Snake Alley, stone fish, rice patties, and a gorge

So maybe I wasn't as good at updating this as I had originally hoped. But I attribute that 100% to the facts that our days are basically crammed with activities from 8 am (ish) - night (after dinner or so) and the fact that I find myself socializing every night with people instead.

It has officially passed the halfway mark of the trip, and i definitely did not update anything about this particular episode of my journey. instead of writing in one big post, i'll do it by segments.

Day 1
Truth be told, I was kind of nervous about this trip. I wouldn't say that it's a commonly known fact, but for those of you that don't know, I actually have little faith in myself when it comes to making close friends, particularly in a short period of time. I'm significantly better at breaking the ice by being awkward and usually looking stupid, which I suppose is fine with me. But I ended up volunteering to be team leader (I think it's good for me...I'm learning a lot!) , which probably helped me make myself known to not only my group, but the counselors and other people (I have to take a head count at least 7 times a day, no exaggeration).

By the end of the first day, I had met tons of people that were from all of these exotic (relative to America) places, such as Paris, Germany, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada...and the rest are from the US.

Day 2
After some visits to some governmental offices (including OCAC, the people sponsoring our trip, and the legislative Yuan), and at night, my group had an epic adventure down Snake Alley, which apparently used to be the Red District back in the day (how fascinating!). This trip was super stressful for my stomach, to say the least, because as we were walking down the alley, checking out the venues (because this girl had said that she wanted to try snake), there were displays of animals that I would never want to see eaten (including mice, snake, and a turtle-like animal). We ended up choosing the one with the mice and snakes in the front (live, mind you!) and eventually, after much looks of digust, everyone except me ended up trying the snake in some form or another (there was also snake blood, bile, venom, and 3 others). It was disgusting yet admirable at the same time....

We arrived back at the hotel to hit our "curfew" (meaning the time we were supposed to meet up and in group meetings)...which was a meh...we had to discuss our video, which at that point was still a very vague discussion. but then after was the night that set the tone for the rest of the trip (including the theme of "willy's birthday club"). one group had gone out to ximending, and as the meetings slowly dispersed, i believe one of the guys from england asked if we wanted to meet up with some of the ximending people and head to a bar. I thought, why not? This trip is all about networking and trying new things wasn't it? We ended up at this hookah lounge called "'The Bed," where we did some bhangra, learned some new Taiwanese drinking games, sang some britney, and just chatted. It was our friend Willy's birthday, but he didn't come with us...but we still toasted to him-and thus, from that day on, we were all members of Willy's birthday club.

Scenes from a Taiwanese Rooftop

After I accompanied my grandfather on his daily morning walk at 5 am in Guting Riverside Park (right across the street), we went upstairs (as part of his daily routine) to check up on the status of the apartment that they're building next to ours. He told me that he checks up on the status of the building everyday, which allows him to see how much time is left before their view of Taipei city is completely taken over by a view of their neighbor's kitchen. This made me determined to document the unique view before it was completely obliterated.

The results of my attempt to chase a sunrise while my jetlag is still in effect (for some reason they're in reverse chronological order)...

As good as my rooftop adventure-chase for the sun-gets

I couldn't find the sun-somewhere between the passing of the gray clouds, the sun disappeared behind the white clouds

View of Taipei 縣

View of Yong He, across the river

Here comes the storm?

Taipei 101. Clouds due to typhoon

Phase I: Traveling

Traveling is tiring. Props to those people who constantly travel/travel a lot! It's actually really stressful (particularly to those individuals who like to be in control-you have basically zero control when it comes to airlines in particular) because you never know when something is going to happen (yes, even for take-off times, which makes me angry!). Also, you never know what kind of people will surround you on the plane/sit next to you. To my dismay, I got an elbower next to me (needs a lot of space during sleep, and consequently occupies half my seat with his elbows. But I also shouldn't complain because my seating situation is actually not too shabby, and I feel like it'll be a lot worse on the way back, as seems to be the case (whenever you think it's bad, it just gets worse on the way back-baby puking on me=case in point). But thanks to my plane letter writers! It actually took me an hour and half to finish all the plane letters-there was some legit stuff in there!!! As per usual, I was moved and entertained throughout the letters, and I was never really one to hide such emotions (mostly due to the fact that it's hard for me to contain myself), and as a result, I think the guy next to me has dubbed me insane and bipolar.

So I've decided to start updating this more (at first because someone very important to me told me a blog is lame if you don't update it, but now because that same person pointed out that blogging is a good way to share your adventures with those back home-so thanks for being so wise, 屁股臉!), so keep an eye out!!! =)