Fruit

I have to say that there is probably something strange going on with American Fruit. Fruit as in oranges in particular. I bought a sack of oranges that I thought was going to last me for days until I find out 3 days later they had rotted. Maybe I just got a bad batch and the oranges were likely a different breed of oranges (they tasted and looked different on the inside, for the better) but I have oranges sit in a fridge for weeks without spoiling. So what is in our oranges?

Levi

Confusion over what I have and haven't wrote about...

First off, that carrot was the biggest, most symmetrical, tasty, and perfect carrot I have ever seen. It was bigger than my hand and looked cartoonish. BEST, CARROT, EVER.

I have a lot of things I need to catch up about in blogging but I am very confused as to what I need to blog about. My pictures are in tons of different folders and now on two different computers. By the way my laptop is bugging out ridiculously so I guess I chose the right time to buy my new one. Oh well.

Things I plan to write about after the hecticness (its a word now) of the first week of school here which; by the way, is insane and I am struggling to stay in classes because of conflicts, them no longer being taught in English, and other; are the Lantern festival, school things, the electronics plaza, food, and again other.

But right now I am busy with finding classes so...goodbye.

AND WE'RE BACK!!!

Well Google now accepts I am the guy who's name is on the account. So Blog entries will be a coming soon! But I bought a new computer that, by the way, is better than Percy's and was likely a ton cheaper. 1150 USD and it has the top of the line everything. Brand new quad core i7 processor was what hooked me. Had it custom built. So now I'm going to play on it.

Levi

Wufenpu Shopping and the MRT

So the MRT (Magnetic Rail Train?, Mass Rapid Transit? Metro Rail Train?) is a pretty cool way to travel. Of course, I have never ridden on a subway or an above ground city train so it was fascinating to me. I only road the Amtrak once when I was young so this was pretty much a new experience. It is really, really fast. Plus it gets crowded during the downtown segments in the subway. It took maybe 20-30 minutes to get to Housapani (probably not spelled right) Station and a 2 minute walk to the Wufenpu shopping district.


This place opens sometime after noon for the full shopping experiance. It is packed to the point where you could crawl faster than you could walk. There are many more shops with girl clothes than guy clothes, but there is likely over a hundred shops here. It is a maze, I am sure I didn't hit everything. There is also a lot of food places here, which is where I found a corndog (6 corndogs to be specific). I like corndogs. The clothes here are defiantly made with Taiwanese people in mind; they are skinny clothes. So if you plan on coming here and you are of the heavier persuasion like a certain blogger (me) then it will be difficult to find clothes in this district. But thankfully there is a gym and a pool here so maybe I can go back near the end and buy some skinnier clothes. I don't what else to say so I am going to end it here.

-Levi E

Thought this was cool...

Improvised barbed wire.

other pictures of the day

From top to bottom: My bus pass and NCCU ID,
Egg noodles with my cell phone in the corner, a parking sign for my parking people, view of the district I live in, NCCU campus entrance, Illinois State University on the international cooperation map, Breakfast

I-House: What I know so far...

*Note that pictures will be added later due to slow internet speed at the moment*
**Also everybody (even non-followers) should be able to comment now**

Let it first be noted that I-House is a very nice place, brand new and much better than any dorm you've been in. Very clean, you have your own bathroom, and much larger than an ISU dorm. Plus you have a balcony and a window you can actually open. The bed is a long twin (I think) and your supplied with a mattress pad, a sheet, a blanket, a comforter, and a pillow with case. Next to your bed you have a night stand and your own desk area with shelves; it is a fairly large space. You have your own cabinet with a convenient space for a lock to protect your valuables. Other things you are supplied with are a bathroom start up kit (no large body towel), an electronics start up for the internet and stuff, and a fridge. On electronics, there is an electricity limit you can use a month and it cost to go over. Not much and I'll tell you if it goes over this month. I-House, and about everything in Taipei so far, use magnetic cards to get into doors or even ride the bus. Your room card and student ID are very important as you need them for everything. It took me a while to realize you had to put the card in the slot to even turn on the lights. The staff at the front desk are extremely helpful with everything so there isn't much to worry about.

At the moment that is all I have to say about I-House, I am sure there will be more once more people get here and we get into the swing of things. At the moment I am pretty much left to my own devices. Of course, classes don't start until next next week.

Levi

PS: People here (Jenny so far) use next next when talking about 2 weeks from now so suck it people who make fun of me for saying it. And I know that English is my first language so I should say it the way everybody else does, but screw that.

Arrival

Well I made it. That is the Taipei Airport to the left. I was on a plane for about 20 hours all together. They served 3 meals on the planes all together. Well the best thing so far that I have found to eat are the peanuts pictured above. The have like salt and chicken grease on them or something. THEY ARE AMAZING! The money is cool here as you can tell. The picture looking on down on the street is from my rooms balcony. The area seems to be a mix of residential areas and small businesses like most cities. Lots of plants and little gardens. Buildings are very tall. Not much to say right now because time is still messed up for me. More later.

Levi Eckert

First Follower Winner!

Congratulations Scotty S. for winning the first follower on my blog contest. You receive nothing however do to budget cuts.

Launch

Readers (essentially people that know me),

This is my travel blog where I will be providing my own commentary on studying and life in Taiwan. Probably gonna add a lot of pictures, talk about random stuff (just to be normal), and just provide details of my experiences there in Taipei. I leave Tuesday at 6am and will arrive on Wednesday around 10pm. Once I arrive I will attempt to update this with a post every other day. Note that Taipei is 14 hours ahead of Bloomington so I probably won't get to responding on any comments until a day later. I will also be on facebook and Skype if you need to contact me, no phone calls as my phone is getting canceled. Other than that, please follow if you care. If not, well I really don't care about you either 8).

Levi E.