Happy July 1st!

Today marks the first day of July here in Taiwan, very exciting! It also means that I have been here for one month so far. It's hard to describe, but time is going by both quickly and slowly. I'm really enjoying my time here and all of the people that I'm getting to meet, but I do miss the cool VT summers and the hot weather is difficult to get used to at times. Overall, though, I feel so fortunate to get to be here on a scholarship and be able to experience all of these new opportunities. Today, I have a big agenda with lots of different people to meet up with. I'm meeting a friend S that I have been having weekly conversations with, and then I meet up with a student from my old high school to have English conversation. After that I'm meeting up with a student of Mei's to have dinner/ coffee not exactly sure yet:)

After class today, I decided to invite some friends to go and eat lunch with me, since I have been feeling like I haven't gotten to know as many people in my class as I would like to. I'm so glad that I got up the courage to just ask them in Chinese if they wanted to have lunch with me... they are all so sweet and gladly accepted the invitation. We went to have hot pot at a place near the university! It was absolutely delicious and very filling, all for only $3 US dollars. The best part is that ice cream and cotton candy was included in the e-mail, so I helped my self to a couple servings of the ice cream. I always enjoy exploring new restaurants here and can't believe how many there are to explore! I always think that everything is expensive, because its in the 100's, but then I have to remind myself that if I convert it into US dollars it's only about $3-4 US dollars.

Some of the things that I'm so grateful for while I've been here are all of the wonderful people I have met. I really enjoy getting to use my Chinese that I have learned to speak with my classmates since it is really our only way of communication.

Oh I forgot to mention what I ended up doing yesterday after my class. I ended up meeting Amy and we went to the Longshan temple area and went to this night market, which is considered the Tourist night market in Taiwan, but is also known as Snake Alley. Amy wanted to try some snake blood, but we couldn't find any for her to try so the closest we came was a snake BBQ. I really had no interest in trying snake; it's never been one of my favorite animals to begin with. It was interesting to see though how this area literally just had tons of snakes in cages for people to look at as they entered the restaurant; I got freaked out as one huge snake hissed at us as we were looking at it in the cage. Even though it was a glass cage, I was still scared, being as though I could here it make a noise.

I had to head out at 5:20 to got to Shipai to go to Janet's house, the woman who has the little 8 year old girl. I always enjoy spending time at here apartment; it is a great half way through the week activity to do. It makes me take my mind off of everything and I really enjoy being able to eat dinner with Janet's daughter. Janet's sister is an amazing cook and always makes something delicious every week. I read "Make Way for Ducklings," to her daughter which made me reminisce about my childhood days!

Well just a little update on what's going on here in Taiwan! Hope everyone is doing well!