I know this is the post you have all been waiting for, so let's start!
Submitted this picture to Terra Studios and they put it on their Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/terrastudios?fref=ts
Immediately outside of my dorm
I seriously cannot say enough good things about my language partner. Chad is a super rad dude and here he is taking me to our first breakfast place!
等一下，我覺得你説了我們一起吃早餐。。。
啊！在那裡！Called the "Black Banana" haha
Not exactly sure what this is called, but it's like 葱油餅 with egg, plus some tea/soy milk combination thingy that is super delicious (I think it's oolong but I could be mistaken, and I guess is sold as "Milk Tea"). Almost forgot to mention that this meal cost me about $1.50 USD. The plate has a little plastic bag on it, saves on doing dishes heh.
Really wanting to emphasize the amount of scooters around, it's unreal
Orientation. You mean I have to be doing school work too? First day of classes will be next post, I have some really awesome teachers already.
The traffic here is so interestingly crazy, but somehow it all works. Chad was explaining that its more of a Tainan campus area thing to barely follow the rules, but that in Taipei people are a little less crazy, which sounds way less fun. Sometimes we act like a car, sometimes we're driving on the sidewalk and using crosswalks, it all depends on what gets you there faster. There's this really common thing that scared the hell out of me at first that instead of turning left at an intersection, we use the crosswalk on the right to cross the street and then hop into the lane and wait on the light to go forward. It's a lot better than trying to turn left through on-coming traffic. I've also just seen dudes straight up run red lights and expect cars to stop for them, which oddly enough the cars do stop and no one gets angry. Here's a diagram to make more sense of the crosswalk thing:
One of the most interesting things though, is how calm it all is. You only hear someone honk every now and then, very unlike major cities such as Chicago where it's just a blare of horns. Pedestrians also don't really have the right of way even in crosswalks. You're allowed to jump out in the road is basically it, but getting across is up to you to figure out. It's a little scary, but as long as you give cars enough room to drive around you, and you attention you're pretty much safe. I've been honked at by people when I was in the way but then as they drive past apologize. It's the best real life simulation of Frogger I've experienced, and thankfully keep getting to the next level :P. It seems like everyone just respects the idea that you have somewhere to be and want to get there as quick as possible.
Went shopping for some school supplies and bought some hair conditioner. My hair is unfortunately pretty much doomed. The humidity is so high it doesn't dry after I get out of the shower, and as soon as I sit down anywhere just frizzes and starts tangling up, though I did get a compliment from one of my teachers (I think at least.... the teachers don't speak any English to the students unless we're really struggling with something and then maybe 1 or 2 words. In theory the immersion would be fun, but I'm actually getting pretty worried, however that will be for another blog post). I also really need to find a legit hair pin because I'm pretty sure Chinese/Taiwanese people don't use chopsticks in their hair, considering you eat with them. One of my other teachers found it interesting but I'm not sure if it was in a good way or she was teasing me haha. 
Outside around the stationary shop
What would an island be without rain? Interestingly Chad told me it hadn't rained in almost a month. 
Different food shop while we were waiting out the rain.
Prepping for our journey out. Me, Felix, William, and my dorm-mate Daniel (he's American born Korean which is kinda funny because whenever we go places people speak Chinese to him like he should be fluent. I obviously don't have that problem heh) Chad is the man working the camera. Since this picture was taken I actually bought my own rain jacket!
Decided to take refuge in the Mos Burger and get something to drink . I
had this interesting tea with fruit at the bottom I totally forgot to
take a picture of sorry :(. I had a very hard time ordering it because it's like 9 characters long and I only know 1 of them heh. 
And our welcome dinner provided by the TUSA program. 50 something students plus our language partners, we had over 100 people there.
Jasmine tea, steamed okra, wood ear mushrooms (these guys are everywhere)
Actually starting to get pretty decent using chopsticks. I used them quite a bit in the States, so not a total novice when showing up to Taiwan, but I still get laughed at a little bit by my Taiwanese friends when trying to pick up certain foods. All in good fun though, they then offer suggestions on how to approach the food item in question.There's also some spoons you can use to kinda shovel food onto with your chopsticks, considering you're trying to eat every grain of rice, it becomes quite helpful.
Anyway, that was pretty much it for the banquet. We played a couple games to get to know each others names better and it went on for quite some time. When we left I pretty much just went and passed out for my first night of real sleep. My head has adjusted to the time shift quite well now, so all is good there.
Last couple notes, I never realized how nice washing your face a couple times a day would be. After running around in the blazing heat and humidity a nice cold splash of water and some soap on the face is quite wonderful.
Hmm, trying to think if there's anything left to comment on for this post. I'm doing pretty well keeping up now, but once I actually get into the grind of school and am doing more studying than exploring I'll probably cut back on posting as much. I know I have material for at least 2 more at the moment, plus we're taking a trip to Taipei 7-4/7-5 so that'll be in there. Afterwards I can't promise anything. I'm starting to already feel brutalized.
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