TO THE HARBOR!!

soo... I'll Start with pictures this time:

( OH.. FYI, new Camera, so I've got some nice pictures now)

.. The sunset

OK, so when I was told Taiwan is a beautiful country... Beautiful is such a weak word. National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) , where I am going to school, is about 17 Kilometers from the ocean. After living in San Diego this summer, I got used to the ocean and sunsets and beautiful weather. I must say that the heat here ... BLAH, the humidity... BLAH. But it is still a very awesome place.

ANYWHO, So Jeroen ( "Big G" from Holland), Linda ( from Colorado), and I took some Busses to get out to the harbor. When we got off the buss there was an Amazing amount of wind ( Go figure they call Hsinchu the "windy city"). It really Surprised me to see that LOADS of people were flying kites. ( When was the last time you flew a kite.... ) Luckily we got there about half hour before sunset so it was just in time.

It was nice to be able to be able to sit back and get some real relaxation in.

After we saw the sun go behind the horizon we decided to walk out across the sand and across the Sea wall. On the wall there were storng winds. ( we got sand all over our arms and in our hair... it sucked... ). So there was a Market right off the harbor that we stopped in to get dinner... Because Linda's parents are from Taiwan originally everyone thought she was our Translator. She understands it better than I, but when they would avoid Big G and me and run right to Linda... it was strange for all of us.

OK so we just kinda picked one of the restaurants.. and sat down. The lady was really nice and came up. to order she took us up to the display ( fish... etc. ) We just kinda pointed... Shrimp... Fish... Muscles ( I think) and fried Rice. It was Very delicious.

Walking through the rest of the market it was pretty quiet... everything seemed to be shut down. ( sadly). We walked around for a short time then decided to take the bus back. While wating for the buss ( which schedule said we should wait for about 10 minutes... After 30 minutes)... some friendly girls stopped by on a scooter and said something to the extent " There is no bus". We started to walk to bus route back.. kinda looking for a Taxi/ other bus stop. We do thankfully see a buss ( no need to walk 17 km). We made it downtown again... then back to NCTU... it was quite an adventure... Now for the next adventure ( Mountains perhaps).

... And just for you Dad... A little "IFFY coffee"

Who am I?

OK, so one of the most important things while Traveling is probably your Passport. I should probably preface the rest of this post with what happened last time I was traveling.

... Over Christmas break last year I was going on a study trip to Visit Taiwan and Hong Kong. About a week before I was scheduled to leave, I realized that I left my passport up at School ( 9 hour drive away... 600 miles) OK, so how do you get it without a Massive road trip for 1 item. Within 1 hour of realizing I had left my passport up at school, I made 26 phone calls and connected with someone up at my house in Illinois, used the keys and got into my room to get the passport. Now... as I HAD to have iT 5 days later... Do you Risk mailing it the week before Xmas?

... NO, I found a friend in Chambana ( Champaign-Urbana; For those not up on the lingo) who was headed up to chicago for Xmas and could do a Hand off for me. So lucky for me I was able to connect with him and get my passport picked up for my travels. Awesome... Now to being in Taiwan .

My travels this time were much more smooth. Had a passport and all. Now in order to get the " Alien Resident Card" to allow me to be over here for so long, They had to have my Passport.. OK, so a week without a passport no big deal. But when you realized that you have also lost your Drivers License.... perhaps lost is not the right word...

In order to get my Cell phone they needed 2 forms of ID, Passport and Drivers license. OK, had a digital scan of my passport and they made a copy of my DL. I left the store and I ended up leaving my DL on the copier. OK, so a week later I realize my DL wasn't on me. ( so I'm sitting with no ID other than my Illinois Student ID... and that doesn't hold any weight with anyone). I make some calls ( luckily my phone worked at least), and one of my Taiwanese friends picked up DL and I now have it back... and Fortunately today I got my Passport back. So I have an Identity again... Both of them.

Soo the Short Version... if you are going places...Keep stuff as close as possible.. not 600 miles in a Safe locked room... or on a Copier in a Foreign Country.

Beginnings...

Well,

It's official, I'm starting a blog. ( oh joy) knowing that i'm Half way around the world has motivated me to keep at least one line of communication back home.

Hang in here, this will be a long post...

Travel over here was PERFECT. I got jut about 3-4 hours of sleep the night before I left so i dozed on the plane to ORD and such, but I say it was perfect because I was able to set my sleep pattern to over here ( not that it was much different than my usual sleep pattern. ) When I arrived at the Airport, I luckily was lucky to get my Taxi from the Airport to NCTU ( National Chiao Tung University). There was one other Exchange student from Colorado that also flew in at the same time. Linda Chang and I and talked about our worries and excitements about coming over here from the US. As her parents were chinese she knew a little chinese, soo, she is in my Mandarin 1 class. We keep up and grab dinner lunch occasionally. It sure is nice to have someone that has similar background and just wants to talk. Bizarrely... I mentioned i did Science Olympiad in Hs and Grade school.. ( 7 year state champ...etc) and she did SciOly as well. ( so we had a bunch to chat about... she was never state champ, but her sister asked for my autograph when she heard i had 5th at nationals in Picture this ( oh the days...Tholen, Lahey, Stump).

Anyways, back to my adventures. Arrived on Campus and there were A LOT of people on campus ( at 9:30 pm)... kinda surprised me. Got to my dorm and found out I have one roomate from Panama,Louis. He is cool and he speaks english good enough to communicate. ( untill now no other roomates have shown up... ( in a 4 person room) SOO, i have a lot of space and everything is really laxed with us. Wanna sleep.. just go. ( the other will be quiet). It humors me because his sleep schedule is stranger than mine. ( yeah... it's possible.. ) i usually go to bed before him. For example, i went to be ~ 12 or 1 and i rool over a 5:30 and see he's still up, I wake up at later and see he'a asleep.. ( all good) i get up at 9 or so for class and he then is getting up too.. ( WhAA??) cool.. cool... so then i come home after dinner ( ~7) and he is in the room.. i go to the bathroom and come out.. and about 2 hours later i realize he's asleep. He wakes up and then starts homework about midnight... so who knows.. luckily I can sleep through anything.

Weather... here.. SUCKS.

OK, let me clarify. it's hot and humid all the time. After about 2 weeks i'm not sweating continously like i was at first, but it's still not the AC .. or Cool weather I had in California. I got to bed and wake up with just a bit of sweat... walk over to dinner.. bit of sweat.. getting better every day.I Don't know if I've been getting enough Salt... oh well. Been drinking a lot of water, tea.. etc. ( side note.. coffee you buy in the store is all Instant... blah)... let me just say I don't think our window will ever be shut.. or our fan turned off ( our fan is awesome.. it's not one of those stand up ones.. it's on the ceiling and rotates to hit most all of the room).

Next.... How about my trip to Taipei my first weekend in town.

So, i get a call ( yes i got a phone) from one of my friends I met in Illinois inviting me up to Taipei to visit Night markets and see stuff, then the next day there would be other exchange students coming up. So i am up and he shows me around the bus station ( big place) with all the markets and some of the cool gadget places. ( cool stuff.. not to badly priced either). We kinda look around for a camera for me so i can get an idea on the prices (because of my Failed Ebay experience.) After that we grab some food and we visit some markets kinda begin to get a layout of what is around. We go to a night club and had a fun time. It's strange to be in a country and see all the influences that America has on them over here ( Music, and everything reminded me of the US).

Next morning I meet up with Linda and Boon ( guy from Singapore) and we all had our own chinese speaking friend.. so it was an interesting day. We saw the mall at Taipei 101, national Forest, night market. I took the bus up to Taipei and took the train back ( the train was 3x the price.. but Soo awesome and fast. )

FOOD.. is everywhere... There is a lot of Rice/noodles. Chicken is popular ( OK.. it's not like the chicken in the US.. it is different hard to explain.. but it is different. ) In the dinning hall I've had a lot of interesting things. Dumplings, strange soups, Porridge but in general, all it is good. Since I'm fairly proficient at using chop sticks I've had almost no trouble eating. ( I know no one was concerned. ) Milk Tea = Excellent

When I was in Taipei those guys definitely got me to try new things. Ducks blood, Stinky Tofu, Fried muscle, Squid, some AWESOME fried rice.

===Classes===

5 classes

Mandurin 1

Intro to Flat Panel displays ( FPD)

Digitial signal processing (DSP)

Transportation Economics

Data Structures.

Each one is 3 hours... and I really thought my hardest would be DSP but surprisingly it should be one of my easiest ( she said it would be easier than Calculus.. WOOT). Every class seems fun but will definitely give me a run for the money as DSP and Data structures are my ECE required classes. Fortunately all my classes are in english ( with slight Mandarin ( chinese) to help the other students who don't know english as fluently as I do).

Starting to slowly meet people on campus. It's kinda hard just to walk around and Say HI as most people don't speak english natively. But it is strange, Most of the international students here are actually from Europe ( france, Switzerland, belgium). so it is interesting to see who I meet. I've only met a few from the USA.

=====OK, now for some Multimedia...=====

Here is the national Forest i saw... as these pics are from my phone it's not as awesome as it could be.. .but it really was beautiful.

Taipei 101... Very Beautiful building ( used to be tallest building in the world... or might still be.. idk)

One of our Dogs on campus... they are everywhere ( luckily they are pretty tame and don't bark and beg too much for food.

... Night markets.. This one doesn't have too many people in it because we awere inside eating pretty early.. but usually it is wall to wall.

FOOD. Squid with egg and other dressings.

Chicken steak with noodles... or something like that

coll ceiling fan... kinda loud but neccisary to have in order to sleep comfortably

and here is my room... Toilet on the right... Shower on the left. ( kind strange to have a mirror in the shower... never have watched myself shower before)... then my desk is first on the left ( kinda get a brief glimpse of my bed.. just a pillow and a mattress... then my Louis my roommate on the back right... and.. Yeah.. that's my room.