What are you doing for Chinese New Year?

My sleep schedule is all messed up again after all the celebrating we had going on this weekend.

I'm going to try to reset myself tomorrow since I only have one class so it won't be too terrible if I'm a little sleepy during it.

I'm also going tomorrow to try to buy train tickets to Haulien!

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but since Chinese New Year is coming up, we have a whole week off — nine days if you count our weekends.

My friend Leila and I are hoping to go to Taroko Gorge for a few days and then Kenting for a few days. I'm really excited but I'm also a little worried.

Chinese New Year is a big time for everyone to travel. Foreigners can't buy ticket until 12-days in advance, so we're running the risk of not being able to get a train ticket. And since we haven't bought train tickets yet, we haven't booked the hostel yet.

As you can see, this is snowballing into the possibility of not being able to go.

I'm sure we'll be able to make something work. I'm certainly not going to just hang around Taoyuan the entire week.

Other things to look forward to:

My Chinese teacher said tonight that she thinks we'll be finished with my textbook by Chinese New Year! I added a day and then switched my schedule around so that now I'm going on Tuesday and Thursdays instead of just the Wednesday night. I'm pretty excited about that.

She said she's really impressed with my ability to read, but that it still takes me too long to put my thoughts into actual words. She wants us to work a little more on conversation and I totally agree. Reading isn't really going to do me that much good.

Also, I booked my trip to Thailand with my sister!

This is way in advance considering we're not going until July — just in time for her birthday — but that's just how we do things. Unfortunately we don't have a ton of time so we can't really just go with the flow, but that's OK because my sister and I are big planners. We're planning a day in Bangkok and then four days diving in Koh Tao and another two just lazing around the beach before heading back to Bangkok for a night so she can catch and early flight back to America the next morning.

If anyone has any suggestions on must-see/must-do things in Bangkok let me know.