I figured I'd write one more post to kind of close out the Taiwan blog. For the time being, I feel like there isn't too much to report. I'm sure in the future I'll start it up again with some fun stuff, whatever that may be. Anyways, I have to say that the one year experience was a once in a lifetime kind of thing. I'm so happy that I went to Taiwan to learn Chinese. I never knew I'd be as proficient at it as I am. It was great to get to know my family. Without Chinese, I'd still only think of them as relatives instead of family. At this point, I think that if there really is something I want to accomplish, all I have to do is put my mind to it. You can't know for sure if you can do something unless you try. My trip to Taiwan was my "try". And like I said, I succeeded.

There are always times were things don't go your way, but to say I didn't like being there would be a lie. I miss my family and I miss Taipei life. But, I am happy to report that I'm enjoying my life back in San Diego. It's great to be back with Mom, Dad, Brother and my cats.

I hope this blog shared something about me that you didn't know before. And I hope that I made Taiwan sound like an amazing place because it really is. Mostly, I hope that this blog was enjoyable for whomever decided to keep up with it. I wrote it for me with the hope that you would all like it too!

I'm so glad that this term I was able to make such good friends. I wish it was like this all year. Then it would have even been more fun than it has been. I took a few days off from class last week, so this week was a regular week. The only exception is that I went out with my friends a lot. Whenever we go out, we always have fun. This week we went shopping at Xi-men. We got dinner and then walked around. I normally don't go into the shops and explore, but with these guys, I go into every shop! The only bad thing is that I discover there are a lot of things I like and I want to buy them!!! What made this trip special compared to all the other times I have been to Xi-men is that I read an article about an ice cream place that make really funky flavors. So it became a mission for us to find this ice cream place. It took about 30 minutes...but we found it! I was expecting some grandeur place, but it was just a hole in the wall like place. Despite the way it look, it was exactly what the article said...weird flavored ice cream! There was pigs feet, wasabi, curry, and alcohol flavors. I decided to be adventurous and get the curry flavor! My friend Pei-Lan got the wasabi...well, it was really a mistake. The menu said it was mustard flavor, but when we got it and all tasted it, we knew the English translation was wrong. No one could actually eat that one. It was way too spicy..and isn't really a good ice cream flavor. The curry...well, tasted like curry. I also couldn't finish it. It was just too weird. Both Pei-Lan and I went back and got "normal" flavors, papaya and honey dew. It helped kill the other tastes. It was fun, but I think I'll stick to vanilla and chocolate in the future.

Two days later, we decided to go out to dinner. It was so fun because we got to eat a lot of fun foods. It was so yummy! My friends and I decided that since we went all out on dinner...we might as well finish it off with desert and drinks! How else can you end a fun night! Since this place is such a trendy place, we got to drink our drinks after dinner on the comfy sofas in a separate section of the restaurant. All the drinks and deserts were presented really well. It made it easy to spend two hours there just talking, drinking, and eating. We found out that this place is cheaper during lunch time, so we have already decided to go back for seconds. Well, the next place on our list is to go out to an Indonesian restaurant. This one is a little scary for me because I know it's all going to be spicy foods. What am I going to do! I guess I'll have to let you know if I can survive the hotness!

Last week was a blast! I went to a bunch of places around Northern Taiwan. My friend Val came from San Fransisco to visit. We had fun despite the weather being kinda bad at the beginning of her trip. With her here, I was able to go to a botanical garden, a few temples, night markets, and some more unique places that I'll mention in just a bit. On top of that, I was able to hang out with her and my new friends that I have made here. The first thing we did was go to a garden near my place. Since the weather wasn't all that great, we tried to stay local. It was not as spectacular as I had hoped, but I got a few nice pictures none the less. Another local thing we did was go to Shi-Lin night market and Shi-Da night market. Those were just ok. Nothing too special. Just went there to walk around and get some food. The typical thing I do when I go to a night market. We also went out with my friends to Yakiniku (Japanese BBQ). It was so delicious! It was all you can eat meat and veggies...that you have to cook yourself. Besides some of the things we burned, it was quite good. I decided to get a few fun items like snail, beef tongue and pork tongue to mix it up a bit. Turns out everyone loved beef tongue! hahaha!

After staying around in Taipei, we finally ventured out to Jiu-Fen and a few temples. We took a tour to Jiu-fen and a few other little scenic places...but it wasn't all that great. It would have been better if we had more time to do things. It was really a tour to introduce you to a few places. It was still fun though. I like the Jiu-Fen setting because it has a bunch of tea houses and makes me think of the movie Spirited Away. After we got back from Jiu-Fen, we decided to go check out a few temples and take some pictures. I took this time to play with the functions on my camera and found out that if you work with the colors and the lighting, you can get an awesome picture. Just check out this awesome waterfall picture I took! I was amazed! I'm awesome aren't I, hahaha!

The next day, the weather started to get better. So we decided to go to Bei-Tou, a place that is well know for it's hot springs. When we got there, it was like a suburb of Taipei. Much more peaceful then the city, but then all of a sudden there is a small stream in the middle of the city. And then when you get closer, you notice that it is kinda warm around the area and it looks different then other streams. That's when you realize it's the hot springs. There are a lot in Taiwan because of the dormant volcanoes on the island. We didn't do anything but look around and take pictures. It was quite interesting. After we had lunch there and finished taking random pictures, we headed up to Yang-Ming shan. This is one of the dormant volcanoes in Northern Taiwan. We decided to hike around and take in the scenery. It was amazing how much colder it was up there compared to the city. I was so glad I brought a jacket....I know, I'm turning into a native Taiwan dweller...always thinking it's cold! The craziest part of this nature hike was seeing a gigantic spider. I was walking by a bush and this spider the size of my hand was just chilling and when I spotted it, I screamed like I was being attacked by a ginormous insect...but then I laughed it off...and took a few pictures (from a distance of course). Then when that was done, I ran by the bush so it wouldn't catch me and eat me!

So that was fun and exciting right? The next day was fun too! We went to an aboriginal village called Wu-Lai. The village is famous for it's waterfall, but when I got there, I was so excited to see butterflies and bugs. It was a mecca for insects! I saw so many all in one place that I never get a chance to see. I saw a praying mantis, centipede, caterpillars, dragonflies, a bunch of butterflies, and lots of others. It was fun taking all the pictures. When I finally got to the waterfall, the worst thing for a tourist happened...my camera battery died!!! I was sad. But...all was good, I still managed to take a few pictures with my cell phone. This place was really fun. I didn't get to spend a lot of time here because after going here, we rushed to Yei-Liu (I've talked about this place before). If I had more time, I would have hiked to look for the monkeys that live in the mountains! I guess I'll have to save that for another time.

Well, as you can see, it was a pretty busy and fun week of adventures. I only have a month left so i better do what i want to do before I go home! Just wait for more posts, I'm going to Japan soon! Until then...

So far September has been fun. The beginning of this month, Chris visited me. It was his second time here! whoo! I was really happy to see him and I had planned on taking him everywhere...but he got sick...not exactly what I had planned. Despite him being sick, I think he still had a good time. I really enjoyed spending my time with him. We got to go to my family's house in Hukou and eat a big dinner with all my aunts and uncles. My 2nd uncle was super happy. He got to drink with his drinking buddy, Chris! The two of them drank more than they ate! Well...I know that Chris drank a lot more then my uncle...but my uncle's a old guy! So Chris should be able to drink more! Hahahaha. Then we also went to a few of my favorite places to eat. We went to Din Tai Feng, a restaurant known for it's dumplings. Then we went to KGB, a New Zealand burger place (I mentioned a while ago in a different post). And then we went to this really fun restaurant called "the peoples restaurant" or that's what I think it translates to. It was really cool. The front door doesn't have any handles so you have to figure out how to get in. After you figure it out, then you go into a trendy atmosphere. It's like an underground basement-like setting. Then after you eat dinner....which was delicious...you move over to the sofa area to have your drinks. I'm glad Chris got better so that we could go. Then finally we went to "the Jurassic" (another one I mentioned before). We specifically went there for their crickets, but because of the typhoon that hit Taiwan, there weren't any available. Instead we drank a little bit...well I had a little bit ;-)

We didn't really do too much other than eating...hehe. We mostly stayed home. I have nothing to complain about though. It meant that I got to spend time with him, what else can I ask for.

This week has been fun. It was my week off between classes. I'm moving to the 4th level...whoo! So instead of spending my week off here, I went to Hong Kong with my cousin Tiff. It was pretty fun. It started out fantastically! We got to the airport a bit early and when we were checking in, the guy at the desk asked us if we wanted to take an earlier flight out. I hesitated for just a moment, but then these magic words made the decision for me. He said, "we'll upgrade you to BUSINESS CLASS". I answered right away for the both of us...haha! I've never flown business before so I was a little too excited compared to all the other people sitting near me. I got a little snap happy with my camera too. It was only going to be an hour flight so I figured I'd just watch a bit of TV...but no....they served us food! And it was good food too, not your normal airplane food. I had shrimp pasta with red wine and then a cake with a fruit salad for desert. It was delicious! Well, that really was a nice beginning to the vacation. It was the only time I had wished the flight was a little bit longer.

We got to Hong Kong and had no troubles getting our bags and getting trough customs. It was just so nice and easy. We took the airport tram to a subway stop and then took a free shuttle to our hotel. Then we checked in and that was that. We still got in a bit late...so we just went on a coffee run and then just walked around and checked out what was nearby. The next day we took the Star Ferry from Hong Kong to Kowloon and got some dim sum and then went shopping. The shopping was better there than it is here, but it is more expensive. Regardless, it was fun. We then met up with my cousins friend from college. She took us out to this nice Cantonese restaurant. I had some abalone and a pumpkin soup. It was yummy. We had other stuff too...but those two things were the best.

The next day we did some touristy things. We went to "the Peak", the highest point in Hong Kong with a 360 view of the city. I took a bunch of pictures of course...but I'll just put one. They are all pretty much the same thing. Then that night I went to my Dad's favorite pub, Ned Kelly's Last Stand. When my Dad use to live in Taiwan, he'd often go to Hong Kong for Visa reasons. He would eat a bunch of Western Food and come to this pub. I have to admit, it was a lot of fun. There is a live band there every night that plays dixieland music. I think if you have a meat pie with a drink and add a little music, it equals a lot of fun. I think we were there for almost three hours! Thanks Dad for the heads up!

Overall, It was a really fun trip. We were there for 4 days and 3 nights...but counting all the traveling time...it was really like two and a half days. We got a lot in and had loads of fun. I'm glad I went!

If you know me...or think you know me, then you know that I'm fascinated with entomology. So interestingly enough, since i've been here in Taiwan, I'm always looking around to see what kind of funky insect is around me that i've never seen before. So I'm devoting this blog to all the weird insects i've seen so far! The first picture on the left is from my trip to Hua Lian. This is a longhorn beetle. It was the length of my hand! This is the first time I've seen one alive...hehe. This next one on the right is a insect I saw when I went to Yeliu. I think this is a six spotted tiger beetle. I'm not 100%, but I think this is a pretty cool looking bug. I have this random...or some might say "unique" ability to find these hidden insects. I think it's just that I'm always looking for them...hehe. But sometimes, the insects find me! This next picture is of another beetle. I didn't have to go very far for this one. I was doing homework one day and it just landed on my laptop. I think this is a milkweed bug. It looks like some that i've seen at home. If it isn't a milkweed bug, then all I know is that it is in the Lygaeidae family. Yup...that expensive Cal Poly education for an accounting degree... I remembered all the important stuff didn't I. Well this next one is an insect that's been so noisy these last few months. Every where on campus were these scary looking insects. This is the first time i've seen a cicada this big alive. The ones back in San Diego are so puny in comparison. Well this will conclude my little excerpt on insects i've seen so far. I've seen a lot more but I guess four is enough for now. If any of you care and want to see more, I'll post another blog with a few other creepy crawlers. Until then...

I've been living in Taiwan for a little over 8 months now and I got to thinking...I have been here for so long, but I haven't really shown any one where I've spent most of my days. So I thought it would be fun for me to write a little bit about where I live and about my school, National Taiwan University. So for anyone who doesn't know, I've lived in Taipei before. I was born here and I use to live about a 2 min walk from where I currently live now. I live in an apartment on the 20th floor of 24 floors. I have a nice view when it isn't raining, but it's not nearly as nice as living in San Diego. The benefit of this place though, is that it is super convenient. My school is literally right across the street from my apartment...and what's better is that my classroom is in the first building when you walk into campus. Can't really complain about that. I'm sure I've told you guys all about this before so let me get to what I really want to talk about.

Everyday I walk through this campus. I have to either walk to work, walk to the MRT station (subway), or just walk to the other side of campus. Every time I walk through campus, I think about how pretty it is. I didn't think about it that much before because during winter, I didn't feel like going out. But now that it's almost fall, I can see what I was missing. This campus is full of old buildings...some nice and some...well not so nice. Those that are nice are really nice in the terms of it's architecture. There are a lot of buildings that have a Japanese influence to them. So it's kinda fun because it stands out. Also, there are so many trees here that sometimes it's just nice to stroll (if the weather isn't a scorching 100 degrees!). I tend to take the same paths every time I have somewhere specific to go. So I decided one day to take a few pictures so that you guys could see what the campus looks like.

Whenever I go to the gym, I walk by a pond. Some days it looks really nice, some days not so much. Luckily I got a picture of it on one of it's better days. And there are just so many little things that are fun to look at too. This pond has fish, turtles and ducks. Growing next to this pond is a Lian-wu tree. One of my favorite fruits here in Taiwan. So as you can see, it's kind of a fun place to be. If only the weather wasn't blazing hot, I would enjoy it more.