National Taiwan Games

Hello,

Something that is coming up here in a few days is the National Taiwan Games. It is going to be held in the city that I live in, so I am planning to at least see one event if I can. The sports are stuff like basketball, track, and archery. I think it is Taiwan's own Olympics, but I am not sure. I want to either see the basketball, ping pong, or badminton event.

Also, over the past week there has been the Taichung Jazz Festival here. I actually forgot about it until I passed by it yesterday, so I missed it. It is where musicians from all over the world come to Taichung for a week and play jazz. The event has food venders and all that kind of stuff. I went last year, and it was pretty interesting. Ok talk to you guys later.

Some PIctures

At the ruins of an old army base. Here is an old cannon pointed at a casino. There were really nice views from the base.

18 hole putting golf course (view from my hotel room).

This was the ruins of an old church in Macau. It is the most famous attraction there. It is a very nice church, and luckily this part of it remains so people can see it.

I'm Back

I am back from Macau. I had a lot of fun there, and I will tell you guys about it later. I just wanted to post real quick to let you guys know I am back. See you.

Macau Tomorrow

Well I guess I forgot to tell you guys, but tomorrow I am going to go to Macau. I have to leave Taiwan every 60 days because of my visa. I have the 60 day visa, so if I didn't have that I would only be able to stay here for 30 days then leave. It doesn't matter where you go, but you just have to leave Taiwan. I could jump on a plane to Hong Kong and eat my lunch in the airport then jump back on a plan back to Taipei. Anyways though, I will go to Macau for 2 days. I hope the weather will be nice there, and I will try and win a lot of money.

I will let you guys know how it went when I get back. I will show you some pictures too! See you guys later.

Something Interesting I Saw

I wanted to let you guys know about something interesting I saw. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me because it would have been great to show you guys.

Ok so here is what happened. I was going to school with my dad, and one of the roads near the school is a two lane road with houses at one end and the other end there is a lot of construction. My dad and I are about 3 cars back from a slow moving truck. The truck is one of those big trucks that takes up more than 1 lane, and it also has a big hook on it. I'm not for sure, but I think it was a crane. Something about this road was that for one thing the traffic lights go across the road just like a lot of roads. Another thing this is that there are signs over the road telling where certain things are like the school and a museum near the school. It is just a normal road. Another thing about this road is that the power lines go across the road too. The lines also go along the road as well.

Then all of a sudden we noticed that the truck's hook grabbed onto one of the power lines, and it pulled it. It didn't bring it down or anything; it just really pulled it. This was around 5 PM so people are outside and the road is kind of busy. Everyone sees it happening except for the people in the truck. Then the truck just keeps going, and the hook grabs another power line and this time it completely breaks. Now the power line is just hanging there kind of swinging a little bit. Now everyone is just kind of shocked at what the truck is doing. The truck doesn't stop though. It just keeps going a little bit further, and this time it grabs onto another power line and totally uproots one of the telephone poles. At this time the truck stops and three guys jump out. They look confused like what just happened. The truck went a total of maybe like 15 yards from the first power line to the last. If the truck kept going, it would have hit signs and even more power lines. It would have also hit street lights.

It was hard to believe that the people in the truck didn't notice what was happening. Also, almost everybody in the world would have noticed that the truck is way too big to be on that road. Everyone noticed except for those guys in the truck.

Ok well that was something interesting that I saw this past week. Ok I hope everything else is good and talk to you guys later.

First Classes

So school started here, and it has been going good. At my dad's school most of the students don't go to class the first week. Some don't even come to class until at least the 3rd week of school. All of us know this really couldn't happen at UT for example because that student would be so far behind in his classes. It is just kind of weird that students would do that. Of course not all students here do that at my dad's school, but I would say most Juniors and Seniors do it. It makes it hard on the teachers too because for one thing classes are only once per week, so if a student misses two weeks worth of school that is a lot of class time. It also hurts the teachers because then they might have to explain stuff all over again to the new students coming in. It isn't just five students per class... it around 8+ students that skip class.

Anyways, so I could imagine that is annoying for the teachers. It is ok to miss class every once in awhile for whatever reason, but I am just talking about the very first class that the majority of students will not show up to class. What else.... I am not too sure yet about what I am going to do this weekend. It will be Cherry's birthday on Saturday, so we will do something with her friends. I wouldn't mind going on a bicycle ride in the countryside on Sunday, but I don't have any real plans.

Ok well that is it or now. Talk to you guys later.

School Starts Soon

Well on Tuesday school will start here for university students. It started already for all the other students a few weeks ago. I think I have told you guys before, but school over here is completely different than back in the United States. I guess really just about every part of school is different. Just for some things that are different are everyone gets a lunch break at the same time, so could you imagine at UT or other schools everyone eating lunch at the same time? Another thing different is with the students textbooks. Do you remember how much you spent on textbooks for school? It depends, but I remember some of mine costing about $100 for just 1 book. Want to know how much some students pay for books here? Some are just $9... for the class textbook! It isn't for a reading book or something it is for the entire semester. But guess what? A lot of students think that is too much, so they won't buy it! Can you believe that?

A lot of teachers will make their students buy the books because if they don't the students will just share it and probably never do homework or readings. Something else that is different that I think I have said before is that guys can't go to the girl's dorm and girl's can't go to the guy's dorm. Along with that every person that lives in the dorm has a curfew to be back in the dorm at 11 PM I think. If people plan to stay out past that time, a lot of people will either stay out all night and go back to the dorm at 6 AM, when they open the dorms, or stay in a hotel and sleep for the night.

Ok, well I will talk to you guys later. I hope everything is good.