Heritage class (sword-fighting) went by sooo fast. They did moves I had no idea what they were doing. Maybe I shouldn't have ducked the second half of the last class. All I know is that there are currently 26 moves to know cold.
Lunch today was okay. Can't remember what I ate, however, I do remember trying at least one of everything, including the "mystery-fried-thing". The afternoon excursion was supposed to be the trip to the beach. I figured that I had to board the buses at 1:10pm but I was wrong! I only heard the second half of the announcement. I was supposed to board the bus at 12:50. As I was walking towards the bus, I noticed that the first bus was already moving. Seeing this, I ran as quickly as possible to my bus, which was second from the end. I could only make it as close as the second bus; people on board were looking at me. As I came in front of the door, the bus rolled along... not even a second to let me on. Degected, I slowly walked back to the dorm.
When I got back to my room, I saw that Keli'i and Del were already there. Earlier they got passes to miss the excursion. I was wondering whether or not I would get a stupid demerit point for missing the damn bus. (god, I hate that Kris Kross rap) Henry, is the same situation as me, didn't want to waste his afternoon in the room, so he took a taxi to the National Shrine to rendez-vous with his girlfriend, Melodie. Apparently that wasn't a good idea. When he returned, Del and I tried to give a little advice to the poor guy, but I think it was all in vain.
That night we had to pack our stuff and
but it into the staff office. The exchange of campuses was early tomorrow
morning so they didn't want us to be late. Del's local friend, Jack, came
over to take Del out on his last night in town. He waited for us to get
everything packed and put away. Once we got all the luggage business done,
he took us to an all-you-can-eat place. Keli'i, Mike and I tagged along.
We ate a shit load of food: satayed meats, seafood, fried bananas, egg
rolls, desserts... ummmmm....
We had enough time afterwards to head over to the night market to do some shopping. I went to a CD shop to buy one of those Taiwanese dance-mix CDs. What is going on here?! I think I've been exposed to too much of the culture 'cause normally I scoff at those who buy those compilations. Better seriously have a reality check in the near future. Keli'i and I had to leave the shopping trip early to attend another committee meeting. (they're beginning to seriously bother me) Committee meeting started with pictures for the yearbook. Ben and Tanya, our committee advisors, were there as well. Our next order of business was to choose a t-shirt design. That was a royal pain. During our meeting, we saw many people sneaking out to the club-for-tonight, Gigi's. We stayed up until 1am making a hybrid design amongst the 3 ideas handed in.
When I returned to my room, the guys
were waiting for us to go to the club. I was pretty tired, plus I had a
lesson to look at for language class, I opted for sleep, as did Henry.
At around 4, Warren came back for a snooze. Meanwhile the others opted
for an all-nighter.
The first meal at Ocean was tremendous. A vast improvement over Chien Tan. There must be culinary geniuses in the kitchen. They served: sweet & sour pork, "mao-fu-tofu", fried fish cake, veggie/pork dish. We also got real drinks, not just water. We initally had a prune drink but we exchanged that for an orange drink. I bailed on Henry for lunch. He was still grumpy from yesterday when Keli'i threw his bebe gun out the window. (It was a stupid argument)
The shuttle back to Taipei was okay. I sat beside Wil, who was finally sleeping. I talked to Del's b'ball friend from Cleveland. He had an interesting story-- Columbia grad looking for a job. On the way back we talked about so many things: health care, differences between Canada and US, Chien Tan versus Ocean.
I took a taxi straight to my great-uncle's
apartment when we made it to Chien Tan. I was there by 4:30. Crashed a
bit, ate some radish cake and watermelon. Great-uncle got another treatment
for his kidney stone. We went to an all-you-can-eat place for dinner. The
food there was much too salty. That night, I showered, watched the Olympic
opening ceremony and read the computer mag that I bought at the airport.
Went to sleep at around 10:30.
Since we did not know the exact location
of my great-uncle's apartment, my mother arbitrarily picked a stop before
the terminal. We asked for directions from locals but they didn't help.
We decided to go into a "Wellcome store" (yes, with 2 Ls!) to look for
a phone. To our surprise, great-uncle was in the check out line with some
soft drinks. After a quick greeting, we briskly walked back to his apartment.
It was very hot in there, even for Taiwan standards. My mom's cousin, Ah-Lo-Tse,
came in from out of town.
As expected, we went out for lunch at the Sun Tong Hotel and got a private room. At the lunch, we met my great-uncle's fishing buddy. Unfortunately, he spoke only Hakka, so I had no idea what he was talking about. My mother surprised me once again-- she was able to say quite a few things in that strange tongue. When 3 o'clock rolled around, my mother and I headed back to the bus stop and went back to Taipei. It was really good seeing my great-uncle and aunt after 14 years. They look almost exactly the same but the smoking and drinking have really changed my great-uncle's voice a lot!
When we returned to Taipei, my mom had to help me find the bus back to Keelung, where Ocean Univerisity is located. I got a ticket and found a seat on the bus. After another 1.5 hour bus ride, the bus made it there. I found a taxi and made it to Ocean. I think I was taken for a ride by the taxi driver... I didn't know where I was, plus my Taiwanese couldn't help me much-- the guy mainly spoke Mandarin. He dropped me off at the front of the school. I must have walked about a mile with all my gear back to the dorm. I skipped orientation because I had leave until 11pm. I took a shower when I put away all my stuff. Boy, I needed that one. I can't believe how shit the facilities here really are. I had to shower with my slippers on! The tiles there were all broken up. I hate this place!
My new roommates came back from orientation
at around 9. I laid in my bed listening to my walkman. Danny went scoping
out for femmes. Morgan and Henry went somewhere. Of course I had council
meeting... not much done there. Afterwards, I stayed up with the roommates
talking about all sorts of things. By the way, my new roommates are Henry
(same guy as before), Danny@U Florida, and Morgan@UT Austin.
Previous entry