Ryan: o you are so tall and handsome *giggle*

Society: Why can't American girls be this easy to get along with? Everywhere we go we are swarmed by a frenzy of Taiwanese students. By the way they interact with eachother, not just us, I get the feeling that they aren't just putting up a facade while we are here.

Shopping: Has anyone else ever bought a leather wallet for 3$? Or perhaps a backpack for 10-15$? But you may be wondering "Is that Gucci bag real?" and i might just answer, "Who cares it is a bag for 1/10 the price of the cheapest American knock-off. At that price who cares about the name-brand." The real trick to Taiwanese shopping is being able to haggle to get the price down to a more reasonable level. Bad news: none of us can bargain in Chinese. Good news: Allen, AKA the proud founder of the ~loser, loser cha-cha-cha~ dance, can. As mentioned in previous posts, the shop owners are quite animated. However, I must say that the dancing turkish ice-cream maker that shoots the bird at me when i dance like him was my favorite, and not just for his charming personality and good looks. He is also quite good at looking silly and bringing you down to the same level.

Home life: Uhhhhh hey Mom, any chance you wanna pack up the rest of my stuff and fedex it to me, because I'm staying. Aside from sleeping on the floor because my feet hang off the bed, there is not much else i could ask for. His mother always has fresh fruit and food coking. The house is clean and tidy. Most importantly, the children in the family speak much better english than the 10 words in Chinese that I know, 4 of them being ma, ma, ma, and ma. Good luck understanding that one if you know nothing about Chinese.

The night life: Not quite the same connotation you would expect in America. My host doesnt study as much as we are made to believe, but the idea that the students in Taiwan study more is not a common misconception. Tonight i went to the city pool with my host who swam like a cuttle fish, which tastes delicious by the way, while he teached me how to swim like a frog, whose distant cousin the lizard we met in the bathroom today. Don't worry though, he was polite and wore a suit. Turns out he only wanted to sell me insurance.

Communication Barrier: Each sunday night Allen and his brother attend an English class with a teacher who studied English for 10+ years in America and has been to over 150+ countries. Trust me, he had the proof. His vast collection of knick-knacks and 4 foot long cigar, however, are not what impressed me. What i must most astounded by was the level of difficuklty in the English they were learning. You can ask any of the other American students, my host is almost fluent and probably speaks better english than any other host. This class explains why. Gerunds. A word i have been trying to forget. However, they are learning it at the age of 15! I think i was introduced to the term in my 8th grade English class. 1 year behind in grammar isn't too bad. Application of words seems to be the only problem.

Why so few posts: Well, i have very limited internet access, which doesn't even start until 11 or 12 P.M after an 18 hour day of walking around. Not to forget i have to split my computer time with my homework.