haven't blogged for a while! i could say that it's been difficult getting connected to the internet, but that's a lie. really, it's more just that i've been completely exhausted and just don't feel like writing. which would be a mistake since now i can barely remember what's been happening. let's go backwards!
today we went to hehuang mountain and hiked a bunch, then went to a farm and watched sheep shearing! that was cool, 'cause it was interesting to see something i had to do for class in ANS1 xD we've totally learned how to catch/flip/age/shear/manage sheep, and it was even part of my final for the class, so seeing those techniques actually used live was pretty cool. the australian/new zealander guy doing the hosting had a crazy-strong accent while he attempted to speak chinese to the crowd.. but i was impressed that he at least knew how to speak at all. wonder how long he's been doing this show.. anyway, afterwards we just had dinner, lecture, video, and now here. and tomorrow we're going out at 6 to go birdwatching so that'll be cool! but early.. but cool.
speaking of cool, i love the weather here. it's pretty much just like the bay, dry and cool and misty. a lot of the mainlanders/taiwanese are cold ^^; but to me it's normal weather! shorts and tshirts yaaaay <3 and maybe the occasional jacket.
yesterday... we arrived here at meifong farm hotel, and it's NICE. man, i love these rooms! didn't do much of anything except a video at night, and hung out in the guys' room. tried to fix dominique's computer but that turned out terribly.. it keeps rebooting to system restore, and can't seem to locate any of the drives. i dug deeper via command prompt but seriously, all it sees is the X: drive. sad... wish i could help, but seems like either a hardware issue or a need for a fresh install for all drivers. but yeah, we spent most of the day in the bus going back around the west side of taiwan since the path from taroko -> meifong was rendered dangerous from the typhoon.
the day before that, we were at taroko gorge! hiked a trail and ended up at this SWWEEEEEETTTT rocky lake/river sanctuary. climbed up a shitload of rocks. i personally enjoy rocks, no idea why. they're just so fun to climb and run up/down. i'm not really afraid of heights, so that helps! but yeah, reckless. ivy's like my mother hahaha. and then we headed back to taipei and watched "ted"... or so we thought. was sold out, so we went and watched abraham lincoln: vampire hunter instead. it wasn't as terrible as i predicted it to be, though the slo-mo was pretty much ridiculous. i thought they did a great job of linking history to fiction, though.
also lately i've been hanging out with ivy and shu chi much more! i like it, they're both very fun to be around ^^
let's see.. the night before we were in *forgot name of village*! stayed in a nice hotel, all i really remember is that we went out that night to explore the night market after getting mochi OMG MOCHI SO GOOD aw shit i just remembered i left two in my room back in the dorm.. sigh. what a waste. anyway, it was super amazing mochi, and then night market! got food, was stuffed, headed to starbucks to sit for a while and eat, and decided to watch a movie lolol. we taxi'd our way over (stuffing 6 people in the cab, i love taiwan and its lack of rules.. LOL or at least a lack of following them) to the theater and watched spiderman *___* ANDREW GARFIELD, damnit. in love with his acting, haha, though i think the movie was less enjoyable to those who were only really reading the chinese subtitles :/ anyway it was super cute and augh why does he play such an adorable high schooler?
okay, so the night before THAT we went to a different village and stayed at this traveler's lodge that had crazy nice japanese-styled rooms, and ate a nice dinner and lit lanterns! weining was my partner for the lantern drawing and we were the last ones to finish pretty much, because he took so long on the first side! T___T i didn't have time to draw a proper dragon D: but i just wrote "no regrets" in chinese and yeah. we lit it up with the help of the restaurant owner and watched it fly off :D carolina and ivy's flew into a power line and promptly exploded. it was awesome. so much cooler than seeing it disappear, haha. but yeah so we went back to the lodge and we had the ENTIRE building! so cool, the owner just left us the keys.. we sang karaoke (k-ge) in the dining room because it transformed! i tell ya, it was awesoooooome.
the day before that, i thiiiink it was tidepool day? collected crabs and stuff :D so fun but no pictures because i was too busy playing xD and then at night i went out with weining and yang fan to eat shabu shabu at the taipei main station despite having to pack for the trip away. got back at like 11:30 super tired and didn't pack until that morning sigh. i don't remember what we did before that...
and monday night was dumpling night! DUMPLINGS ARE DELICIOUS, hands down. went out with dominic, shuchi, yangfan, and weining (minus dominic who just went home) to taipei 101 which is pretty unimpressive since it was just a tower... but fun with friends, like anything else of course.
and sunday was danshui! our one and only free day, definitely well spent. began with being super late due to diane taking me out to eat dimsum which was delicious but i honestly felt sick after being pretty much forced to eat a crapton of food... but got the ATM card back! then 40 min mrt ride to tamshui station where EVERYONE WAITED FOR ME ;-; i'm so thankful that they're such good people. i told them to go ahead but yeah it didn't happen! i'm glad though. but yeah so then we went and walked along the streets, with food of course, and checked out san antonio's fort thing, and kept walking to the end to the wharf/dock/bridge where we watched the sunset! it was pretty fast 0__0 took lots of pictures, and walked back via the waterfront. ate at a seafood place, which was great if you love seafood, but just okay to me xD oh well. played this damn shooting game with what i think was a colt .45 modded to a BB gun, shot all 10 targets in a row, and got a stupid cell phone holder. i should've asked for the prizes beforehand... ah well. i'll know better next time! i wanna practice shooting more, can't wait to use those range tickets when i'm back in davis.
anyway that was, again, a long and exhausting day. and so it is right now. so goodnight!
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Today I think I'm going to write something in the morning since we have a good day planned out ahead of us.
It's sunday, and the only free day we have for this entire program. Why am I spending it in my room? Well, last night I was so tired after traveling around the night market that I kept falling asleep while writing. Thus, I appreciated the ability to sleep in today, even though I still woke up at around 8:30... Later we plan to go to Tamshui! I don't know what's there, but it sounds fun from the description of people from NTU. Anyway, I'm supposed to meet Weining and Fan Yang for lunch at 11:30 but it turns out I have to meet with my mom's friend to get a new ATM card, and also she wants to meet me for lunch. I just have to find out a way to get to Tamshui by myself... since I don't know the way. Oh well, will figure that out later when it comes time. I think in general I'm pretty decent at directions, so I'm not all that worried about getting around.
Anyway, to continue yesterday's post, after running into Lisa, we went to the Shilin night market, arguably the largest night market in all of Taiwan. We probably visited less than 1/4th of it in a few hours... but as usual, the food was amazing. I think my favorite so far is the chicken meat wrapped in chicken skin and grilled. It's pretty much a hotdog made of chicken. All meat. Yum. Mostly, I stayed with Dominique, Fan Yang, Weining, Anbo, and Hsuan. We went around and I wanted to buy stuff, but had no money.. worst place to have no money -___- I would have bought so much! But hopefully today I can get some.
Okay, time to go.
It's sunday, and the only free day we have for this entire program. Why am I spending it in my room? Well, last night I was so tired after traveling around the night market that I kept falling asleep while writing. Thus, I appreciated the ability to sleep in today, even though I still woke up at around 8:30... Later we plan to go to Tamshui! I don't know what's there, but it sounds fun from the description of people from NTU. Anyway, I'm supposed to meet Weining and Fan Yang for lunch at 11:30 but it turns out I have to meet with my mom's friend to get a new ATM card, and also she wants to meet me for lunch. I just have to find out a way to get to Tamshui by myself... since I don't know the way. Oh well, will figure that out later when it comes time. I think in general I'm pretty decent at directions, so I'm not all that worried about getting around.
Anyway, to continue yesterday's post, after running into Lisa, we went to the Shilin night market, arguably the largest night market in all of Taiwan. We probably visited less than 1/4th of it in a few hours... but as usual, the food was amazing. I think my favorite so far is the chicken meat wrapped in chicken skin and grilled. It's pretty much a hotdog made of chicken. All meat. Yum. Mostly, I stayed with Dominique, Fan Yang, Weining, Anbo, and Hsuan. We went around and I wanted to buy stuff, but had no money.. worst place to have no money -___- I would have bought so much! But hopefully today I can get some.
Okay, time to go.
Quick post because i'm freaking TIIIIIIIRED. Lecture in the morning about food, so everyone stayed awake. Weining was late again -_-' Shouldn't be surprised.. Second lecture about aboriginals was cancelled because the professor either forgot or something, not quite sure. Had a bunch of free time, then got on a bus to go to the national palace museum. Our guide was pretty amazing, and she spoke english with very little accent. I think the highlight of my day, though, was on the bus ride back from NPM -> Shilin night market.. I was talking on the bus with hsuan/dominique/yunwen when suddenly this white girl kinda peeks at me through a whole between people, and asks if my name is Emily. I was like uhhhh yeah 0_0. The weird thing was that, maybe a few minutes before this, I somehow felt that something was interesting about her, but couldn't quite place it... Anyway, she asks, I say yes, and she's like, did you go to Hercules? And all of a sudden I remembered her from high school, and WHOA. It was pretty mindblowing to run into someone I hadn't talked to or seen in at least 5 years, especially halfway around the world on a bus in Taipei, of all places. Super crazy! The reason I didn't recognize her at first was most likely because she'd cut/curled her hair, and I didn't have a memory of her like that.. Also, I guess I haven't changed all that much besides high school, since she was able to recognize me so quickly.
Okay, falling asleep as I type, so better update tomorros! :)
Okay, falling asleep as I type, so better update tomorros! :)
Thursday, June 28, 2012
"You look more like a girl when you wear red!"
Fan Yang said that to me tonight when we were walking back from calligraphy class (which, by the way, is one of my favorite things to do.. or it was when I was a kid back during Chinese school. I wish there was more time to practice that type of thing now) -_- Me, him, and Weining stopped by the night market on the way back home (dorms) from the classroom and got Black Sugar Frog pearl milk tea! I think it was the MOST amazing boba I've ever had/will have.. the tapioca melted in your mouth and was so soft, not like the hard, chewy stuff we have in the US. I shouldn't have expected any less from Taiwan. And the best part is that it only cost 1 USD! EVERYTHING HERE IS SO CHEAP. I can't even begin to express how great it is that I can buy a whole day's worth of food for less than 5 USD. In the morning I get up and walk downstairs to the 7-11 and get two tea eggs/a pork bun for 50 NTD. I lovvvvveeeeee Taiwan :) Not just because of the prices though!
Anyway, the past couple days have been quite fun. I think I won't really talk about the events too much because everyone will write about those.. people are more interesting. Yunwen has been teaching me lots of Chinese and I'm glad she's very patient and good at explaining! I think I can start to say some sentences now, but every time I want to say it, it comes out in English first... I need to try harder. Eventually I'll start to think in Chinese instead of English. Also, Weining was late again this morning and almost missed the entire trip like Alicia -__-' What else.. Oh! I should ask around to see who still needs a group for the project in Shitou. Also, every time I decide not to bring my backpack somewhere, there are stamps and I don't have my notebook T_T but every time I bring my backpack there are never any stamps.. sigh.
Ugh it's too late (only 11:30 PM and I think it's late? Very strange..) so I will continue later.
I think I'm just glad to have friends! ^^
Fan Yang said that to me tonight when we were walking back from calligraphy class (which, by the way, is one of my favorite things to do.. or it was when I was a kid back during Chinese school. I wish there was more time to practice that type of thing now) -_- Me, him, and Weining stopped by the night market on the way back home (dorms) from the classroom and got Black Sugar Frog pearl milk tea! I think it was the MOST amazing boba I've ever had/will have.. the tapioca melted in your mouth and was so soft, not like the hard, chewy stuff we have in the US. I shouldn't have expected any less from Taiwan. And the best part is that it only cost 1 USD! EVERYTHING HERE IS SO CHEAP. I can't even begin to express how great it is that I can buy a whole day's worth of food for less than 5 USD. In the morning I get up and walk downstairs to the 7-11 and get two tea eggs/a pork bun for 50 NTD. I lovvvvveeeeee Taiwan :) Not just because of the prices though!
Anyway, the past couple days have been quite fun. I think I won't really talk about the events too much because everyone will write about those.. people are more interesting. Yunwen has been teaching me lots of Chinese and I'm glad she's very patient and good at explaining! I think I can start to say some sentences now, but every time I want to say it, it comes out in English first... I need to try harder. Eventually I'll start to think in Chinese instead of English. Also, Weining was late again this morning and almost missed the entire trip like Alicia -__-' What else.. Oh! I should ask around to see who still needs a group for the project in Shitou. Also, every time I decide not to bring my backpack somewhere, there are stamps and I don't have my notebook T_T but every time I bring my backpack there are never any stamps.. sigh.
Ugh it's too late (only 11:30 PM and I think it's late? Very strange..) so I will continue later.
I think I'm just glad to have friends! ^^
Monday, June 25, 2012
I never quite know how to begin first posts, so I suppose I shall just pretend like I've had this blog for a while.
In any case, today was a nice day up until about 3 hours ago when I lost my ATM card.. My parents arranged for a family friend to give me a bank card so that I could just withdraw cash when necessary. Within 15 minutes of meeting up with her and saying goodbye, I'd attempted to get 1000NTD, successfully taken said 1000NTD, and... didn't get the card back. I went to try and ask a 7-11 cashier for help, but it started taking too long so I went back, only to find out that someone had stolen my card :( My fault for leaving the machine unattended, but wah, now I must wait until Saturday.. oh well.
Speaking of 7-11's, they are quite common and very, very nice here. Wifi (that doesn't work for me, but I think it's a phone problem, sigh), bar to sit at, air conditioning (<3), and most importantly, TEA EGGS. I LOVE TEA EGGS. Had two for breakfast this morning before heading off to the opening ceremony.
We had a scavenger hunt today which was fun, especially since our team won :D 11 stickers! Even though we got owned during charades. Our prizes were postcards, I shall send out eventually. I can't really bring myself to rip them out of the book, they look so nice... Also had some lectures on entomology (I'm slightly ashamed that I said ticks/scorpions were insects. I should have known better! Immediate regret) and fauna of Taiwan, which were interesting as far as lectures go, but I definitely wanted to fall asleep just from being tired/hot. I'm excited for when we actually get to see the animals, live ^^!
I guess I should mention something about yesterday as well, since it was a big day of firsts: I made friends, who are all very nice and thankfully are helping me out with learning Chinese/translating for me into English. I'm sad that I didn't pay more attention in Chinese school :( but hopefully by the end of the month I'll be able to talk to them in mandarin! Had lunch at a train station which was pretty much a miniature mall, and ate beef noodles *drool* After the day's activities (memorial plaza, NT museum), we took a break and I met up again with... well, let me see if I can remember everyone's names: Dominic, Tracy (Wei-ning?), Zoey (So-chi, or something that sounds like it), Cassie...?, a girl from Maryland that majors in Ag. Econ whose name I've forgotten, Anbo, Fan (?), Vivian?
I think I did a terrible job but at least I can recognize their faces, which counts for something, right?
In any case, we went out to the night markets and ate and walked and ate and walked and ate, and walked, and ate... and walked... and ate some more. Tried a bunch of different things which were all delicious, hehehe. I don't think Shu-chi came with us. Also, ordered a che lun bing by myself! Sort of, Dominic helped @_@; Learned a term called "chi huo" which pretty much translates to "fatty"/"bottomless pit." Ended the night with shaved ice ^___^ Everything here makes my stomach happy.
On a related note, all of the people here make me happy, too! Everyone is so easy to be around, and I can't wait to see how the next 4 weeks are going to go. Looking forward to it.
Until next time,
emily
In any case, today was a nice day up until about 3 hours ago when I lost my ATM card.. My parents arranged for a family friend to give me a bank card so that I could just withdraw cash when necessary. Within 15 minutes of meeting up with her and saying goodbye, I'd attempted to get 1000NTD, successfully taken said 1000NTD, and... didn't get the card back. I went to try and ask a 7-11 cashier for help, but it started taking too long so I went back, only to find out that someone had stolen my card :( My fault for leaving the machine unattended, but wah, now I must wait until Saturday.. oh well.
Speaking of 7-11's, they are quite common and very, very nice here. Wifi (that doesn't work for me, but I think it's a phone problem, sigh), bar to sit at, air conditioning (<3), and most importantly, TEA EGGS. I LOVE TEA EGGS. Had two for breakfast this morning before heading off to the opening ceremony.
We had a scavenger hunt today which was fun, especially since our team won :D 11 stickers! Even though we got owned during charades. Our prizes were postcards, I shall send out eventually. I can't really bring myself to rip them out of the book, they look so nice... Also had some lectures on entomology (I'm slightly ashamed that I said ticks/scorpions were insects. I should have known better! Immediate regret) and fauna of Taiwan, which were interesting as far as lectures go, but I definitely wanted to fall asleep just from being tired/hot. I'm excited for when we actually get to see the animals, live ^^!
I guess I should mention something about yesterday as well, since it was a big day of firsts: I made friends, who are all very nice and thankfully are helping me out with learning Chinese/translating for me into English. I'm sad that I didn't pay more attention in Chinese school :( but hopefully by the end of the month I'll be able to talk to them in mandarin! Had lunch at a train station which was pretty much a miniature mall, and ate beef noodles *drool* After the day's activities (memorial plaza, NT museum), we took a break and I met up again with... well, let me see if I can remember everyone's names: Dominic, Tracy (Wei-ning?), Zoey (So-chi, or something that sounds like it), Cassie...?, a girl from Maryland that majors in Ag. Econ whose name I've forgotten, Anbo, Fan (?), Vivian?
I think I did a terrible job but at least I can recognize their faces, which counts for something, right?
In any case, we went out to the night markets and ate and walked and ate and walked and ate, and walked, and ate... and walked... and ate some more. Tried a bunch of different things which were all delicious, hehehe. I don't think Shu-chi came with us. Also, ordered a che lun bing by myself! Sort of, Dominic helped @_@; Learned a term called "chi huo" which pretty much translates to "fatty"/"bottomless pit." Ended the night with shaved ice ^___^ Everything here makes my stomach happy.
On a related note, all of the people here make me happy, too! Everyone is so easy to be around, and I can't wait to see how the next 4 weeks are going to go. Looking forward to it.
Until next time,
emily
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