Saturday, July 9: Nick's Diary

I am not really sure where I want to start first.

Was it the bicycle riding coming all the way down from the hilly 55th St. with Jamie? Or the visit to the Historical Building with Alex and Joan? Probably not, but the caucus exhibition was pretty cool. Or when we shopped in Raygun, a local t-shirt place, and I bought an "Actually, we are just outside the middle of nowhere" t-shirt. Or the Wii sport competition with Jamie?

However, the coolest activity of the day was definitely the home party. We actually had two parties for the night. Jamie's friends and some GYI students (Alex F, Sarah, Ilya, and Sandy) came over to our house while Alex and I went to Addi's house for another party. It was a time that you wanted to have another "you" so that you could show up in two places at the same time.

Playing Spoons by the fire

For the first time, I tried some s'mores (a combination of graham cracker, chocolate and toasted marshmallow) and it was really tasty. Everyone sat by the fire in the backyard chatting, singing, or playing cards. Life here is cozy and I can temporarily get away from the hustle and bustle of Taipei. Alex and I went home before 11 to say good-bye to people at the first party. We sat on the floor of the kitchen eating ice cream. Ilya and I had a nice talk, and we shared some non-native-speaker jokes.

Well, it is already midnight so I think I should call it a day.

-Nick Wu, TA, Taiwan