Hey everybody
Let's see here, what have I been up to...
Time is definitely flying by, tomorrow will be 10 weeks already! If I wanted to, I could be home in a month already! But, I booked a trip to Singapore and Indonesia after school so I won't be home quite yet.
Anyways, this past weekend we did some sightseeing around Taipei which was nice. Saturday night we climbed up Elephant mountain which is right on the outskirts of Taipei and the view is like none other. Climbed up the mountain and once you get up top the view is breathtaking. The whole city is right before you and right smack dab in the middle is the Taipei 101. There's a few big boulders you can stand/sit on to get good pictures. We basically stayed up there for 3 hours watching the sunset over the city, absolutely stunning.
Than Sunday Ivo, Ed, and I made our way to Yilan and WaiAo to hit up the beach. Took a train from Taipei to Yilan which was a little over an hour and a half and found out we had gone to far so we had to take another train to WaiAo which is where the beach is. Finally got onto the beach at like 3 pm (always takes longer to get somewhere than what you think). Ivo and I rented a couple surfboards for like 8 bucks a piece and got to surf the rest of the night! I hadn't been surfing since California back in highschool so I had to try and relearn, there's nothing like riding a wave all the way lol. So that was a lot of fun, wish we would have had more time, but now we know for next time. We'll probably camp out on that beach one of these weekends and surf again.
It's crazy how people can make or break your experience. I was very blessed to have some good people to hang out with. Making great friends over here, definitely going to miss them when I go home.
Week from tomorrow I'll be sitting in paradise in Boracay, Philippines with Filip, Ivo, Andrew, and Ed. Can't wait for a couple days off from school, Chinese gets tiring lol. It's going to be awesome!
I'll try and post more often!
Kyle
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Hey everyone,
Let's see, what did I do this week...
Monday after school Filip, Alex and I went to XinBeitou for the hot springs. I had been looking forward to going there the whole time I've been here! It was awesome, one of the best nights here. It's kind of out in the boonies, so we had to take like a 50 minute MRT ride to get there and than walk for another 15 minutes to get to the hot springs. So it was quite the haul to get there but it was totally worth it. They have 4 different pools. The first one if I had to guess was maybe 102 degrees, so it was very nice. The second one jumped up to maybe 105 so it was pretty hot, I could only stay in it for a couple minutes. The third one I couldn't even get in, it was probably 107 degrees, and than the last one had to be close to 110. I didn't even put my feet in the last one, but Filip said his feet were instantly burning. There were a few Taiwanese sitting in the last one, I have no idea how they can do that. I just sat in the first one for awhile lol. It was so peaceful and relaxing, my fricken back needed it, sleeping on that board takes its toll lol. Anyways, it was great night, was able to see more of the outskirts of Taipei which was nice.
School was pretty demanding this week. On Friday we all had to say a 10 minute presentation about our favorite place in Taiwan all in Chinese. It was pretty tough, lots of memorizing, and lots of work putting it all together but you learn a lot about grammar reciting a speech, so it was nice.
Wednesday night is kind of the 外國人 night. All the foreigners go to Roxy 99 for a couple beers and hang out. So we went there this week and hung out for awhile.
Friday we went bowling! We started out eating at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants and decided we wanted to go bowling. So we went to Ximending and found a janky bowling alley lol. Apparently bowling isn't to popular in Taiwan. We paid like 2 bucks a game, but the lanes were bumpy, not flat, dents lol, the bowling balls were terrible but it was fun lol. It was fun to do something different.
Another weird/cool/awkward thing we got to do this week was be models for a magazine my college puts out for recruiting lol. So like 10 of us International students met with a photographer and took a bunch of random shots around campus. So I guess we'll be in the latest issue for recruiting foreign students. Kind of cool I guess lol.
Filip, Ivo, Andrew and I are planning a sweet trip to Boracay, Philippines beginning of May. Can't wait. Boracay is supposed to be one the best beaches in the world so we are super pumped do lay on the beach, snorkel and whatever else, going to be awesome! Also trying to plan a summer trip. I have about 2 months to travel around Asia. I'm thinking Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau... possibly Cambodia. Any ideas? If anyone has been to any of these places I would love to talk to you!
See you later everyone!
Kyle
Let's see, what did I do this week...
Monday after school Filip, Alex and I went to XinBeitou for the hot springs. I had been looking forward to going there the whole time I've been here! It was awesome, one of the best nights here. It's kind of out in the boonies, so we had to take like a 50 minute MRT ride to get there and than walk for another 15 minutes to get to the hot springs. So it was quite the haul to get there but it was totally worth it. They have 4 different pools. The first one if I had to guess was maybe 102 degrees, so it was very nice. The second one jumped up to maybe 105 so it was pretty hot, I could only stay in it for a couple minutes. The third one I couldn't even get in, it was probably 107 degrees, and than the last one had to be close to 110. I didn't even put my feet in the last one, but Filip said his feet were instantly burning. There were a few Taiwanese sitting in the last one, I have no idea how they can do that. I just sat in the first one for awhile lol. It was so peaceful and relaxing, my fricken back needed it, sleeping on that board takes its toll lol. Anyways, it was great night, was able to see more of the outskirts of Taipei which was nice.
School was pretty demanding this week. On Friday we all had to say a 10 minute presentation about our favorite place in Taiwan all in Chinese. It was pretty tough, lots of memorizing, and lots of work putting it all together but you learn a lot about grammar reciting a speech, so it was nice.
Wednesday night is kind of the 外國人 night. All the foreigners go to Roxy 99 for a couple beers and hang out. So we went there this week and hung out for awhile.
Friday we went bowling! We started out eating at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants and decided we wanted to go bowling. So we went to Ximending and found a janky bowling alley lol. Apparently bowling isn't to popular in Taiwan. We paid like 2 bucks a game, but the lanes were bumpy, not flat, dents lol, the bowling balls were terrible but it was fun lol. It was fun to do something different.
Another weird/cool/awkward thing we got to do this week was be models for a magazine my college puts out for recruiting lol. So like 10 of us International students met with a photographer and took a bunch of random shots around campus. So I guess we'll be in the latest issue for recruiting foreign students. Kind of cool I guess lol.
Filip, Ivo, Andrew and I are planning a sweet trip to Boracay, Philippines beginning of May. Can't wait. Boracay is supposed to be one the best beaches in the world so we are super pumped do lay on the beach, snorkel and whatever else, going to be awesome! Also trying to plan a summer trip. I have about 2 months to travel around Asia. I'm thinking Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau... possibly Cambodia. Any ideas? If anyone has been to any of these places I would love to talk to you!
See you later everyone!
Kyle
Sunday, April 10, 2011
I put up a page view ticket and holy cow I am blown away by how many people are reading this!! I had no idea I had that many followers! I guess I should be writing in here as much as possible huh?
Well to be honest this week was a little on the rough side. It was hard to get back into the swing of things even though I only had a 5 day break. I caught up with a few people back from home and it made me miss a lot of the people and things back at home. I'm dying for a nice couch to lay on and some Judy Judy to watch :) I definitely should have invested into a better mattress when I first came here, this stupid 1" thick bamboo one isn't cutting it! haha. A lot of my friends have been telling me where they've been eating like the Dungeon and how they ate their chips and cheese, going to applebees and getting mozz sticks...dang do those sounds delicious right about now! I have found/been given a few Bible verses that were very encouraging this week...First and foremost Proverbs 3:5-6, love it. Psalm 71 was also a good one. I've also been listening to a lot of Kari Jobe and Kutless praise and worship...good stuff and makes me want to play some music!
Well this weekend my roommate Filip and a mutual friend Korona had their "birthday party" at JinShan beach. Filip and I had checked out this beach a few weeks back and thought it would be fun for a party if we had a bunch of people go. It's hard to explain how weird/creepy this beach is. First you take an hour and half bus ride to the west coast of Taiwan and get dropped off at the youth center. Now this youth center is creepiest youth center I've ever seen, it basically looks like a stone prison and no one is around. Than you walk through a bunch of crap and finally get to the beach. I've been told this beach was popular about 10 years ago and now it's basically a ghost town/beach. They have all the beach facilities there but they are all vacant and looks like a place where junkies would be hiding lol. The setting is straight from a horror film lol, I was just waiting for jigsaw to show up! Anyways, it ended up being a fun time. We had about 30 people from the Mandarin Training Center come to celebrate. We ended up making a giant bonfire, and people brought guitars and ukeleles so we jammed for awhile too. It ended up starting to rain a little bit so I decided to ride back with a few other people while the others decided to stick around and camp. Overall it was a good time.
Laid pretty low this weekend, I had a bunch of homework to do like a 15 minute presentation in Chinese...give me a break. Now back to the grind for another week, yippy!
Hope everyone had a great SB,
Kyle
Well to be honest this week was a little on the rough side. It was hard to get back into the swing of things even though I only had a 5 day break. I caught up with a few people back from home and it made me miss a lot of the people and things back at home. I'm dying for a nice couch to lay on and some Judy Judy to watch :) I definitely should have invested into a better mattress when I first came here, this stupid 1" thick bamboo one isn't cutting it! haha. A lot of my friends have been telling me where they've been eating like the Dungeon and how they ate their chips and cheese, going to applebees and getting mozz sticks...dang do those sounds delicious right about now! I have found/been given a few Bible verses that were very encouraging this week...First and foremost Proverbs 3:5-6, love it. Psalm 71 was also a good one. I've also been listening to a lot of Kari Jobe and Kutless praise and worship...good stuff and makes me want to play some music!
Well this weekend my roommate Filip and a mutual friend Korona had their "birthday party" at JinShan beach. Filip and I had checked out this beach a few weeks back and thought it would be fun for a party if we had a bunch of people go. It's hard to explain how weird/creepy this beach is. First you take an hour and half bus ride to the west coast of Taiwan and get dropped off at the youth center. Now this youth center is creepiest youth center I've ever seen, it basically looks like a stone prison and no one is around. Than you walk through a bunch of crap and finally get to the beach. I've been told this beach was popular about 10 years ago and now it's basically a ghost town/beach. They have all the beach facilities there but they are all vacant and looks like a place where junkies would be hiding lol. The setting is straight from a horror film lol, I was just waiting for jigsaw to show up! Anyways, it ended up being a fun time. We had about 30 people from the Mandarin Training Center come to celebrate. We ended up making a giant bonfire, and people brought guitars and ukeleles so we jammed for awhile too. It ended up starting to rain a little bit so I decided to ride back with a few other people while the others decided to stick around and camp. Overall it was a good time.
Laid pretty low this weekend, I had a bunch of homework to do like a 15 minute presentation in Chinese...give me a break. Now back to the grind for another week, yippy!
Hope everyone had a great SB,
Kyle
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Well spring break in Kenting was a great time! I had been wanting to make it down to the south to see the beaches, and even though Taiwan is not known for its beaches, Kenting was beautiful. We left very early Saturday morning about 4:30 a.m. we actually didn't even sleep before we left! One of the local girls here, Tammy Lee, set up this whole trip for us, so we had a full bus of foreigners on a 7-8 hour trip. France, Czech, Spain, Poland, Germany, Ireland were all represented, like I always say it's a fricken world hang out here, it's awesome. Let's just say the French people know how to drink lol, one the French guys started his partying at 4:30 am and didn't hesitate to make his presence known throughout the bus, could've punched the guy lol. Anyways, finally made it to Kenting at about 12:30 and went straight to the beach to get some rays. It's crazy how your mood can get so much better being in warm weather, Taipei has been a nightmare weather wise since I've been here lol! Rain and strictly 16 degrees for 7 straight weeks gets a little old. By the way, because I live with 3 European guys I am slowly learning the metric system haha. So 16 degrees is about 61 degrees Fahrenheit. Anways back to Kenting...Some of the group planned their accommodation beforehand and paid quite a bit, but Filip, his friends Ivo and Victoria and I decided to just wing it and hopefully find somewhere to stay. So Ivo brought his tent and we found an awesome campground 5 minutes away from the beach. It couldn't have been more convenient and cheap! I think I paid around 4 bucks a night, while the other people who stayed in a 50 person hostel paid close to 50 bucks, not to shabby. Set up camp and took a snooze and headed out. The first night the rest of the crew stayed in a hotel right on the strip and they had a roof that we could all hangout on, it was perfect. We were all chilling on top of the roof and than we hear the roar of some sweet cars coming down the street. A group of probably 30 Lambo's, Ferrari's, Maserati's and Porsches came rolling down the street, soo sweet.
While on the roof, some of the Irish and French guys thought it would be sweet to get up a little higher on the roof and moon the thousands of people on the road lol. The ENTIRE street was cheering and screaming for those guys lol, it was hilarious! I actually think it's on youtube, I heard a rumor that within 5 minutes of it happening there was 800 views on youtube lol. Crazy dudes. Finally headed to beach and just hung out around our little "firesticks." Every group would buy a little firework/firestick that burned for hours and sit around it. Another thing the Taiwanese love to do is buy fireworks and launch them off all night long, pretty dangerous but it's fun lol.
Next day was basically the same. Woke up and headed to the beach to get some more sun. We headed to a different beach the second day, and that beach had really good waves to swim in, so that was fun. Same thing as the first night, just hung around the beach, went into town to pick up some street food, which by the way, they have this sweet corn with a weird sauce and spices on top, soo delicious. Lived off of strawberry smoothies too.
The last day we just chilled on the beach for awhile and loaded on the bus around 5 pm and finally got home about 1 am. It was a quick but fun weekend, glad I made it to Kenting.
Hope everyone is having a great SB at home!
Kyle
While on the roof, some of the Irish and French guys thought it would be sweet to get up a little higher on the roof and moon the thousands of people on the road lol. The ENTIRE street was cheering and screaming for those guys lol, it was hilarious! I actually think it's on youtube, I heard a rumor that within 5 minutes of it happening there was 800 views on youtube lol. Crazy dudes. Finally headed to beach and just hung out around our little "firesticks." Every group would buy a little firework/firestick that burned for hours and sit around it. Another thing the Taiwanese love to do is buy fireworks and launch them off all night long, pretty dangerous but it's fun lol.
Next day was basically the same. Woke up and headed to the beach to get some more sun. We headed to a different beach the second day, and that beach had really good waves to swim in, so that was fun. Same thing as the first night, just hung around the beach, went into town to pick up some street food, which by the way, they have this sweet corn with a weird sauce and spices on top, soo delicious. Lived off of strawberry smoothies too.
The last day we just chilled on the beach for awhile and loaded on the bus around 5 pm and finally got home about 1 am. It was a quick but fun weekend, glad I made it to Kenting.
Hope everyone is having a great SB at home!
Kyle
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