More Tales from Taiwan

Now that I think about it, Tales from Taiwan would have been a good name for this blog lol. Anyway... so I finally broke down and bought vending machine coffee, espresso X2! I do miss my coffee in the States. I'm sure my coffee grinder and French press setup misses me as much as I miss it.
 
Went to this place (really should be taking more outside-of-store pictures, now I can't remember what it was called) with my language buddy. I told myself I wasn't going to eat Western style food, but I broke down for a meal. It wasn't bad, but definitely isn't a place I'm going to frequent often. It is super easy to buy stuff there, and I can just say the number of the meal I want, 紅茶，and hopefully they don't ask me anything.

Then for dinner ate some real food that William showed us. I'm really digging the fried noodle soups. You get so much food for so little money.

 

 Random vehicle I got a kick out of. Some of the cars here are so tiny it's humorous compared to the jacked up truck styles Americans so dearly love to possess.

After working on some homework William, Daniel, and I went to go watch the new Terminator flick.

 

                        Live action Attack on Titan?!?

 Assigned seats, so brilliant. You just kinda suggest where you want to sit and how many people when you buy the tickets. Should be a thing in the States for sure. Also a very hip looking couple waiting to get in. I really love the Taiwanese style. It's all the good things about hip-hop culture. One of my one-on-one morning tutors does street dance which sounds super cool. We went to Taipei last weekend and it really was the epitome of the style up there. I was too shy to ask people to take their pictures, but I should really go back and do so. Some very unique and impressive personalities. I thought I would be the weird one over here, and while I still am, my physical appearance isn't a huge shock to anyone. I've had a couple older people stare me down, but overall I haven't really been anything to write home about. I seriously love this place. Taiwanese society is at such a critical point in its history right now, I feel so privileged to be able to see it this close.

 Anyway, Terminator Genesis is a pretty decent movie if you've thought about watching it. Very consistent in its execution, which is basically non-stop explosions. I really liked the first two, and this one seemed to revitalize the spirit of the old Terminators quite well for modern cinema.

Cool, just wanted to crank another blog out real fast just to have everything down.  The next post will be fun, and then the one after that is the one I really excited to write. The trip to Taipei! So stay tuned! On the next episode of..... 張克洋的博客!

p.s. I was not expecting this much attention when I thought of writing this blog. I figured some of my friends would read a couple, but now I have over 800 page views, getting comments from people about how they enjoy the read, and even a couple friends asking when the next ones will be published haha. Thank you all so much for your support and kind words. This is a really interesting medium of sharing my journey with people. I know after I get back to the States I'll frequent my posts and bask in the nostalgia of being on this wonderful island. As brutal as things are at times to my poor psyche and constant state of anxiety, I'm already looking at programs for coming back. I've put so much effort into studying Chinese, there really is no turning back. I'm going to be fluent or die trying dammit!

I love you all! 謝謝大家！