Friday, October 16, 2009

Not much new

These are pot stickers. There are some freaking great pot stickers nearby but the sauce always makes me gassy.
This is a restaurant that April absolutely loathes for its tacky appearance. It is like 5 minutes from here on foot, on the same street as us. I have no idea what they serve.
And this is a lake that the Neihu Line passes by on its route to my work.

It was nice to talk to the family last weekend. Still thinking of you guys!

Not much is really new here. I just wanted to post something just to say I did. Today Jasmine (from Tree House 5) climbed me again, which was amusing and helped get my energy up for class. She is a great climber, but (thankfully) one of the tiniest kids in that class. She's also the most talkative. Well... the loudest, at any rate.

I've decided to cancel my card from the US so I am not tempted to make anymore frivolous purchases. This decision was sparked by my noticing a charge I don't recall authorizing, and I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I am, however, in the market for a Taiwanese credit card, but that reality is possibly months away. There's a ridiculous requirement that I be working (and have money deposited by my work into my bank account) for three months before I'm eligible for a card in Taiwan.

April still found the most amazing card though. Every 25 NTD (1 USD = 33 NTD) gets you 1 mile on a flight originating from a Taiwanese airport (meaning about 5400 NTD spent will get you a free flight to Kaohsiung. Less than 3000 will get a flight to Tainan or most other cities). You also get 10% off everything in the Miramar mall if you spend over a certain amount. On top of that, the mall's movie theater costs only 240 NTD per movie with the card rather than 270 NTD. If you buy a large sized popcorn with the card, it will be the same price as the normal popcorn.

Recently I started reading a lot more, since I now have the Sony Reader. I just discovered that I still have access to thousands of academic journals via the use of my Winona State Alumnus account, so I downloaded a few interesting ones on PDF and threw them on my device.

It's official, by the way, my buddy Austin Eschweiler is planning to come to Taiwan next year to spend a year in Taiwan earning money to pay back some of his student loans, also working to improve his Chinese. I can't imagine how horrible it must be to have student loans. Sorry Austin. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

What have I eaten recently? I've been experimenting with new foods every day from the menu at Jim's Burger. Today I had a Mexican Burger which was delicious. I also had a Smoked Chicken Caesar Salad. Yesterday I had the French Toast Breakfast, complete with eggs any way you like them, sausages, cooked ham, french toast, apple slices, orange juice, and a salad. Beyond that, it's the same old Chinese food, but a recent favorite of mine is Hun Dun, which is like "What if we took the fried wanton wrapper of a crab rangoon and put dumpling meat inside instead?" The result is scrumptious.

In my schedule I have a hard time finding time for language exchange or getting out there and practicing with friends, since everyone goes to school or works during my typical work hours. I have, however, devised an ingenious plan which guarantees at least some progress. I will learn 3 new words a day. Over one month, that's about 90 words. Over a year, it's well over 1000 words. Over two years, that's 2000 new words, not to mention anything else I pick up.

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