Things I Did

Monday



I went to DanShui with my schoolmates after waking up at five in the morning to go with Grandpa and the housekeepers to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall to run around and excercise. It was a good time even though I was feeling pretty tired. I tried some Agei, one of the foods which DanShui is famous for, but I was too tired to finish eating it. Agei is DongFan wrapped in DoFu (does that make any sense?). Then we walked around awhile until we decided to cross the water on a boat and ride bicycles. So, it was my first time riding a Tandem Bike, it made me a little nervous because I was in the back at first and I had no idea whether we were headed for a collision or not. Plus, a lot of people had the same idea, so there were a lot of bikes flying around. Gave me the willies. Eventually made it home for dinner.



Tuesday



Woke up early again to go running, but this time I took a nap when I got home. Then after lunch I met a bunch of classmates again to help them out with their English assignment for the holiday, interview a foriegner. I told them that I'm not really a foriegner, but I didn't mind helping them because I know how hard it is to go up to people you don't know to ask questions, let alone going up to someone whose language you don't think that you can speak very well. All in all, I thought we had some fruitful converations and I was able to speak to my classmates in a very comfortable and relaxed way.

After that was over, I headed home for dinner and Anneke got a call from our Swiss friend inviting her out and I decided to tag along.

Wednesday

Woke up at 10:00AM. Ate a quick lunch and headed out to meet Renaat at the SYS Memorial Hall. He was like an hour early. We walked around. Looked at some mountain climbing gear (like hats, coats, gloves, rope, funny little shoes). That was at a place called Mammut. Went to the bookstore in Taipei 101. Somewhere in between Mammut and 101 I swapped my contemporary art magazine for his "the most popular of Dutch magazines". Learned some cool things to say in Niederlands, and then forgot what they were.
Later, we went to my Rotary meeting. The ice cream was fantastic. Did I ever mention that my Rotary club consists of some of the richest women I've ever been acquainted with? Some of them it's been difficult to figure out where their funds come from exactly.
After the meeting, walked to the movies. Saw "Changeling", which, to my disappointment, did not involve a little gremlin monster. Rather, it was Angelina Jolie cryfest. "That's not my SON!!"
Came home, sistahs watchin' the third "Mummy" movie that came out awhile back. I thought it was cool because I ddn't need subtitles to understand the Chinese parts of it. And, when the son of what's-'is-face said something in Chinese, I laughed at him.

Thursday

Woke up too late. Hung around. Took care of the financial side of the Round Island Tour coming up in May. Pretty boring sitting in the bank waiting for the traveler's cheques to be changed into a brazilian dollars. Thanks to my sister for helping me out with that. Later, with some of the leftover money, I went with my other sister, her friend, and Anneke to WuFenPu to shop for clothes. Bought myself a bunch of shirts. One of them says, "THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER" which reminded me of that ol' song "Marathon Man". Handsome.. Drank some Ice Cream in Red Tea and it was good.

Friday

Had agreed to wake up at five thirty and go running again, so I did. It's frickin' hard, but I'm starting to feel better about it. Was wearing the above mentioned shirt. Like my friend, Sam, talked about on his blog, you really have to run for yourself or it becomes a chore. Actually, I think there are a lot more things than running that you have to do for yourself, but anyway. Watched a really old episode of Last Comic Standing then took a shower and went back to bed until 12:00. I'm trying to restring my mandolin, but it is really difficult because I'm afraid of the strings breaking and the little nobblies the strings loop onto are really small. Got two new strings on today, almost.
Had lunch. Watched "Juno" with my sisters. Wondered where my wierd, loveable girlfriend is (hint: probably not in Taipei or Taiwan). Rode bikes around town, runnin' errands an' stuff. Chilly today. Realized I did a bunch of today's things on Monday. Went to WuFenPu again with my three older sisters. Didn't buy a thing. Waitin' for the New Year.