Taoyuan Kg Landmark Hotel

... so I had to tell them not to punish but encourage their child to listen. It was a good night and it was nice meet some of the parents.

Thursday:
Thursday was my first night of Chinese lessons. There are 10 teachers from Cornel taking lessons at the university very close to school. I am very excited about it and am hoping that I can pick up a little Chinese while I am here. Our first day consisted of trying to learn all the sounds that they use in the ...

... The next question was 'What do you like to do with your friends'? Another student, by the name of Sam put his hand up and said 'Make babies'. At this point I was like...'Good lord, what HAVE I gotten myself into"?! LOL. In subsquent classes they always found ways to sneak in sexual inuendos (usually involving a chimpanzee, I'm not quite sure I understand their obssession with the word...and/or animal). I finally had to tell them they ...

... Disco is where all the Vietnamese, Filipinos, Laotians, Cambodians and of course...Thai people go to party. I had never been there before and was rather curious. Thai Disco is this dark place in the basement. They play a nice mix of Amercian music as well as pop music from the various countries represented at the Disco. I danced my lil' heart out and met one of the newer teachers: Emil. He had been to Taiwan before...apparently he comes here, makes ...

... I was doing on Sunday and I told him that I had no plans. He said he would call me and maybe we could do something. I was overjoyed. Sunday morning came...and I headed over to the dorm because I needed to get some work done. I saw him on Facebook and sent him a message, asking him indirectly what his plans for the day were. He said he planned on sleeping and then abruptly went offline. I sent him a message saying that when he was awake he would perhaps like to go grab a bite to ...

... can say they have done that in their lifetime. The next day Meghan and I walked around Taipei for a bit and then I took the train home to rest some more while she stayed in Taipei and did some sightseeing. Item #2: After having had some issues (my original application was rejected cuz the person I piggybacked with got rejected) and spending some $150 on assorted paperwork...I was able to get legalized in Taiwan. I am an official resident and get to pick up my Alien ...

So far, 2007 is the best year in travel for me. I finally reached a lifelong goal of "100 countries by 40" (now I've been to 106). Aside from my overland, 10 country trip in Africa, I made another trip to the Balkans (also my 14th Euro-trip), and finally, took an Alaskan cruise with my parent. So two of my "Top 10 Places I Wanted to Visit but Hadn't been to" at the beginning of 2007 were just visited. Another former Top 10, Venezuela, due to its crazy president (not because his anti-Bush ...

... but that was not too bad, most people just slept. Each seat had its own entertainment system, so I ended up watching Wild Hogs, Ghost Rider, Blood Diamond and half of the Zodica, I don't think I'm going the worry about the other half. When we arrived into Teipai, and airline smoothly handled the transfer to the hotel, and then I crashed for the night. Woke up at about 10:30, and left the hotel pretty much staight away. I just started wondering the city ...

... the best room with own bathroom for the same price - not necessary, but nice guesture. After a good shower and with partially restored life power I go down and talk to different people, eat my 7-11 lunch box and then talk until 11:00 pm with the owner of the Yilan Cats B&B, who is also the chairman of the Yilan Lodging Association. He got the idea for the B&B style on a vacation to England. He had also been to Trade Fairs in Germany and stayed in ...

... Explorations: Um..... Taipei. Again. But, new bits of Taipei, I promise. The weekend was rather deja vu - I ended up in the same part of town, Shilin, on Saturday AND Sunday. Shilin is in northern Taipei, kind of where the posh bit of the city starts. The mountains are very close, and the area is much more open and green, but still not far from the centre, hence everyone wants to live there. Even Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek (yes, people really did call him ...

Starr is another "third culture kid" (in fact the one who introduced me to the term), who has spent significant chunks of time in Canada, the U.S., China, Japan, and Taiwan. She currently teaches English to Taiwanese tots, but has a Canadian passport, I think ;) She befriended Hotfoot, James, and I waaaaaaay back in the days in McLeod Ganj, introduced me to Abi and Horia, and ...