Taiwan and Me: A Love Story: I'm alive.

Dear world that is unable to read my Facebook updates,

I am still alive.

I know that before I left the US I said that I would try and update my blog like twice a week, but, at that point I forgot that I was a lazy person. Don't judge me though! Honestly, have any of you tried to write a blog? It is not easy. Whenever I sit down to write I always forget what it was I wanted to write about, the witty jokes I had planned, the pictures I wanted to put in, and how to use proper English grammar (seriously, my grammar is the worst). But, I keep on keepin' on just so I can please you people and to also let you know that I have not died in a car accident(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRoxjMzUq3g). On that note, I will now tell you all what has been going on for these past few days in Taichung, Taiwan. Sooooooo, let's do this.

*Looking at pictures to see where to begin*

Okay cool, so the other day I went to this Department Store named 'Tiger City' with my friend Ben. We got there by scooter and then went to 'Zara' to look at some clothes. Guys, I wanted all of the clothes in there! They were all so chic and fierce (international friends, this is how you use fierce). I basically just looked super sexy in anything that I tried on, so that was awkward for everyone in the store. Fun fact, Department stores in Taiwan are expensive too. Soooooooo, ya, no clothes for me. But even those few minutes of wearing expensive, high class clothes makes me happy on the inside (VAIN!). After that, we walked around the rest of the stores and just took a ton of pictures like one does in a Department store. Long story short, fun.

**Spoiler** The next story may sound very similar to what I just explained.

Two days ago, Ben and I went to another Department Store named 'Top City'. Top City is less than a year old and even just by looking at the outside of the it you can tell it is brand new. It has shining lights, a giant HD screen, doormen, and other rich people stuff. When we first went in we went to the Supermarket inside the building and got some drinks. I got some Chocolate Milk and Ben got Tea. Well, attached to this bottle of Tea was (any guesses??.....you're wrong) a square piece of soap. Guys, I wish I could tell you why you get soap when you purchase that tea, but, I have no f'ing clue. I guess that maybe you need to clean up after the rigorous task of drinking tea, that is my only guess on this matter. Next, at the top of this building were a ton of themed restaurants. It was much like Las Vegas and/or Epcot. So, of course, it was picture time again. The 'Captain Morgan' was my pose of choice for that day I guess..... so enjoy these pictures (DON'T HAVE THEM YET ><)....I am not a giant freak at all. After all of this picture taking excitement we went over to a restaurant and had some duck and rice. AMAZING. I honestly think duck is my favorite meat (in case you were wondering). So that was my Wednesday night.

NEXT

Last night was really fun! My language partned invited me to dinner with him and other Taiwanese and internatioinal students. We all met at the front gate of our school and then took two cabs to a German restuarant. So, yup, there we were. In Taiwan... eating at a German restaurant...with peepz from Taiwan, France, Finland, USA, and Germany. It was way fun and I got to meet a few new people :D. Also, in true expensive restaurant fashion, there was not a lot of food for how much you paid haha but it was still good. Also, going back to the dorms after dinner I was the guy sitting in the front of the cab giving the driver directions. So that was new for me and it was crazy to think how much my Chinese has improved since last year. Another good thing that came out of that night was the new plan that has been set. Me, a German girl, French girl, and a Finnish girl are all planning to watch ANTM every week and party it up! We had our first ANTM party last night and it was totally balla. Trying to explain American slang is tough though, let me tell ya. Seriously. Try to take the stupidity of all of the girls on that show and turn it into a fluid English sentence. Impossible.

My weekend was also fun and filled with excitement. Saturday I was invited to my friends apartment building to join their Mid-Autumn Festival party. I walked in the courtyard of the apartment building and the first thing I see are hundreds of people sitting down on little plastic buckets and BBQ'ing with these disposable BBQ's. What we had to eat that night was some sausages, chicken, pork, etc.....however, this food was a million times better than American BBQ.

When Sunday came me, my friend from Michigan, and her friend from Paraguay met up to go to this Thai Water Throwing Festival that was being held. Well, the area where this was was quite far and so we rented scooters in the city. $10 American for the day was the cost and it was worth every penny. My friend drove me on the back of her scooter and we were off. I would love to say that we didn't get lost butttttttt I would be lying. Good thing though is that we only got lost when we were really close to the festival. We stopped at a 7-11 and asked anyone if they knew where this festival was and this really nice family said that they would show us the way. So we made it to the festival in time and took part in the giant water fight, which was really fun. I haven't been in a water fight since I was a kid so it brought back memories. Right when this water fight started I bet you guys can guess who a lot of people went after. Yup, the white, blonde Americans. So that happened. And being able to attack kids with water was fun too. FUN FUN FUN. After the water fight we went up to this abandoned amusement park/hotel and looked around. It was cool and definitely worth a look. Worn down Dumbo will be in my dreams for months to come.

On the way home.....

We were all traveling in a group back to Feng Chia. Well, at one point we may or may not have ran into the back of our friends scooter and scratched our scooter up and broke the headlight (a little bit). But you know what guys, it is okay, because this is Taiwan. When we went back to the scooter rental place the guy didn't make us pay anything extra for the scratches and we were on our merry way back to our apartments.

Yuuuuuuuup, that is about it.

I know that my blogs are just random short snippets of stories, but, I promise I will start writing down my blog ideas and try and keep it to one topic every time I post.

Like next time, I may just solely talk about the night market.....mmmmmmkay? Cool.

k, bye!

**Random Group of Pictures**