A lot happened last week, and it was so fast that I'm sure I did the Timewarp again. Let me see if I can collect all the memories together in a coherent paragraph for you.
Last last weekend, I was in Hua Lien with my Rotary club. It was really fun, we took the train down there and hopped on a tour bus. It was pretty relaxed, everyone took a lot of pictures. Saturday night was the best! We stayed at a Ranch Resort and I roomed with Adam (we had some guests over in the evening, some of the Aunties wanted to hangout). Adam and I went to the SPA for awhile, it was a good time. Sunday, we took a look at the Ranch part of the resort. They had a bazillion birds and some sweet dinosaur statues, but I was fond of the old billy goat (I want his beard). Later, we learned how the aboriginals make moa ji by mushing up rice in warm water with a big sort of mortar and pestle dealie. It was pretty tasty, tastier with brown sugar and peanuts, in my opinion. It was drizzley the whole time, but that was okay. We headed home Sunday night by train and I started getting excited for my trip with my classmates.
Monday was the orientation session at school, afterwhich, I went home and found out that I still hadn't taken care of all the right forms (okay, one, but it was important). Mom was really calm about it though and made a few phone calls (I made one, too) and things worked out.
So, the next day, I woke up at 5:30 and headed out with my luggage to wait for my friend from school to pick me up in front of 101 and head to SongShan Station. We got there and stood around for awhile, and our classes tour guide, Kiwi, handed out breakfast. Eventually, we headed down to the train and began a succession of events that was magical and enchanting, like accelerating through a snowstorm (but your not the one driving, that can be scary).
We arrived in Hua Lien (yay!) and started boarding the buses. Now I shoud mention that there were at least 400 kids on this trip, maybe more because at rest stops trying to get through the bathroom line it looked as though there were more kids than there were in my graduating class, and that's a lot. I thought about whether a class of American kids this size could handle a four-day bus tour, and I decided that no, they could not. At least, they would not be as into it or as cute about it as these kids, especially seniors.
Anyway, here's a list of the stuff that sticks out the most in my memory of the trip:
- Singing Karaoke on the bus
- The wind being so strong at the Eight Bridges that were we only allowed to go to the second one and never saw the island on the other side
- Rest stop bathroom lines and the patience that every seemed to have
- KenTing Beach Party and trying to drink a Coke really fast through a straw
- A huge spider
- Super cute girls doing super cute things
- Pillow fight
- UNO
- Hanging out at a pretty cool theme park
- Seeing Ayaka (another exchange student I know) at the aquarium cause her class was on their graduation trip, too
- Taking pictures everywhere
- Not feeling so incredibly on the outside, but rather very close to the middle of everything
So, that's the short version of the trip. Yesterday was really fun, too. Helped my family with a religious ceremony and got to say hello to BaBa's BaBa. Burned a bunch of spirit money. Later that evening, we went to see Sarah Brightman sing and she had like, four encores.
So, I feel really good lately and I'm trying not to question it, but rather to embrace it and replicate it. Thanks for sticking with me!
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