包子朋友，你在哪裏？

Baozi, sandwich, and chicken hamburger stand right outside the dorm. I really like buying stuff from this dude because he's patient with my crappy Chinese, and it's a really good way to hear how much things cost. I actually haven't seen him the last couple days, I hope he's alright.

 Miss you buddy!

 My car in Taiwan, just banged up a bit and a different color.

Shot from outside my school building. It's very open. There are whole floors with empty space so the breeze comes through. Individual classrooms are air conditioned, but not the whole building. It's pretty neat.

 So many people wear masks, it's interesting. Not just in traffic either, but in stores, movie theaters, any sort of public place. Chad was mentioning that masks have become a bit of a fashion statement. They make all sorts of ones with designs and different colors. I've seen ladies match their face mask with their outfit. It's quite interesting.

 Going for some Japanese food at lunch time!

 The gangs all here

 And I know you guys want to see more of me!

 Amazingly tasty as always. That small block of tofu made a fool out of me though. I was watching Chad perfectly cut it with his chopsticks and grab the pieces so delicately. My attempt ended up shredding the silky soft tofu and having to use my spoon to eat it haha.

Took a cultural class "Guide for Americans living in Taiwan" which was presented by this dude from the American Institute in Taiwan. It's a non-profit private company that basically acts like an embassy but without all the perks and can't be called in embassy because of the People's Republic of China's One-China policy that doesn't recognize Taiwan as an independent nation. It's nasty and complicated. I've actually starting talking to my Taiwanese buddies about politics now. Complicated is really the best way to describe it

 Some more shots from random places in the building I study in

 There are actually a lot of stray dogs roaming around. I was walking around campus and noticed like 5 or 6 in this one area alone, mostly sleeping under cars to stay out of the heat. I also really enjoyed how bad the English is on this sign, though being attacked by a dog would be pretty horrible. Most of the dogs I've encountered have seemed quite docile but maybe they just weren't hungry enough to try and nibble the meat off my bones.

 My after class lunch with Daniel and another guy from our class. The store fronts down "food street" all kinda look the same, and typically I don't even notice we're going into one until we're already sitting down. Interestingly, a lot of the times the "kitchen" is outside and the inside is just seating for customers. Walking down the sidewalk you end up stumbling through quite a few kitchens. This dish was very tasty, like everything I've had here. I seriously gotta step up my cooking game when I get back to the States. Even thinking about leaving Tainan and not having all this food readily available to me makes me sad. I paid maybe $3 USD for this.

 My camera does not do the sky justice. This was the first little typhoon incident. Got quite a bit of rain but it didn't get bad. We're looking at another one today and tomorrow 7/10-7/11:

Thankfully it's squeezing itself between Taiwan and Japan. We will be going to Taipei tomorrow morning for another weekend excursion and will probably see quite a bit of rain and pretty windy conditions, so that should be exciting.

Anyway, thought I would crank this one out along with the previous post to lighten up the mood a bit. I'm really having a wonderful time, but it is pretty easy to doubt myself, which on that note I think I have finally decided on 張克洋, 呂老師 made a good point in that it is a little rough on the ears Zhang Ke Yang, but 克 has some really important meaning to me at this particular point in time "to overcome". Trying to overcome my doubts and fears. Also 洋 is ocean so I kinda "overcame the ocean" to get here, so that's pretty cool. It's not a legal name either, so I can always change it haha. I'll probably still just go by "張洋” when I get back to the States because my teacher is from Mainland China, but maybe then again might use my Taiwanese name there because I really want to write traditional characters and not simplified. I'll figure it out, still have some time.

謝謝大家！