Who knows what is going on in this head of mine?

Let's play catch-up first. My birthday was super fun.

I went to Debbie's for breakfast with a few of the girls. Then I went home and researched vacations for about four hours. Then I went to the book store at Taipei 101, Page One, for three hours.

I love book stores and I wish I could go to them more often. Unfortunately, the book store in Taoyuan that I know only has one shelf of English books and they're almost all books that have been made into movies. 

Why are these people paying so much attention to me just because it's my birthday?

This week has been one heck of a roller coaster ride.

I've been happy and the sad and angry and depressed and excited. I've experienced a plethora of emotions and I'm not even sure where all of them came from.

Though I think I have decided that I would suck at living alone. It's nice to have a little alone time, but I don't like having too much alone time. Honestly, that's kind of what I thought would happen.

When are you absent-minded?

The past week has been insane.

Saturday night we went out for Angela's birthday. Of course we went to our usual club — Search — but this time Angela reserved tables. That put a nice twist on things and we all had a blast. (Except for when that super creepy Taiwanese guy kept following me around the dance floor and literally tried to kiss me at one point...)

What is an environmental message from children like?

Sunday and Monday could not have been more opposite of each other.

Sunday there was a birthday party at Bobo's house for herself and Joyce (her six-year-old daughter). My roomies and I arrived really late. It was fun though. We had a couple of drinks and sang karaoke.


Jamie, Joyce and a couple of their friends kept putting on these adorable shows.

It reminded me of how you were never really all that scared to perform when you were little — especially for your parents and even their friends.

This one was probably my favorite. Tess, Katie and I bought those flowers as Joyce's birthday present. They became props for all of their performances of the evening. In this case, they were crucial for the environmental message the girls were trying to send us.

If you weren't sure what Jamie was saying there at the end it was:

"Please don't take the flowers out or the Earth will be bad. Thank you."

They were just too adorable.

After the party, the roomies and I headed to Taipei for some shopping. It turned into shopping, drinking and eating.

Have a beer here, eat some street food there, buy something over there.

This place is called China Pizza. It's like tsong you bing with basil and amazing sauce.

Everything here is really different. Apparently it's perfectly OK to walk down the street with a beer in your hand. And so we did. Tess calls this phenomenon "drunk shopping."

Honestly, it was a lot of fun. We just kept buying food and beer and Christmas presents.

This is jianbao. It's a really big dumpling that's pan fried and steamed at the same time.

Luckily, I have great taste when I'm tipsy, so my Christmas shopping is much closer to done.

In the end, Katie, Graham (her friend who is visiting from America) and I ended up at this total dive bar close to the CKS Memorial.

I have to tell you, I love dive bars and I miss them so much.

Maybe they is one of the strangest things anyone has ever said, but I felt like I was back in America sitting in this little pub. Of course, I wasn't able to totally sink in and pretend we weren't in Taiwan.

Especially not after going to the bathroom.


Yes, my friends, there was no roof above the toilet in the bathroom. What do you do when there is no roof? You put an umbrella over the camode, naturally.

Now after that ridiculously long, productive and enjoyable Sunday, what was so bad about Monday?

Well, for starters, I slept forever. Then I forgot that I left my scooter at Bobo's. So I had to borrow one of my roommate's. Then I get to work just in time, as in the bell was ringing just in time.

Then I tried to go to 7-11 on break to get some tea and some chips, but I left my money in my purse which I don't take with me to school.

Luckily, it got a little better. I went to Carrefour after class and picked up my brand new contacts. Hopefully I'll be able to see again. I haven't even tried them on yet.

Also, I realized that I'm going home in TWELVE DAYS! (Ok, it was thirteen days yesterday, but yay!)

Now to just get everything in order before I head out. So much to do!

Was that a mini-earthquake or am I having a seizure?

Saturday night was a lot of fun. We went to this club in Jeng Li, called Search, for Jeremy's birthday. You basically pay one big cover to get in (I paid $400 NT — $12 USD) and that gets you all you can drink all night.

The catch, you stand in line a lot.


There were a lot of scarcely dressed women and this DJ from Malaysia. I think everyone had fun though and that's the important part.

I got left behind though. That was certainly not fun. We had such a large group and everyone else was pretty drunk. I went to the bathroom and came back and realized everyone was gone.

Gave me a chance to fend for myself in Chinese though. I went to three different cabs before I found one that was willing to drive me back to Taoyuan and then I had to try to explain where I live in Chinese.

Me: Taoyuan. Do you know Jengjen Lu? Do you know Tong An Jie?
Cabbie: What????

I had hoped that if I could get him into Taoyuan and to at least ONE of the streets I actually knew then I could just give him directions back to my place.

We finally combined efforts and he got me back to the dorm at about the same time as everyone else. Cabbies here drive super fast.

I ended up staying up to watch the sun come up Sunday morning, so I, of course, took some pictures from the balcony.


That's the LDS church right down the street from us. That's also what the sunrise looks like at 5:30 in the morning.

Bright, I know.

Sunday, Megan, Allen and I went shopping in Taipei. It was a lot of fun, but SO tiring. We walked so much!

I found three dresses I liked though and a bag.


There's Allen modeling my bag for me.

Unfortunately, staying up really late (early?) and then going to Taipei and walking all day took all the energy out of me. I ended up not cleaning the refrigerator last night. We'll see how I feel after school tonight.

Probably not great. I think I have a cold. My head hurts and my throat is a little swollen. How do you get a cold in this weather?

Last night Megan messaged me on Skype at about 1 a.m. asking me if I felt that shaking?

I didn't feel anything, but then today I was sleeping off my sickness and suddenly my bed started shaking back and forth.

I jumped up out of bed and immediately got on my computer to see what the deal was.

Apparently there were about 15-18 earthquakes in Haulien county yesterday. People have been feeling aftershocks all over the northern part of the island ever since.

Being from Texas, I am running into a whole different set of mother nature's wonders. At home it was tornadoes and hail, sometimes a really large hurricane hitting the coast would make its way far enough inland.

Here, we have earthquakes, typhoons and I suppose the possibility of tsunamis?