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!

Just an update(friggin long update)

Nothing too exciting. Just an update. Couple things I need to type up on this here blog.

Anyways, a couple days ago(Wednesday Nov. 21 late evening) I arrived in Taiwan! So I've been here for three months... Take that people who didn't think I would survive that long. ::does the in your face dance:: Anyways, been here three months, and I am enjoying probably 85% of the time. Why not 110% of the time? Well just some stupid stuff due to communication problems with my host family. I tried my best to mend the relationship with them, but it's just not happening. I leave on Saturday at 14:00(2pm), so only a little bit longer. Not delving into the details on this hahahaha. Anyways, it's been an awesome three months here in Formosa. I am glad to have met all the people that I know here, and am very thankful for the new friends that I have met from around the world. One day I will visit them all xD. Anyways, next topic, the switch.

Ok, so I switch in approximately 6 days 12 hours and 10 minutes. (There's a countdown app > _>;)... Yeah, so when I switch, I will try another blog update where it doesn't take two bloody days to upload a video that is a couple minutes long. Not doing that again. I will try to get a new webcam for my vlogs. I have thought of something else too, I can use my headset I look like a gamer in(gaming headsets for the win) and put pictures in the video, or just deal with the terrible camera quality and have the headset on. I will ponder on the decisions. I also will try another camera video, since I like that idea. This is all hoping I will have internet at the house, I'm pretty sure I do, hopefully. Anyways, I will start living in Tamsui next week. My house is a 30 minutes walk from the MRT(Metro/Mass Rail Transit) system. I hope I will have a bike... Tamsui is a lovely place and I can't wait to live there. My second host family is amazing too! Overall, I'm excited for moving. Next thing, what I've been up to...

I have a bad habit of writing like I'm writing an essay for English hahahaha. I've been quite busy the last few weeks. I've been practicing a dance for Rotary for the Coming of Age Ceremony. I'm not sure if I am supposed to keep on doing the first dance I learn, or I will just stick to this weapon routine I'm doing with a group of 14 others. Sudden realization, that I'm the only guy in the weapons group. REPRESENT THE MEN. Anyways, it's really fun, the routine is easy, and the first routine/dance is with a spear :D! The next one(there were other weapons, so I'm just assuming) is with one handed axes. It looks like we will be holding two at a time. I hope so anyway. This routine/dance is going to be really fun :D. I am looking forward to how it will turn out.

I went to the middle of Taiwan last weekend, to the Taichung area. It was really fun, I was mainly there for Rotary and I didn't have too much time to myself until the night where I just looked around the night market near my hotel. We visited a town where some famous person named "Dragon" in my club used to live, and we donated $45,000 NTD which is roughly 1,500 USD to his elementary school. It was a rather rainy weekend too, and I didn't like the rain too much. I brought my canvas shoes, and well, they got muddy, and soaked through, and I had to do a terrible job cleaning them xD. They are still a bit dirty. It adds character. We also visited a flower garden and I found that freaking amazing. There were quite a few cool looking displays. I enjoyed it ^_^. I'm going to a convention tomorrow(secret till I upload the pictures) so you'll just have to look for my picture update. Mwahahahahahaa. I really haven't been around too much, I'm going to Tainan(near the south) on Monday via High Speed Rail, so I will be taking pictures left and right. I'm really excited about that. Oh, another place I went to in the next paragraph.

About two weeks ago, I went to a pottery place. It was in the Yingge township, which is 30 minutes by train... Also, that was my first train ride of my life. A legitimate train ride, not the one at bloody Disney Land.  We made some pots, and they should be at our school around Dec. 3-7. We looked around and stuff, and yeah. Were going to Taipei 101 FINALLY, with my culture class this week too! It only took me three months to go! I will bring Kalevi(my version of flat stanley), and flat stanley for my friend's little sister. World's fastest elevator here I come :D. I will take a video, with the chemical brothers playing of course. Pretty sure I will go with them. I'm pretty excited about this. Anyways. Yeah.

Time to wrap this up. I've been drinking coconut milk/water/whatever you want to call it, like no tomorrow. Same with pearl milk tea. That stuff is delicious. I'm also starting to learn parkour now. I suck at it, but I'm learning the basics, and yeah. Should be a fun hobby I'll stick to. CRAP. I forgot to talk about Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving, was decent I guess. I went with my Culture class to Xinbeitou and we went in the hotsprings. It was full body, but it was public, so we wore swimming suits(thank Buddha!). After that, we came back to my home station, and we saw this pie salesman, and we bought pie. One bloke(Michael) bought a whole pie, with a bunch(8) different flavours. We went back to my house and had milk and pie. It was amazing. After that we just lounged around. After dinner I met up with my cousin(she's an exchange student too, distantly related) and our friend and I got an Adventskalendar. I am excited about that hahaha. Anyways, that was Thanksgiving.

There you go. I am POSITIVE I haven't forgotten about anything. There will be a relatively short update next week, just about my house, and a few pictures to upload on the books of my room all messy when unpacking. Anyways yar. Updates next week too.

More to come.
 (Whoever gets that, gets a shoutout)

Hey, I'm alive, I just been forgetting to post stuff on here.

It's almost been a month since I've posted on this... Where did the time go? Anyways, I'll chat-chit it up on what's been new.

For the month of October, I was terribly broke. I spent over half my Rotary pay money in a week to buy a phone, and put credits on it. That was about $100 USD... Apparently my host family had a phone for me, and they told me I had it, but I don't even remember receiving it... Anyways, that's all behind me now. I have a decent phone(I call it my old man phone, since there is an SOS switch on the back, and the numbers on it are HUGE.) I also bought a Pokémon doll(a Bulbasaur), and named it Kalevi. I'm thinking of it as a Flat Stanley... Take pictures of it with landmarks/something cool in the background. Should be an interesting activity... Though I've only taken two pictures = .=;. Anybody want me to go somewhere unique and have a picture for you? Tell me and I'll go there. Please make it in the Taipei area :p. Back to the money situation. So I hardly use my MRT card for traveling, so I used the money I had on there for buying my low blood sugar food(yes, I still have to do that, which is infuriating), and when I went with my host family somewhere, I was low on MRT money, and they refilled it, and I was like "Oh yeah, more food money" but I also felt bad for it not being used for it's intended purpose :p... I have to take care of my diabetes y'know! So that was how I used my MRT money for the 3 weeks I had no money in October.. On to the next small snip-it I just want to throw in.

COFFEE! My host mom bought me a big box of these coffee packets, and it's delicious. Though I still prefer fresh made coffee, this will be a good alternative for a while.. Thanks Host Mom. Next thing to talk about, packages!

My aunt, and my blood mother(sounds like a cult thing doesn't it...) has been sending me packages for a bit. I've only gotten one from each, but my aunt has one in transit, and my mother has one being prepared right now. The first one was the one that came into my hands, and it had: American deodorant(there's a difference), marshmallows, Hershey's chocolate(SPONSOR!), my father's CHOCOLATE FREAKING CHIP COOKIES(Oh my lawdy, I was so excited to see those in there, I was about to cry. Yes, I will cry over chocolate chip cookies. It was like, God told my dad to make cookies, and God blessed them with the sweet deliciousness of an angel's kiss, and yeah. My taste buds were in heaven. I still have one left.), test strips for my diabetes, and letters. I asked for some letters and I was glad I got some, this package was kind of like a second wind. It made me feel kind of good. Just a memento that I have my own personal cheerleaders cheering me on. Anyways, my aunt's package. It was rather small(only 3 items) but I was bursting out laughing for about 20 minutes. So, I asked her for some khakis for my uniform, and some other stuff(I'm pretty sure the other stuff will come in the next package, but I'm not sure.). So, I opened the package and I see the pants, and I was happy I got those, but they had little bumps in them... So I unroll the package, and potatoes fall on the floor. I sit there for a second, with my mind trying to process what just fell out of my pants. After abut 20 seconds I say to myself, "My aunt just sent me potatoes in the mail..." This was just funny, I'm sponsored by a district in Idaho, so EVERYBODY thinks I have a potato fetish. Sure, potatoes are good, I like baked and mashed potatoes, but I don't have a potato fetish. I was raised in California. Before this gets too out of hand, I will end it here: next sentence about October.

So, October was a rather boring month, due to me not using my money to hang out with people, and using it to make sure I don't go to the hospital. That's it. Now Country fair!

The country fair happened October 28, and it was one of my favorite days in Taiwan. This was a blast, I got to see most inbounds, and took a bunch of pictures, and all that. I got to make cookies too with my cousin, which was pretty cool. Distant cousin, like 5 generations back or something. I can't remember. Anyways, I got to make cookies, and I thought they were going to be terrible, but they came out all right! I wouldn't mind baking some more, let me think about stuff, and just relax for once and not have too much of a care. Back to the country fair. It lasted from 8am-2pm, and we had booths for our country, and we had to put on attire from our country, or colors, or whatever. Just had to look like you were representing your country. I wore my blazer, my Louie's shirt, and some nice shorts. Everything was pretty fun, I got my face decorated with different flags, and I got a Germany flag with the Eagle crest on it. So far my flags are: South Africa(given by Stephanie), Germany(given by Konstantin L), Taiwan(given by Brian), and 'Murrica(I bought it from Walmart.). The food at the event was amazing, and yeah, in general, I had a blast. On to the next, Halloween.

Well, it wasn't much, but I got to hang out with a couple people. We kind of just derped around my apartment for a couple hours and watched movies. It was fun. Some people probably did something, but yeah. Kind of just a simple Halloween. We watched The Husk, and I watched The Princess Bride or something like that? It was kind of funny, and I was told to watch it. Nothing else really happened.

I think that's all I can think about... As I said, October kind of sucked too. I hope it turns around. I change host families December 1st, so hopefully I can do more stuff. Anyways, sorry about the delayed update, I should update more often now. I hope so anyways. I'm also looking at other people's blogs, to see if there are any worth noting of.. I might make a quick post to inform people of blogs. I won't post it on my Facebook.

Till next time!
Some crazy foreigner in Taiwan.