Greetings my Canadian (and one American) hommie's and hommiette's!!!
So I have slightly procrastinated on the writing of this for a few days but I noticed the details (the little ones) of my amazing weekend are starting to slip so I better get on this now!

Wow what a weekend!!!
So Friday I was invited to a lunch meeting being held by the hospital for a bunch of my colleagues and friends that were leaving this weekend. What I did not realize is that this was a fancy lunch with consulate ambassadors and what not from various countries. Well being that I thought it was just a lunch I showed up to the formal event in Jeans and having not shaved in oh I don't know 3 or 4 days. Yup CLASSY! we said good bye to our new friends and it is awesome I have contacts in so many places, I look forward to seeing them again in there hoome countries.

From the lunch I went directly to the train station to head down to my friend’s town called Hsin Chin hmm or something like that. My friend has Myasthenia gravis and RH and receives bee therapy so I was able to see the bee's and watch some video's from national geographic on this treatment...very interesting. Had some amazing Thai food than off to bed as we were heading to the southern tip of the island the next day.

Morning arrives and Molly and I go for a quick walk around. Their area is pretty cool, it is super old and was an original village so the streets are hella narrow. There is also rice farms scattered around so we went and checked them out.
Off to the south, all was well until POP....CRAP....there goes a tire, we blew a tire on the side of the highway and if you know anything about driving out here that is scary as hell. No-one avoids you, in fact they get mad at you whizzing by and honking for the fact that you are blocking the side of the road. 2 hours later and 2 new tires we are on the road again.

*On a side note I no longer want to buy ice cream with the garbage trucks I just want them to SHUT UP!! Yes one just drove by again with the wonderfully cheap serenade of do’s and da’s.*

Now let me get re-acquainted with the keyboard and my mind back on track as the music is finally passed us by. So being that we had a few rather small bumps in the road we arrived a little later than I had planned, however it was just in time to watch the sun set over the beach which of course was beautiful. We found out some information about diving for me and it was determined being that there was a typhoon of the coast it was a little dangerous for a first timer to go, and after seeing some waves the next day I am glad I took their advice and stuck to snorkeling. We found ourselves a quaint little hotel that was old but had a killa view of the ocean and then headed out to the night market.

The night market in this town was defiantly the best I have seen so far, maybe because it is a party surfer town and you can feel that energy from the crowds. We walked and saw and ate (some good some bad) I had this one thing that was similar to a custard pudding battered and deep fried, I never knew pudding could be so friggin good sober!!! I came across a challenge from one of my friends on a previous post and true to my word I decided to try it after a little self convincing. What you may ask could be worse than the chicken testie I had last weekend? How about congealed pigs blood BBQ on a stick dipped in peanuts!! Yes the grossest thing I have ever put in or near my mouth.....luckily all I could taste was peanuts, and the texture was similar to that of a very moist muffin.

After dropping off my friend and her daughter at the hotel we went back out, apparently I had to have a massage by the blind people. This my friends was the most painful experience! I had locals calling me superman and watching as I took the pain, a shoulder and foot massage. My muscles were so inflamed the next day, and the dorsal aspect of my feet still hurt 2 days later. After the massage we hit the beach bar which was well deserved. We had a few coronas while looking over the water with a temperature of 30 degrees at midnight, all of this with live music, and then back to the hotel as this was a great way to end the night.

Ahhh morning! Sun is shining, the weather is sweet,(lil marely reference) I stand looking through the window, I open the screen and look over the ocean, and green mountains of this little tropical paradise. What a great day and I didn’t even know the adventures to come! We headed out to the very southern tip where the light house stood, which was built in 1867. I found this pretty neat solely based on the era, and the things this structure must have endured. From here we headed down through the lush vegetation into the semi junglish area’s heading to the ocean water. Of course I found a path that perked my curiosity and as we know I always follow that little voice telling me the unknown path is always a good choice. Lost again, this time with my friends and their daughter, we ask for directions out and get really bad advice finding us further in the park. Luckily it is not big so we know eventually we will find our way. However when we came across the two path arrows that one would think would lead to the exit, but were just pointing at each other, things seemed a little frustrating(frustrating in a fun I love adventures in a foreign country kind of way). This path of course was still fully worth it as we ended up climbing between huge rock walls on either side of us, and when we finally came upon people they did the typical ‘hello, what's up' MTV hommie talk that the teens out here always seem to pull out....oh American music and TV how you have failed miserably us on so many levels.

From here we drove along the cliffs overlooking the ocean and this was unbelievable. Words really cannot describe what nature has to offer us. It is truly amazing that we as people spend all our lives researching, inventing, building, creating, and with everything we do nothing can even come close in comparison to what nature does naturally. I find not only is this beautiful to see, but one can learn so much in just a moments observation if you really pay attention. I sat above the oceans and simply was, and I loved it!!

We ended up at some small town with a suspension bridge, paid 10 bux (like 30 cents) and went across into a mass field of coconut and banana trees and then headed back to go Snorkel. On the way back we found these quads on the side of the road and decided to stop and see how much it was to go quading. It was super cheap and the view was awesome along the cliffs, above the ocean, so of course how do you not!! We saw some deer and they ran alongside of us as we rode along the hills, also really cool.

All of this and it wasn’t even lunch time yet! Could it possibly get better you ask? We arrived at the snorkeling place and I was slightly nervous now overlooking the mass amounts of water I was about to submerge myself in. They were really good about it all though, took us into a shallow area of the ocean teaching us how to breathe and float and move, you know all the things that I suppose are deemed important for human survival. Eventually we headed out to the ocean and OMG!! I saw thousands of tropical fish. There were some out there the size of my torso that where all florescent colours of blues and yellows and reds, I saw trumpet fish, and puffer fish, and tons of different types of corral. The dive instructor brought out bread and crushed it around us causing hundreds of different types of fish to come out swimming all around us. I think I have fallen in love, the ocean is the most surreal and amazing place I have ever experienced and now feel that I need to get my diving certification and travel to dive.

My friend bought us a package which included some crazy activities down the road so we piled into the back of a sketch truck with fold down walls, still in our wet suits, and headed to the next stop. Neither of us had a clue as to what we were to endure next, but I must say I am thankful to be alive after that experience! We get onto this couch like contraption attached to a seadoo and head out to the ocean. Now one would think after seeing how drivers are on the roads I may think twice before letting someone pull me behind a speeding sea vehicle, ya umm no. His whole mission was to try and launch us off this thing and being that we were in wet suits I think he really wanted to, I am glad I had a helmet I must say. He would go as fast as he could and then pull a hair pin U-turn causing us to get serious air while being whipped around. I screamed and screamed yet didn’t let go, and my arms still feel the burn. I went out twice and that was enough for me, by the end of it I had used all my muscular energy and hands were shaking, in fact I was barely able to open my bottle of water. I am glad I did it in hind sight though, it was a total blast and no I never fell off!

Finally we headed back to Kaoshung for the night which was about a 3 hour drive. We stopped along the way at the apparently famous restraunt for bbq pig leg and continued the journey. Arriving in Kaoshung we relaxed for awhile and then I was shown around the city a little bit being brought to love river, the harbour, and the old British embassy residence. Very nice city looks a lot more modern than others and I found out it was due to the past president, most of his voters came from this area so of course most of the money was spent here.

This brings us to Monday, and unfortunately I had to be back at the hospital in the north for 1:30 so my time was limited. We headed quickly to a mountain where we did a short hike in so I could see wild monkeys. That was rad; just saw one though as it walked around inspecting us, more so looking for food. I have heard they will swarm you in large numbers if they discover your packing food with you. He was a lot bigger than I expected. I had 15 mins to get to the High speed train station, I honestly didn’t think I would make it, but I did with 5 mins to spare. Found my way to the train and off I went. This high speed train is the same they have in Japan and goes faster than 300 km’s and hour, It really didn’t feel like it, but did get me back to Taipei in 90mins just in time for me to change and head to the hospital...........tanned, amazed, and with a new outlook on everything!!

Now usually I have been ending these with some persons inspirational quote that I like, today I am not going to do this because I think the most valuable thing I can say comes from personal experience this weekend. I spent all weekend with great friends that speak very limited English and their child who really does not speak any, we had an amazing time, I spent the weekend having fun with them, bonding, playing, and communicating with them and their kid.......I realized how language can really be a barrier that we have placed on mis-consumptions due to our own ideas of what communication should be. I spent all weekend laughing and playing and never once did I feel that language really could have made this more of a valuable experience, when you rely on the person you see them for who they are and truly rely on the connections felt as one human to the next. I have re-read this and tried to figure out how to explain myself better, leading to the perfect example that language can sometimes just complicate things......the only way to understand what I speak here is through experience.


Much love,

Chris

Well good day to you!

So today is Thursday, already so close to the weekend and already so many plans!!
It feels as though I just got back from trippin' around central Taiwan and off I go again! Tomorrow I leave for southern Taiwan with some friends and I think I get to go diving which I am totally stoked on! However there is a psychontic typhoon who is not taking it's appropriate med's just off the coast, and no one seems to really know where this thing is going. All I know Is I hope that it does not come my way, it would highly inconvenient my plans and this does not please me! I will tell you all about the trip Monday tho so for now grab a cup of tea, have a seat, and lets talk briefly about my last few days shall we?

So Wednesday I had planed to go to the zoo, it is something I have been trying to do for awhile now but keep ending up with other plans. Just before I was about to leave my friend recommended I go to Yang ming national park instead. Being that it is a beautiful day, and with the potential of days of rain courtesy of the typhoon, I feel this is probably the best plan. I looked up my route, grabbed my camera, and off I went. Wow what a journey I didn't think I was ever going to get there but eventually the bus was headed up a mountain and I figured I must be in the right direction!

I arrived! I get off the bus and realize I should have brought a jacket as it seemed a little chilly and for the sake of our friendship I will not try to guesstimate the temperature. I have of course, horrible yet expensive food, grab myself a bottle of water and hit the path. All is going well its a nice hike there are amazing butterflies everywhere, and I am talking those huge ones that look like they have 4 wings and big tails ya you know the type! The view was unbelievable as I stood high above Taipei, and plants and tree's were so green! I must interrupt here briefly and explain quickly that I have also decided the next country I visit will be FLAT!! All is going well I come across some bubbling brooks and trickling water falls and I am in total awe, so of course when i see the sign telling me about the large waterfalls I have to go...RIGHT?!?

After a short hike and a few paths later I come to the falls and wow, check the pictures! Now of course I see a path of uneven, un-level, mossy stairs to the left and I am not sure why but I always feel the hardest path is often the most rewarding. I look at the easy path with the sun and concrete, than the shadowed path with the overgrown tree's and moss, than the easy path, than the stairs. Next thing I know I am looking down at the easy path from way above thinking 'damn it next time I go easy'. I climb and climb and there not normal stairs, some are skinny, some are like 1 foot and a half high, and some are 6 inches so its constantly different with each breathless step. Finally arrive at a bridge with seats looking directly at the falls and it was totally worth it! I must laugh too cus on the other side of the bridge is what appears to be an 'easy path' but whatev I like a challenge.

Now I sit here for awhile just watching and listening to the power of water as it crashes against the rocks, bubbling up to find its way to the next cliff until it reaches the bottom of the mountain and this my friends is gorgeous. After a rest full of energy and determination I go back to the hard side where I am actually sure no-one ever takes as there seems to be pretty non-disturbed growth over the stone 'stairs'. I think it can only get better so I continue up the mountain with my new found energy.

I kept climbing and being teased as there would be a hundred steps and looked like it would plateau so I would go, turn around the corner and see another hundred stairs with what appeared to be a plateau. I continued doing this for some time while mother nature laughed at me and my determination to get to the top. With burning quads and total un-sureties of how much further this could go on for I decided to throw in the towel and admit defeat and head back down. Now of course I ended up taking other paths and found myself about 45 mins from the bus loop, walking along a mountain road thinking if I headed this direction it would take me back, eventually it did. I saw some really cool views from this road and some neat abandoned cement building/stand like things on the side of the road.
I arrived back at the loop just as the bus was loading so I managed to get on for the ride. This driver was crazy! rippin' down the mountain curves like some type of luge track, has he forgotten he is loaded with people and not driving a go-cart?? I gota say years of skate boarding probably made the trip a little easier as it was like ridin a over sized board really fast! Was actually pretty fun haha just wish the guy who kept bumpin me had the same skillz. I arrived home around 7 and another person in the dorm told me about buffet style food about 2 blocks from here so I decided to go try it out and had fried chicken!! Never has fried bird tasted soooo good!!!! Went to 7-11 for a peach ice cream bar for desert and was amused as the girl there finally spoke to me in English saying 'thank you'. It was so cute to watch her giggle and go totally red as she tried to speak, I replied in Chinese and headed home for dinner.

Today was a very long day at the hospital, I had class in the morning and than was with the doctor with about 40 patients all afternoon. I really learned alot in lectures today, was awesome, all things I already know but a totally different way on looking at things. I am really looking forward to further lectures!!

We saw some interesting things today and I will just mention a couple. This guy we were treating for mania took along time though, pushing us back meaning we didn't finish till about 6:30. Manic guy was alright at first but as time went on you saw more and more how crazy he really was. I also had a client today that had no Humerous, wow that was bizarre. I palpated the area first to experience the feeling, and than they took her arm and bent it all around like rubber person. This was a tad creepy but I managed to keep my composure. All in all it was a good day, I headed to that buffet again for food as it is kind of the best I have found around here, tomorrow I may get a little more adventurous with the whole fishes but we will see, I feel I have been pretty bold with my tastes so far.

Well I most likely will not be updating this again until Monday as I am going to southern Taiwan tomorrow. I really hope the typhoon skips us and I am able to go diving, if so I will buy a underwater camera so I can share those pictures as well. I am not sure how this will work tho as even while writing this the wind is howling eerily through my window and I can hear the rain pouring outside. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Hope all is well, and I miss you guys back home like mad!!
Oh and of course can't forget 'things that make you go hmmm':

'Everyone can think of the one thing that would make life better for them.
But people are not so quick to answer the second question:
'What are you doing to make that change come true'

Don't just think but ACT.....

Sorry Steve I think my grammar has gone to the shit's again, It has never been a strong point of mine.......not like I need it over here anyways :)
That's why there's editors!! However people leave me a comment, if my writing is hard to follow I will take more time on editing and forming it into a more suitable format, I tend to just type as I think so things aren't portrayed in the most readable sentences...

And Holly this isn't a punish Chris type challenge it's supposed to be interesting not find the grossest thing there is!!! With that being said I am pretty sure that is a different Country as I have not seen anything to this description. Not sure if I can do the stinky tofu, the smell alone makes me actually have to hold my breathe in fear of vomiting all over the street, I will try though...

Chris

day....oh who knows anymore!?!

Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and girls, Children of allll ages welcome to my world of random adventures, bizarre cuisines, and huge mutha F@!*%n spiders!!!!

Ok so I am gona leave that spider thing out for last but let me tell you this, the think was frigging huge and freaky. Psychologically scared to the point I am writing this naked as I fear it had friends that may have attached itself hiding somewhere with in my clothes. I feel at this point my best self defense is to sit naked on a chair in the middle of my room so I can see all angles. You may think this is over kill but that bastard was huge and now that I know what surrounds me I will take no chances. Now if you don't mind stop picturing me naked and lets get on with the stories of my past 4 or 5 days.

So thanks to the hospital I was able to tour around central Taiwan this weekend with a group of other various interns and it was AWESOME!! Friday night I took it easy just going out for dinner with some family friends from here in Taiwan, they are taking me to there home towns this weekend where I will be the first whitey I am pretty stoked should be interesting. However meeting up with them seemed to be an impossible challenge that took about a hour and a half of walking around the largest subway station in Taipei, epic fail on the meeting spot!! But eventually all was good dinner was had and good times were followed.(thanks to a random stranger who helped me find them, however out of hundreds of people I pick the one person who has only been in Taipei for a few months? how the heck?)

Saturday morning we left the hospital on one of those huge tour buses at 7:30 am, wow that was early but they gave us a great traveling breakie of sugary foods and seafood sandwich's(seafood is almost as common as rice). I started watching a bit of baseball game and than soon passed out as it was way early for me, when I awoke I seemed to be in a paradise of heat, palm tree's, and heat! It was quite the transformation kind of like falling asleep in Edmonton and waking up in Tofino. It was unbelievable to see forests of Palm tree's all the way up the sides of mountains/hills. While watching in amazement we drove past a dried up river, all that was left was a valley or river rocks about 5 times the size of our river at least and bridges going over the rocks. Our first stop was an old town that I can not remember the name of right now but will find out later. This place was pretty sweet just old street of vendors, I actually call it city of dragon flies as I have never seen swarms of them before but here there was hundreds. From here we went to a old pottery making place that was built in the early 1920's. This was cool as they had a old fire kiln that was huge and we were able to walk through. There was a funny story about how the master forgot his head gear long time ago and came out with a perm and all the ladies started going in there when it was cool to curl there hair when no one was around haha. I also saw the largest piece of pottery in the world I know this all sounds kind of boring but I was massive and worth mentioning.

On the way to the long awaited sun moon lake we made another stop at a winery which was boring as it was morning and there was no taste testing, all I got was this damn shirt and by shirt I mean yam ice cream bar(and no not like our type of yams, not that it would make it better).

Ahhh finally sun moon lake, did I mention that it was in the 30's outside so it was super hot!! So we arrive and it was awesome! There was a boat there waiting to take us on a private cruise of the lake, we ended up docking on the other side and did a small hike to the top of a hill where there was a temple overlooking the lake and mountains this was a site that would could make a grown man cry...well not me of course but probably some other grown man.....We were constantly rushed tho as they planned alot for us to see so back to the boat we went and off to the next dock. This was just an old town with lots of random food vendors and stuff so we walked around looking at things like the store called 'bar and things' what a great idea get people drunk and then sell them things GENIOUS. So on the walk back we came across fermented eggs, these things were buried in the ground with different herbs and left to rot than sold to people like me, and I had to tye this courtesy of Amanada. As you recall I said in a previous post I will try anything while being out here as you only live once. I came across the world by myself so I am going to make the most of it! Well she told me to try a '100 year old egg' and I figure this is probably the closest If not the same thing. It looked so gross like a yellow clear jelly surrounding the yolk well down the hatch it went....unfortunately this was just the start of grossness on this trip. From here we went back to the hotel and a group of us went searching for beer. Oh did we find the place! a karaoke bar from hell and I think they wanted to steal me. We entered, saw, decided to leave and all the staff started to grab me and pull me in telling me to sit stay and drink I am so thankful for all my friends that did absolutely nothing!!!! However I did escape and we walked for at least a half hour trying to find a place and ended up back at a place next to the karaoke bar and guess what the owners were friends and ended up coming by and seeing us at this place....damn it......well after lots of beer Headed back to the amazing hotel and crashed out.

hmmm I think sunday was the day we went to the winery before heading up to the aboriginal village. Everything is just a big spin so I really have no idea what I did when in fact I am not even sure what day it is anymore, however I do know I have a hockey game to watch in the morning...GO FLAMES!!!

So on Sunday like mentioned I believe we went to the winery and than headed to a aboriginal village on top of a mountain that was actually just turned into a giant amusement park. We headed up via gondola which gave a great view of the surrounding area's. Once we got to the top we watched a show of tribal dancing and what not, it was interesting but all in Chinese so a lot of the time I stared and nodded when others did to look like I was not a strange foreigner that had no idea what was being said, however I think they could tell by the lack of pigment in my skin but whatev's I am pretty sure I nodded at the right time....Tho my laughs might have been misplaced slightly :)
(note to self a mock killing of a native with a spear is not a humerous situation)

The rest of the day was spent wondering the park taking rides looking at totem poles, you know the normal. They are terrified of H1N1 here and you have to sanitize your hands before most rides, yet they expect me to crap in a hole in the ground.......not likely.....oh my belly aches........

We headed back to town for dinner at this amazing buffet style restaurant with tons of gourmet foods, you really notice the Japanese influence with a lot of sushi's and miso soup! I ate and ate it was so good to have awesome food after the lack of good food around the hospital. Unfortunately at the end of the meal my friend came up to me and reminded me that I agreed to try everything and anything, than informed me there was chicken testicles at the bar.......yup.......well I traveled across the world by myself so whats a testicle or two to chomp down on right??? WRONG!!! so to no surprise it tasted like chicken but was squishy and gross, everyone was watching as I chewed yet couldn't swallow(go ahead insert crude elementary style joke here)I just couldn't do it so I grabbed a bottle of coke and jugged, well at least I did it! From here we went to an amazing 5 star hotel courtesy of the Taiwan Government. Took it easy this night.

Monday was the last day of the trip, we woke up and headed out to one of the newest ground breaking hospital/surgery training centers in the world. This was an amazing opportunity to see facilities that Surgeons from all over the world constantly apply and wait for to come and train here. I was able to get a tour of the training rooms as well as the o.R and it was unbelievable to see!!! We toured the rest of the 'hospitel' they call it this because it is more of a hotel than anything, even the nurses where hotel uniforms. The hospital rooms were better than any hotel/apartment I have ever been in you need to go check the pictures! I will not bore you with much of this stuff but believe you me it was cool. We boarded the bus after a day of seminars and tours and headed to the old street for a quick walk where I Bought 2 pairs of shoes and a leather wallet for 30 bux, good deal I must say. Back home we go.....


Drum roll please!!!
Now for the spider story and why I am sitting here naked, well not naked got shoes on for attack purposes just in case. So I decided to go and venture out to the hills and go on a hike by myself today...how hard to could it be....sounds like a great idea right? well I get to the start of the hike and its stairs ziggin and zaggin steep up this mountain hillside thing, so I start 1800 meters how bad can it be?? well about 100 meters in I see the scariest friggin spider of my life and it was huge here check it out for yourself http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3247/3076434695_982962807e.jpg did you look?? ya not cool!!!!!! So I keep going up this stair case up and up and up and up....I finally get to the top sweat dripping down my forehead, shirt soaked, breathing like darth vador during a asthma attack 'Luke where is my inhaler?' and what do I find at the top and old guy doing chin ups WTF who climbs a mountain to do chin ups at the top!!!!! well I am not sticking around here to join him hell I can't even breathe so I see path and take it. Well next thing I know I am on the pathway to hell its really just kinda carved out with potato sacks nailed into it for some sort of pathetic attempt at grip, at this point I am thinking if I fall no one will ever find me. I end up on some other trails totally lost in the forest and come across creepy huts and things that I can not really explain but there are pictures. I can hear things in the bushes which at this point I am imaging to be 5 ft tall spiders waiting for me to trip so they can entwine me with web and feed me to whatever other crazy animals are around here.....I am sure there just lizards, or birds yes there probably just birds, birds that follow lost tourists waiting to peck there knee caps off.... sorry I am getting a lil crazy but its late and I have been writing this for hours. I will end this now I finally came to the bottom I could here traffic I was saved!!! I came out on to a freeway which I followed back to the MRT looking back at my hike thinking damn that was fun trying to figure out where to go tomorrow......however my 'mountain' was really just a foresty hill and my journey was really only an hour and a half, But rest assured when you are in a unknown area with the sun setting on a hillside where you can't see civilization knowing there's spiders waiting to eat you, a hill seems like a mountain! Needless to say it was fun as hell and I am looking forward to my next adventure but maybe I will bring a friend. wow I am not looking forward to eventually re writing, editing, and adding other stories to all these posts as I remember them.

well here is my quote of the day "Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it, it's only good for wallowing in"

Much Love,

Chris


P.S I am not really naked as I write this but I am thinking I will stay awake until I return to Canada.....

P.S.S I forgot to mention my crouching tiger praying mantis!! yes I saw a real live praying mantis SO COOL! Made me think of kung fu panda haha

Ok a few other things for me to remember. Went to a paper making mill and watched how paper was made and made a fan...mine was really sucky but was still cool. Also took 3 days to find deodorant!!!! Went to an old train station and saw a lake filled with crazy koi fish flyin through the air as people fed them. Ok I am done now...GOODNIGHT

Day 8

Greetings everyone!

So I am kind of confused as my day count and the time I have been here is not matching up, so I am going to tell you about two days and label it as one, Hope that is ok with you!

Oh the days of yestertime......So I really didn't end up doing a lot on Wednesday as I was not in the hospital I had planed to go hiking, however I received a call that the hospital was bringing people to Taipei 101 so I stuck around to go on the tour. Taipei 101 well what to say about this monstrosity......there is a lot of research going on right now claiming that this building is responsible for elevated levels of earthquakes in Taipei as the pressure from the weight is disrupting the fault lines that run underneath us...this is slightly un-nerving as I don't want my bed rockin' due to some massive building stressin' and pissin' of mother nature, than again at least my bed be hmm nevermind. There is a mall at the base that is purely escelators and rich stores like gucci armoni some guy named valan-something. I came I conquered I might go back...mostly because it was cloudy and I couldn't see a thing out of any of the windows.

After leaving Taipei 101 we went down to main station on a camera hunt as I feel my camera needs to go away, the battery life is shorter than my memory with only half the abuse. I think I really like my new camera I guess we will see how the pictures turn out over the next few days as I am heading down to central Taiwan for the weekend.

DISCLAIMER:If anyone important from my school is reading this please skip the next paragraph!

So today I skipped out of observation to go with another program to the national palace museum. This place was so amazing! It is the largest collection of Chinese artifacts dating back as far as 400A.D
Things I saw in here were unbelievable and you really couldn't help but to imagine what there life was like viewing pictures I believe were painted from what they were viewing at that moment. To have this connection spawning your imagination is something that I think everyone should experience whether it be your own or another countries history. There were paintings and porcelain that looked like it was done yesterday that was 4000 years old. There where 3 pieces in there that China is trying to claim and get back one is a giant couldrant with the most amount of inscription known on any artifact located with in, explaining the current emperors reign. The other two are interesting one is a giant piece of jade carved into cabbage and the other is a rock carved to look like a slab of meat......

After the museum we boarded our huge tourist bus that made me feel somewhat important and headed off to see north east Taiwan. WOW!!!! you really need to look at the pictures to understand the lush vegetation amazing rock formations and beautiful and powerful ocean. We hiked around here for awhile and than were treated to dinner which of course was a sea food specialty. Now I am not one that is a huge fan of random sea creatures on my plate but I ate and I ate and I should not have let people see me pick a little bit because than they just kept bringing me food I suppose I am the white beast or maybe the 'Homer' of the table haha. I think I even had sea cucumber or at least that's what I am telling myself because it could probably be way worse.

I really feel like I am leaving things out, but can not think of anything else really to share. I think I need to keep a better record of the details while I rip around cuz I know there were moments I thought 'damn I need to share this' but I guess for now these memories are locked away somewhere.

Oh I guess I could tell you how I had to rip my garbage apart today after looking for my room key and hospital security card for an hour DAMN IT!! I looked everywhere had no idea and my last option was yup look in the garbage and voila......I will keep a better watch on.....hmmm I wonder where it is now actually.....well i guess I should look for it, after all I have to be in the hospital at 8:30 tomorrow so no time to look in the morning.

Because I kind of like leaving everyone on these notes here is something else for you reading pleasure 'The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart'

Until next time I hope all is well,

Chris

Day 7

Ni hao Jianada ren,

Whats good my fellow Canadians?
I feel I should start today by saying how unfortunate it is that you have so much snow on this fall day, and to follow that sentence need I say its so hot here I have heat rash on my arms. Damn it should not have worn long sleeve shirt to the market.

Now that we have that out of the way I will continue on for any who didn't know use choice words towards me and close this page.

Well today I decided to follow along with some cosmetic treatments being that I think it would be beneficial to see and know some information on. The Doctor that I followed today specialty is weight loss and that is all she treats. I must admit it was somewhat interesting and the results were really great, most clients (I saw around 40) were losing 2-4 kilo's per week. The treatment itself is the same for everyone however the herbs can change somewhat depending on any health conditions or complications.

I found it very amusing that for the last hour of treatments we kept discussing with the nurses and other doctors what type of pizza we were to order from pizza hut for lunch. We even had the menu out on the table in front of patients there for weight loss I found it really mean hahaha but hey I like pizza so whatevs. finally lunch came and yes we did have pizza hut, again we ate it in the clinic making the whole place smell deliciously like food for the patients to come after lunch hahaha. The pizza was pretty much the same except for the Japanese octopus one which I had a slice of and choked down slowly with lots and lots of pop.

In the afternoon my self and two other Doctors went down to old Taipei where we visited a herbal clinic and got to look at and discuss about 130 raw herbs including deer penis, which as one of my teachers likes to say 'puts lead in your pencil' haha. It was actually really cool and I have pictures of everything that I will load and catagorize at another time.

After school was done I met up with the Crazy poluck and the nice Taiwanese person and two other people from different countries that used couchsurfing to meet people. They were nice but a tad odd. We went to have some food first and I had a traditional Taiwanese dish that is made out of a gluten like substance that is made of rice with some meets cooked inside it topped with gravy, I suppose it kind of tasted like sheppards pie if you get over the texture. I also ordered fish ball soup as I enjoyed it in dan shui but it was not very tasty here and thick and slimy.

We than went over to longshen temple which was absolutly amazing!! I got to educate everyone on the importance of entering the temple via the right side(dragon) and exiting the left side(tiger) all based on the flow of qi and my guides was very impressed, which is always good to show your interest while in other peoples cultures. I felt extremely bad for taking pictures in here however it had to be done, I did keep my flash off tho in hopes that it showed some respect to those there for prayer. I wish I could explain the feeling and energy within these walls, I think I may return tomorrow night or sometime in the near future to sit and write It really has an energy like not many other places. I believe it has to do with so many peoples intentions and pure honest non corrupted thoughts combining together in one area. The religion is not important but the faith and intentions is what brings this type of energy to life. The human mind has strength with intention and this intention gives strength to the human mind, I believe this is like the yin/yang theory of cycle and interchanging energy.

After leaving longshen temple we went to snake alley, this is a famous night market that I felt I had to visit but did not enjoy very much. Here you can get many fake things from vendors as well as of course snake soup complete with blood and all. Everywhere I looked where snakes in cages and I came across de-shelled turtles laid on there back waiting to die, it was extremely disturbing and this is all I wish to speak about regarding some of what I saw. We got to the end of the alley and there was a booth where they gave massage with sharp meat cleavers, WTF!!! One of the people I was with decided to give it a try and said it was great, maybe I will try sometime but wasn't into paying someone to hack me up. We continued on our journey's walking to Xi Men which is like a trendy young people area, of course it was busy and neat to see but not much to do. There was this old guy who did really cool shit by cutting out your portrait from construction paper, It really didn't take him long and he was really good at it. My friend got hers done for free cus he was sweet on here haha but that's cool I got to see him in action.

Oh ya I did by a murse(man purse) today haha I swore I would never in a million years get one but damn it I need one I caved and you know what I FRIGGIN LOVE THE DAMN THING. Grunt Grunt Grunt.......

Anyways other than this I just headed home, I may update this as I feel I have missed out on things but it is late and I can't think. I do want to add tho that I believe almost everyone here owns a dog, and they will ride around on there mopeds with the dogs just chilling, it's pretty darn cute.

Well here's to hoping the Flames win the game today after there embarrassing loss yesterday!!I think I get to do more sight seeing tomorrow so I will tell ya all about it later! I hope my cubital crease rash(don't worry its just from heat, it was after all like 30 today) from hell is gone by the morning and those damn bites on my hand well yup there still there, but I still have my hand...


your quote for the day,
"Every artist was first an amateur"
Never give up on something you love, you must start somewhere!!


Zai Jian!!

Day 5/6

Li bai yi Shi yue ShiEr

Ni Hao
Wo Jiao Chris
Wo bu shi Taiwan ren Wo shi Jianada ren

Hello All!
So as you can see I started Chinese class today, found it somewhat boring yet somewhat interesting all at the same time. I have decided to combine day 5 and 6 and suspect I will do the same as I am not always living large, some days are just not that note worthy. Wait all days are note worthy some I just do not have a lot to write about.

So yesterday I met with another person from couchsurfing.com and he took me over to someones house for a monthly movie day. This was pretty awesome there were about 6 or 7 people including one gorgeous girl from check republic, and I do love me cute smart girls! Everyone there was super nice and it was good to be able to see a actual house(apt) here in Taipei. It was really nice even tho they look dodgy from the outsides, after entering from the alley and climbing the equivalent of the Calgary tower in stairs(ok maybe exaggerating a tad) I entered the house. We watched 2 films that I HIGHLY recommend. The first movie was the secret life of words, and the second was things we have lost in the fire. The first movie really has no one in it but is excellent and the second movie has lots of famous people but is still very Independant type of film.

After the movie a couple of us went out for dinner and wow who would have thunk I had Italian, and not just Italian but some of the best I have had. Again for 200 dollars I had a cream soup, salad, bread, and a huge shrimp pasta. I am starting to think that everything here comes to 200 dollars(until I tell you about today's meal). I must comment on the service out here too, They just watch and remove your plate and bring you more stuff instantly there amazing! and you don't tip here, however they deserve it, they truly are great. We had realy interesting conversations about TED which is a very informitive website. Two topics that stood out where a lecture done based on how nature has solved all the problems that we are trying to deal with. Everything we need can be found in nature. There are many examples and I suggest looking up the lecture on TED I believe if you search the ladies name Jenine it should come up. Another is the amazing abilities the mushroom has from detoxifyin ground from oil spills to taking radiation contamination and decreasing the levels 1000 percent within days. Again look it up.

From there I had the privileged of finding my way home via bus and subway from along distance from my place. I met a couple from Holland at the bus stop and talked with them for a good portion of my trip. I really like this whole traveling alone thing as it makes you step out of the box and forces you to meet and interact with people you don't know. I really think this has been a great learning lesson for me and it has just began, I can't wait to see the end of this journey and what I learned. I managed to make it home however the subway system is amazing I would love to see some plans of it as Taipei main station has many different underground levels for different trains going all different directions. I think it must look like a giant human ant hill underground.

Today was uneventful, I went to the hospital and saw many of the same patients. Here because it is all under medicare and the things that we treat here are more severe we see a lot of the patients daily. This is needed though to see the results that we achieve here which is still really amazing. Tomorrow I am going to follow an Doctor who specializes in weight loss, I am not to interested in this but think it would be beneficial to see and learn and be useful back in Canada. I had Chinese class tonight and I did learn some, but a lot of it was review of pronunciation that I did learn in first year of school back home hence why I said it was boring yet interesting.

By the time I was all done school related things today it was 8pm and I was famished! I still have troubles ordering food but have been lucky to be with people for most meals. However tonight I was alone, I was going to walk to the night market and point but didn't make it that far. The restaurant by the school looked good so I went in and just told them I wanted 'wai dai ji rou and fan' or 'take out chicken and rice' well that sucked. Not only did this small meal come out to be 300 dollars it was the first meal out here I didn't really enjoy. Lesson learned cheaper food stands on the sidewalk or small restaurants that look scary WAY BETTER AND WAY CHEAPER than nicer restaurants. There are little stands with makeshift tables and chairs all around the hospital but I don't know what they have to offer I think I need to bring someone with me so I know what to get.

Well I apologize not all blogs are fun to read but this is partially for your entertainment and mostly for my records so my burn out brain remembers this trip! I hope all of you wonderful Canadian friends of mine had a good thanksgiving and I do hope the weather breaks for you a bit!

I will leave you with this:
'Knowing is not enough, we must apply;
willing is not enough, we must do'

Until next time,

Zai jian

Day 4

Today I became a man...why you may ask.....I Conquered Taipei and found my way home alone...OK I had someone write my address on a piece of paper in Chinese and showed it to the bus driver but finding my way home when I continuously find myself in random chaos gives one a over exaggerated feeling of pride and accomplishment, and I will take that over tears and defeat any day!

As Ice cube once said 'today was a good day' and I feel it appropriate to play that song while writing this blog so give me a moment while I load it on youtube........alright now where to start?

Well I started the day trying to figure out why my damn phone will not work in Taipei I know this is a unresolved issue from yesterday and well I gave up and my friends brought me an old phone of there's so it is all good. They took me to Dan Shui which as mentioned is the town that I lived in many many years ago(19 to be exact) And that was super cool. We stopped and had some lunch at the harbour before catching the ferry across the river. I must say I was not much of a fan of the food except for the Tofu and the fish ball soup(go ahead insert joke there I know I have extremely mature friends lol). From here we cought this small dodgy ferry to the other side where we joined hundreds of others I suppose were celebrating Taiwans national holiday. There was of course vendors and food and games and people and this old turkish guy dancing a dance that mimicked mid 20 year old Turkish hip swaying beauties that I have seen on TV and the funny thing is this was his ploy to sell ice cream, of course I went next door for the bubble tea although there was no bubble pearls in it :(

My friends and I tried soo hard to find our old apartment and of course the 5 story McDonalds as it was a huge memory for me(don't judge I was 10!) after walking for about 45 mins and giving up we headed back to the MRT where they were to ditch me off on friends I have never met from couchsurfing.com. I highly recommend this site for anyone that travels it is great for networking! so we head to the station I turned around and voila a 5 story McDonalds, we did not go in but it was cool to see again and all I could remember was the constant Michael Jackson songs they would play over and over. I am pretty sure back in the day that is the only album that Dan shui was aloud to play. My friend showed up and turned out to be super nice thank goodness and had a crazy polish friend with her, people say I am a tad loopy at times as well so we all got along great. From there we walked up to the University which was a crazy walk as we took a street under construction and apparently they don't close them down here they just tell you hurry hurry go fast as they started pouring ashfalt from a conveyor above my head WTF!!! After ziging and zaging the streets we walked up stairs from hell and alas the University! now one may think 'wow how fun lets go visit the campus' but you must understand the beauty, landscape, and memories that I have of this place. It was truly awesome you can check my pictures to get a better understanding.

I am really bad at paragraphs and formatting as you can tell but felt it was time to start with a new paragraph. On our way back we got lost of course and ended up walking the back streets of this town which was really cool cus there was no one really anywhere and you really got a feel for what it was like to live here. We came across a bubble tea shop in the middle of nowhere and I had my first real bubble tea out here. It was pretty good but just black tea with milk and tapioca pearls. we finally made our way to the MRT and by this point it felt as if I had known these 2 for years!! We hopped on the Train and went to the shi ling night market where I was blown away, this place was MASSIVE vendors and people and food for blocks and blocks in all directions. The funniest thing I saw was when the police showed up, you could be in the middle of buying something and all the sudden the vendors in the street pack up and run within seconds, you see all these vendors and old ladies running into little alley ways between stores with hundreds of people walking around everywhere. You really need to see this to understand, I just stood there in total shock and amazement it was hilarious. I guess it is illegal to sell things not in stores but there's hundreds of vendors so when the police show up everyone hides in alleys and stairwells until they leave and than set up shop again. Of course being that I was with two girls I had to do a little shopping but it was fun. At the market I tried these things hmm there was red bean and white bean and tarot root and melon inside what was like a big bubble tea pearl, it was interesting I think I like it but would not bet on that statement.

After all this excitement of course now that I know how cheap beer is can you imagine what I suggested next? yup beer and food so we headed down to try to find where I ate yesterday and of course ended up not finding it nor coming any where near it but we did find another lil place. These cheap restaurant things are everwhere its AWESOME! Upon entering there was a table of thuggish guys and a really hot girl sitting there I did not realize they spoke perfect English and looked at my friends and said 'do you think this place will be good' to which the girl at the table so nicely spoke up 'this place is the shit you best order some food here' and the guys added 'ya man and make sure you get yourself some drinks'! well who am I to argue with a table of big guys so beer and food it was! We had salt and pepper shrimp, a beef dish I have everywhere, salt and pepper squid feet (ha ha I love when they use direct translation) and chicken hot pot. Of course I had a giant Heineken again how could I not when it is only 100 dollars (3 Canadian). we ate and drank and were merry than decided to continue on after I said good bye to my new friends who greeted us when we arrived. I think my friends were slightly thrown off that I was talking to them but they seemed nice.

Well after 6 hours of walking yesterday and almost 10 hours of walking today it was time to go home I think. I no longer have 2 feet I have 1 left foot and 1 right blister. I think tomorrow I may just use the time to relax and write but we shall see, I don't like making plans in advance. I managed to find my way to my station exit the MRT at the appropriate place (there are many exits) get on the right bus and make it home woooo this stuff ain't that hard (I cheated and had my friend write my address in Chinese for the bus driver but shhh let me have this moment). I think I want to play a game.......if any of you that are reading this have anything that you think I should try or see or eat or anything to that effect let me know I think I am up for that challenge. This could be fun or dangerous for me we shall see. I do have the write to refuse challenges if there totally bizarre like eating chicken feet with a pirates patch on while running naked down snake alley just as an example of things I won't do. So lets try to make this fun and not payback for something I may have done to you in the past ok? unfortunately I know you and have to make that disclaimer haha.

Well until next time I hope you have a great night, and please remember "he that goes barefoot must not plant thorns"

PS I still have my hand after those weird bites, its looking promising!

day 3

GOOD MORNIIIIING TAIWAN? hmm doesn't have the same ring to it but I still think it feels awesome to say! So I have started to accept the fact that I think I absolutely love this place MR. I want to move to BC where things are calm and easy going has fallen for a city of millions, I guess sometimes we need that crazy mistress on the side.

So I didn't write last night as I was to lazy tired and maybe a lil buzzed to get on the computer and explain my adventures of trying to find a place to drink in this town, rest assured after 3 hours we found a place and I will tell you all about it later. But first the boring stuff :)

Well the hospital today was not as interesting it was very very busy in the morning so the Doctor and I were not able to discuss as much of the CC that were being brought in by the patients. However I have noticed that are department Tx's a lot of stroke victims which is really interesting. We also had 3 other interns in there today which made it very crowded but I can't be greedy we all need to learn....WAIT YES I CAN THIS IS MY EDUCATION STOP CRAMPIN MY STYLE.....ok I feel better now and I don't completely mean that.

Well I was done school around 2 today and thought to myself 'self you need to go on an adventure' so I came back to the room got my self prepared to get lost in Taipei and luckily ran into some fellow Doctors also going into the city so I was able to get shown how to do things. This is good I think that may have been a critical error I would most likely still be wandering the streets yelling MARCO waiting for a POLO response. We took the ghetto bus which is awesome as it has TV's in it playing weird cartoons and arrived at the subway in about 5 to 10 mins. Oh the subway what an amazing site it is HUGE and I mean huge in a Godzilla to Bambi kinda way. At this point the 4 of us looked at each other and it was known 'if we get lost we get lost together' and with that i responded 'power in numbers, let the adventures begin' and boy did they ever.

First stop Electronic Mall, this place is a massive mall with a million stores of just electronics, and yes Laura(are you excited I am talking about you) I am going to have to bring Aaron here at some point. We walked around and realized that electronics are actually cheaper in Canada or at least from this mall they are.

I needed to go to the street market to find a phone that works here as My BB is locked, damn cooperate greed not letting me access the network with a foreign phone. We walked around towards the MRT(subway) finding lil markets everywhere so we looked and looked and found nothing. It seems every alley has a market of food so I did however try this random thing from a street vendor that tasted like a crispy crape outside and in the middle was filled with a red bean and sweat sauce, it was pretty good I suppose you can see it in my pictures.

After hours of walking(trying to find a phone) all we wanted was beer do you think we could find a place for beer? nope!!! we started asking people and just walking, we ended up walking past I believe 3 stations until we found these Gucci gangsta looking guys and decided to ask them, I was astonished they spoke perfect English(I was also astonished at the amount of white kids I saw but couldn't bring myself to ask them, apparently I am easily amazed)We finally were in the right direction but do you think we found it?? NOPE. Luckily we found this lil corner restaurant that was covered in Heineken flags and girls in lil green dresses and I knew the heavens were shining down on us, well deserved beer was to ensue. Did I mention in all this walking for beer we may have slightly got lost? remember 'if we get lost we get lost together'!!

We had an awesome dinner with fish and chicken and beef and that random vegetable I keep talking about that I don't know what it is....I do however believe it is the only vegi out here as it is all I have seen, it better be good for me!!! I was amazed that we ate many dishes had 4 of those large bottles of beer and it only came to 780 Taiwan dollars between 4 people which is about 26 dollar or 6.50 each...WOW.
Now we were fed and buzzed and ready to get unlost....it wasn't that bad as long as you stay out of the way of the scooter people your fine. I did almost get hit a few times its friggin nuts out here!!!! I say a little prayer every time I have to cross the street. Well we finally made it home, I feel like I need more beer but after 6 hours of walking I think I need a break.

All in all it was an amazing adventure, saw tons of Taipei filled with lights scooters and fireworks. I was able to use my minimal Chinese at some points which of course made me look and feel great even if it was just simple words. I experienced the crazyness off massive roads with no direction or organization...and at the end of the night after a bit of debating I saw the tip of the Taipei 101. Still did not make it to any main night market but will soon. Today I am off to the city of Dan shui which I lived in as a child, this should be an interesting time! I am really starting to love this country! Well folks until next time thanks for checking in its time that I hit the town....GOOD MORNIIIIIING TAIWAN.....yup still feels great :)


P.S I forgot to mention I got bit by some random bug and my hand is getting alil crazy. I think now that it has been a few days it may be a chinese misquito but we shall see, stay tuned

P.S.S I found bettle nut today, I think I will have to try this, If you don't know what it is look it up haha

Day 2

Do Do Do Do Dooo Do Do Di Do Do Do......sorry about that I have the garbage man song stuck in my head. To clarify that yes the garbage trucks play songs that make me want to run out and order Ice cream, and I think they just circle my block continously! Do DO DO DO DI DO DO........at least I know they are doing there job.

So today, where to start? I showed up at the hospital early as I was excited and wanted to get a jump on things, Imagine me a morning person???? Asia really is backwards!! The office was not open yet so I was brought for breakfast and told it would be put on my allowance?!? Allowance I thought to myself, could it get any better? Well I later found out I did not have an allowance and was presented with the bill for breakfast and had to repay it(I should have skipped the tea I guess)

The morning was very boring. The Doctor that I followed around did not speak English and of course I do not speak Chinese, unless you want me to count to 10. I basically sat back and watched him do stuff trying to stay awake. The needling aspect was interesting as He would needle right through the clothes and I watched him treat probably 15 people(needle time not intake time) in under 10 mins. To give perspective to this in Canada we treat maybe 2 people an hour. He used no guide tubes but would swab the clothes in a straight line down the back even if he was needling the legs(at least he swabbed).

My afternoon was waaaaaay better. The Doctor I had spoke great english, and I was right next to him through the entire intake, pulse, tongue, and diagnosis. We treated around 30 people in the afternoon, and this is where I saw so many different things. There was one teenager who had severe brain damage on the left side of his brain, when he first was coming in he was completely non-responsive but recovered very fast and is now completely coherent. I saw two stroke patients both had aphasia (inability to speak) and both were able to respond at this point of treatment. An amazing thing that was noticed was with complete rigidity of the digits(the fingers were completely contracted and claw like with the inability to extend) after inserting one needle into TW 5 which is just posterior to the dorsal wrist crease the patients hands became completely relaxed to the point where I could bend the fingers straight back with no tension or restriction, this was an amazing and drastic change in just seconds. There are many many things I could talk about that I saw today but the last one I want to mention was the renal failure. The creatinine levels of the patient were up near 3.0 which is extremely high, after continued treatments the patients levels have decreased to 1.8 and have been maintained at these levels. Sorry I forgot that this was a public blog and got carried away in the amazement of some of the things I saw today. Unfortunately you the reader will have to endure the odd paragraph of medical mubo jumbo, I do however hope this information intrigues you and entertains you slightly!

Moooooooving on.........I had dinner with the Medical Directors of the hospital tonight at this very fancy restaurant, We were the only table in there I must admit I felt extremely important. The menu was great and of course food just kept on coming, I was always served first and there was a few things that I had to wait and see how it was eaten yet I impressed all with my chopstick mastery. Of course I made a classy mistake after drinks were poured I dove in to quench my thirst, moisten my lips, hell its hot here I needed a drink....well I got a look from everyone as they rose there glasses to cheers....oops my bad but hey it was only tea I have never 'cheersed' tea before. The dinner was great I had jelly fish and a spicy chicken dish and fish with crispy soy on top(sounds weird, wasn't, tasted amazing) sweet and sour pork, a beef dish, a tofu dish that really just resembled flat noodles, big shrimp deep fried and hard to eat...there was more but at this moment I can not remember. I was lucky to have had very attractive young lady to accompany us to dinner being that she is the only one who spoke English we talked through the entire meal, I tried not to flirt as she is in charge of looking after everything for me here but I must admit it was hard to refrain and after all its after business hours right. Wow the persuasion of the female sex, apparently I have agreed to try stinky tofu this week damn it I started off with 100 percent no but woman have a way with me and next thing I knew I was saying yes of course I will eat stinky tofu......yet I couldn't convince her to have a rice porridge WTF really? Yes I am a sucker!! I bet you can't wait to read about stinky tofu day hahaha.

Well thanks for reading today's latest updates I think I am going to go outside and join the Garbage truck the stray dogs and maybe see what kind of music we can make........Do Do Do Do Doooo Di Di Do Do Dooooooooooo

Oh I forgot to mention One of the Doctors and Teachers is going to create more lectures specifically for me giving me one on one training!! how friggin cool is that?!?

Day 1

I arrived early this morning after along over night flight to Taipei. Upon arrival I just missed a typhoon and was able to fly over top of it was an amazing thing to see with the thickness and formations of the clouds.

I was dropped off at my room and left to fend for myself, I did not know where anything was but found another student who showed me to the office. I found a 711 where I was able to buy some food (chicken and rice meal for like 2 bux!) as I do not yet trust the street vendors or maybe I didn't trust my skills and trying to order unkown substances. I also did not venture far from the hospital as traffic is scary and I didn’t want to get run over just yet, but I did walk around a few blocks locating all 23 7-11's around me. I came back to my room determined to stay awake, watched the hockey game.......Flames for the win against Montreal!! And than fell asleep around 3 damn disobedient eyelids just had to close. Tonight my friend and her family which I lived with here when I was 10 came and picked me up took me to get a cell phone and than food. I told them I would try anything, and than saw what the street vendors had to offer, at that moment I almost ran!

we went to a small night market where we found alil place to eat. We sat at a table on the side of the street and they kept bringing food. I had fish egg with white mayo looking sauce on top of it, I did not like this dish but was determined to try everything. This fish egg was the size of a normal egg in slices ODD! I also had raw fish, squid that was good, a chicken dish I really loved with chilli peppers and peanuts, a soup with clams in it that really just tasted like ginger broth, and a grilled squid plate again with ginger was actually tasty. The vegi dishes were good but I have no idea what kind of vegi’s they were. Oh and there was a fried fish dish too that was pieces of fried fish with the finn on it looked like just the backs, it was good but normal just like fish. I think I start clinic tomorrow and it is 11 now so I will end this. Hope tomorrow goes good!!! I have no idea what to expect.