Semester Recap

So the last month of the semester just flew by! It helped to have a week long break in the middle, but even so, the last 2 weeks of class just disappeared. The last month ended up being a lot of fun. My teacher really improved - I don't know what was different but she seemed more relaxed and everyone seemed to participate more.

My classmates and I also hung out a couple times. One day after class we grabbed dinner at a new Mediterranean restaurant just off ShiDa Rd, Baba Kebaba. One of my classmates, Ting Zhou, is from Turkey and craves kebabs. He was ok with the kebabs, and I thought my lamb pita was tasty. However, their hummus was pretty bad - it just tasted like olive oil and didn't have much else going for it. They also didn't give us very much pita to go with it.

Afterwards, a few of us went to go check out Computer Alley - a hodge podge of little computer stores all in one small warehouse type place, and supposedly cheaper than anywhere else in the city. I found a battery for 35 NT and a 2 GB memory card for cheap (gee, I already forget how much it was and didn't get a receipt - maybe 300 NT??).

Our last day of class we all gave our presentations and brought in snacks to eat. I got my favorite mochi, YuZhen brought dan ta (egg custard tarts), Ou Su Ka brought in a Guatemalan snack and Ting Zhou brought in chips. We were pretty full afterwards so instead of getting dinner just hung out at a local bar (Roxy Jr's) to drink and play a little foos. YuZhen heads back to the states on Monday - he was an excellent classmate and I'll miss his jokes. Ting Zhou and I will likely be in the same 2 hour class next year. Oscar is continuing on in the 3 hour class since he will enroll in a local college at the end of the year, where classes will possibly be only in Chinese. Jun Shou is also switching to the 2 hour class but sticking to the afternoon time slot.

My first day of the new quarter is tomorrow. I've switched to a morning class in the hopes of forcing myself to study more and just give myself a little variety to help motivate me again. With the recent news of so many people leaving Taiwan and being thick in the middle of stage 2 of culture shock, I was really struggling last quarter. However, after a wonderful vacation (probably the next blog entry), I feel refreshed and ready to go again.