I Like to say that I have a "Love Hate" relationship with Taipei. Some days I hate it for it's weather, and some days I love it.

Although today was one of the hottest days, yet prettiest days ever. In the end I enjoyed it a lot. Today, I was able to see Blue skies, and the sun :) but without the polluted clouds to protect us, it was twice as hot.

But, went up the "once words tallest building" and got a great 360 view of Taipei City, and of course I just loved it.

Coffee anyone?

So, I’ve been trying to find local coffee shops with free wifi, And since I’ve been here I was only able to find Starbucks and Dante (Like star bucks but for Taiwan). After doing some research turns out there is one around the block from my apartment. Guess I was looking hard enough was I? Well, it was in an area that I normally don’t walk by and the entrance itself is pretty small.

The Café is called Mo!Relax and it’s a cozy place. It actually looks like a basement from the 80’s or 90’s you could say with a wide collection of books and magazines, oh and GREAT music.

I’ve been sitting here now drinking a cup of coffee doing my Chinese homework and I’m digging the playlist. A lot of indie electronica that I haven’t heard of before but as I look over to their wall of CD’s I see some Phoenix, The Gossip, and Franz Fernaid (And many many more)

I’m hoping this will become my regular place, but I think it could get pretty spendy. The coffee I just got was about 4 USD. If I have this everyday that could be a major problem I think. I’ll probably have to cut dinner or something. But it’s definitely great to be in an environment like this.

The only downside, the lady who had served me my copy, seemed a bit rude. But oh well, I’ve been getting many rude people here on my trip. But there are those few who are actually decent people that will overall beat these other rude individuals.

Spent the weekend traveling to Taichung visiting scenic(sort of) places

Photos are on facebook,

Greetings from Taiwan :)

China!

I've been receiving emails lately about my program in China. I've never been happier to go to China. Haha. I mean, I do love being here in Taiwan, but it's really repetitive. Mon-Fri 2 - 5 pm, Chinese. With the same 6 students, no time to meet new people.

I can't wait to be in the University atmosphere again :)

I registered for classes today :) I will be taking a class on the American and Chinese relation, with things such as human rights, security, etc (my major basically). And a class about the urban culture, including neighborhoods, culture, etc.

Can't wait for this :)

Squatting 101

So, yesterday marked my 1 month being in Taiwan :)

Things are gonna be better now, I'm gonna get over my cultureshock/homesickness/funk

To celebrate it, I went to get unlimited hot pot with some AIESECers.

I had to use the bathroom really bad (pee) and so I went to use the restaurants bathroom, Usually, all the restrooms I've been in there have been toilet.

To my worst fear, there was the squattie! Staring right at me. I almost cried :(

I had no other choice but to squat, but I'm proud to say I went one whole month without having to use that darn thing.

After using it, the Taiwanese we were worth took 5 minutes explaining to me how to properly squat using a napkin shaped into this piece of porcelain.

But, I will not go into detail about that. I must prepare myself for China.

On the other note, I bought a 2nd hand bike today :) I will now go biking around. I'm pretty pumped!!!

臺北一零一 Taipei 101

I am beat.

Today was the dragon boat festival so school was not in session. Instead of partaking in the festival I went to Taipei 101 (didn't get to go up this time) once the worlds tallest building until Dubai beat it.

It's HUGE!!! Wished we could have gone up, but we had to catch a movie at 3:00 so next time I will go.

Also, got to ride on a Giant Ferris Wheel in an air conditioned box (All clear) it was pretty scary if you asked me.

You want to know how Giant it was? Took 17 minutes for one rotation.

I will post photos later. Today was deathly hot :(

士林夜市 Shì lín yèshì

I went to the Shi Lin Night Market today. It's quite large, actually one of the largest and most famous in Taipei.

So much delicious food and shops.

I ended up buying 2 new umbrellas. I couldn't resist. They are all so cute. I bought an automatic one too, so with the push of a button I can have it open or close :) So convenient, 很方便。

I got the bank issue solved. They will temporarily allow me to open an account. It’s complicated, but I worked with 2 newly trained females who were a lot nicer. I explained to them about the complicated and not so nice workers I dealt with earlier. They agreed that the ladies were not the brightest bulb, or not nice people.

Hoping to get paid next week, then I will actually do some major damage shopping in Taipei :)