This is the End, Parte Deux.

I shall procrastinate no longer!!! I will write this final post! I have no questions, so we can skip that(I'm so popular)! Anyways, I'll talk about the re-adjustment process, and what I've been up to, and possible things to do for this blog(It'll stay travel related). So let's get this thing started! I'll put pictures of random cats to keep you interested.

Alright, so when I came back, I went into immediate reverse culture shock, and I hated that. In my opinion, reverse culture shock is worst than culture shock in itself. I'm not really sure how to explain it. It just sucks, to put it simply. Another thing, jet lag. For me, that lasted WAAAAY longer than I thought it would. It took 2-3 weeks for that to fully go away. That + reverse culture shock = Un-happy Ben. Anyways, after about a week I got back, (excluding the tests) I decided to try and meet up with old friends/exchange students. Well, the exchange students worked out amazingly! Friends, not so much. Shame on you friends. I'm joking hahahaha. They had school and everything so I don't blame them. Same with the exchange students, but they were somewhat more laxed with that. So I was able to hang out them a lot. Thank God, because I would of gone crazy without them. You know who you are! Anyways, that's a lot of words. Here's a picture(hoping this works)
                                                                              Catbeard

Alright, so I was just hanging out with exchange students and some friends until May19, then I got to go to the last meeting for the inbounds(foreign people here), outbounds(local people who are going), and rebounds(local people who came back)! I got to meet the girl going to Taiwan(very nice girl and she will enjoy her time) and other outbounds, who, didn't really hmmmm, I won't say anything, but you get the idea. It's pretty much the same as last time, same song and dance, different people. I got to stay an extra day though! A small group of us stayed up all night. I slept for about an hour though. My body just can't stay up all night. Anyways, that day was fun! Next picture. 

Life has been pretty slow. I'm not sure what to talk about. So I'll wrap it up right here. This has been the best experience of my life, so far. Seriously, I'm very thankful to everybody who helped make this experience possible. Just to throw a list at you: My dad, mom, The Barkers, The Shaws, my local rotary club, my sponsoring rotary club, all three host families, and my counselors!

One more little paragraph. I'm thinking of turning this into a travel log. I travel to a city, I take pictures and I talk about how I liked it, and post pictures, talk about food and yeah! So, yep. I'm closing the book on this adventure of my life, and I'm glad I got to document (almost) everything I got to experience! Well, yep. Take care and, yep. Tschüss!!

This is the end, parte un.

So, as the title says, this is the end. Kinda depressing, but my exchange has come to an end. Not because I did something bad, but of health reasons. Anyways, I'll delve into it and explain.

So, Saturday April, 13 I had a seizure in the morning. I was unconscious for a while afterwards. I don't remember too much about Friday night/Saturday morning, and yeah, my family wanted me back home so we can figure it all out. We are doing tests and stuff right now to figure it all out. I have one more to do and then I'll be done. I doubt I'll be going back, but I did most of what I wanted to do. Sure it would of been nice to stay longer with all my friends, but I'm happy with what I did during my exchange. That's about all the back story.

Anyways, before the seizure I was just relaxing and going to school and everything. Enjoying my time with friends, and I had my birthday on April 4th too :D! I hung out with one of my friends that day and we got coffee and went out for dinner together. She gave me some chocolate eggs since my birthday was around Easter. That's about it for my birthday.

I'll talk about my flights now. I had the same flight schedule and everything. My first flight I sat next to an Australian. I swear I always attract Australians. I'm friends with many. Anyways, we talked for the whole entire flight, and she was really nice. She was an older lady not like 70's, but like 50's or so. I had a small layover in Seoul, so I just relaxed at my gate. Then I sat next to two girls around 20, but we didn't talk too much, I tried making small talk, but that failed. So I just watched movies the whole time. I watched Django Unchained, Rise of the Guardians, Wreck it Ralph, and some other movie I can't remember for the life of me. Then I has a long layover in Seattle, and basically just redid stuff I did with the people I flew in with, like skip around the airport with my flag. Then my Seattle -> Boise flight I was by myself and I just played on my tablet the whole time hahahaha. That's about it. My mother, brother, little sister, exchange officer, and one of my friends came and saw me. It was nice to be greeted by them :D.

Just been relaxing for most of the time waiting for the jet lag to go away. Looking for my money I lost too, so hopefully everything will be peaches and gravy.

Also, I'll do a FAQ for you all if there are any questions, relating to ANYTHING. I mean anything. Just, like, yeah. Keep it reasonable too. I'll do some other stuff, like the after stuff of exchange too. What to expect. I think I'll do that. Well, take care. Tschüss!

Flight info, other things!

First things first, my flight information! I finally got that, I'm excited that I got it, but just sudden realization that this adventure is coming to a close. Also, other realizations I didn't do too well with a blog hahahaha. I think I did good, decent amount of pictures. Anyways, my flight information, I'm hiding information I don't want leaked out to everybody :p.

AIR: -- JUL 13  MONDAY  

        KOREAN AIR              FLT: ---    CONFIRMED  NONSTOP   

        LV:TAIPEI                AT: 125P   MILES -  903

        AR:INCHEON/SEOUL         AT: 455P           

           SOUTH KOREA                        

                                               

   AIR: -- JUL 13  MONDAY  

        KOREAN AIR              FLT:  --    CONFIRMED  NONSTOP   

        LV:INCHEON/SEOUL         AT: 615P   MILES - 5221

        AR:SEATTLE               AT:1225P           

           WASHINGTON                         

                                       

   AIR: -- JUL 13  MONDAY  

        ALASKA                  FLT: ----   CONFIRMED  NONSTOP   

        LV:SEATTLE               AT: 435P   MILES -  399

        AR:BOISE                 AT: 700P           

           IDAHO                              

Well, that's what it looks like. Lovely. 10 hours from Seoul>Seattle. It's basically the same one as my outbound flight to Taipei, but without visiting Vancouver. It'll be nice not having to go through another airport. I'm not the best with traveling. I'll most likely get lost. Like I always do... Oh gawl... The memories... GGGGAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!(though most of them are good memories.)

Anyways, some other updates. Been enjoying my time in the hotel, just feels like I'm a guest still. Everybody is nice here. I'll get some pictures tomorrow or during the upcoming weekend. Also, it was my birthday on Thursday and I got some stuff :p! Mostly just junk food, and food I can't eat. I got some money too so I will look for stuff to buy hahahaha. I'm not too sure what to get though, but yeah, maybe just save it up. Use it to buy gifts, if I can fit them in my bloody suitcases. Those things are filled to the brim. I might need to use one of my carry-on bags and just check that in and pay a little extra.

I ate snake sometime last week, and I have to say, it tastes just like chicken. I also had sips of snake venom, blood, semen, seahorse beer, and some other beer. I was sick the day after, but meh. Good experience with that exotic food. Nothing really new has been going on. Getting more used to the bus schedule, though I still need my cheat sheet hahahaha. Bus only comes every hour, so I have to get the MRT and bus time right. Weeeeee. Exciting. 

Anyways, nothing new except my flight information, and that small update I guess. Rather slow and boring in my neck of the woods. I'll update on anything new or cool going on. Till next time, tschüss!

Hey, long time no me writing to you guys.

Hey... Yeah, I forgot about my blog. I got a little ding on my email about blogger, it took me a second, and I was like, "Oh yeah, I'm blogging this experience out, and I haven't posted in a freaking month!" Well, here's a quickie of information for you all!

I started up school again, kind of. First week back was a half week for the exchange students there because we were doing something down in Taitung! My memory is rusty, but we watched the Bombing of (somebody's name here) and it's basically people throwing a ton of fireworks at somebody. Sounds fun, right?! Not really for the receiving end, but it was interesting to watch. I felt some of the debris hit me, no major damage, just like flicking by my face and all that fun stuff. We toured around Taitung city too, seeing all the stuff was pretty awesome. My memory just doesn't want to remember the trip, but it was really fun! I wish I can go into detail on that. Anyways, next shin dig.

School, yeah. I have the same classes, and they gave me a chance to remove some and switch them out. So I'm doing that tomorrow. I was in my death bed for the past week, with some sort of sickness, it felt like strepth throat with congestion, migraines, and acheyness just wrapped into one lovely bundle of sick. Not fun, but I feel a lot better, and today I went on a run because I was in my house all week. Seriously, one of my more boring weeks. Just some small tid bits going into the next little bit.

So from Chinese New Year, I had a BUNCH of money, I had around $638USD! That was all the money I have accumulated from Chinese New Year, and money that I had saved from not taking the MRT everyday during Winter break. Yeah, just a bit of money, but I decided something, "I'm going to buy myself an early birthday present!" ...So I did. I bought myself a tablet... Nexus 7... Came with a few cool things...(wireless internet adapter, chord adapters, small little case for the adapter...) Yeah, that's a neat little thing ^_^ I'm glad I bought it, I saved a bunch of money and stuff... WOO! So that was kinda my birthday present to me.

Nothing too big has been happening, I switch host families on the 30th I think, and I get to move to the mountains! Yaaaay!(sarcasm). I'm not going to enjoy the commute every day, but I think I'll enjoy myself up there... Away from the city... I'll like it! Just like home! I stayed 1 night there a few weeks ago, and I woke up to roosters, and I was like, "AM I IN IDAHO?" I did kind of yell it, and the people ran into my room.... I hope that's not going to be a daily thing.

Well, I'm kind of just ranting, and this is probably boring to read, mainly just updating anybody who wanted this update. Woo. I'll remember to update when I'm all settled in my new host family.
Take care for now!

P.S: I've been in Taiwan for about 207 days! That's quite a lot hahahaha!

The happenings. (Talking about my trip too)

Well, Japan came and went. It went by really quick. I wish I could of stayed longer, but I had to deal with stuff back in Taiwan :P. Anyways, it was a blast, but I can't remember too many details. Sorry about that hahaha.. I'll tell you the general areas we went to.

Ok, so we went to Kansai, Wakayama pref, Nara pref, Mie pref, and Shiga. I should of wrote this earlier hahahaha, so I can talk about it more in depth. We didn't explore the whole area of prefectures, but a majority of it we drove through hahahaha. I took pictures of all the places we visited. So you can always check those out. I really enjoyed the trip, and I as I said, I wish I could of stayed longer! Next is my little update.

After my Japan trip, life has been kind of slow, I've just been trying my best to study, and learn more about my current area I'm living in. It's a neat area, I'll take a video of some of the areas I'm in. Talking about videos, I have the Japan trip videos almost done, one of them needs music, the other just needs to get a clip added to it. I also took a video at my host grandparent's house, so I will look that over and see if I need to upload that one before the others. I might of talked about the other videos. Anyways, those will be coming your way sometime soon!

Another topic, school. Ugh, I don't want to go back. School starts in 10 days(Feb 27) for me. It'll be good for me to get back hahahaha. I miss some of my classmates. We get all new classes too, so I'll post up my schedule, and I hope I have better classes this time, and they actually let me switch my classes at least once. This has been one long winter break hahahaha. January 11th, to February 27th xD. I definitely had a blast!

Not too much has been going on too be honest. Nothing really exciting. Hopefully my vlog will pick up, make it worth while to make videos of cool things. Well things I find interesting. Anyways, I will post the videos up sometime soon, and yeah! Till next time!

Oh, I have a blog, don't I?

Yeah, um, I've been meaning to post on this, but I kinda forgot to! Well, I'm here, typing this up, just for you guys. I bet you feel special, don't you :D! Anyways, I'm going to talk about Christmas, the past few days, and the upcoming Chinese New Year! Also, I'm kind of wanting to start my vlog again, but with a new camera. I might get a good video camera, or try to configure the my nikon, or just mess with my voice, so I don't sound so bloody mono-tone. I still don't have a new webcam hahaha! I did bring a big headset (Turtle Beaches ha) and it makes my voice reasonable, and not so boring. Well, enough about that, let me fill you in!

Back in December, around the 20th I was sitting in school wondering what I was going to do for Christmas, and later that day I figured out I was invited to go to a German's host family's house on the 24th! People in Europe mostly celebrate Christmas on the 24th, so it was kind of like Christmas. We had a bunch of fun, we tried to watch a movie, but we just ended up having fun and dancing. That was about it for that day. The 25th I didn't really do much, I stayed home to talk to my family on Christmas eve for them, then I talked to them Christmas morning again. I was glad I got to talk to them! I got a care package from my Aunt/Grandmother and my Father. Next is New Years!

Man, oh man. That day was really hectic. I woke up rather late, and met with a few friends a few hours later. We then met up with more people, but our groups separated for  some stupid reason, but it was nice with the group of 4 others I was with. We saw the fireworks at Taipei 101, and met some awesome exchange students from another district! We missed the MRT going back, but we had a fun time walking around Taipei in the middle of the night. It was rather creepy I thought. It was a nice time. We went home at around 5 am, I got to my Tamsui at 6 am and I waited around to see the New Years Sunrise, but it was foggy where I was so I didn't see it. It was dawn when I finally went home, just no sun xD. I also talked to my direct family that morning too.

Nothing really happened the next few weeks, I attended school until Jan. 10 and started my winter break! Last week I went biking with a few exchange students but I got really homesick and decided to leave early. Yesterday (Thursday 1/24) I met up with one of my good friends that I took the airplane with and we hung around all day! It was really fun :D. Next, Chinese New Year

Alright, so Chinese New Years, it's rather complicated to explain, and I still don't know how to explain it to you all. I'll use the help of wiki(Sorry about that) and give you little tid-bits of information from it!

It starts earlier than you think, but not the festivities.
    "On the eighth day of the lunar month prior to Chinese New Year, a traditional porridge known as làbāzhōu (臘八粥) is served in remembrance "of an ancient festival, called Là, that occurred shortly after the winter solstice". That day was January 8th, or some days near that. I really didn't like the porridge too much, it was REALLY sweet. It also gave me a gruesome stomach ache. So in the upcoming days, were going to be cleaning our house, and here's some tidbit:
     "On the days immediately before the New Year celebration, Chinese families give their home a thorough cleaning. There is a Cantonese saying "Wash away the dirt on ninyabaat" (年廿八，洗邋遢), but the practice is not restricted to nin'ya'baat (年廿八, the 28th day of month 12). It is believed the cleaning sweeps away the bad luck of the preceding year and makes their homes ready for good luck." My host mother and I are going to be buying me some new clothes too hahahaha, so I will have a few new shirts. That's another way of cleaning up! It's a fifteen day holiday, so there is something everyday that we'll maybe do. We most likely will. Man I'm freaking excited. So much food to be eaten and just Aggghhh, I can't wait.

Near the end of Feburary, I'm going on a trip to Hualien for about 4 days, I think I'll make videos on those days too, just what we do, and all the fun things ^_^; That's really about it, I can't think of anything else. I hope to keep you all updated over the festivities, I will try to make videos of cool things, maybe one just to wrap it all up. Anyways, sorry for the long update. Take it easy and enjoy life to the fullest!

Woo! I had a dream!

Yes, it's a weird title. All will be explained. Anyways, it's been quite a while since I had an update. It's finally here though! With all of it's excitement and... What am I kidding, it's you reading what I typed a while ago. I'm writing this at 16:42(+7 or something like that, maybe +8). To the update!

First, I moved! Tears of excitement have been shed, I'm really glad that I moved. I moved on December 2nd, so I've been in my new house for about 10 days. Sure, the 2 hour commute to school sucks, the freezing nights are rigid, but I like it up here. I'm in the coldest part of Taiwan, Tamsui(pronounced Danshui, not Tam-Swee). I guess I'll have a cold Christmas this year, I think that's good? My host family is really nice, and they try to treat me like one of their own children. Their daughter is in the states, and she's in Midland, Texas. They have another daughter, but she lives two hours away and I haven't seen her in the house yet. I met her a couple of times at meetings 'n such. Other than that, it's just Host Mother(Doris), Host Father(L.D.), and myself! It's quiet but I kind of like it quiet.

On a side note, the internet here is MARVELOUS. So I can maybe revive my vlog! I'm thinking of doing a video on how I get to school, I have Coming of Age Ceremony videos, and I will do a vlog update. I have a general idea on what to do. Maybe I will have vlog instead of a blog update. Not too sure yet. Maybe mini-vlog. So yeah, be prepared to see my face. I never got a new camera by the way. I like the sound on my picture camera, so I could use that... Quality just depends on how the bloody thing is feeling, I swear, it has a mind of it's own. Some days it's crystal clear, some days it's the crappiest photo in the whole world. That could just be me though. Anyways, next thing, update stuff.

School is rather boring, but aren't all schools like that? My Chinese courses are ending tomorrow, and I will have to continue on by myself and hopefully get fluent hahaha. I can kind of grasp the general idea of a conversation if I listen intently during a conversation. I still can't talk to save my life > _<; ...I'm trying to fix that. I'm planning on writing a bunch of letters sometime within the next few weeks, and send them out before Christmas. Sorry folks, no Christmas letters from me, maybe a little bit after Christmas. Umm, other than that, I'm just relaxing(to a degree) in Taiwan, and enjoying life! Next paragraph, the reasoning behind my title, and the coming of age ceremony.

I had a dream, in Chinese. I'm sofa king excited about that :D! It happened a few days ago, but still, a dream in Chinese. High five to myself!
Now the coming of age ceremony... It was a fun day, seriously, I had a blast, even though I came like 40 minutes late, because of my stupid bus. The part I missed was walking around the Confucius Temple, and I probably missed out on some good history and pictures. I blame the bus. After that we did our practice dances and ate lunch during those. Then we all got our fancy silky shirts. I slept in mine already. They're really comfortable :D! Then all the festivities happened. We did our performances, watched some kids, took MILLIONS of pictures, and had a good time. Oh I did a self shot with Mark Zimmer, which nobody really does. He was totally cool with it too xD. Then we got a normal picture. Ummm, other than that, I went home right after that because I was just really tired, and my jackets were all wet and I had a bunch of stuff in my bag. That's about it.

Nothing too much has been happening, I had to say goodbye to two close friends of mine. One because her exchange was up, and the other because she was having health problems. Totally sucks, but stuff like that happens. Not too much you can do. A roller coaster of emotions these last few weeks. I also got some nice beats(songs) this past week and I've been listening to those. So, be prepared for some videos, updating the page for pictures, and all that other jazz. Next update should be around Christmas I reckon.

Take care!