Catching Up

Me at the Swedish booth at the anniversary. Arg, I'm a viking! 

    Sorry everyone! Had midterms last week and this week so I have been busy studying... or trying to at least. I have one more tomorrow so wish me luck! It's a piece of cake though, so I am pretty sure I will ace it. So many stuff have happened for the past two weeks and a half. Back in April 11 my school's anniversary was celebrated. A concert was held in memorial of it, and many (and I mean many) clubs held booths outside to celebrate this wondrous occasion. I had traveled to Chung Tai as well where one of the most modern temples was, and let me tell you, it was amazingly spectacular to see.Ended up going to a high end restaurant twice where I got served five courses... it was definitely a new experience for me for I never received an opportunity such as this back at the states. Speaking of something new, I have also did something somewhat drastic to my appearance. I had ended up dying my hair here in Taiwan. I ended up deciding on changing it to a red color. At first I thought it was too red, but as time went on the brightness of it started to dwindle down which actually is making the hair more presentable. So it turned out great, although I don't think I will dye it again for the color red doesn't last as long as some other dyes.

Ended up helping my friends with their
French booth. Can never say no it seems :)

One of the guests with her
cute cake! <3

    In addition to what I have been up to, my friends and I planned a surprise birthday get together for two of our friends whose birthdays have just recently passed. I'm glad to say that it turned out to be a big success. But, my goodness it was such a heart attack for me. Because it was my idea, I was in charge of making sure everything went okay since not many people had free time on their hand. Also, everything was kinda done at the last minute so I was super thankful that Mission Impossible became possible. I ended having two phones to contact the people helping me, and it was non-stop texting and switching between these two phones for quite awhile as we were trying to get the two birthday guest to come in at the same time. At one point one of my friends has texted me saying that he couldn't get ahold of the girl he was suppose to take care of... I replied back saying, "Ahh, don't say that." Big heart attack for me... but it was still fun to do!

    Well, besides studying for my midterms, I have also been getting ready for my trip this weekend. So, I am planning on going to Hong Kong! This will be a fun experience for me, and I hope that when I come back, I will have tons of pictures to share with you all! I shall be going to Victoria's Peak, and not only that but I shall be doing lots of shopping for my mother. Let me know if any of you all want something! Hong Kong I hear is a good place to buy lots of cheap stuff.

So for the life of me, I could not take a clean shoot of the caterpillar because it kept on moving... Ahhhh... so finally I too a video of it! Enjoy!!!

     

Hualien (Spring Break Part II)

Selfie!

   After our adventure in Ilan it was time for us to head to Hualien which was south from where we where. The trip on the train actually ended up taking awhile, but thank goodness for one of my friend's iPad. He ended up having some movies on there, so time went by fast. While I probably should have slept like the other two girls for I was still tired, the movie was pretty good as well. So once we had arrived at Hualien, we found ended up going to the beach! YAY! The ocean as you can tell was a majestic light blue color. After spending little time there (for it had started to rain... thank you Taiwan weather) we ended up heading to a hostel, and ended up having a fun night at the night market. But the fun didn't end there later we went for some karaoke! There weren't much English songs there, but we still had fun. It wasn't just us singing, but the adorable waiter, waitress, and the boss (the BOSS) ended up singing with us! (in Chinese of course, but it was still a fun night!

   
   The next day we had ordered a car with a driver to go on ahead and drive us along the east coast of the country so we can visit some of the most fantastic sceneries. I had posted some pictures so you can all see them! (Ha, and shame on my friends for being on their phone at such a magnificent scenery.

You can just see how beautiful the ocean is right here!

 

 This here was a shark that was actually caught by accident in one of the harbors in Hualien. Because it was already dead, the fishers had brought up right next to the restaurant where my friends and I had stopped for lunch. Not only were we able to see part of the East coast, but we were also fortunate enough to see some of the Ami people who are the native inhabitants of Hualien. The picture at the right are children doing a native dance. What we had also found out is that, near by this location of where the picture was shot is a school where you can learn how to hunt. Or to be more precise, how to survive in the wild which includes how to hunt. How amazing is that? To top it all off, our driver was actually an Ami native so that was lucky for us! We were shown and told about some of the cultures of Ami by an actual Ami themselves. It was truly a fun two days of my spring break.

See ya next time!

Surfing at Ilan (Spring Break Part I)

     Taiwan is such a wonderful place for trying new things and for new beginnings. I guess you can guess what one of those things are by the title of this post, right? You guessed it! SURFING! Surfing in Taiwan is actually pretty cheap, but it can't be done everywhere for in some places of course the waves are smaller and bigger than others. Ilan doesn't have big waves, but it was a suitable place for a beginner like me. Before surfing I had to get to my hostel the night before in order to spend a whole day being able to surf and play with me friends! So, the adventure starts.

Arrving at Rising Sun Surf Inn at 11 o'clock

     It's Wednesday afternoon, and I finish my class around 3:20, but I never actually left for Ilan until around 5 o'clock for I had to go back to my dorm and pack for my trip. I would spend two nights in Ilan and two days and one night at Hualien. After leaving at 5 o'clock I end up arriving at the hostel "Rising Sun Surf Inn" at 11 o'clock. It took me a long time for Hsinchu is at the West, while Ilan is at the East. To make matters more difficult for me, in between these two cities is a giant mountain pass that you can't really get through with every means of transportation. So, what I ended up doing was going from the west, up north to Taipei, and then southeast to Ilan County. Now, I really enjoyed my trip to the city for I started being able to live like a real Taiwanese. I never called for a cab like every foreigner here does. I ended up taking the two buses, walked for awhile, and then took two trains. Wasn't I great? That's how the Taiwanese do! Well, (truth be told) I did cheat a little. See, I was afraid that I would take the wrong routes, so I ended up using my GPS on my phone to tell me where I needed to go. But, I only did use it twice, so it's not that bad... I was travelling by myself, and everything was in Chinese so a little help was needed... ☺ By the time I arrived at the hostel, I was welcomed with open arms! There I was able to meet up with my three wonderful and beautiful French friends.

Before the surfing... don't we look ready?

 

 Next day, (finally) was the day for surfing! I think I will just upload a couple pictures so you guys won't have to read so much... because I am starting to write a lot now. Out of the four of us, only one knew how to surf. So there we are on the right being taught the techniques needed for surfing. Below, we are all on our way to start surfing. The water was pretty cold but thank goodness for the wet suits.
  Below is my friend Dymalie and I trying to just stay on our board for the first hour of surfing. Surfing was so much harder than I had expected it to be, but it was entirely fun! By the end of the day, I was able to balance quite fine on the board. I wasn't able to surf standing up, but granted I can surf on my knees. That's something!

  We didn't end up spending the whole day surfing though. We also played two rounds of volleyball (cough, that my friend and I ended up winning at...) and also an one on one game soccer game where I had taught my friend that females dominate males in this game. He was pretty good and a worthy opponent though!

Volleyball game - my partner had a bad shoulder but he still played well

   
  So that was it for my surfing adventure, but I don't expect it to be over. Far from it. I am actually hoping to go back soon for more surfing. It's cheap, and one of my friends is planning on surfing some more too. I hope that by the time I have to go back to America, I will be able to surf standing up.

Left the next morning to Hualien where another adventure was waiting for us