Vivian's again and Hsinzhu~

This past weekend Nick and I visited Vivian's parents again, they took us to 天外天 to eat hot pot, which is delicious! Her parents are so fun, although I don't always know what to talk to them about, which is sad, its just that not that much happens and then the language barrier keeps me from talking as much as I would like to. I wish we could visit them more but its hard to organize/plan that kind of thing, and I don't want them to spend money on us eating out everytime we come by. I think in a week or so we could go by Fengjia and buy them some bread, and then go by and see them for a while.

Then Tony randomly invited us to his house in Hsinzhu - 新竹, and we stayed there for Saturday night. His family owns two apartments and they're both beautiful, Asian apartments are really bright, I really like them. They seem to have more windows or something, or maybe I just like how the floors have different levels so it feels like there's more room.

We went to 内湾，　where we spent maybe $50 on souvenirs, and we ate rice-balls with meat in them, they were really yummy, and we also rode go-carts!! Then we had pineapple popsicles. His mom made the best food we'd had in a long time, she uses Hondashi, and the　little fishies that Vivian has. Those two ingredients are magical!! Hsinzhu had really pretty scenery, its more compact like Taipei, but then there's also a river running through it with a pretty promenade along on both sides, and tons of trees surrounding it. It is small though.
Hsinzhu is also the "windy city" of Taipei, when we went to the ocean the wind was incredible! It made me lose balance when walking sometimes. It's also Taiwan's "silicon valley" so a lot of people there are rich, and there's an area where workers live in small dorms, but the area is so beautiful, some roads reminded me of NY near Central Park.
After we got back, Tony taught me how to ride a scooter. I think it's too dangerous for me to ride a scooter, it would take too long to get used to it, and I really don't want to ride a scooter next to a public bus. I heard today that some girl fell in traffic and her hand was ripped off. I think I'll pass.

And now I'm trying to work slowly but surely on my thesis. I only read through one article today, but it was a 30 pg article, and I read parts of a couple other articles. I think it was a lot for one day, so I'm proud. Hopefully I can get more done before I go back!!! BAHHHHH!!!!


Today the wind in Shalu was crazy

Dancing like a macaque!

Nick is currently running around the room waving his hands in the air like a Macaque. FYI.

Lately, Nick and I have made several trips into Taichung city to the Science Museum. They have such a cool "space theater", its a room with rounded ceilings and walls and the screen covers almost the entire room, so you really feel like you're surrounded by the film.

The area where we live is pretty empty and boring, so we don't do much unless we go to the city. We have made it through the first 1 1/2 seasons of ALIAS, which has been pretty entertaining, and we sometimes go to the campus to walk on the track at night.

Today, Tony came over and helped us sign Nick up to this Taiwan website where schools post ads for English teachers, and Nick sent his application to about 15 businesses in Taichung. I really hope he can find something soon cause he's been pretty bored.
We found out that if he overstays his visa over 90 days, the worst they'll do to him is fine him $300 and not let him into Taiwan for one year. And if its less than that then they will only fine him around $150 or so. It will cost around $400 to change his ticket, so if he does find some part time job its cheaper to stay. Although, if his visa expires he won't be eligible for any job that requires a work visa, so we still have only a few weeks. :(
I think tomorrow I'm going to help him call a few places and email some more businesses looking for teachers/tutors. We really didn't have enough help/info for finding him a job, I thought everyone looking for an English teacher would post ads in...English! but no, its all in Chinese!!　真没有道理！

My Chinese class is really fun and harder than I expected, but I really like it. We learn around 80 words or so a week, and we do a lot of practice learning the words. Its so much better than at Ole Miss, I actually get time to LEARN the vocabulary.
I also bought a novel, and so far I've read 1 1/2 pages! :O Its pretty difficult, but I now have my trusty electronic dictionary!! I love that thing, it was really worth the money. Now it takes me two seconds to look up words, instead of waiting til I get to a computer and then looking them up.

Well, I really like Taichung city, I wish I'd rented an apartment there instead and just taken the school bus everyday, but I didn't know about the school bus. Tony told us about a nice club in this mall called Tiger City, I think Nick and I will go there in a few weeks to see if its fun. Oh, and we also found this entire street filled with Indian and Halal restaurants! We ate at one and it was really decent, although obviously not completely authentic. And also a Gelato stand across from the museum.
We also ate at a Thai restaurant but were disappointed, one thing we ordered was really gross.....
Tony also said he can take us to visit his hometown in a few weeks, Xinzu. I don't know what to expect, but I need to think of something to bring to his parents as a gift, cause Tony helped us out a lot when we were looking for an apartment. What's a good gift to give Chinese people? They probably don't drink, and I really don't know any other good gifts....hmm.....

Ok going to bed. Nick is pacing cause he wants the computer :p

Waiting and Rambling.

I don't start class for another week. I'm bored.

Where I live is much like Oxford, but without the Walmart and without my car and without any good food to eat. There is, however, a bus that goes from my school to the city (30min) where I can go to a Carrefour (French Walmart). It's pretty lame. There is only one place near us, a sandwich place, whose food has been good, and luckily its across the street from our place, but they close around 1pm or something crazy like that. Maybe I'll lose weight this way, haha.
We went yesterday to Carrefour and took a shortcut, got lost, and then found the Fengjia night market again, looked around, and then went to Carrefour and then went home.

My apartment is really comfortable though. We've already used around US$10 of electricity in just 3 days, I think our fridge is old so it uses more energy. Our bed is amazing, I want to send it home after I'm done, but I don't know if I can.
So we're just sitting around sharing the internet, playing Farmville, and watching TV online.

Nick is now considering getting a Computer Science degree. I think that he is much more suited to a CS degree than an Accounting degree, and his friends are all going back to school so I think he's more motivated now. There's also only about 10 classes as pre-reqs for the Ole Miss CS masters degree, so that's much easier for him to do money-wise. Trent is going to get a Masters in CS, Steven is going to chef school, Patrick is going back as well but I don't know what for. I thought momentarily about trying CS out, but then realized that I would be surrounded by computer game kids. I can deal with Nick more or less being on the internet games, but to be surrounded by computer game kids/potential stalkers sounds awful. I'll stick with Accounting.

Christina's Big Ass Blog Post

I thought I should write about my last few weeks in the US before I leave so I don't forget.

After I moved out and left Oxford, I went on a trip with my Mom and little sister to Indianapolis, IN to visit my grandparents. My grandparents are really sweet people, I don't know them that well, but my grandpa is obviously a humorous person. I took some photos of their house because I've come to realize that houses today are not made with the same amount of detail and thought as they used to be. My grandparents' house has tons of windows, but also longer roofing that acts as a shade over the windows. This keeps their house cooler during the hottest part of the day because the house has more shade. They also keep windows open all day (with screens in place), and this makes the air in the house fresh and cool. It was so pleasant. If I ever buy a house, I hope its a well kept house from the 60s or earlier. Oh, and my grandma made all the curtains in the house.


After I got back from IN, I tried really hard to see different people before leaving Oxford. We saw Vivian several times and drank tequilla and beers with her, and she made me promise to eat at a certain restaurant while I'm in Taichung, but I already forgot the name :O
And Vivian, Alecia, and I all ate at Alecia's fav restaurant, Ajax, before leaving Oxford. It was the most relaxed I think I've seen Alecia in a long (she did amazing on her GRE!) :D


Nick and I were able to hang out with Melody and Dave and see their kids again before we left. We also hung out with Vivian several times, and later I cooked eggrolls (bulgogi eggrols and chicken eggrolls) with Michelle and Tim. Michelle and I also found frogs outside with their tails still shrinking.

Then I took Alecia and Hyejeong to my house where Alecia stayed only one night before leaving, and Hyejeong stayed several nights before leaving. My dad really wanted us to go to a bar and sing karaoke, so we tried to have fun and sang together some pop-songs.

After Alecia left, Hyejeong and I basically spent all our free time shopping until she left. She also helped me clean my house's kitchen, which, with my Mom working so much and my lazy brothers making such a mess, was extremely dirty. It was really sweet of her to do that, and it made my Mom really happy. I just wish it would stay clean.......
Then Elizabeth came down with her daughter Isabella and her pomeranian Daisy. It was really fun, and we went shopping again, too. Isabella is getting big so quickly, she didn't have this much hair last time I saw her.


Finally, I brought Nick up and we left on the 11th for NJ. We've been staying at Jacki's house since Tuesday, and we're leaving tomorrow (Monday, 17th Aug). Her family is incredibly nice, it's no wonder she's such a confident person. I really love being here, and her house is also amazing.
We went with her friends Chrissie and Robyn to visit a water park in Pennsylvania called Dorney Park. It. was. Awesome. It was such a huge park and they stayed open all day until 10pm! We left around 9:30pm. I was exhausted from walking all day, and from jumping in the wave pool, but then I ate for the rest of the week so it was all good. :)








Tomorrow we're going to take 3 different trains up to Closter, NJ. Then on Tuesday we're flying out to Taipei.

One thing you can say about Jacki's family is that they love good food (except maybe her brother Jon, but he just had teenager tastebuds still).
Tonight, her Dad wanted to cook for her, so he made lemon chicken and shrimp sambuca with penne. It was possibly the best food I've ever eaten, and the most authentic Italian (I think) food I've ever had. The chicken had so much flavor, and the sambuca tomato sauce was awesome, and the shrimp had been freshly cooked (which makes shrimp magical).

It's too bad we never got to make the cheese-crab wontons.

Ok, so it IS sinking in.....

It's sinking in that I'm leaving my home for almost a whole year. I've never done that before, and neither has Nick. After going to China twice, at least I have learned to bring the things that will make my life easier right from the get-go: like plastic baggies, a water filter, spices/seasonings, silverware, bed sheets, etc. I made a list with categories, cause I'm a nerd.

I will still have to buy a LOT of stuff. eesh.

I should make a list of all the medical stuff i want done there, it will be so cheap!

Waiting for August

This month has felt like a timeless abyss. I've spent most of my days this summer going to or skipping class, and then going to "work" (work-study is awesome) where I do nothing but either study or look at stuff online for 3 hours a day.I have only one month to go before heading to Taiwan and possibly there for 10 months. Thankfully, I have a friend in Taipei and the parents of a friend in Taichung that will help me get started. I may be sleeping on a blanket for a while before I can buy a bed for the place. Yeah, its gonna be a project for sure.

Right now I'm in the process of facing the fact that I need to lose some weight before I go to Taiwan, and possibly dye my hair a darker brown so I don't get so much attention. I'm also trying to get a tan (I am literally the whitest-skinned person I know). I've lost about 2 lbs in the past week just swimming frequently, so hopefully this plan works. It really sucked in China to be the fattest person in every shop or restaurant, with the whitest skin and light brown hair. There were always people who stared at me EVERYWHERE I went.

Nick (my bf) went to Chicago yesterday to work moving someone's stuff from their house in Water Valley to Chicago, and apparently had to parallel park a 24ft long truck. Poor him, he's gonna come right back to Oxford to start moving his own stuff next week. :O

So, I will see my sister in a week? and my grandparents in a week or so (around the same time my sister comes to visit? I'm confused), and then my friend Jacki just a week after that, and then head to Taipei a week after that with Nick. AH!

~Elizabeth's Fairytale Wedding~

This past Saturday, May 16th, my older sister Elizabeth finally got her wedding ceremony. She and her husband got married last year, but only now had the financial means to have a ceremony. As you can see from the pictures, it was absolutely beautiful!! It took place at a church hidden away somewhere in Fayettville, Arkansas called St. Catherine's at Bell Gable. It looks like a church out of Ireland or something.

Of course, to get there I had to sit in a car with my two brothers, who have made an art out of complaining. They literally said nothing but negative comments the ENTIRE 8 hours we were in the car together.

Anyway, when we finally got to the hotel, my little sister, Stephanie, would not get off the phone with her boyfriend. I understand that she is 16 and loves her boyfriend, that's wonderful. BUT, I kinda like to sleep. She finally went to bed around 3am, graciously allowing me to sleep, until her wonderful little phone alarm goes off in the morning. Waking only me. She didn't wake up to her own alarm. Just slept right through it. Twice. So I took advantage of this opportunity to take the battery out of her phone. That's what you get for keeping me awake and giving me a headache on my sister's wedding day. Punk.

The rest of the trip was spent eating. Eating eating and more eating. We ate before we got our hair done, while we were getting our hair done (Thank you Pink Papaya), and after the wedding ceremony at the reception. It was all very yummy, but my dress was already so tight, I couldn't even drink alcohol! hahaha Then on Sunday, my grandparents (Arnold grandparents) treated us to lunch at the Golden Corral, which was also ~ AMAZING~! So yummy and we all got so full! You can see the picture of the dessert plate my little brother Jonathan fixed for himself. In his defense, he only ate about half of it.

I also got to play with my little niece, Isabella, who is about 1 1/2 yrs old and loves blankets. I wish I could post the video of her and my brother Jonathan playing with a blanket: he holds it up, and she raises her hands and runs into it, and Jonathan throws the rest of the blanket around her - It's pretty adorable.

So this week I've been eating a lot as well due to the southern-food cravings that I developed over the weekend eating all the southern food in Arkansas. My roommates and I finally finished off all the cake I brought home, which was a LOT of cake (3 different kinds).