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Location | Taipei

Today was a very nice day. I woke up early. Ate McDonalds. Went to class. It rained very hard. Went house hunting with Lusi. (The house btw sucked cuz it was small and the place was far from the subway station and the rent was high). Then I went to Ximen to see a movie with my cousin and the movie was: HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN!!!

The movie this time depicted almost everything how I imagined minus a few things (and this doesn’t include the “new stuff” or the “cut stuff” either just talking about the stuff you see in the movie.

Those things that weren’t the same:

1. Marauders Map. I imagined it as smaller.
2. Remus Lupin. Yes I didn’t imagine him looking like that and I still won’t.
3. Dementors. Boy those things didn’t look as cool as I imagined.
4. Crookshanks. How come I don’t remember it looking like that?
5. Shrieking Shack. Yeah… I didn’t think it looked like that.
6. Draco’s hair. Man, he needs the evil guy slicked back look again.
7. Cornelius Fudge. Yeah… nothing like I imagined.
8. Layout of the Knight Bus. I kind of imagined it more flipped around… and the furniture more stationary…
9. The Patronus Stag. So I’m dumb and thought a stag was a horse. BTW, how did Harry know his dad was a Animagus Stag?

Ok! OFF OFF AND AWAYYYYY!!!

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Location | Taipei

Well, I’m back to coming to the library after class. Tonight I’m supposed to go to Tian Mu to eat dinner with my cousin. That’s at 7 though… so I’m stuck roaming until then. Perhaps I will go to a bookstore or Page One a little later. Whatever works out. Perhaps the CKS Memorial.

Anyway, let’s talk about things Taiwan. I’m getting eaten alive my mosquitoes apparently. My legs are covered in battle scars. … From my scratching while I am sleeping. HOW TRAGIC!!!

I’ve been reading Hana Yori Dango here. I’m on volume 27 now (yay I get to go home and read it!!) The salad here sucks by the way. Don’t eat salad in Taiwan. It just tastes plain gross…

I can read lots of chinese now… sort of. I can at least read basic words… but there are still too many words that need to be learned. ACK. I have a pre-test tomorrow. I am going to cry since I don’t know chapter 3 and 4. *tears*

The bright part of my day, Mr. Gallardo, is going off to Chicago for the weekend. OH CRAP! I forgot to tell him that he should bring his laptop since most hotels have free internet service now… UHHH MISTER IAN… BRING YOUR LAPTOP!!!

I’m wearing my new shoes since I can’t enter the library wearing sandals. (aka flip flops) I’m so sad. I love my flip flop platforms. They’re sitting nicely in my backpack now.

Oh, I changed the date of when I’m going home. Now I’m returning on August 14th. I’M GOING TO MAKE IT HOME IN TIME FOR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!! Woohoo! (Well sort of one year anniversary, one year minus one month… sorry ’bout that… hehehe…)

AHA! The book in the glass display in front of me says “First rate book, first rate person!” AHAHAHAHAHAHA… I CAN READ!!!!

Uhh… yeah. Man, am I really bored or what?

BTW!! My real address is: 台中市西區樂群街92號3樓 NOT 70… Crap.. Don’t send any mail there…

Ok, time to stop writing! Byeeee!!!

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Location | Taipei
Thomas: >_< you know, when you post “Typhoon is coming” in your blog and then don’t show up for a week, I get just a liiittle worried

Yay! I’M ALIVE!!!!

After not having internet for a day and almost crying about it, I’m back and it’s fixed!! They threw my Ethernet cord out after my roommate moved out, cuz it’s hers and they thought that since she moved out, she was basically throwing it out… so now it’s dragged back into the room and I have internet!!

Let’s run down the things I’ve done this past week!

Thursday: Went home…
Friday: Woke up at 4am to go with my mom to the airport. Ate at Au Bon Pain. Mmm… Got Peking Duck.
Saturday: Went to Chung-Yo area and bought a Puma tracksuit, sweat capris, Puma purse, and Adidas shoes
Sunday: Went to Dim-sum with my great uncle and his daughter my “aunt” and then shopped around at Sogo. Then went to Carrefour. Bought the Usher “Confessions” CD.
Monday: Returned to Taipei, went to Taipei 101 with my cousin, internet was out

Today: Went to Ximen with Harry, George, and Lusi. Then went to Shilin Night Market with my cousin.

Today I purchased: a pair of shoes ($11), a Puma tank top ($6) and a Puma skirt ($9)

Tomorrow we’re going karaoke-ing. La di da. Ok… enough update for now. Will write more later.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Location | Taipei

Typhoon is coming.

Today I went to the hot springs. It was very nice just to sit in the tub and not move around. Very soothing and very relaxing. Though when I got out I looked like a prune.

Umm… in other news… my Beckham picture fell off the wall… I taped it up with a bandaid… that is probably why.

Offf offf!

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Location | Taipei

Things on my mind:
>Apparently a typhoon is coming
>Ian is not online
>Poisonous bugs that cause your whole body have have an allergic reaction
>My roommate is moving out
>My mom is going back to America
>Thai food is spicy
>I still need a dictionary
>Chinese characters are too complicated
>I still live on a mountain…
>Aloha buses are great

Yeah, so that’s all currently on my mind. So let’s go topic by topic:

Special meals:
Saturday night and Sunday afternoon my aunt took us out for some really fancy meals. Saturday dinner was at a “western style” restuarant. We had fried rice balls, then salad in vinagrette, then spanish rice and spinach noodles, then lamb chops, and finally a gelatin dessert. I thought it was ok, but I felt sick afterwards… probably because I’d been eating lots of Taiwanese foods and not enough western food.

Sunday afternoon was m uncle’s birthday lunch. We went to a super fancy restaurant on the 11th floor of the Idee department store. Private room of course. For that meal there was shark fin soup, abalone, lamp chops, scallop in egg, cold meat platter, chicken soup, grilled fish… and for dessert was this AWESOME warm pudding… I’m not sure how it was made, but it was WONDERFUL… and fruit and then shrimp dumplings. Overall, it was quite enjoyable.

Aloha Bus Service:
This week I tried out Aloha Bus Service from Taipei to Taichung. Let me just say, it was VERY enjoyable. There is an attendant and you get water, a snack, and a wet napkin. You also get a blanket. Then there is your own personal tv screen. You get to watch several movies or play video games! Then the chair is a MASSAGE SEAT!!! Plus it reclines a lot. Let me just say that it was the most enjoyable ride I’ve had in a long time. 😀

Poisonous bugs:
Apparently there is a kind of poisonous bug here and if you just touch it it squirts (or something) a poison onto you that causes you to itch and therefore causing you to have red bumps all over the parts of your body that itches. One of these bugs crawled out from the newspaper my aunt was reading and she just flicked it away and she got sprayed by the bug… SCARY!! Apparently if you come into contact with one (like you see one) the only way to rid of it “safely” is to blow it away… I’m not sure how effective that is, but I’m scared to death of this kind of bug. Apparently it sprayed some girl’s face and her whole face was completely red and puffy… SCARY!!

Typhoon:
Apparently a typhoon is coming. I’m both excited and scared. Excited because this will be my first typhoon. Scared because I live on a mountain. Crap.

Ok everyone, send me emails and give me things to do.

My address is: 台中市西區樂群街70號3樓 (sorry if you can’t see the Chinese characters). This is my grandmother’s address… just write my name on it and she’ll get the message that it’s for me. 林安娜 <– My Chinese name.

Errr yes, that is all. WAKE UP IAN.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Location | Taipei

The weather is absolutely insane here. It’s nice, then it rains, then it’s nice, then it rains, then it’s ABSOLUTELY UNBEARABLY HOT, then it rains, THEN UNBEARABLY HOT…

You get the point.

Anyway, I’ve been suffering through 3 days of class so far. It’s not really that bad because it’s only 2 hours and the teacher is always late and we get a 10 minute break and all the kids are really funny. We pretty much make fun of the teacher the whole time… I feel bad for her, I don’t think she gets the fact that we’re in college and not second graders.

Well yesterday I went and bought a whole bunch of electronics. I just counted up how much everything cost and it’s actually US$118 or NT$4100. Not bad. I have to pay my cousin back at the moment though because he paid for almost everything. I got a light blue mp3 player, a mini webcam, and a usb hub. They all work and they’re all really nice. I just need to get nicer batteries for the mp3 player.

My face is going through an awful transition. The weather here is making it dry then oily then dry then oily. I don’t think I can take it anymore… because my face is going to come back acne ridden… because apparently the stuff that I use now is not working very well in this environment… AAAHHH!!!

Um… yeah sorry about the description. Anyway, if anyone has a webcam and wants to talk to me, I suggest using msn messenger. It’s so much nicer. (At least for webcam)

Ok, I have to go to class soon, so I’m going to go get ready.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Location | Taipei

Today I had my first class. The teacher kind of taught the class as if we were second graders. It was a complete flashback to first year Chinese school… I hope it gets better…

Anyway, I went to try out the Taiwanese II class, but I ran out, because well, while I can understand Taiwanese, it takes me A LOT longer to speak Taiwanese… and most of the people in the class had a grip as to how to speak Taiwanese… so I thought, this is definately not the class for me.

I went out for brunch with this grad student at U of M’s mom. She’s really nice, but I think she is trying to hard to “be my friend.” Hehehe.. I dunno, everyone here is just trying to be helpful, but sometimes it is just scary. She doesn’t need to buy me anything! LOL… she kept on wanting to buy me stuff… it’s ok it’s ok… LOL.

Oh, in a few days I get to go to the largest bookstore in Eastern Asia: Page One. It’s inside the Taipei 101 mall… and Taipei 101 is the tallest building in the world (as of date). I’M SO EXCITED TO GO TO THAT BUILDING!!! Plus they have tons of books in English, so woohoo!

I bought another book on “Cultural Taipei.” It’s really interesting and there are lots of pictures. It was only $4.50, so if you’re in Taipei, I suggest you buy it, it’s a good buy.

I think my cousin also said that she’s going to take me to a hot springs sometime in the future, so I’m kind of excited about that. Also we’re going to a street that specializes in electronics so I can buy a cheap mp3 player and webcam! YAY! Lots of things to do. Tomorrow I’m going to go to The Taipei World Trade Center to visit my cousin at the International Compudex Show. Yay for all new computer technology!

Ok, so I’m starting to enjoy Taiwan a lot more… only because when you have people willing to go with you place, it’s a lot more interesting.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Weather | Taipei

I’ve spent the whole day at Shi-Da. This is my day. This is my life. I haven’t made any friends yet though I have talked to several people. One person was this old guy (he looked around 40) from Malaysia. I was actually quite scared of talking to him. I kind of ran away when the conversation winded down. Then I went and got lunch because I had been starving for 2 hours but I wasn’t willing to just GO and get food. I had to be an stubborn ass and sit on the 7th floor of the Mandarin Language Center and read everything that I could get around to reading… of course I was bored out of my mind.

My classes start tomorrow, they are from 2:10pm-4pm. I am also going to sit in on a culture class for Taiwanese level 2 — just to see how it’s like. I’ll probably understand the Taiwanese pretty well, but oh well, it gives me something to do tomorrow.

Yesterday I was definitely out of my mind to go on crying like that. At least I was saved by my “aunt” Chiaying. Today I’m being saved by my cousins Agnes and Jack. Whew. This eating meals alone business is quite scary. I just went to a bakery and grabbed a sandwich for lunch and then went over to 7-11 to get something to drink. Perhaps I will try other foods soon, but I am still not feeling too “brave” to venture out into the city alone… and anyway it was raining like crazy when I went out to get food and my sandals got complete soaked… and they still are… no matter how long I’ve had them out to dry, they haven’t dried yet. Craaaap!

I’m in the Shi-da library now just using the computers up in the front. I have nothing better to do so I might as well sit here and just use the computers. It’s actually quite nice. It’s air conditioned in here. I can bring my laptop too since they have wireless access. Yay for wireless.

If I can at least make like 1 or 2 friends here to just hang out with all the time I think I will be able to survive the life here. It’s really quite boring when you don’t have anyone to talk to. My cousins and aunt are all working, so I can’t hang out with them… Too bad I can’t get a job, because that’d be EXCELLENT.

Maybe I can convince Chiaying’s boss to let me just do menial work at her workplace. I really have nothing else to do… then again my class is in the middle of the day so I can’t exactly go off to Chiaying’s to work… maybe for the morning to lunch time. OMG… I am so weird… working for free really isn’t my style.

I really need to find an english bookstore. Tomorrow I am supposed to venture out to Computex at the Taipei World Trade Center to visit Chiaying. It’s supposed to be an international information technology show for people who import and export. It’s not open to the public, but Chiaying said she can get me in on a working pass or something. I think that’s totally awesome since I love computer shows and since it’s supposed to be all new tech stuff, I’m super excited!

Oh, last night my roommate didn’t come back which I thought was super weird… I slept the whole time and she never came back… I woke up around 4:30am because I was sweating like crazy… It was just too warm inside the room even though I had the air conditioner going. I think somehow the temperature adjusted, since when I went to sleep it was freezing COLD.

FINALLY, they turned off the stupid piano that was playing classical music. I love classical music and all, but that piano was super annoying…

I also got my books for my class tomorrow. The readings are relatively easy but there are still words that I don’t know. I think I need to go out and by memorization cards. Hmm… seriously, somehow I managed to stay at the Shi-Da area since around 9am this morning. It’s about 5:38pm here right now. So I’ve been here for around 8.5 hours. WOW… I managed to waste my day. I need to go buy some books to read or I will go insane. Perhaps I will download some more digital books into my pda so I can read them randomly. Anyone recommend any good “classic” novels (since those are usually the ebooks that are free). Maybe I should PURCHASE some ebooks… erm no. I prefer the hardcopy stuff over the digital stuff. Even though I am a digital maniac.

I’ve written a lot today haven’t I? I guess it’s since I don’t have much to do so I get to ramble on about the random things that come to my head. Well this is why I also have a blogger and livejournal too. Plus I post on Forumosa.com and other random places. I don’t know if I should move out of the I-House and try to find an apartment. I want to live in a place of my own, but then it’s super hard to find a place for only 3 months and even if I move out after my one month that I paid for at I-House it’d be even harder to find a place for 2 months. Maybe someone would be willing to host me! 😀

Anyway, I still have like 20 minutes until my cousin comes to get me, so perhaps I will write an entry in livejournal or something.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Location | Taipei

Anxiety attack over. I called my cousin and I’m going to for dinner with her. I guess I’m just a freak to be so scared of being here. I’m just so weird in general. From now on, if I go somewhere far away (aka in another country) I’m definitely going to a city where I know at least one person (and they have to be close by… not as far as my cousin is… wtf she lives like 30-1hour away by subway!!!)

Ok. Yes. I’m good.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Location | Taipei

This is it. I’m having an anxiety attack. Complete and utter failure I am. I’m crying my little heart out for the first time ever because I’m all alone. I just feel so helpless right now. Every time I’ve gone someplace new I always had someone with me that I knew, and now, I have no one. I feel so lonely and sick. I feel terrible. There’s nothing for me to do but cry and that’s all I’m doing.

I’m scared out of my mind. I’m not the one who goes adventuring off alone. This is why I didn’t go far away from home for college. It’s so weird that I can’t stop crying. All I know is that I don’t want to go to Japan to study anymore. I just want to stay home. Stay home for the rest of my life. That’s all.

I feel so bad for crying my guts out. Seriously. I just can’t control my feelings right now. I don’t know what I’m going to do. Sure I’m independent and cut off for the most part now, but I really can’t stand this fact. I just want to be home where I’m most comfortable. I’ve only been here for about 2 hours and I already want to go home. Can you believe me? I really can’t believe it.

Ok, I’m just blubbering, I have no idea what is wrong. I feel very insecure and ripped apart. Its not a very nice feeling at all.

I don’t want to be left alone. I was watching this movie and in it there was this guy who traveled all alone and he had no one because his family had all passed away and even his wife had passed away. I don’t think I coud take being left alone like that. I can only be human and need people to be around me all the time. Frankly I just miss everyone back at home. I miss everyone like crazy.

I just can’t handle it. I kept talking about Taiwan this and Taiwan that, except I was just really afraid of it all. I don’t even want to be here anymore. I wanted to be here for like a day and then since then I’ve just wanted to go home. What is wrong with me!? I’m so messed up.

I guess I just don’t like being here.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]