you look at it. Either way her Japanese and Chinese are superb and her English is coming slowly. I always bump into her and she starts to sing to me in English with her cute accent in a joking serious manner that always makes me laugh. I promised her we would go to KTV soon just because she loves music and plays the guitar. She played once for me and my friends and she really is a comedian of sorts. But back to the story, I have been writing a list of terms that I believe I should know how to say in Chinese while I'm practicing Judo. I've been asking my Taiwanese friends here and there because the list is long,certain terms, such as "to throw, to pin, to push off balance, to choke...etc. I asked Emily for some words and she said she would try her best since her English wasn't so great. So it turned into a charades of sorts. I demonstrated on her softly even though she kept exaggerating my strength and holding out her arms saying I'm so strong. We got through the list and it was a success. Both of us learned new vocabulary all by demonstration and we confirmed it with my dictionary. That moment ended with her and I reading some of my Children's Chinese sticker book "Hansel and Gretel" which I read a page a day. The vocabulary is quite different from what I learn in school and it is helpful for colloquial terms. We had fun talking about the Chinese versus the English translation. In Chinese they call it 糖果屋 or "The Candy House." My next book is 白雪公主 "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
By the way,I plan to show these books to Erin so she can relearn her Chinese when I get back.

As for today, I had a series of thoughts run through my head that I would rather not forget. Today Kristyna did me a favor and showed me where I can print my resume and diploma to apply for a teaching job. We went and had some dumplings for lunch afterwards for 65 NTD or a little over $2 USD. This was special just because I don't often see her. She does intensive study and is always looking for more challenging things. She has had time to study in China previously and her Chinese is quite good. So today at lunch when I taught her simple things that I knew, it felt quite good that I was picking up the culture too and teaching others. I showed her how to order the dumplings in the Chinese style using the character 正. Instead of writing a number or using 4 slashes with a 5th strike they write this character by the stroke order for how many food items or which ever they are counting. It's very useful and I prefer this method. While we were at counting I showed her the way they count on their hand in Chinese and Japanese since I see my friends doing it all of the time.

After lunch I parted with Kristyna on the way to the I house in order to apply to a children's agency for teaching English. There are quite a few of them and at least three near where I live. I walked in with out a real plan and realized "oh, no!" How do Taiwanese people go about searching for a job? I went once with my Taiwanese friends to another agency but they did a lot of the talking and the lady seemed pleased but I never heard back. Although, I don't know if they called or not because whenever I bother to pick up unknown calls they are the wrong number... Ahh!

I was walking to the agency as the elementary school kids rushed out in their black and white plaid uniforms from across the street in droves towards me. I was almost intimidated when I saw a few walk into the agency and almost lost my nerve. But then I thought, "I want to do this. I really want to teach English to these kids!" and I walked in to talk with the man behind the counter. He seemed very friendly and gave me time to gather my thoughts in Chinese. I didn't know how to say, "I want to apply for a job," (now I know it's "to look for work!" how easy!) and I didn't know how to say "I have my resume for you to look at," and I felt a little frustrated. How could I apply for a job in Chinese after 6 months of studying! But we talked none-the-less. I was able to say how long I was here in Taiwan and how long I wanted to be here and where I lived in Chinese. Then we switched to English when he saw my resume and asked about prior teaching experience and why I had a B.A. in Spanish! haha! I didn't think I would be asked this and didn't have an answer. Only that I was currently working on learning Chinese and wanted to teach English. He confirmed with me the phone number on my resume and I smiled and rushed out the door! Phew! As I crossed the street looking at the children still going by... there are so many! I thought to myself, "damn I forgot to ask for any of their information for future contact!" I was so relieved to have done simple conversation and feel he was willing to consider me that I lost any thought of how to end the meeting. I hope I hear back but otherwise I plan on talking to my Taiwanese friends about certain phrases before going to the next few agencies.

The last memory, for today at least, happened after I got back from having dinner, "more yummy dumplings" with some I house friends. We said hello for a second time to a new resident that we spoke to earlier along with the owner of the place, who is 83 and still going strong by the way! He has a whole other story I wish to tell sometime. Truly fascinating! So for the new resident. He is from China... I can't remember the district but his name is Chun 春(spring) and is a journalist and a Buddhist and does Kong Fu! Yes, Dad I thought of you! He showed my friend Jan some moves since he wants to learn. But this man talked to us about his novels that he is writing about Tibet and about his experience living there for 3 years and doing research while teaching children. It is amazing hearing stories from the guys from main land China who pass by the I house to stay for a short while. They all seem disappointed or ashamed of the way their people treat foreigners "as a whole" and of the way the government runs the people. He, as a journalist writing about Tibet needs to be especially careful and I wish him well. I spoke in Chinese and English with him and found his accent to be so clear! Maybe it's because he's a journalist?

So that was my wonderful ordinary day and I'm sorry it doesn't come with any pictures. At the moment, I don't have any that would fit this story so I wrote it in great detail. ;)

Ferris Wheels, Hot Springs and Friends

I just realized that I often think about what to post on my blog and then think it has been posted but never gets put up. That's okay because I know everything will be in a scrap book of Taiwan at some point. As for the National Day of Taiwan I never went out to see the ceremony but heard the fireworks at night were more exciting than the day parade. It was supposed to be very special though after one hundred years.

I highlighted pictures of two places in two weekends that I went to. I put a day and night picture of the ferris wheel located in Jiannan 劍南 which I could go on with a student discount.... if I had the guts to go that high up. While there I saw this one building that brought me back to Barcelona. The building is a restaurant apparently but it is so tall and pops out as a structure of Antoni Gaudi. The day started out at a Japanese Curry "mini fair" where a company was advertising their food with mini games that my Japanese friends and Madrid friend took turns playing until we got free meal packages to cook at home. Of course I couldn't without a stove so I gave mine away. But it was fun nonetheless. Most of the day we spent in the mall window shopping and learning Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. I love talking about languages and in other languages that most of the day was spent rambling back and forth. It's the best for picking up terms. I have been notably picking up lots of Japanese phrases and teaching Spanish ones in turn. It has been great having a friend from Madrid to share my experiences with and find out more about that beautiful country. She has already invited all of us to tour Spain with her and of course we all have offered the same to each other.

Just to ramble on this topic I'm considering doing just that with one Japanese friend who's grandparents own a hotel in Okinawa for very cheap. I can stay there for $10 a night and go scuba diving and what not. At the moment I plan to go on a boat since Okinawa is so close to Taiwan. Why not!? Just an exciting plan at the moment.

Today I just came back from Beitou 北投, which is very famous for their sulfuric hot springs. I shared a hot spring with Shiori that started at 116 Fahrenheit about 48 Celsius. The photo you see is of Hell Valley 地熱舍 which is the source of hot water piped into lovely hotels all over the mountain. All of the guys went into a public single sex no clothes allowed hot spring. I'm happy I had the option to wear my bathing suit and that my Japanese friends where totally friendly about my decision. None of them wear swim wear or as I learned "mizu gi" (in Chinese it's “you yong yi” 游泳衣) when they bathe and naturally my friend choose a bath house modeled after the Japanese tradition and not Taiwanese, which do wear bathing suits. I was initially surprised when I heard, "no clothes" but they asked for other options for me when I said 不好意思 (bu hao yi si) embarrassing.
Afterwards, we took a quick stop at 士林夜市 Shi lin Night Market in order to eat dinner for a second night in a row. Saturdays are more crowded as we found out. We had gone there the night before to go bowling and eat dinner. Fridays are a better time from now on.

In case anyone is wondering why go to the hot springs. I feel 10x more relaxed now than I have all week. But then I've been sore all week too. Now I'm very comfortable. I hope next week I will not be as sore since this week I started up Judo yet again after four years and my body went into a slight shock from the intense work out. I made myself do something I wanted to do for health purposes to stay in shape AND of course be around Taiwanese to speak more Mandarin. So far it's a success! My Judo gi will be in Monday and I'm very excited :)

Spirited Away to KTV

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to update the blog since it has been so long. I have to parts since there has been a lot going on. For one, the cold season is now over. I still have a stuffed up nose but it's been worse.

It feels as though my stay is half way through. I need to extend my visa with Amy for another 90 days since Taiwan gave me a 90 day extendable visa.

Today is the 10 of October, which means the 100th anniversary for Taiwan! It's a National Day with a big parade. I will go to see the fireworks tonight with my school friends. I decided to stay in and do laundry and study in the mean time.

As for the past week or so. My friends have been coming and going. Two just left. One to Hong Kong and another back to Austria right around Salz-burg. I had asked her if she liked the Sound of Music and she told me she had not seen it but that everyone asked her this. I made her promise to watch it soon!

Back to the story, my friend from Austria wanted to go to Jiefun this week. http://wikitravel.org/en/Jiufen
The town is on the eastern coast of Taiwan so I had a first sight of the ocean on the eastern side from the mountains that the well known movie Spirited Away took place at. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirited_Away

I found this to be very exciting because I saw the movie a few times and the place is very traditional. The roads are lined with red lanterns and shops with trinkets of all sorts. We all ate outside at a very nice restaurant that I put a picture of on here. We went in the afternoon to see the shops while they were still open and the spectacular view and then the lanterns were lit as it got dark.

Earlier in the week, I was at KTV with my friends and with Laura's co-worker from Taiwan. It was my first time at a Karaoke. The building itself was a tall skyscraper in the hub of Ximending night market. We were on the 9th floor, lined with rooms that looked like a hotel. The lobby of our floor had an all you can eat buffet and we ate a lot and sang a lot. I think it was very cool because we had people from everywhere so we could sing in English, Chinese, and Japanese. I could read some of the Chinese so I sang along to Jay Chou and Show Lou. But we all sang "We are the World" because it was appropriate. We were Austrian, Italian, Australian, American, Japanese and Taiwanese all in the same room :)

週末快樂！

Happy Weekend! I celebrated the Moon Festival this past Wednesday with my friends. We went to a place south of Taipei to enjoy the hot springs, BBQ and moon cakes. This week on Tuesday I will celebrate Confucius Day or Teacher's Day. I will be getting up around 4 am to take a taxi to a temple to witness a ceremony. I'm excited but it makes me tired to think about the time.

I am really settling down finally after getting homesick for a little bit. Now I meet new people all the time although mainly these people are Japanese because they all say Chinese is a good language to learn since it's the next world power. We all think alike :)

To do a little recap of the highlights of my week, I had the chance to go to a night market targeted at clothes only. I didn't plan for this. In fact, I had in mind dinner, since the night markets are the best places to eat a lot for cheap. Instead, we arrived to the best clothes night market and had a rough time finding food. At least, someone got to buy themselves a new necklace. Afterwards I shared a bottle of wine with a friend from Honduras and spoke in Spanish listening to some Latino music.

Tonight, I just got back from a restuarant owned by my Japanese friend's parents. They closed the restuarant for us for the night and we tried a variety of new tastes...or at least I did. Everyone else was familiar with it accept for the one Korean boy and the Taiwan girl. I enjoyed myself and tried sake and plum wine for the first time. I spoke in Chinese and picked up a lot of Japanese phrases and I remember one Korean word! I find these encounters to be the best because I never hear such terms inside the classroom.

For the last two Weeks

Dear Bloggers,
I'm happy to be back online. In case you don't know. My computer's hard drive decided to shut down so thanks to my wonderful parents I am back online now with a new computer.

I want to put a few more pictures up than normal since so much has happened since being here. I have met so many more friends since classes have started and I recognize a lot of the students from my school "师大" at my dorm. It feels like college but better because everyone is super friendly and respectful and doesn't trash the place.

While I have been here my friends and I have had countless encounters with little boys asking us questions. One night on a cramped bus ride back to the international house a boy and his mother where talking about me and smiling at me. I heard them say I was American and then the boy asked me what color my eyes where in Chinese. I told him green! Because I can't say hazel. It wasn't a well lit bus so I have no idea how they might appear. The boy and mother thought my Chinese was quite good and it was just a great feeling to be complemented for having a pretty and different color. To extend off of the appearance here in Taiwan. Most are very conscious of appearance. I walked around with my Japanese friend Shiori in a Korean skin product Store called Skin Food. Some products looked quite good. And others where for whitening the skin. I see it everywhere. It's really important to be pale here for women at least. Most of the guys don't mind getting a tan while the women walk around with their UV Umbrellas and fake eyeglasses. Yes, they wear thick brimmed eye glasses without a lense... 奇怪! ~weird!

Talking about my new life here, I have met many new people staying for 1 + years for many different reasons. Some are English teachers, half Taiwanese and Japanese or Chinese and discovering their roots or going for their masters at another school but all are studying the language at what I found out from countless peoples' reactions is the best school in Taipei.

My first week of classes are over. And I switched from one level to another more challenging level. I did not feel bad about the placement test since half of the students have changed in every class. I love my teacher, she is animated and encouraging. I know when I speak well and when I need to work on my tones. She is very dedicated to helping us speak each tone with accuracy as well as writing correctly. I wonder if I had learned how to sing, if that would have benefited me
now!

Anyway, there is so much I could say about my interactions with people. But all I can say is, that I will always remember advice from a special advisor of mine. "If you truly want to learn a language you have to go out on the streets and talk with the people." And that is what I'm doing! Day by day it's better and easier.

Pig Bunnies in Xinmen yeshi (West Door Night Market)

Today and this whole week have been free for exploring the city and interacting with the culture of Taipei or as I just found out Taibei. There have been many counters with locals already since there really don't exist many tourists at the moment. They appear once in a blue moon and I love it. The people seem to like the idea of practicing English but will also be impressed with some Chinese and respond in their language. My impressions are all good except for the spurts of city smells that aren't so great.

I choose to put up a picture of the Chiang Kai Shek memorial and the matching mascot that appears with every attraction. While there I got to see the changing of the guard and then a small celebration made in honor of new city buses. The buses are pink and purple! I've never seen so much pink before in my life and seen so many guys that are completely comfortable around it.

One of the strangest things I saw was at the mall located next to the Main Taipei station. There was somebody getting a message but they had a blanket over their back and the ma-sues was banging big cooking/meat knifes on their back. Not something I would look for in a massage.

After the Flight

I decided to make this blog and update it at least once a week. I will send it to anyone interested in keeping in touch with what I'll be doing here. At the moment it is 7:32 am here and 12 hours behind at home. Today is my first morning and I woke up at 6:30? I set my alarm for 9am believing my exhaustion would keep me asleep for awhile longer after 17.5 hours of flying and 45min drive to where I am now. Surprisingly, I'm wide awake and woke up needing my inhaler for the first time in a long time. I don't think that will happen again because I left the slider to the outside walk out open.

The temperature is about 33 degrees Celsius but the air is heavy. I'm on an island lying over the tropic of cancer after all. I'm very close to the same longitude as Hawaii.

Well that's all for now. I am going to finish getting ready to head out into the city to the Normal University and Mandarin Training Center to register for my classes. Afterwards, I hope to expect an internet friend I made this summer to arrive after 12, also on this program. I plan on buying a bowl, mug, and shower shoes because there is no kitchenware and hardly a kitchen for that matter. I see the influence of what people eat here is limited in the extreme to cup of noodles and tea so there is a hot water fountain, fridge, and microwave. Wow.