So after class on Friday I found out I have to pay an additional 9,600 NTD of tuition bc I'm in intensive class, while everyone else is taking regular class (3 hrs vs. 2hrs)....blah.
So my classmate Jimmy invited me out to dinner w/ his Taiwanese friend, who he met by contacting an ad posting on the bulletin board asking for language exchange. After 4 minutes of meeting him I asked the others if he was gay and they both said yes haha...he's so flamboyant! Apparently, he had a boyfriend in London but he's never had one in Taiwan....he's fluent in English, Spanish, and Chinese. He is going to work for the EU. Supposedly, most of his friends don't even know he's gay (which I don't believe)--it's kind of a taboo topic in Taiwan.
After dinner we all went all the way to Shi Pai MRT stop and we went to a Thai restaurant (yes....Thai food AGAIN...sigh). Oh well, and then we went to Shilin ye shi again. Both Alex and I got a pair of sunglasses but mine got lost or stolen...
We went to City Jungle and Jungle World (all these arcades) and during the games I would leave my bag around but I didn't notice it was missing until I went on the mechanical bull (PEER PRESSURE). When I got thrown off the bull several times, I was like I'm done w/ this shit! To add to the humiliation my sunglasses were gone...I left my information with the staff but I doubt it will show up. So I was in a horrible mood for awhile...
Oh and the mechanical bull is a LOT harder than it looks...the plastic is really slippery so you slide all around when it jerks around and spins. I would slide off the instant it made a quick turn and it hurt my inner thighs a lot so I would just let go and get thrown off--it wasn't worth the pain.
We spent so many hours at all those arcades (several floors). It was fun at first but then after I lost my sunglasses and I started getting tired..both Geoff and I were ready to take off. All the noise, throngs of people, and flashing lights...it was just chaos. It felt like Tokyo.
Well I thought bumper cars was fun. We played Soul Caliber and some other fighting game called King of Fighters I think. We also competed against each other by shooting basketballs (a machine that moves the hoop around and tracks who is in 1st place) at the arcade and the hockey game (forgot what it's called) and this drum game. We also tried to win prizes by knocking over cans, etc. There was so many people it was chaos. When we were at the arcade, my American friend who I met at the airport, Mike, called and they were going to "Nine Percent Club." He called at 9:30 PM, I said I would call him when I got back to my place, which was 12 AM! So by then I was sweaty, tired, and SORE (from the mechanical bull, the gym, and GYMNASTICS-more about this later). So I called him but he didn't pick up. He later called around 12:30 AM and he was already in a taxi. He said I had too many excuses...I admit he's invited me to go to clubs at least 4 times but in my defense he's in regular classes in the afternoon and I'm in intensive class in the morning on lesson 19 of the 2nd book and he's on like the first book...
Oh yeah and later around 1 AM something I got a drunk call from Mike. He said I was missing a great party and that he didn't know where his shirt was....what a PUNK! I said he left without me but he said he told me on the phone that he would wait for me at shi da...i said i didn't hear that. Oh well. (I actually didn't go to sleep until around 3 am since I was on MSN messenger late last night). He said we are definitely hanging out tomorrow night. Simon (from the USC alumni event) said he would call me tonight to hang out too. Speaking of USC alumni events, on Sunday they are holding a get together at the Fourways Ranch.
I don't know if I will be able to go though since Simon isn't going, so I will have to find another ride (I don't think I can take the MRT all the way to a ranch haha). I was supposed to go to Maokong (cable car ride up the mountain) with my 2 Japanese classmates but I was warned by my neighbor that during the summer the car is like an oven and that if it rains they will shut it down. So Maru said we should go to Xi Men Ting instead.
OK so about gymnastics....I went to the gymnastics meeting before leaving for dinner. I signed up for the club last week and they called me yesterday. It was a lot of fun. We did mat work (front flips) but I kept bending my elbows so I didn't land on my feet after the flip. Then I did some stuff on the parallel bars. Then I played around on the giant trampoline. Then Wei Yuan showed me to do 540 (0r 720?) degree front flips and back flips on the bar, i accomplished the front flip and it made my shorts all rolled up on the bar so i had to untangle that. it HURT too because you roll on your stomach and also because your hip bones rub against the wooden bar. Lastly, I worked on the double rings. I could raise myself on the low one but on the really high one I was too worn out to push myself up on that one. I'm excited about going on Monday...and next Monday I'm NOT going to workout at the gym before haha...I didn't know any better.
I've been listening to my iPod so much on the MRT recently and during the commute to school that my battery runs out every 2 days and sometimes everyday. I listen to it in the morning before class and before bed too. I didn't use it that much until recently.
Speaking of the MRT, you can't eat or drink or chew gum or you could get fined 1500 NTD! They told me yesterday when I was drinking my green bubble tea. They said that's why the MRT is so clean. Geoff said the Underground in London is just atrocious and I got confirmation of that from my Taiwanese neighbor--I never went on the underground, i just rode the buses. I told him the subway in NYC is also filthy and a lot of the stations don't have air conditioning. Paris has no air conditioning at all and smells horrible. So the Taipei MRT is really great. People even get in lines to get on the train! So orderly...they should set that in place in Japan and NYC where ppl just jostle and push. There are also automatics gates at the train entrances/exits that open and close at major stations like Taipei Main Station, where there are lots of people. I was also wary of the buses in Taipei at first bc in China they are HORRIBLE, but here they are spacious and air conditioned so they are quite nice. In China there was no air conditioning and we were packed like sardines! Also, the student MRT card is a really good discount. So basically public trans is great in Taipei.
OK I'm going to Yonghe now to have brunch with my grandma.
*I still can't post photos on Blogger....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment