Quest For College: Wenzi and Adventures

Well wouldn't you know - I've made some new friends here. Truthfully I have had more social life here in 2-3 months than I have had in all my time 3-4 years at college in America. But actually I have made friends here with some of the locals. They are commonly known as Wenzi - or if you are unfamiliar with the term, I am sure you will know the english term - Mosquitos. I am becoming progressively more popular with them. They rarely have an outing without me. In fact they are pretty pushy about my not joining them. My first encounter with them was rather tame. I got a few bites,which swelled up to the size of dimes and itched like the devil. Great friends right? Thank goodness one of my aboriginal friends took pity on me when he saw my legs and as a gift he brought me some special ointment for them - which helped so much.

Our encounters became more and more frequent and the unhealthy relationship became more and more augmented. Just last week I counted 52 mosquito bites on my ankles alone. And our relationship started going downhill when I realized they were starting to scar. And then Saturday night, I decided it was time to call it quits. I was out late with my aboriginal friends talking, and I thought I could avoid their attention. Lately when I don't want to hang out with the Wenzi, I wear really heavy clothing that covers most of me. I thought this time I was also outsmarting my abusive friends. Alas, tights don't camouflage the foreign 'sweet' blood that they seem to love so much. So with my dress and tights, I have finally come to the conclusion that I need to sever all interaction with these locals. I had mosquito bites from my ankles to the very top of my thighs. Note - If you are wearing a dress, they won't regard your privacy.

'Wild' - but actually tame dogs that live at the school. One is sleeping inside the 7 eleven, and the other on the outside. This is a daily thing. It blew my mind how many wild dogs there are here. They are everywhere. But they are completely tame.

A very famous temple (It's huge) and the Japanese cherry blossoms that we went to see. So beautiful. This is one of my favorite pictures. I don't think I have ever seen so many people taking pictures before. Then again I am in Asia and photography is a sport here.

I know I'm a creeper, but I couldn't help it -this kid was just so darn cute.

Scooter ride. My favorite activity in Taiwan so far. Period. (If I ever come back to live here- which I hope I will, I aim to acquire one as soon as possible)

A sign down wedding alley, that right when we saw it we both knew it was picture time. I'm glad we took the pictures when we did, because when we came back the next week on our way to church it had all these wedding additions to it. Funny thing about Taiwan - they have wedding streets where every shop is devoted to weddings and even large, elaborate buildings solely used as wedding reception halls. They don't fool around with weddings here - they mean business!

Possibly the greatest adventure I have ever had. Meeting a friend (who we had actually never met before) who was aboriginal. (Can I just say that the aboriginal people are some of the most amazing, people with such big hearts and so much soul. I mean really, when they sing your heart melts. Some of our closest friends here are aboriginals...they have kind of adopted us) He took us to his village up in the mountains. We took off our shoes and ran around barefoot in the mountain -because apparently that is how he does it everyday (He hunts barefoot. Legit). This picture we are modeling the aboriginal headbands.

This was hands down one of the best meals I have ever had. Everything except the kimchi in this meal was fresh. (okay so we bought the fish in the market bc he hadn't had time to catch us fish - but they don't debone, remove any of the fins or skin, or even the head for that matter. Oh no. The brains are considered the tastier part. They are pretty good. Just hard to get at with only chopsticks.)