Mid-Semester Update

These past few weeks have been pretty uneventful, especially after such a fun few days in the Philippines.  Plus, the weather here has been ridiculous; when it's not disgustingly humid and hot, it's been pouring. And last week and this week we had midterm exams/papers due so I've actually had to buckle down and be a student haha. But nonetheless, we've found some time to relax on the weekends and hang out as a group since we were all over the place for Spring Break.

Last Friday night, we went to a pool hall and played for a few hours.  Then we came back to I-House where Kevin taught us how to play Euchre.  

Saturday was a lot of fun.  We actually went indoor ice skating at Taipei Arena about 40 minutes away from campus with one of my friend's buddies and her friends.  Since I didn't really get to experience a real Chicago winter this year, it was nice to be in the cold again.  We skated for about 2 hours then proceeded to this super-local restaurant that had dishes for only 100 NTD. And each dish was super delicious.  After we got back to I-House, we grabbed some dessert from McDonald's (of course) and hung out in the lobby for about 3 to 4 hours, listening to 90's hits and reminiscing about our childhoods on the other side of the world.  

Taipei Arena during the day.

Getting ready for some ice skating (and yes, we all had to wear those bright red helmets)

 The girls :] (Sarah and Melody)

 +Makra

 Oh, the boys...

 From left to right: Pamela, Ben, Brian, Melody, Madi, Huy, Sarah and Makra

 It's not a good shot but we found an Ikea!

Taipei Arena at night.

*Because the church meetinghouse is right next to the Taipei Temple, I get to see the temple every week. Pretty nice sight to see right after church :]*


Yesterday, (Wednesday) was a friend's birthday so we went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant to celebrate.  The food was surprisingly good, although a bit spicy for my taste.  We then went to the pool hall and hung out for a few hours before heading to a dance club downstairs where we danced the night away. It was definitely a memorable way to celebrate a birthday in Taipei :]. 

 Taj- an Indian restaurant

Hanging out at the pool hall.

With the birthday girl!

Fun news of the week: A small group of us will be going to the Philippines (Palawan, to be exact) for a few days in June! Supppppper duper excited :]
But until then, it's back to studying, paper-writing and hanging around Taipei for a while.  Tomorrow, we're going to go get massages and Stake Conference is on Sunday so it's going to be an interesting weekend! 

*Sidenote* It's pretty weird knowing that my time here in Taipei is more than halfway over.  I've met so many wonderful people from all across the world an a few who live in the US. A friend and I were just talking about how we've started to consider our room here in I-House "home", at least for this semester.  The classes I'm taking all have something to offer and we find that there is still so much we have to see in Taiwan. I feel that these next 8 weeks are going to fly by, which makes me happy and sad at the same time.  All in all though, I can already tell that this experience is one that will be hard to let go of.