Tired.

Yesterday when I wrote, the plan was to take a nap, watch The Bachelorette, and get some studying done- none of which happened except the first. My "nap" turned into an 11 hour slumber that caused me to wake up promptly at 3am. And I was wide awake. I went to the laundry room (which is outdoors) where I sat and tried to study. I didn't get much studying done there... I was too busy looking at the beautiful view of the city with the night lights that quickly turned to daylight.

Eventually everyone woke up and we headed down the streets to look for some breakfast. I ate some bread from a small bakery/ conveinient store since I am not quite sure about getting food from vendors on the street yet... After breakfast we headed to the Administration building where we met the Teaching Assistants who will be with us for the majority of the trip, our professors, and took our Chinese Placement test. After the test I felt very discouraged. I felt like my Chinese skills are not where they should be and that I shouldn't even be here. But the professors and TAs are very kind and patient.

After all of that we went to eat a traditional Chinese meal. There were about 10 courses with food that I barely ate. Let's see, here's a few... sea cucumbers, pickled pork on a bun, some shrimp with green bean noodles, grass jello... At this point I am very disheartened. It's day 2 and I have basically eaten nothing except for a donut from Dunkin Donut and some Sour Cream and Onion Pringles. Maybe one could call this culture shock?

Anyways, we went to downtown Taipei which is much more what I thought that Taipei was going to be like. The part of town that we are in is what they call the "country side." So that's why they laughed when I asked if we were in downtown Taipei when we first got here. If only they could see Mississippi... haha After another day of touring and metro and bus riding, we are completely exhausted. Tomorrow we have another long and filled day. I just hope that they have some... normal food or else I am probably not going to survive.

On a side note, I completely missed the 4th of July. As upset as I was about no fireworks or bbq, I feel like I saw everything that I needed to see to make me feel as proud of my country as I could ever be. While Rob and I were waiting in the Birmingham Airport we saw a soldier sitting with his parents. We overheard him say that he was deploying to Kuwait. Watching him say his goodbyes to his parents just about brought me to tears. I have no idea how long he will be gone or what he will be doing over there, but to that soldier, I thank you. And to all the other soldiers that have sacrificed everything to protect our country I appreciate you more than you know. It really puts everything in prospective...

Its 9pm here and I am about to go to sleep for the night. Until next time... just pray that I have a better day tomorrow...