Hello from Taiwan!!

Hello everyone!! I can't believe it's already Thursday and I have been in Taiwan for five days! Although for everyone in America, it's only Wednesday still... I'm 14 hours ahead of Mountain time. I've done so many things since I arrived that it's hard to think back five days...
I arrived in Kaohsiung at around 8 on Sunday, and the first thing I ingested on Taiwanese soil was a bubble tea (of course ;)). I met a few of the kids in my program in LA or Taipei, but we all formally met at breakfast, where we also got to know the program supervisors Alex and Fonda a little bit. Everyone is really nice! From the airport we went to San Min Elementary school, which seems to be the center for international education here. It's a really pretty school, with air conditioning! We had lunch there, and also got to explore a bit around the school. Lots of paperwork later, we visited our apartments, and I found that my room is the biggest, with a tv, futon, balcony, and bathroom!! Also a huge bed. But my rent is the most, about 230 US dollars. I think I'll manage :)

Haven't taken a picture of the bed yet :) 

After that, we got phones (or for me, a SIM card, cause I already had a phone) and then went to the Hotel Kingdom to sleep! Our rooms there were suuuuuper nice. 

Then we went out and walked along the Love River for a while! It was really fun.

The next morning, Monday, it was SHOPPING DAY. We went to a ginormous IKEA and Carrefour and bought things for our apartment, like sheets and blankets and towels. Too much shopping!! It made me extremely tired. Luckily, after that, we just had time to come back to the apartment and get everything moved in for a while. After that we went to Dinner at this cute place where I had hot pot. 

Tuesday we got our ARC (Alien Resident Cards), went back to San Min Elementary, ate biandang (lunch boxes) which were ridiculously yummy (I had a pork and rice one), and bubble tea (probably had had about 10 by this point). Then orientation began! After we returned to the apartment, me and my apartment mates ventured out pretty far for dinner. Their names are Mark, Paul, and Ashley and are all really nice! We are all pretty good at Chinese so we're already speaking in like half Chinese/English all the time haha. For dinner we went to a night market about a mile away and I had stinky tofu (it's actually really gooood!!) and, you guessed it, taro bubble tea!! The one at the night market was the best one I had had yet, whohooo!! Then we trucked our food back to the apartment to eat. 

Wednesday was a sight seeing day. So there's lots of pictures for this one. First we opened bank accounts. 

Then! We went to the Dream Mall (my third time there so not super exciting. But fun with new people!) Also it's the biggest mall in Asia apparently. First we rode the ferris wheel atop the mall. 

Haha yeahhhhh here's a picture of the view from the ferris wheel. 

Pretty!! Then we ate lunch, shopped at the Eslite bookstore, and then tried to find our way out of the mall. It was very difficult haha. 

Next, we went to the (ex) British Consulate atop the mountain you can see in the picture just above. That gave us a reverse view of the city and harbor from the ferris wheel. 

And this is all of the program posing before the overlook: 

Pretty hot day :) 

Then we climbed back down and ate at a chuabing restaurant: fruit and shave ice with a fun sugary sauce over it all, so yummy!! Mangos!!! The restaurant we went to was really famous and had writing all over the walls and tables. 

Then, we went to Qijin Island, taking a ferry across the harbor inlet. There was a beach and a market and shopping complexes. The beach is a black one, and very hot. There were a few surfers and people swimming, despite the warnings against touching the water by our advisors.

The Ferry

The street before the beach with vendors and shops.

And the beach!

Lastly, we went to Liuhe night market and I had oajian, famous Taiwanese oyster pancakes. A fun filled day!

Today, Thursday, we did a lot of business--we had meetings with the people at the America Corner at the library where we can story tell, and also the Minister of Education in Kaohsiung. And we took a Chinese placement test at the National Sun Yat Sen University--on the bluff of that mountain with the British Consulate overlooking the ocean, so pretty!!!

Signing off--time to go wake up, it's only 8 and I'm so sleepy!!!!

:)