I was laying in bed today, sick, and I thought to myself, "Maybe I should do a blog post..." Here's what you'll see in this blog post: I'm sick, school stuff, health issues. Let's get it started, this might be rather boring.
Oh hey, I just remembered half way typing this, that it's my one month here in Taiwan! I've had a blast here so far(but the last couple of days).
Alright, first thing, I've been sick for about a week. Let's just start going through the week. Monday I went to school, doing decent, but a little ill. The day was OK for the most part, till after lunch. For lunch I went to a place called Saizeriah(sp), and it's really good, cheap food. I like it a lot, so do the other exchange students. It's like American Italian food. So it's pretty good, since I'm kind of used to that. Meals range from $60NT($2USD)~$200NT($6.33USD). It's cheap, and delicious, there is unlimited drinks for $1USD. So if you ever visit(I'm talking to you birth parents, and blood related siblings)! After that I went to a food place, and found some rice flour bamkuchen(I think that was it), and got excited and bought it. I found some strawberry marshmallows, with strawberry filling for $1.33, and it was delicious. So I ate the apparently gluten-free(I'll get on that subject later), and I had an über bad reaction to it, and rested in the infirmary, then went to class, feeling really darn sick. I didn't go to school on Tuesday. Wednesday, everything was ok, but I was feeling ill still, starting to get a bad sore throat, enflamed tonsils, migraines, other stuff. So I go to my other classes,(the schedule for this day was the same) and continue through the day. I didn't go to school Thursday, and Friday. I slept all day those days, and kind of got around today, since I had some medicine in me. Still feeling a bit bad though, but I'm not as bad. Up next is escuela!
I really like my classes, and I've met some awesome people. Though I'm going to have a hard time remembering names, and I already have forgotten a few(I'm sorry ^^;)... Anyways, all my classes are awesome, I switched out of some, and my new ones are: ...I forgot a few, but I have ESPAÑOL as one of them. That will be a fun class, plus I think it would help me a bit if I did learn Español, so I'll be learning Spanish, instead of Japanese. Other than that, I might be joining the cooking club, or interact club. Or both if I can. Anyways next topic is my health.
Well, my diabetes is good, so blood related family members, calm down. It's something I kind of self diagnosed myself with, so it's not legitimate yet. Anyways, I'm pretty sure I'm celiac, ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001280/ ) there's the link to sum it up. To simply put it, if I eat gluten(wheat, barley, rye) I will get bloated, be constipated, throw-up a lot, and have a bad time. Ummm, I think that's it, so I can't eat bread or anything like cakes and cookie and stuff unless I make them with gluten free cooking flours. When I get back to America in 9 months I will see if I really do have it, if I don't I will really question why I don't, because it can't be cured, and I was having most of the symptoms. Anyways that's it about my health.
Ok, so NEXT SUNDAY I will post a freaking vlog, whether I like it or not. I will get my butt around to it, sometime during the day, whether it's in the middle of the day, or at night! So prepare your eyes, and your ears(it might be a crappy audio quality). I think it will be OK, if I have to, I will use my stupid gaming head phones, (I brought them for skype calls when I don't use the camera, because it makes my voice better), or my iPod ones hahaha. Oh well, just be ready! I will have a vlog post on Sunday! Mark your calendars, prepare your tissues for the tears(aimed at my family), and uhhhh, yeah. See you guys Sunday.
YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/TaipeiBenjamin?feature=plcp
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Food Poisoning, Speedos, Orchestras, and School!
Ahhh, it's September already. Time is going by at a decent pace. I'm pretty glad it's not going to slow, or too fast. Anyways, all has been well and I started school today. I this might be shorter update, because there isn't much to talk about.... Anyways, let's get the ball rolling again.
So I didn't really do much after my lego exhibition. I hung out with inbounds and just explored Taipei. Nothing too fancy. There might be something different going on but if I dive into the subject, it will be personal, and will breaking a rule so I will refrain from it. On a different note, on Sept. 3rd, I went to a family reunion thing, where we ate a bunch of food. Sure it was nice eating some kind of decent stuff... I just got food poisoning from it. So I was sick Tuesday->Friday, and I hardly ate. If I did eat, I would of had see food 20 minutes later. Not good, so I refrained from much food digestion. One last thing that goes with me being sick, a bit. I messed up my right foot pretty bad on Sept. 5th xD. I have a decent sized bruise on my foot and it hurts a lot when I walk, especially when I wear shoes... Which would be every day... joyful.
Now all the depressing stuff is out of the way, let's go onto some brighter subjects. I got to explore some of the surrounding area of my house on Friday when I was feeling a bit better. I needed air and some sunshine, so a walk was the perfect thing. "Just what the doctor ordered." (I think that's a good way to use that phrase). Saturday I hung out with my mentor, Samuel, so I had a good time hanging out with him, walking around and stuff, eating at this good all you can eat place, and going to some foot hotsprings. It felt amazing! Especially with the bruise on my foot, it was like God was rubbing my feet. It just felt sooo good, I don't know how to explain it.
Sunday was just a weird day in the beginning... I get woken up rudely, and I get yelled at while I'm getting dressed... When I heard the door open, I put my under garments on so fast, it was like a bolt of lightning. Then I get told to eat really fast, so I did, and we left an hour later after I woke up... I think I could of went a little slower hahahaha, oh well. When we were driving, I had no idea whats-so-ever on where we were going, and what we were doing. So I just listened to my iPod till our destination(I seriously couldn't speak any Chinese during that car ride, I was just too exhausted. It was a lost cause. I gained my speech back later though. So, we pull over to the side of the rode, and I'm met by some man. I have no idea who that man was, so I ask him some questions, and he was my home stay mother's brother hahahaha. He was driving a scooter that day too, so I got to ride my first scooter. Those things are fun, and I didn't feel like I was going to lose my life the whole time. He drove very well, in my books anyway. He also told me to hold on to this small bag, and I didn't know what was in it, or bothered looking at the time.
Anyways, we reached the first destination, a swimming pool. Oh my gosh, I quickly look in the small bag, and I see the swimsuit I was going to be wearing.... A speedo. Oh dear, this was going to be embarrasing. So I told him, "I do not want to swim." He wasn't paying attention, and bought me admission. Dammit. I go to the changing room, and sit down looking the devil right in the eyes, in the form of a speedo. I thought to myself, "No way I'm wearing this." So I bought one that went down to two inches above my knees... better than a speedo. Close call number one in Taiwan.
After swimming, I went to Home Stay Uncle's house, showered, ate, had a sun cake, and got in the car shortly after. We went to the next destination, an Orchestra. I found the music REALLY GOOD, and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. My home stay sister was in it too. It was nice seeing her play the instrument she has been practicing a lot. After that we went to some big shopping centre/mall thing. It was nice walking around, seeing all the expensive imported clothing. I was like frustrated with something, I couldn't really enjoy it that much... I think it was the speedo. After that we drove to C.K.S. Memorial Hall and ate at this dumpling place, and it was delicious. I wouldn't mind going there again.
So, it's Monday morning, and I start school today. I was excited and nervous, and all that jazz. I woke up at 6 am, but I got there at 8 am... What the heck, why did I have to wake up so early... I was annoyed, but what can you do hahahaha. I also got a bag today too! I was freaking excited about that, it was one of the things that made my day too be honest. Now my pockets won't be bulging with all my stuff hahaha. We get there at 8, and we go into a conference room, and were handed a little packet. It had rules in it and such, uniform is optional, but I might be wearing it a bit. Not too sure. After that, we walked to our Chinese class, and the teacher is awesome. She only speaks Chinese, but she writes the pinyin, and there are pictures and stuff, and I actually retained some information. We have to memorize some stuff that we learned today, and introduce ourselves n' such. After Chinese class, we got to meet the people taking us around school, when it got to my group, it was 5 girls, and I was like, "Ok, that's cool I guess". So we walked around for a bit, and ate lunch, and talked, introduced me to the classmates in the first class that I have. It was pretty fun, I picked up some words, and she translated the main points of today's lesson in English.
Schedule for Semester One: Monday-Thursday Chinese 08:10-12:00
Monday: Life Preparation 13:30-15:15
Tuesday: English 13:30-16:15
Wednesday: Art Advertising 13:30-15:15
Physical Education 15:25-17:10
Thursday: Art of Life 13:30-15:15
Life Sciences 15:25-17:10
Friday: Military Training 10:10-12:00
Music 13:30-15:15
Japanese 15:25-17:10
"I like this school so far." was my thought at the end of today, as I'm writing this. I think things are finally swinging into motion. The prolouge has been read, and lived through, so it's complete. I think I can finally say, "Let's start this exchange adventure at full speed!" I'm learning chinese, meeting new people, trying new foods, learning about the culture.... Those are the four main things on my main reasons I wanted to go to Taiwan. I've been fulfilling the main quota. I hope to delve into more of my minor reasons I've wanted to come here. We'll see what happens in the future. As for now, I might actually do an introduction to my vlog. I might just test it out, and see how it goes.
READ THIS( please :) ): For those of you going onto here from my facebook posts, I will stop doing that starting next month. I am giving you guys plenty of time to subscribe to my blog. Basically, go to the side of the page, enter your email, and you get to chose to follow publicly, and privately. If you haven't done so, do eet nao. Save the blog on your favourites, reccomend it to your friends and stuff! I'll stop advertising now. If that's considered advertising.
Anyways, that's the end of it. I hope you enjoyed reading my prolouge, and I hope you will enjoy reading my experiences in the future. See you soon :)!
So I didn't really do much after my lego exhibition. I hung out with inbounds and just explored Taipei. Nothing too fancy. There might be something different going on but if I dive into the subject, it will be personal, and will breaking a rule so I will refrain from it. On a different note, on Sept. 3rd, I went to a family reunion thing, where we ate a bunch of food. Sure it was nice eating some kind of decent stuff... I just got food poisoning from it. So I was sick Tuesday->Friday, and I hardly ate. If I did eat, I would of had see food 20 minutes later. Not good, so I refrained from much food digestion. One last thing that goes with me being sick, a bit. I messed up my right foot pretty bad on Sept. 5th xD. I have a decent sized bruise on my foot and it hurts a lot when I walk, especially when I wear shoes... Which would be every day... joyful.
Now all the depressing stuff is out of the way, let's go onto some brighter subjects. I got to explore some of the surrounding area of my house on Friday when I was feeling a bit better. I needed air and some sunshine, so a walk was the perfect thing. "Just what the doctor ordered." (I think that's a good way to use that phrase). Saturday I hung out with my mentor, Samuel, so I had a good time hanging out with him, walking around and stuff, eating at this good all you can eat place, and going to some foot hotsprings. It felt amazing! Especially with the bruise on my foot, it was like God was rubbing my feet. It just felt sooo good, I don't know how to explain it.
Sunday was just a weird day in the beginning... I get woken up rudely, and I get yelled at while I'm getting dressed... When I heard the door open, I put my under garments on so fast, it was like a bolt of lightning. Then I get told to eat really fast, so I did, and we left an hour later after I woke up... I think I could of went a little slower hahahaha, oh well. When we were driving, I had no idea whats-so-ever on where we were going, and what we were doing. So I just listened to my iPod till our destination(I seriously couldn't speak any Chinese during that car ride, I was just too exhausted. It was a lost cause. I gained my speech back later though. So, we pull over to the side of the rode, and I'm met by some man. I have no idea who that man was, so I ask him some questions, and he was my home stay mother's brother hahahaha. He was driving a scooter that day too, so I got to ride my first scooter. Those things are fun, and I didn't feel like I was going to lose my life the whole time. He drove very well, in my books anyway. He also told me to hold on to this small bag, and I didn't know what was in it, or bothered looking at the time.
Anyways, we reached the first destination, a swimming pool. Oh my gosh, I quickly look in the small bag, and I see the swimsuit I was going to be wearing.... A speedo. Oh dear, this was going to be embarrasing. So I told him, "I do not want to swim." He wasn't paying attention, and bought me admission. Dammit. I go to the changing room, and sit down looking the devil right in the eyes, in the form of a speedo. I thought to myself, "No way I'm wearing this." So I bought one that went down to two inches above my knees... better than a speedo. Close call number one in Taiwan.
After swimming, I went to Home Stay Uncle's house, showered, ate, had a sun cake, and got in the car shortly after. We went to the next destination, an Orchestra. I found the music REALLY GOOD, and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. My home stay sister was in it too. It was nice seeing her play the instrument she has been practicing a lot. After that we went to some big shopping centre/mall thing. It was nice walking around, seeing all the expensive imported clothing. I was like frustrated with something, I couldn't really enjoy it that much... I think it was the speedo. After that we drove to C.K.S. Memorial Hall and ate at this dumpling place, and it was delicious. I wouldn't mind going there again.
So, it's Monday morning, and I start school today. I was excited and nervous, and all that jazz. I woke up at 6 am, but I got there at 8 am... What the heck, why did I have to wake up so early... I was annoyed, but what can you do hahahaha. I also got a bag today too! I was freaking excited about that, it was one of the things that made my day too be honest. Now my pockets won't be bulging with all my stuff hahaha. We get there at 8, and we go into a conference room, and were handed a little packet. It had rules in it and such, uniform is optional, but I might be wearing it a bit. Not too sure. After that, we walked to our Chinese class, and the teacher is awesome. She only speaks Chinese, but she writes the pinyin, and there are pictures and stuff, and I actually retained some information. We have to memorize some stuff that we learned today, and introduce ourselves n' such. After Chinese class, we got to meet the people taking us around school, when it got to my group, it was 5 girls, and I was like, "Ok, that's cool I guess". So we walked around for a bit, and ate lunch, and talked, introduced me to the classmates in the first class that I have. It was pretty fun, I picked up some words, and she translated the main points of today's lesson in English.
Schedule for Semester One: Monday-Thursday Chinese 08:10-12:00
Monday: Life Preparation 13:30-15:15
Tuesday: English 13:30-16:15
Wednesday: Art Advertising 13:30-15:15
Physical Education 15:25-17:10
Thursday: Art of Life 13:30-15:15
Life Sciences 15:25-17:10
Friday: Military Training 10:10-12:00
Music 13:30-15:15
Japanese 15:25-17:10
"I like this school so far." was my thought at the end of today, as I'm writing this. I think things are finally swinging into motion. The prolouge has been read, and lived through, so it's complete. I think I can finally say, "Let's start this exchange adventure at full speed!" I'm learning chinese, meeting new people, trying new foods, learning about the culture.... Those are the four main things on my main reasons I wanted to go to Taiwan. I've been fulfilling the main quota. I hope to delve into more of my minor reasons I've wanted to come here. We'll see what happens in the future. As for now, I might actually do an introduction to my vlog. I might just test it out, and see how it goes.
READ THIS( please :) ): For those of you going onto here from my facebook posts, I will stop doing that starting next month. I am giving you guys plenty of time to subscribe to my blog. Basically, go to the side of the page, enter your email, and you get to chose to follow publicly, and privately. If you haven't done so, do eet nao. Save the blog on your favourites, reccomend it to your friends and stuff! I'll stop advertising now. If that's considered advertising.
Anyways, that's the end of it. I hope you enjoyed reading my prolouge, and I hope you will enjoy reading my experiences in the future. See you soon :)!
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