Sold ole steely today. She is really ready to go out to pasture but found a good home for her so its cool. Got a good amount of money for the thing on account of the guy who wanted to buy it couldn't speak english and his chinese is pretty bad too so when we were talking price I said NT$1,000 and he said ok, NT$1,500. I talked to some people and, Yes I do feel a little bad...only a little!, but I figure she deserves the feeling of being worth somehting more than the measly NT$800 I was expecting to start the price at only to get something like NT$500.

I threw in the Umbrella and the two locks for free which maybe got him thinking this is a better deal than a free pot of "Lucky Charms"...for life!

He was excited and so was I, he has a bike, my bike has a home, and I have money to spend!!

Who needs to say for the record that this bike is the worst one I have ever owned and I think has attempted to take my life several times!!

Walking it is for me! Take it easy!

Today is a big day! I have moved from the big 10 to 9 days left in Taiwan. I see it like a child waiting for their birthday, only i am going in reverse of course. Gone into the single digets and going into the last full weekend I have left.

Keeping you guys in my thoughts while I am enjoying what I have left of my stay in Taiwan.

keep it easy!

Got my tatoo's fixed. I know to most they didn't look like much or they didn't seem to have any real issues but to those who can read chinese, the original tatoo was much like a child wrote them. There is a place really close to my dorm where this one guy does tatooing and I have been talking with him for a while about getting it done. he definately laughed before saying sure he could do it for me. Macany wanted to go with me that day so the pictures are what he took. Macany said the guy definately can do calligraphy. I just take my tatoos as evidence.

Yes, I do still have the last receipt from my last visit to El Cabritos before I came to Taiwan! Guess I know where I am eating my first week back! Make it too beers with that combo!

Aiyaiya! its not beef, its not bean, its taco mix!

My test is over!

Yea, the best part is the test is over which should probably say a lot for the lack of approval in my grade. I did pretty decent but would prefer to have seen a higher overall score. I will not tell you guys, however, since you will all role your eyes and think I am a big dork!

Simply speaking my speaking is the best of all the three catagories: listening, vocabulary, reading comprehension. Thanks to my friends for not just being good to me as friends but also as teachers. They definately have the patients it takes to listen to a guy who speaks very slowly as if I am mentally disabled!

Random question, do you chew yogurt or do you simply swallow?...

My Taiwanese roomate (the guy on the left) moved out today. A bit sad since he was a pretty cool guy and we would chat it up about whatever. He decided to head home and not finish studying his master's degree at Shida saying he didn't really enjoy the city atmosphere of Taipei and the school that he studied. I can appreciate his feelings. He is from a small town in the southern part of Taiwan and he is more a slow moving kind of guy, I don't mean stupid though! Anyway, he is going to start his obligitory service as a soldier sometime this month he thinks so I wish him the best.

That last night we went to an all you can eat hot pot restaurant and it was some of the best food ever plus I was really hungry! I definately think I want everyone to go their when I am getting ready to leave!

The guy on the right is my other roomate from Korea. He is pretty cool, have a girlfriend still in Korea, but often talks about staying in Taiwan longer. I am sure his girl likes that! We still hang out and talk so atleast the room isn't completely quiet!

take it easy!

This is the last month!

It is definately marked with a disturbing feeling of sadness mixed with happiness. My Taiwanese friends all continually ask me why I seem not to be phazed by the fact of my leaving. They always joke that my heart has already returned home and all that is left is the body to spend the last of these days in auto pilot.

I have told them several times this one thing: I wish to enjoy the time I have, not crying, though if you know me then you know that would be a special event, also not constantly dwelling on the inevitable. I have said repeatedly that my wish is to make these last days more than just a feeling like the one you get waiting in the doctor's office wating area. That time in the waiting area we all can consider a waste of time always thinking of the thousand other things you could be doing, even brushing your teeth might come on that list before just waiting. Instead, I would rather appreciate the time I have as if I wasn't leaving at all but obviously making those days special as times spent with friends.

Anyway, off the chatty wagon, before I go party it up I do have a test on May 5th to determine my abilities in chinese. Yea, this is the same day on Mom and Dad's anniversary and Matt is heading to an OAR concert too. I would rather be doing those things, celebrating or listening to music, but instead my face is stuck in a book!

Take her easy, slow of the throttle, and ease back the clutch! Lata!

Yea, its been a little while since I wrote and I promised to write about my trip to YuShan (Jade Mountain). To make a long story short, it was amazing and I might be addicted to peak climbing! It was definately an adventure that I completely owe Macany for helping to organize. I must also thank him for being brave enough to venture out with me since I do realize he would never, never have done this if I didn't bother the hell out of him!

If you want something of a run down of the climb you can check that out on my webshots page where I have pictures in story board form and you can slowly look and read. More than anything I would like to try and capture how I feel about the peak with words but fear, and I think rightly so, that my english ability has degressed!!

The mountain is 3,952 meters tall which is 12,966 feet so when we first arrived to the peak that morning the clouds where folling by us with the winds. At times I thought with a smirk on my face that I might be wisked away by a gust that would suddenly come up. It was an amazing feeling to have the wind blowing, the clouds flowing, and once the clouds cleared, a view worth my weight in flesh. I could never express how speachless I was then. I am sure Macany thought I was crazy and he definately left the mountain first ahead of me heading back to the lodge below. I considered it possible to spend hours up there as if I could sit and listen to the conversation between the peaks and the sky.

I know wish I did stay, if only I could, but instead I was the last off the mountain peak that morning. I have this tradition I have kept since I was a kid climbing to the peaks of moutains back home of picking a small rock from the base of the moutain and carrying it with me. I rub it and rub it as if, like a worry stone that you pick up by the sea but instead, this stone is 'filled' with the wishes I hope for this world. Ofcourse, world peace was in there, just about every wish was, but the most important will remain unsaid. In the end, once I reach the peak I simply place the rock and leave it in hopes that if it could speak those well wishes it might speak them to the heavens. Its a habit none the less that I did this day.

I took a short video of the clouds as they sailed by over the peaks beside us and down into the valley from which we came. It is nice and closer to bringing something of that feeling alive but I think the being there is definately intertwined with the feeling of accomplishment and enjoyment that came with the trips summit. Though the trip as I see it is fairly easy, the hike not as ominous as I first assumed, it was at least a trial of the body, a test of the wits, and a determined mind that everyone must face themselves.

Anyway, it was beautiful. Take a look at my pictures to find out!