So my semester is now underway an I am taking 5 classes which we are only allowed to take 4, so i had to write a letter to the dean telling him why i need to take 5 classes and all that other stuff. The reason why i need to take 5 classes is because as you all know i am coming home this summer :) so i will not be able to take the 3 prerequisite classes which i am exempting but now i have to make up 9 hours. So, to make it easy on me for my last semester or next spring when i am writing my thesis and trying to finish. Next fall i will take 4 classes leaving my final semester with only 2 classes remaining. I have to have 15 classes or 45 credit hours for my program. Well i am in the 5 classes i signed up for and my schedule is as follows: Monday 9am High-Tech Marketing, Tuesdays 9am International Trade, Wednesday 6pm Business Ethics and Information Securities, Thursday 6:30pm Human Resource Management HRM, and Every other Saturday i have a 6hr class 9-4or4:30pm called Service Operations Management SOM. I know the 6hr class sounds terrible and its really not fun being at school all day in one class, but the teacher is really good and very interesting while keeping the whole class focused for the majority of the time. We do get an hour lunch break midway through so that helps break up the feeling of being trapped. My favorite class would have to be either HRM or SOM because they are the most challenging and interesting classes to attend.
The past few weeks have definitely had their ups and downs. I guess it started when i was at soccer practice one wednesday night and went to pass the ball and felt my knee shake side to side and immediately felt some pain and came off the field. It continued to hurt the rest of the week and i tried to play again sunday during a scrimmage and came off when it started aching before i caused any serious damage. The next day i asked my friend Michael (who has lived her for 10yrs and married a taiwanese girl) if he knew any places to have my knee looked at and sure enough after class he had an appointment already set up for me. After my examination the doctor told me it was a light knee sprain around my acl, told me to take 3 weeks off from playing, and gave me some pain meds for 1 week. With my national health insurance or my NHI card it cost me only 160NT or $5USD and the lady even waived the charge since i did not have a job when she asked and just wanted to help a student out. They were very nice and if i do have further problems i will report back to them.
Well my good buddy Clark had is 23rd bday party March 13th so i wanted to do something special for him since i have known him the longest out of everyone here. I spent the whole class period in High-Tech mkting looking through all his facebook pictures, my pictures i had of him, all his picasa web albums and picked out every picture i could find with his face smile (when he does finally smile). So i had 89 pictures and i got with our friend Tiffany and she took the pictures to a place after creating them into a collage and printed them out of his party. We all met out at a new bar called the Red Wolf Tavern (our soccer team is working on getting them to sponsor us) and hung up clarks banners and waited for him to stumble in since he had been drinking with other friends before they drove him to the bar. His face was lit up like a 5yr old walking in on xmas morning and seeing his first brand new bike. Well that look on his face stayed on him the whole night as well as a very loud voice and aggressive hugs. Everyone had a great time and was able to get clark very drunk and walking on air (until i heard the next day by him that he got sick) but its all in good fun and its a very rare time for clark to ever drink.
My good friend Marcin from Poland parents have come to visit and travel around Taiwan for 3 weeks. He and Ola had been really excited and nervous at the same time since his dad had never flown on a plane and that was his first trip and his parents only speak polish so it was their job to translate everything all the time. They were even able to sneak some sausages, bread, and some other foods past the airport security and running away from the dogs. Just hearing marcin tell this story and picturing his parents running through the airports still has me laughing just thinking about it. Hopefully i can convince my Mom and dad to come visit me for a couple weeks and open their eyes to a whole different world ;)
Well Sander and Maria were planning a trip to Kenting and I had no plans so I asked if Nina and I could follow them down. I was going to rent a 125cc scooter for around 600NT/day ($18) but i knew Nina had a nice scooter so i thought we could just save some money since we still had to rent a hotel room. Well bright and early i was up and waited for Nina to arrive as well as Sander and Maria as i packed up the last remaining things in my bag. It was time to leave so we walked outside to her scooter and when i sat down i realized it was much smaller than my 125cc. So i asked and she told me no, no, no it is only a 100cc. So my jaw dropped just thinking about the 4hr ride ahead on a scooter where i could scratch my knees while my hands were sitting on the bars. Well it was still saver to drive than my old ORY so we filled up the tank and started off. Yes it was a 4hr ride down there on a small scooter and it got to a point where we were happy to get stopped at a red light to stand up and move around while punching our butts trying to make the numbness go away. Finally we saw the beach but still had 30mins to go, but at least the view was nice for the rest of the drive. When we arrived, Nina and i checked into a hotel that was around $21 a night and grabbed some brunch to take to the beach since it was already 1:30pm. Once we finally got their and laid down on the beach i just kept thinking about the dreadful ride back the next day since Nina had to work at 5pm on Saturday. Well i tried my best not to think about it and learned that this was her first time actually playing on a beach (not just sitting around) and her first time ever in the ocean. It was priceless to see her face as the waves crashed at her feet while she struggled to keep her balance. While standing on the beach at the waters edge and the waves being sucked back out to sea, it always feels funny when the sand under your feet are stripped away making it hard to stand in one place. well it was a feeling she had never experienced before and fear mixed with excitement screamed out to me with her quickly grabbing to hang on. Since i have gone to the beach for as long as i can remember it was really amazing to see someone especially someone i care so much for get so much enjoyment out of the little things most of us have forgotten about at the beach. Nina's swimming is not very good so i didn't want to be to far away and she didn't want me to either. The depth of the water drops off quickly from ankle deep to chest high so i didnt want her to step to far and panic, so i mainly stayed close by unless she was climbing on top of me scared to touch the ground.
The weather ended up being very cloudy and a few raindrops drove us away from the beach, but we continued with Sander and Maria to drive further down south where we eventually came to some beautiful view points and a marker for the southern most point of Taiwan. There was also a pile of poop at the marker so i couldn't help but laugh and take a picture of the southern most pile of crap in Taiwan. Sander and Maria were camping in a tent they had so Nina and I went to get ready and met up with them at a place called Amy's Pizza which is in the "Lonely Planet" tour guide book as a must eat place. The pizzas were the size of the mini tostino's pizzas we have back home in the grocery store. The taste was ok and we split some salmon pasta, but overall i wouldn't recommended it, especially not in a tour guide book for must eat restaurants.
If just so happened that Marcin and Ola and his parents were in Kenting then for the next few days so I finally had a chance to meet his parents even though our conversation was limited, we all had warm smiles and marcin translated when he needed to.
The next morning we woke up early, grabbed breakfast and some how it was already 10:30am when we got to the beach. We had to leave by 12n to grab a light lunch and make the long drive back to Tainan so Nina could make it back to work. The weather was beautiful and the sun hot so 1 1/2hrs on the beach was fine with me. We were able to hang out with everyone on the beach for a bit before we had to say our goodbyes and head home. We stopped and filled up her scooter tank which only cost about $2 when it was empty and had a quick bite of McD's. We took a different way back where the roads were much nicer and smooth compared to the bumpy road we came in on. We were able to get back in 3 1/2 hours this time and yes the butt's were killing us and i could not wait to just take a nap in my bed and felt sorry for Nina because she had to go straight to work. So thats my newest experience here, driving a scooter 4hrs there and 3 1/2hrs back the next day.
Well this next part is not going to be fun to read, but anyways I woke up sunday morning vomiting multiple times and also the nasty D word on the toilet. I felt terrible and had just talked to Toni on skype a few days before and he was getting tested for Malaria because he was really sick back home as well. So since i was in the Philippines and Malaysia for Chinese New year it was possible that i had it and after reading up on it on the internet, i drove myself to the NCKU hospital where i had a shot to ease my stomach pain and blood drawn to be tested for Malaria. It was not very fun checking in since they did not speak really much english except the doctor who did my actual testing. So i sat in a wheel chair in the emergency room for 3hrs and did not know how long they wanted me to stay so i got up and found the doctor who treated me and was allowed to pay and leave with my follow up appointment to get my test results the next morning. They gave me some medicine for my symptoms, but did not think i had malaria since i was not running a high fever. Nina also was not feeling well, but she came over and made me soup that her mom always makes for her when she is sick. The next morning i had a presentation in my High-Tech mkting class then left class early to get to my appointment. I sat their as my time for the appointment passed waiting for my # when an hour had gone by and they took the names and signs off the door as if they were packing up to leave. So i walked up and showed them my form and was led straight in. Good news is the test came back positive and i was feeling much better so it was less than two minutes and i was gone.
Our spring break is coming up and it looks like everyone is going to kenting for a huge party called Spring Scream, so i guess i will be making another trip down there April 1-4th. But i will not be driving a scooter again, haha i plan to either take a bus or catch a ride with some of the soccer guys going. I look forward to getting a nice tan and pray i do not get food poisoning again.
Ill try to make a quick write up about the Spring Scream when i get back. So hopefully it will be fun to read, if not then ill just have to wait for more adventures and stories to write about :)
Love Always,
Logan
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