Utterly and Hopelessly....

Lost. Thats what i was today. I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:45 and decided to take the 6:30 bus down the mountain instead of the 7:00 one like my host parents said. My older sister looked at me funny "You'll get there too early". Heh, i showed her. It started out well, i got to the station, got on the right train, got off at the right stop. But second i hit the sidewalk i was heaading the wrong way. I walked for a good half hour before i ended up coming to the next MRT stop in the line. In the wrong direction. So being the smart me i hopped back on, went back to the original station (guting, i ended up at chaing kaishek), walked the right way, got on the right bus, got off at the right stop, and then walked past my chinese school ._. luckily for me i spotted another rotary student and followed them in. I got there on time. Chinese school was interesting, took a test in a language i didnt understand. I failed. so bad. Afterwards i didnt have to go to school. So me, Julie (from Norway), and Elycia (from Florida) decided to do a bit of exploring! which pretty much is the kind way of saying getting off the MRT, getting lost, and then finding another station. But it was good fun all the same. After dropping them off at their stations i stood on the MRT from Shimpai to Xindian Distric office. Litterally stood. My legs kill. for those of you who dont understand, pull up a map of the Taiwan MRT lines. Shimpai is near the top of the red line. Xindian is near the end of the green. I never knew standing could hurt so much. Lesson of the day: Get a seat.

School

Well i did end up going to school today. But it was quite uneventful. I did not go until one but i did not enter a class, but i was shown around the school with two other exchange students. I didnt even get my uniform (which some is bright orange :3 made me think "hey, the school has a wall and a gate with a guard, who has orders not to let us out in those uniforms." me and the guy from brazil both agreed its a prison.) tomorrow i dont go to school. I do go to chinese school though, which will be interesting (im going to get lost sooo bad) Went to a subway for lunch today, memories of bike rides with john and co. (had a tuna sandwhich in johns honor). Its so hot ._. sososoosososos hot. ~its getting hot in here~ haha :P Havent hit the homesickness wall yet, but im supposed to next month. We'll see eh?

ARC

Well the past two days have been very interesting. Yesterday there was news of a typhoon here in Taiwan and a hurricane in America. A couple of the Rotary students I met at the weekend are from New York, and my friend Nika lives there now to, i hope everyone is all right. The typhoon up here in Xindian was a little disappointing, since it veered off into China before it really reached us up here. But I digress. Yesterday me and my host family did a little ceremony to honor the spirits who's door to the spirit world was closing. They laid out a table that had many different foods and sticks of incense, and burned "clothing" and "money" to give to them. Afterwards we visited my host fathers dad, who lived in the city in an apartment style thing, with four floors! The top floor was just Japanese tea rooms and a rock garden, which was really cool. Today we took care of getting my Alien Residence Certificate, and I went to my first Rotary meeting here in Taiwan. I saw quite a few exchange students today, like Soma from Turkey and Sayo from Japan. I had to introduce myself in front of the Rotary, and i tried to do it in Chinese. I should have stuck with English -.-" There was lots of singing there. It was pretty cool. Most schools start tomorrow, which is funtastic. But i haven't recieved word from my school if mine starts tomorrow too ._. so im not sure if im going, if i am, i hope i dont get lost. :P

Inbound Orientation

Well today i woke up at 5:30 and couldnt go back to sleep >.<" Which was not fun. But we had inbound orientation today for my district, which was fun. I saw my friend Hai-Wei for the first time in forever (: Met many other exchange students as well, like Brodie from Canada, Julie from Norway, and Soma from Hungary. Many presentations were made, and it was a very tiring day @.@ I'm not sure what we're doing tomorrow, but if its nothing i may try to go to the city by myself and look around, if not with some exchange student. (but probably not)

The First Day

Well after a grueling 20 hours up in the air I'm pleased to say I made it! I got here around 8 pm Taiwanese time and was about ready to pass out. I walked out of customs and was met by my host family. Again i am destined to be the youngest here with two older sisters. That night i would also meet all three of my host fathers and my councilor. (My first meal would be at a rice porridge restaurant. Deliciooousss) We got to the house, which is nice and up in the mountains, and i pretty much collapsed and fell asleep. Today i woke up at around 7:35 and wandered down to the breakfast room. I was munching on some toast when i saw my host father doing taichi outside in the back yard. I was pretty excited, i want to try it sometime. Today we ended up getting a lot done. I went and opened a bank account (which by far took the most time) and saw both my chinese school and high school. I even got this nifty cell phone ^.^. So im pretty tuckered out right about now. Been a loooong day. So glad to be back in Taiwan :D

Soon

Well I got all my travel stuff (Visas, Tickets, Exchange Card etc.) from It's Your Wolrd, Travel! Agency. and I leave tomorrow! I really should have started packing already @.@ but hey, 24 hours and a little tomorrow morning should be enough ^.^ I decided to go with one suitcase, and since I can't bring my guitar im packing my ukulele instead. About two weeks of clothing is what im bringing so this should be interesting, but not a problem since Taiwanese people tend to do laundry a lot more frequently than we do. It's kind of weird, all my friends will be getting up to go to school tomorrow, and at the same time I'll be getting up to leave the country.... funny how these things work eh? Oh well. Can't wait :D

Finally ._.

Well i finally got word from the agent that i should be getting my Visa back by next thursday! hopefully that means i get to leave soon after that ._. well the adventure hasnt started quiiiite yet but i cant wait @.@