Last days of classes and going away dinner.

CLC Directors

Character Writing Teacher! Love her!

Class minus 2

So it is the last days of classes, today is my last class actually. It is crazy that it is ending already. Yesterday we also went to a going away dinner for us with the directors of the program and also teachers and office peeps. It was really fun and I could understand basically everything they asked me which is always gratifying. The dinner was really good. It was a sharing type of Chinese meal and the food kept coming and coming :S. Hmmmm I don't know what else to say besides it is super crazy and depressing having to leave here! haha. Here are some pictrures and if I don't write in this before I leave... see you Saturday!

Modern Toilet

Last Pronounciation Class :(

Poop

More Poop

Toi Toi

Anna and her sister

YAY! So Ic an cross off another thing on my Taiwan To-Do List. On Monday we went to Modern Toilet in Taichung. For those of you who do not know, this is a toilet themed restaurant >_< Me and my friends took the bus to YiZhong Night Market and we met up with my Taiwanese friend from Utah who I went to Viewmont Prom with! It was crazy to see her after about 2 years and her English had improved so much! Yes but I am glad I finally went there! This Monday was also the last Pronunciation class so I got pictures with my teacher. Yesterday we went shopping again and got some stuff for family. Then today we are eating a fancy dinner with all of the FCUCLC staff and directors so that will be fun.. .Longs and fancy shirt it is!!! Tomorrow we are eating with some friends anf Friday the the CLC has a Karaoke contest we are going to and then we are eating with other friends. Then on Satrday morning 2a.m. I am taking a shuttle to Southern Taiwan and flying out at 8 in the morning to Tokyo.... then LA and then SLC arriving just a few hours later (Utah time @_@) aack I don't want this week to end!.... Picture time!

Hualien Weekend

This weekend was amazing to say the least! >_< We went to Hualien which is in NE Taiwan and it was beautiful! We left on Friday at 1 pm on a bus headed for Taipei and got there at about 4 and then we hung out with our friends' good friends for a few hours and ate some famous noodles and stuff. After that we went to the train station at 8:30 to get on our train and arrive at 11:30. :O So once we finally got there our B&B guy and his wife picked us up in 2 cars and we drove to their beautiful place. They also had a child with them that said (in chinese) "Oh we have 2 foreigners and 3 asians :P." The next morning we woke up and had our free breakfast and then headed off at 8:30 to Taroko Gorge with our personal driver for the day. Taroko was probably the most beautiful place I have ever been. Pictures can't even begin to describe how tall the mountains were and also how hot it was haha. We first hiked there and then got some lunch and went to this cool statue where we took some balla' asian jumping photos. After that we went to a Buddhist Temple in the mountains and had an amazing view. After we went to a Shrine that was beautiful and in the middle of the mountains. Taroko had the most amazing views ever and everyone needs to go! Next we went to the beach and played in the ocean :D Twas really fun to get in the ocean and the view around us was beautiful. After swimming and that we went to the vendors in the parking lot and I got a Coconut and drank the water and I also got roasted corn AND I got a really good sausage thing where instead of a bun it is a rice filled sausage casing thing. After we ate our driver took us to a hot springs where we stayed for 3 hours and it was really relaxing. There was a steam room, Sauna, Swimming Pool, and a lot of hot spring pools. Oh and there was a naked one but I totally didn't want to do it because that is gross. We then went back to our place and figured out tomorrows schedule. The next day we got up, ate, and headed out. We went to this wood place in the mountains and saw some carvings of wood that were cool. I literally have no idea what it was called hence I am calling it the wood place. Next, we went to this famous (old) sugar plant where they sell Ice Cream and have some famous mochi. We all got some ice cream and let the Koi eat our drippings. That place was really beautiful and had some really cool shops. After that we headed out to this clam place where everyone was searching for clams and it was a cool atmosphere. There I also had some seaweed water, which is always gross. We then headed to an awesome lake in the mountains and had some lunch/dinner. It was alot of seafood but it was actually really good haha. We then headed out into the lake with a paddle dragon boat. It was fun and we decided that we wanted to go to the other side of the lake. Well guess who was dying trying to make their way back again :O SO HOT. My arms and legs were sweating again! That has only happened in Taiwan and in Hot Yoga@_@ AACK! So that was really beautiful and then we headed out to the train station to buy tickets. We bought tickets from Hualien to Taichung which had no seats. Six hour train ride with no seats! YAY hee hee but we were totally in the very back of a car and just played cards for basically 5 hours of the ride. To say the least it was a really long trip back and at some points it was really crowded. It was fun to experience though! Then when we arrived we waited for the bus to Feng Chia (as did everyone else) only to find out that it wasn't running this late. So we grabbed a taxi to Feng Chia. Where I bought Fresh Passion Fruit Juice :D sooooo good. Then went home. So that was my trip and I am pretty sure that this was probably the best weekend in Taiwan yet and it was probably the most beautiful place I have ever been too! :D::D:D:D::D:D::D Only one more week left! Godspeed. ..... PICTURE TIME!

View from our B&B

In Taroko NP

The entrance to the Taroko

HIKING!

Shrine



View from Shrine (we went to the Pagoda and stuff)



Beautiful Shrine! :O

The beach!

The Wood Place

Famous Sugar Plant

Clam Place

The awesome lake

Weekend Plannnn

He老師 :( I am going to miss her!

Mannequin got some swag

Yo! I am not going to be on my computer and stuff for a few days. Here is the weekend plan! Today afternoon we are going to Taipei to look around and then going on a train to Hualien at 8 p.m. We will get there around 11 and some people are going to pick us up to take us to the Haunted house we are staying at :P In the morning we get free breakfast and a personal driver for vurry cheap. We are going to Taroko Gorge National Park and all up in thurr. After that we are going to the beach I believe and then the night market in Hualien City. After that we are going to go to a Hot Spring place where we are going to stay the night. In the morning we have a driver take us to the train station for free and then we take a train back up somewhere and explore somewhere. Then before midnight on Sunday we have to come back to Taichung. It will be an awesome weekend I believe and a good last weekend here. On another note, it was my last class with He FenFen :( She is the best and I will miss her! (until next year when I am totally coming back!!!) Cheerio! I shall write something Monday probably :P Let's hope I don't die shall we!

Harry Potter

Jes I have not posted for a long time but this is only because I am busy haha. Today I have a test and then we are literally leaving on a trip until Sunday right after and I have yet to pack and we still don't really know what we are doing (apparently none of us are planners :P ). I guess new news is that I went to Harry Potter last night and it was AMAZING :O . It was really awesome and all of the Chinese subtitles even looked cool which made it even more balla. eeeeeeee. I kinda have to go right know so I can get ready and then study for my midterm more. what else what else? ohhhhh next week we are having dinner with our teachers and stuff and also I am buying more clothes for sure and buying stuff for peoples and ....... AHHHH so busy. okay okay I shall see you all in like a week and a half. buh bye. :D :D :D

Betch

:O

Department store with Theatre

Sexy

Exlporing Taichung

Hello. :D Blog time ..... So this Friday we met up with our language partners again for Dinner which was really good as usual. At Dinner we told them we didn't have a room and if they could help us find a hostel or something but our friend Shawn said we could stay with them. Well all of our friends got their scooters but before we drove like 15 min away our language partners said that we could stay with them since they were closer :P what a confusing language barrier haha. So the next day we met our friends Shawn, Oreo, Colin and Vick and we went to a big dpt store called Tiger City. While most played arcade games me and Oreo went to McDonalds and got food for everyone and I have found out that McDonalds is better over here hee hee. After Tiger City we went to the park where the Lady GaGa concert was because they wanted to play Chinese games with us. We learned a lot of weird games and during the middle some kids joined. So then we had a lot of parents and stuff watching also. I totally decided that I could teach English to Asian children though because they are much cuter and less annoying then American children :D :D. After that we went to a BBQ Restaurant. It was pretty cheap and it was Taiwans version of BBQ :P which was good! The best was Pineapple with Bacon wrapped on the inside! :O. After that we sat around outside for a while and then went back to our Language Partners place since we were staying there for the night. The next morning we met our friend Colin at this dpt store and walked to one of his favorite breakfast places. It was really really good :O they had this sandwich that was amazing. After that we actually went inside the dpt store and looked around. He took us to the top floor and we made our way down through floors to some themed bathrooms. eeeeee they were really awesome and I think that my family would have loved the Coke themed bathroom. It was funny going in all the batrooms because some of them were like mens or womens only and we would all just go in and everyone outside would look at us. The store also had many other things like a bookstore and design expo and stuff which all were really cooooooool. After the dpt store we had some really good tea and walked through the rain to a movie theatre. We decided not to see any of the movies though so we walked back through the rain to Colins friends apt building and we played pool, ping pong, and totally threw balls at each other in the ball pit because we are that weird. After that we took a bus to the Yizhong night market because we wanted to go to Modern Toilet Restaurant. :( but it was closed because the restaurant had bad chi or something WTH. So we ended up going to a hot pot restaurant which was gooooood. We then headed back to our place and we met up with our friends Shawn and Zach. They were at our hotel because they were helping some Swedish Students move out of there into another dorm. And guess who totally took our rooms for one night! haha whaaaaa??! Then we played Scum :D and SLEPT! So that was my weekend and I don't know if my English is horrible or not but I don't want to double check :P... here are pictures!

Taichung Roads (notice no sidewalks)

>_< I want to go this church! REJOICE!

Yummy Breakfast Sandwich (also had a burger)

Coca-Cola themed bathroom in Dpt Store

Taichung

Design Expo

Hot Pot

Eating with Language Partners ( we all couldn't fit on one table :P)

Fancy mealz and new night market

View from Resaurant

On Wednesday night my friends dad came in from China and he totally wanted to meet all of us because we are awesome like that. So me, my roommates from Utah, and my friends roommate went to this curry restaurant. It was really delicious and expensive :S Before the dinner we also walked around to different stores and there was one that had a ton of candy and stuff. Twas yummy looking! After that dinner we went back to our dorm and studied a little bit for the quiz we had in the morning. The next day we had our classes and then my friends dad wanted to go to lucnh with us again. So we totally went to this fancy restaurant on the top of SOGO Department Store. It was vurry delicious and there were a lot of different seafoods that I actually liked. We also had 2 other people with us and so at the table there was a lot of Chinese, English, and Indonesian happening :P. After some of them left backt o the dorms we looked around the stores for a while, which was funnnnnnnn. We then took a cab back to the McDonalds by our school and then met up with other friends that wanted to take us to a new cheap night market. So we got on a bus and took it for about 30 minutes to this new place. It was really fun and had a lot of new foods and clothes. I want to go back before I leave and look at all of the clothes because they looked awesome and I believe that they were cheaper in cost :O. So it was a really fun 2 days and tonight we are having dinner with our language partners again and hopefully they help us plan a mini trip for Saturday and also want to go to Harry Potter!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yayayaya! here are some pictures!

I am going to miss them. I wanna vacation to Indonesia so they can show me around! :P

:O

Shoe Store

A lot of peeps in the Night Market

My friends dad and mah friends

OREO and Minnie

We's be Sexy

Massage

Yo. So yesterday me and 2 of my friedns got a massage. We had to wait for an hour until we could all go in at the same time so we decided that we would go eat somewhere. Well, after walking in the POURING rain we finally found a place that looked good at the moment and we had some yummy noodle soup. After that we walked through the rain again and went back to the massage place. By this time my pants were soaked (because umbrellas only do so much) and so when we walked into the place we were dripping everywhere. Three asian guys walked out and said to follow them back... well of course they start talking to my friends in Chinese because they are asian (but are learning Chinese with me and are unable to) and they ask them if I am can speak chinese and stuff :P ..this happens so many times. I said that I am able to speak a little bit haha. The one guy that could speak a little bit of English all of the sudden said "I want you!" while pointing at me haha it was way funny. They split us up 2:1 and me and Jenn were in the same room. Well they just told us to lay down so we were in our sopping wet clothes the whole time haha. And by the end the soup that I had was making me want to PEE so I was trying not to pee my pants while he was pushing on my bladder haha. The massage felt so good yayaya!!! I loved it! my back still feels great! After that we went back to our dorm and studied for our tests in the morning. Which I did good on today :D So ya that is about it .. still raining which is awesome and tongith we are eating with my friends Dad who is here for business from Cali. Fun stufffffffffff. PICTURE TIME :O just random pictures haha

Dream Mall

Dome of Light Subway Station

I love the English in Taiwan

Apt. in Kaohsiung

These were really good

I miss Peggy :( (far top right) she is in the US

Kaohsiung Trip and my Monday

Hey hey hey. So my Taiwanese friend wanted us to come to Kaohsiung with him so he could show us around since it is his home town and then he wanted us to stay in his house. Sooooooo that is what we did and it was fun stuff!! :D :D When we first made it to Kaohsiung after the 3 hour bus ride we went to a place to eat and it had good dumplings and potstickers and stuff. They were really delicious! We met up with another person and then went to Dream Mall. This mall was huge and very popular in Taiwan and I have noticed that Department Stores/Malls are really popular and basically every one has a mini amusement park on the roof haha. After exploring that we went to the beeeaaaacccchhhh :D and it was soooo beautiful and I couldn't believe that I was there! >_< The water was warm and awesome. We had some really really really fresh seafood after that(which was also so good that I actually liked it) After that we took the Subway (I am going to be pro at subways before I come back to America) back to the bus station and took an hour bus ride to our friends house in another part of Kaohsiung. Well when we got off the bus it was raining wayyyyyy bad so we all totally just got soaked and my feet and shoes smelled horrible......good thing you have to leave them outside :P Well after that we played games in his house for a little bit while eat AMAZING mango, kiwi, and watermelon :O (that's right, the watermelon is so good here that I actually love it). Then I gave myself an ankle tattoo and gave my friend a tattoo on her arm and then we slept. :D The next morning we had an awesome breakfast (with more fruit) and headed off to around town to thank my friends family for letting us stay and we also stopped at a chocolate shop where we had chocolate cake and some iced coffee yum yum yum! We then took the hour bus back to the main town and a few more buses to a hiking spot where we totally saw like 15 monkeys. They were all around us and one tried to take my friends pudding container since he was just holding it in his hands:P We hiked for a little bit in the suffocating heat which was way awesome since hiking is the best! We had an awesome view of the city and then we headed back down to civilization and then to the subway station where we went to the "Dome of Light" (which is in a subway station). It was awesome and crazy that they built this for a subway station. We then went to a Night Market in Kaohsiung where we all tried Snake Soup and I have got to say that it tasted fine. It was mega chewy but it was good nonetheless. When we were done we looked around a little bit and then headed back to Taichung on the 3 hour bus ride hoping that we would get back before 12 before the gates closed (we got back at 11:40 phewwwwwww) So that was an awesome trip and then today was geat because class was fun as usual and I finally got a picture of my classmates. And I just have to explain that I wasn't sitting on the chair the whole time but I had to since I was blocking people ( I am not that egotistical ). Then laterafter much rain and studying we went to eat dinnr with one of our language partners and we spoke chinese the whole time! :D We are all getting so fast and can remember more! :D :D yayayayay! Then we went back to our dorm and played a board game which I won and I was the only one who hadn't played hee hee (we spoke Chinese the whole time while playing also! go usssss!) After that I went back to my room and started writing my blog and look at this :O we came full circle ..weird.

Dream Mall

Kaohsiung

Ocean

Beach in Kaohsiung

Fresh Seafood....yum

The mango in Taiwan is amazing

View from my friends house

By my friends house.. the houses look poopy on outside but his was SOOOOOO fancy and 3 stories

Ditto... I could totally live there

:O

Hiking

Dome of Light.. this room was huge and awesome

Snake Soup

Peoples country of origin from left to right: Russia, UT USA, Japan, Indonesia, that's me, USA, USA, USA, Korea, Germany, Russia.... and my Taiwanese teacher.... Every one of them is awesome!!! :D :D