Well I've been lazy and not written for awhile. Maybe not lazy, more just procrastinating on this while I do more useful things like catch up on my readings. I also read the first 5 books of the Sword of Truth series in PDF form so that occupied about 24 hours total on those alone. Probably less. I've read them before multiple times so I can read faster than even my already fast speed in reading. Anyway there's been a couple of things going on that I'd like to talk about. A while back (March) I went on a trip to Haulien with Student Ambassadors which was a blast. Also it is why my sunburnt forearms are my profile pic on Facebook. Any who, the trip consisted of a god awful bus ride (but I did make a friend during it so not all bad) down to the coast. The bus was nice and we watched movies but the window was to far away from the seat to lean against so it automatically was a failure. Anyway we went to a couple of places (pics on facebook): Taroko National Park, Changchun Shrine, the beach, and rafting on the Xiuguluan River. The Park had some of the prettiest water I had ever seen, along with that awesome lion bridge. But the water looked so inviting, but you couldn't get in. The Shrine had much of the same type of scenery and water, but had the shrine. And rafting was amazing, but I don't think we did a very good job. We couldn't really get that coordinated but I don't think any of us cared enough to get super serious about it; more fun that way. But it was still a good time. It was a mix between Jurrasic Park and Lord of the Rings type scenery. Also cows. The city was fun too. The hotel was a little odd (4 people to a room, two beds; which didn't really bother me because sleep is sleep but some guys in other rooms seemed to have problems sleeping in a bed with another guy. Me, sharing a bed isn't a big deal; I guess the complainers thought they had to cuddle or something.) but I got to watch spongebob in chinese so it was completely worth it. I practically knew what they were saying because of how awesome Spongebob is. My biggest complaint about the trip was the food, there just didn't seem to be enough. Or, to put it another way, I wanted a heaping pile of meat all to myself; there were others who felt the same way. But overall a good trip, definitely worth it.Top Fifteen (week and a half's worth) Songs of the Week
( I do not look over the previous list so repeat songs are a possibility, which means they are that good)
Stop by Jimmy Eat World
The Fight Song by Marilyn Manson
Closer to the Edge by 30 Seconds to Mars (BASTARDS COME TO CHAMPAIGN WHILE I'M IN TAIWAN)
Little Red Rodeo by Collin Raye
Believe by Yellowcard
Callin' Baton Rouge by Garth Brooks
Ain't No Grave by Johnny Cash (check out the Johnny Cash Project video if you haven't seen it)
Vox Populi by 30 Seconds to Mars (BASTARDS (breaks down into tears))
Without You by Keith Urban
a (had to figure out how to turn of italics)
Get Off on the Pain by Gary Allan
Work by Jimmy Eat World
Time to Waste by Alkiline Trio (because no burned cd can be made without this being on there (you know who you are who mocked me about this all the time, its a great song dammit)
Image of the Invisible by Thrice
a (stupid italics, stupid Blogger)
Red Sky by Thrice
I Hate My Life by Theory of a Deadman (music video helps understand the humor)
Back to less important things. Last weekend, even though I wasn't quite sure how I was going to get there, I went to Kenting to go to a party on the beach (pictured). I decided I was going to take the ridiculously expensive High Speed Rail (also picture, if you hadn't guessed) down to this one town and then find my way to Kenting from there. The train was so cool, probably the second best part of the trip. It goes around 120mph, I think, and is basically a plane with wheel with stuff on the top of it that makes it seem like a really long bumper car. It had amazing leg room. Plus it took me only 2 hours to basically travel the length of the island. But it was cool. I took a taxi van to Kenting and was dropped off at the party. The party itself was a little odd. I'm no the biggest person on rave type music so that was pretty much just noise to me. Had some Coronas and had a decent time though. Also when I left that party I ran into a group from I-House and hung out with them for an hour and a half or so. And then came the real fun...
I have a real problem communicating where I want to go to taxi drivers here (no clue why...) and so I usually have to show them something of where I am going. But a lot of them can speak broken English. This particular driver could not but I was ok with that. I showed him my HSR ticket and he said ok and waved at me to get in. I did not realize how tired this man was or that he was going to take me all the way there and not to the bus stop until later. So as we are driving (the 3rd time I have road in the back of a taxi, I rode shotgun when I got picked up from the airport because it seemed rude to sit in the back) I notice that he is swerving a bit and going fairly slow. The slowness didn't really bother me because we had already worked out a flat fee to take me there by the time (about ten minutes later once we got out of the city and I realized he was taking me to actual station) but the swerving was a little worrying. But I shrugged and just looked out the window. A little after this is when my head slammed into head rest in front of me because the driver had almost hit a couple on a moped. I couldn't believe he hadn't actually hit them because he was so close. By now I realized he was falling asleep at the wheel but again I shrugged because there was nothing I could do no; I had no clue where we were so I wasn't about to get out. After about ten more minutes of driving and me relaxing again, the guy literally falls asleep at the wheel. Good thing I wished for spider sense (pictured) before I left because I turn quickly when I felt that tingling in my head and shake the guy awake, cursing at him (he did deserve at that point even if he had no clue what I was saying). He wakes up but was fairly calm about it, he didn't jerk and crash so it was all good I guess. We then went to a 7-11 and got coffee and candy. He was fairly jovial after that and we listened to music from the 60's and 70's all the way to the station. He gave me a pretty good discount too. Some said I shouldn't have paid at all but he did drive me all the way the Station at 530am and it took until 700am to get there. It was amazing ridiculous and easily was the best part of the whole day trip. Even though a certain brother of mine who shall not be named (Percy) doesn't seem to believe me, this really did happen. Maybe he was just upset it didn't kill me. Probably that.
And that catches me up to now. It is 4:42 am here and I am still up doing this now so I can hopefully fall asleep at a decent hour tonight; get my internal schedule working right again. Also I go in to get my right bottom wisdom tooth taken out monday morning if you all wanted to know.
Levi
