Taiwan Journal cont. 2...
Monday July 28th, 2008 (Day 23)
Today i didn't really do much except STUDY. Seriously 12pm July 28th all the way until 8am July 29th... So exhausting... Anyways i took all my vocabulary i learned this month and found the ping yin (letters that make up words that make out the sound of that word) for all of them. Also since a typhoon was going on I mostly stayed in doors... Very motivating to work when there is a typhoon going on and your aren't really permitted to go outside. I mean you can but if you get blown away it isn't really anybodies fault except your own for going outside when a typhoon is hitting. Anyways studying, YouTube ing, and Crunchyroll ing was all i did today. When the typhoon eventually paused for a moment i was free to buy food from, which was not closed, 7-11. Surviving off crunchy peanuts, bread, and candy is not a real source of food when everybody else was eating instant noodles!!! Yay what a fun day!
Tuesday July 29th, 2008 (Day 24)
Today just felt like an extremely long day! Took a five minute nap on my desk while i was studying... I went to say goodbye to the Korean students that were leaving today. There were three groups all together for this CSULB and two Korean schools. Since the postponed until today the Korean group that left today lucked out of taking a test!!! When i went to there rooms to say good bye, there rooms were so, so, so, So much nicer then our rooms. The guys rooms each had a twin size bed to themselves, a really big flat screen television that also rotated, a shower that at least had a shower door, a refrigerator, free wi-less interenet, and free air conditioning!!! I was soo going to cry... I secretly wished i could have stayed there for the two days we had left!! After that i went back to my room for so more studying, this was when i took that 5 minute nap, then i headed for my test at 10. That test was sooo normal and hard at times. I was suppose to remember about clothes, food to order off a menu, and reading comprehension. I was the last one in the room and I'm pretty sure i took more then 2 hours to complete it... The teacher was very nice about it, Xion laoshi said i couldn't understand it he would help me with it,w hich he did. Then i went back into the computer room to take a nap for like less then half an hour and was reporting back to class for our speeches. I talked about what i did the month i was in Taiwan. Since I was third to do my speech i couldn't help but zone out for everybody elses speech... (Sorry) Then after the speeches some of us went for some food. I had potstickers, housespecial, kim chee, curry, and vegeterian. The curry one i liked the best! Then i walked around the Taipei Underground Mall. Christina, Janlie, Phoebe, Tayler, and Lawrence were also there, the girls went shoe shopping (I was not among them though!) and Tayler, Lawrence and I just sat around... Then we starting splitting up because i asked Lawrence where i could buy tea for my family and relatives. We started walking all over the place because he forgot where it was. Eventually we decided to quit and to look for the rest of the group. By then Phoebe and Tayler decided to go back home and everybody else wanted to go to NOVA. Basically NOVA is the bestest computer / electronics store in Taiwan, if they don't have it there, then you can't find it anywere else. They decided to come here because Janlie wanted to buy a cell phone for her father. I came because i wanted to see what was inside and i was hoping to buy a mouse (wi-less if possible), ethernet cord, and a flashdrive. I got the flashdrive and ethernet cord, the flashdrive was because it was one of those things where you either want to buy it because you don't have one and you really don't need it. After that we went back to the dorms, were mostly everyone got ready for the club. I didn't go and i was doing this whole movie night in room 308?? Anyways it was in Yvonne and Marlene's room, them, Sandra and I watched Wanted and When We Were in Vegas??? Watching the beginning part of Wanted for the third time was not all that exciting, but watch it with a person who like to squim all the time when the gory parts came up was so hilarious. Then When We Were in Vegas came on I was soo sleepy... In fact, Yvonne caught me leaning on the bunk bed about to sleep, she offered me her bed, which i took and knocked out!
Wednesday July 30th, 2008 (Day 25)
I woke up and found out i was in some one elses room when Yvonne was packing to get to work. Then i went back to sleep and woke up like half an hour before culture class started. Today we made a stamp out of those foam like things you use to to cusion big electronic stuff, only they were extremely thin. After that, It was decided today i was going to go to Ximen Ding, Taipei 101, and Taipei Underground Market with Lawrence one last time. So we went to Ximen Ding were i got my poster lamanated, we went looking for things (couldn't find it or couldn't afford it), then we got distracted by this MangaMagi room. Basically this place allows you to say in this extremely comfortable cubicle and read manga, and free drinks two American dollars and hour. Get this, there were maids there working!!! So there were options and all i understood was use computer (which we didn't) and read books (which we said yes, but technically we couldn't read yet...). We were soo worried about how much this was going to cost us, so like 5-10 mintues in this thing we took some drinks then went to the cash register so we could face our consequences for being an otaku. So we stayed and i started taking video and pictures of this awesome place that i wish existed in the U.S. After our hour was up we went to Taipei 101, supposely we were suppose to go up Taipei 101 but it didn't fit our schedule because we were suppose to be back by 7pm and it was around 6pm. The reason for the curfew was because we were giving the MCU staff a farewell dinner. So we went to buy pens (both of us) and manga (both of us). The manga was also for our teacher, it was his goodbye gift from us... We should have just bought him beer like the other two groups... Lawrence thought to give him some hentai, i thought of giving him so normal ones, but there were no first volumes of them, so hentai it was. While we were looking for his gift the people back at the dorms called to tell us they were starting the farewell dinner. We decided to do things faster and we went immediatly back to the dorms. When we got back the dinners were done and only there were only leftovers. Since we had to pay still, Lawrence and I decided to just eat... I only ate rice with soysause, that was the only thing i ate because if i were to eat the other stuff i would get sick because they were already cold and i can't stomach food that is not meant to be cold. After that we all went to the Shilin Market one last time. I went to see if i could buy more souveniers and try some new food. Unfortuneatly all of that didn't happen because i was soo full to begin with i had no appetite what so ever. At least by the end i ate some fantastic shaved ice with mango (real deal) and condensed milk (YUM, that stuff literally was seriously smooth). After that we all went back to the dorms. When we went to the dorms we went up the classroom building to set off some fireworks, to celebrate our second to last day being here. Some decided to leave when we were about to set off the big fireworks that go off in the air, (illegal stuff in the U.S.) I stayed and was awed like some of the people who decided to stay because there was soo many that went up in the air, we were not expecting there to be 5 or 6 of them. Then racing back to the dorms after the last one, because we didn't want to get caught if we were in trouble. David, Colin, Kevin, and I all raced down from the school, and then we went to the market. They went to buy beer and i just followed them in there because i couldn't really get back into the dorms if i didn't bring my card key.
Thursday July 31st, 2008 (Day 26)
Again another movie night happened in Yvonne and Marlene's room, that night we saw P.S. I Love You and Redline. P.S. I Love You was not a good choice in movie to watch if you are extremely tired... I mean i liked it kinda, but i was drifting off to sleep and I wasn't the only one, Sandra did too.Tonight / Today it was Yvonne, Marlene, Sandra, Phoebe, Julie and I. Then Redline was showed, according to Sandra i couldn't i talked too much when movies are playing. hehehe I couldn't help it, Asian people were objectivified in this movie. They were either in there bikinies or were gangsters. Also all the female characters were always showing off there boob crack thingy (don't know what there called). Anyways it was starting to be around 6 in the moring and since the lights had to get turned off and the volume was lowered i was drifting off to sleep. That was a bad thing because i was drifting off to sleep and i didn't do any packing whatsoever. Which offically became an all-nighter again for me. I don't think i was offically done until like 10-11am in the morning. I went to the computer lab to see what was going to happen today. Originally we were going to go to Taipei 101 for the bookstore. I wanted to come along because i had nothing else to do and checking out wasn't until 1pm. We went to get breakfast first along the place we went to the first day in Taiwan. Then when we got back the trip was cancelled because we were getting lazy. So i just hung out in the lobby for the longest time until it was time for check out. In my room i just put the air conditioning on full blast because there was still money on it so my room was 17 degrees celsius. While cleaning my room i still had left over hand soup and tissue paper, which Angelina and I decided to leave behind a gift for the people to use in the fall and for them to save some money. Everybody had to bring down there cushions, blankets, and pillows from there rooms. Then we all went to the main office to say goodbye to the staff memebers. While we were heading towards there Yvonne was heading there as well and she was having trouble with her lugauge so Selina and I decided to help. When we got to the office i gave Yvonnie her stuff and she started saying stuff to me in Mandarin and I didn't understand a thing so i said no... Wrong idea because she started to fake cry. Just when we were about to leave she started to say some stuff to Sandra in Mandarin and this time i understood... She called me stupid for not adding her on Facebook. I then told her I understood and that i didn't have interenet in my room and that i would add her when i got back to the U.S. She said i better... We said goodbye to all the staff memebers and two of them got on the bus to leave with them as well. Very emotional trip, people started crying... Since i was one of those dumb people that don't act on there emotions i didn't hug them... All for the better??? So i got on the plane to go home 5pm July 31st and landed 2:15pm July 31st.
Today i didn't really do much except STUDY. Seriously 12pm July 28th all the way until 8am July 29th... So exhausting... Anyways i took all my vocabulary i learned this month and found the ping yin (letters that make up words that make out the sound of that word) for all of them. Also since a typhoon was going on I mostly stayed in doors... Very motivating to work when there is a typhoon going on and your aren't really permitted to go outside. I mean you can but if you get blown away it isn't really anybodies fault except your own for going outside when a typhoon is hitting. Anyways studying, YouTube ing, and Crunchyroll ing was all i did today. When the typhoon eventually paused for a moment i was free to buy food from, which was not closed, 7-11. Surviving off crunchy peanuts, bread, and candy is not a real source of food when everybody else was eating instant noodles!!! Yay what a fun day!
Tuesday July 29th, 2008 (Day 24)
Today just felt like an extremely long day! Took a five minute nap on my desk while i was studying... I went to say goodbye to the Korean students that were leaving today. There were three groups all together for this CSULB and two Korean schools. Since the postponed until today the Korean group that left today lucked out of taking a test!!! When i went to there rooms to say good bye, there rooms were so, so, so, So much nicer then our rooms. The guys rooms each had a twin size bed to themselves, a really big flat screen television that also rotated, a shower that at least had a shower door, a refrigerator, free wi-less interenet, and free air conditioning!!! I was soo going to cry... I secretly wished i could have stayed there for the two days we had left!! After that i went back to my room for so more studying, this was when i took that 5 minute nap, then i headed for my test at 10. That test was sooo normal and hard at times. I was suppose to remember about clothes, food to order off a menu, and reading comprehension. I was the last one in the room and I'm pretty sure i took more then 2 hours to complete it... The teacher was very nice about it, Xion laoshi said i couldn't understand it he would help me with it,w hich he did. Then i went back into the computer room to take a nap for like less then half an hour and was reporting back to class for our speeches. I talked about what i did the month i was in Taiwan. Since I was third to do my speech i couldn't help but zone out for everybody elses speech... (Sorry) Then after the speeches some of us went for some food. I had potstickers, housespecial, kim chee, curry, and vegeterian. The curry one i liked the best! Then i walked around the Taipei Underground Mall. Christina, Janlie, Phoebe, Tayler, and Lawrence were also there, the girls went shoe shopping (I was not among them though!) and Tayler, Lawrence and I just sat around... Then we starting splitting up because i asked Lawrence where i could buy tea for my family and relatives. We started walking all over the place because he forgot where it was. Eventually we decided to quit and to look for the rest of the group. By then Phoebe and Tayler decided to go back home and everybody else wanted to go to NOVA. Basically NOVA is the bestest computer / electronics store in Taiwan, if they don't have it there, then you can't find it anywere else. They decided to come here because Janlie wanted to buy a cell phone for her father. I came because i wanted to see what was inside and i was hoping to buy a mouse (wi-less if possible), ethernet cord, and a flashdrive. I got the flashdrive and ethernet cord, the flashdrive was because it was one of those things where you either want to buy it because you don't have one and you really don't need it. After that we went back to the dorms, were mostly everyone got ready for the club. I didn't go and i was doing this whole movie night in room 308?? Anyways it was in Yvonne and Marlene's room, them, Sandra and I watched Wanted and When We Were in Vegas??? Watching the beginning part of Wanted for the third time was not all that exciting, but watch it with a person who like to squim all the time when the gory parts came up was so hilarious. Then When We Were in Vegas came on I was soo sleepy... In fact, Yvonne caught me leaning on the bunk bed about to sleep, she offered me her bed, which i took and knocked out!
Wednesday July 30th, 2008 (Day 25)
I woke up and found out i was in some one elses room when Yvonne was packing to get to work. Then i went back to sleep and woke up like half an hour before culture class started. Today we made a stamp out of those foam like things you use to to cusion big electronic stuff, only they were extremely thin. After that, It was decided today i was going to go to Ximen Ding, Taipei 101, and Taipei Underground Market with Lawrence one last time. So we went to Ximen Ding were i got my poster lamanated, we went looking for things (couldn't find it or couldn't afford it), then we got distracted by this MangaMagi room. Basically this place allows you to say in this extremely comfortable cubicle and read manga, and free drinks two American dollars and hour. Get this, there were maids there working!!! So there were options and all i understood was use computer (which we didn't) and read books (which we said yes, but technically we couldn't read yet...). We were soo worried about how much this was going to cost us, so like 5-10 mintues in this thing we took some drinks then went to the cash register so we could face our consequences for being an otaku. So we stayed and i started taking video and pictures of this awesome place that i wish existed in the U.S. After our hour was up we went to Taipei 101, supposely we were suppose to go up Taipei 101 but it didn't fit our schedule because we were suppose to be back by 7pm and it was around 6pm. The reason for the curfew was because we were giving the MCU staff a farewell dinner. So we went to buy pens (both of us) and manga (both of us). The manga was also for our teacher, it was his goodbye gift from us... We should have just bought him beer like the other two groups... Lawrence thought to give him some hentai, i thought of giving him so normal ones, but there were no first volumes of them, so hentai it was. While we were looking for his gift the people back at the dorms called to tell us they were starting the farewell dinner. We decided to do things faster and we went immediatly back to the dorms. When we got back the dinners were done and only there were only leftovers. Since we had to pay still, Lawrence and I decided to just eat... I only ate rice with soysause, that was the only thing i ate because if i were to eat the other stuff i would get sick because they were already cold and i can't stomach food that is not meant to be cold. After that we all went to the Shilin Market one last time. I went to see if i could buy more souveniers and try some new food. Unfortuneatly all of that didn't happen because i was soo full to begin with i had no appetite what so ever. At least by the end i ate some fantastic shaved ice with mango (real deal) and condensed milk (YUM, that stuff literally was seriously smooth). After that we all went back to the dorms. When we went to the dorms we went up the classroom building to set off some fireworks, to celebrate our second to last day being here. Some decided to leave when we were about to set off the big fireworks that go off in the air, (illegal stuff in the U.S.) I stayed and was awed like some of the people who decided to stay because there was soo many that went up in the air, we were not expecting there to be 5 or 6 of them. Then racing back to the dorms after the last one, because we didn't want to get caught if we were in trouble. David, Colin, Kevin, and I all raced down from the school, and then we went to the market. They went to buy beer and i just followed them in there because i couldn't really get back into the dorms if i didn't bring my card key.
Thursday July 31st, 2008 (Day 26)
Again another movie night happened in Yvonne and Marlene's room, that night we saw P.S. I Love You and Redline. P.S. I Love You was not a good choice in movie to watch if you are extremely tired... I mean i liked it kinda, but i was drifting off to sleep and I wasn't the only one, Sandra did too.Tonight / Today it was Yvonne, Marlene, Sandra, Phoebe, Julie and I. Then Redline was showed, according to Sandra i couldn't i talked too much when movies are playing. hehehe I couldn't help it, Asian people were objectivified in this movie. They were either in there bikinies or were gangsters. Also all the female characters were always showing off there boob crack thingy (don't know what there called). Anyways it was starting to be around 6 in the moring and since the lights had to get turned off and the volume was lowered i was drifting off to sleep. That was a bad thing because i was drifting off to sleep and i didn't do any packing whatsoever. Which offically became an all-nighter again for me. I don't think i was offically done until like 10-11am in the morning. I went to the computer lab to see what was going to happen today. Originally we were going to go to Taipei 101 for the bookstore. I wanted to come along because i had nothing else to do and checking out wasn't until 1pm. We went to get breakfast first along the place we went to the first day in Taiwan. Then when we got back the trip was cancelled because we were getting lazy. So i just hung out in the lobby for the longest time until it was time for check out. In my room i just put the air conditioning on full blast because there was still money on it so my room was 17 degrees celsius. While cleaning my room i still had left over hand soup and tissue paper, which Angelina and I decided to leave behind a gift for the people to use in the fall and for them to save some money. Everybody had to bring down there cushions, blankets, and pillows from there rooms. Then we all went to the main office to say goodbye to the staff memebers. While we were heading towards there Yvonne was heading there as well and she was having trouble with her lugauge so Selina and I decided to help. When we got to the office i gave Yvonnie her stuff and she started saying stuff to me in Mandarin and I didn't understand a thing so i said no... Wrong idea because she started to fake cry. Just when we were about to leave she started to say some stuff to Sandra in Mandarin and this time i understood... She called me stupid for not adding her on Facebook. I then told her I understood and that i didn't have interenet in my room and that i would add her when i got back to the U.S. She said i better... We said goodbye to all the staff memebers and two of them got on the bus to leave with them as well. Very emotional trip, people started crying... Since i was one of those dumb people that don't act on there emotions i didn't hug them... All for the better??? So i got on the plane to go home 5pm July 31st and landed 2:15pm July 31st.