well another mega update because i've been busy doing activities. heres the status i'll go from oldest activities to newest activities. i will begin with the 14th.
4-14-10
today brian and i decided to go out to this lake somewhere in the hills of taiwan. im not exactly sure what it was called, but it was a beautiful lake. i was pretty stoked on just cruizn slow so i got to see the landscape alot. it was incredibly green and beautiful. there were people working in rice fields wearing awesome rice hats, there were crazy dogs yelling and chasing me, and it was a wonderful drive overall. we got to the lake and the weather was warm and nice. the reason we went to the lake was so we oculd ride on the paddle boats. the paddle boats are the boats that have bicycle style pedals and you peddle really fast which turns a paddle thing in the back and this is how you move. each paddle boat is a different animal or creature. they had frogs, dragons, turtles, swans, of course paddla pandas. we chose the panda bear paddle boat and hopped in and started paddling around the lake. you sit towards the front of these boats so with me and brian in them we weighed it down pretty good in the front. that made our paddle in the back not sit to deep in the water. this in turn made it so the paddle didn't push us much and we had peddle super hard the whole time to move so we we working like crazy to get nowhere. we made it from one side of the lake to the other and decided to beach the panda yatch and go ashore. we played with a caterpillar that was black and yellow. we released him and got back on the panda. we paddled back and tried to jump the boat over some wakes that the speed boats were making. it didn't work at all. we rode the panda bear backwards for a while because our legs were tired from peddling forward. we docked and walked around the small town. we got some papaya smoothies and continued our walk. these taiwanese people came up to us and wanted to take a picture with us. the guys told us the girls thought we were handsome! awesome. so we did a pic with just the gals, then just the guys, then everyone. so silly! so we headed back to the scooters for the ride home. on the way home we saw a street market we stopped by. it was a gnarly one. they had full chickens there, all kinds of animal brains, and other animal parts. i kept asking everyone what the food was and what part it was. very interesting. we rode back home and brian left for work. i hung out until dinner time. we ate somewhere i don't remember, then we went shopping for a bit and i got some sweet jeans. then we headed to tim's house becuse we needed him to help us plan our journey to green island. he set us up with the hotel and ferry ride. tim is a legend, he's like family to us he helps us with everything and really cares for us. after letting us know he had set up green island he fed us tons of food. he owns a small street shop. we ate some gnarly stuff that tasted great! chicken butt, some intestine, fried coagulated pigs blood in rice, and some other random stuff. sounds nasty, but its local food and its good. after this we headed on home.
4-16
the eve of friday the 16th we got on the road me, brian, and brett. brett is a friend we had met in indo who brian convinced to stop over in taiwan for a few days to hang out. anyways we rented him a scooter and i borrowed dan's old scooter because the white scooter couldn't handle the trip to green island. anyways we left about 7 or 8 in the eve. we had to do a stop over at a surf stop because i had borrowed brians phone to get in touch with another buddy to surf. well when we got back from surfing the phone was gone. i looked all day and couldn't find it. the only thing we could think of was that it was in the sand somewhere. we raced around in the deep sand and i dipped the scooter once. we went to that exact spot at dark and what do you know the phone was sitting on the sand. what a relief! anyways he got on our journey. the plan is to stop over at our friends house near the ferry to sleep and then surf in the morning. we got to our buddies house after getting lost at about 1 AM. we went in and instantly sacked out. everyone on their own couch. i didn't sleep to well because there were dogs constantly having barking competitions outside the house.
4-17-10
we got up at about 5AM to hit the surf. we looked at a few spots and decided on donghueo. surf was super fun. i would compare the wave to lower trestles. it was really nice. waves were pumping i got a few barrels and some other waves that were just long workable faces. we all had a blast here, but we were super tired. after surfing we gave our boards to "bebe" to hold for us until we got back from green island. shes one of the local surfer chicks. we got on the scoots and raced to the ferry. we got there with about 5 minutes until the ferry left. we grabbed tickets and ran onto the ferry. the ride was about a half hour and it was pretty rough. brian has a track record of getting sea sick so i was kinda worried about him. i sacked out most of the ride and brian made it thro just fine. i think brett was feeling a little sick, but not like brian. it was funny when we got off the boat brian told me and brett to look at the back of all the seats around us. we did and every single one had a barf bag full of barf. i laughed so hard and we felt bad for the guy who had to clean everything up. anyways we got off the boat and met up with a guy named paul. he had lived in the states and went to school there so his english was perfect. he lead us to get scooters and also to our room. we took a short nap in the room and got on to doing stuff. we cruized all around and looks for places to snorkle. we stopped at our first stop and got off the scooters to walk around. we found abandoned buildings that were built from coral, stone, and cement. they were really cool. we continued on to this big cave. after the cave we walked around in the tide pools. you had to be super careful on this tide pools because it was all lava rock. it had super sharp sketchy rock all over so we had to be careful. we found some tide pools with all kinds of critters in them. i found one that had a big eel in it. he swam around and kept peeking his head out of the water and showing his teeth. he had big blue eyes and was really cool. he swam into another pool and the crabs came running out of the water it was funny. we left the cave and tide pools and this is when we found the legendary "race track"... the race track we made was just a circle track in the dirt. there were jumps, sand, and dirt to race around in. we rode laps in this for hours, jumping the rental scooters, doing donuts, and racing through the sand. we had a BLAST!!! after that we headed to the actual diving spot. i remembered something on the w y to the dive spot that if you turn the key on a car or bike or scooter while moving and turn it back on it will backfire. i learned this in mexico. anyways we figured out how to do it and rode around the island scaring people and dogs with the loud backfire. brians scooter worked best and i cried laughing so hard at people getting scared and popping the bikes! we made it to our destination and walked to the water. we had to go through some gnarly sharp plans but it was ok. we walked part way out to the water on the rock reef again and found a pool that was deep enough to swim in. so we hopped in. we saw all kinds of fishes and corals. we even found some lobster. we tried to capture them, but the swam back in their little lobster holes out of our reach. we kept swimming and made it to the end of the pool. we hopped into the ocean and were blown away with how clear the water was. you could see for a solid 30-40 meters and the water was sooooo blue and clear. we swam all around and played with all kinds of fish. brian found a sweet spot with tons of clown fish aka nemos. we swam by them and played with their enenemies. they looked kinda agro and mean so we didn't play with them too long. we got kinda cold after a while and headed in. we decided we should ride around the island. we did that and sotpped at random spots to look at things. we found a cave that had some random worship stuff in it, some goats i petted, and some sweet lookout spots. we got some food at the local sushi place. we got sashimi and it was darn good. we stopped at the room for another rest stop and headed back out with plans of snorkeling exploring and having some drinks. we started our journey around the island again. we had to stop at the race track again. we were there doing stunts for house again. we left as tour groups started to frequent the spot. they were all walking on the dirt while we were jumping our rental scooters, shooting sand way up in the air, and crashing them. we didn't want to get arrested or in trouble so we left shortly after. we backfired more people and found a really cool lookout spot. you could see the coast of the island and it was beautiful we stopped in there for some beers and continued on our journey. we lapped the island and decided since it was getting dark it would be ok to go race the scoots again. we did and had a blast. then we sat on the beach watching the sunset and just chilling. we relaxed until after dark. we all talked about the food we missed, some of our surf sessions on our journeys, and that we all kinda missed home. it was cool. after that we ran back to the store to get some snacks and a beer for our next adventure. we were going to go to the hot springs here. we had tickets to go that came with our hotel package. we drove to the springs, and on the way we stopped at the light house on the island. it was closed so we couldn't go in it or near it. we were sad. on the way back to the main road i saw a boy with fireworks. i asked him where he got them and he told me. we got a mega pack of bottle rockets and some other fireworks. we did a few messing around and then we all headed to the springs. we got there after driving slow in the rain. there i was told that this was 1 of 3 hot springs in the world that was a natural salt water hot spring. it was super hot water and really fun. there were different levels of heat in different springs. there was waterfalls that landed on your back as a massage. it was really relaxing and we all needed it after a day full of adventures. brian ended up dropping the bottle rockets somewhere we have no clue where. i had a few more in my scooter so we did those and then went to bed.
4-18-10
we got up at about 8 or so and got on the scooters for some more water activities. i tried to convince the boys to stop off at the race track, but we didn't think we had enough time and getting in the water to snorkle was deffinately a priority. we got to a spot brian told us was the best spot he had seen here at green island. we got in the water and he was deffinately right. i have never seen clearer water than that spot in green island. it was like being in a freshwater pool you could see everything and there were fish everywhere! we started off by seeing all kinds of unique fish, some looks like they had faces of whales, some were the classic rainbow wrass, and quite a few puffer fish. we kept trying to catch the puffer fish until brian finally caught one. he brought it up from the depths and we all got a chance to hold it and play with it. once they are puffed up they are so slow they can't escape unless you let them.we let him go and did some more snorkeling. it was incredible water super fun. we found holes in the reef you could swim into that turned into under water caves. you swim through them until you get to an opening somewhere in the coral to get out. we found awesome caves like this. some so long you thought you wouldn't be able to make it out in one breath and some you swam into and out of easily. some of them had some good current pulling you back so you'd think you could make it through no problem and then the current pulled you back. the technique was to grab reef and pull yourself through. either way it was beautiful, and very exciting. i didn't wear my wetsuit top and got knocked into the reef many times in the underwater tunnels. i had a bunch of little scratches from the reef, but it was so fun it was worth it for sure. we got out of the water finally and had to rush back grab our stuff and get on the ferry back to the main land. we got to the mainland met up with friends and decided to surf, but not before we went to play with some wild monkeys. me brett and our buddy casey headed to the spot thta had the monkeys. we brought some fruit we had to feed them. casey fed them fruit by hand. i decided a long time ago monkeys scare the shit out of me so i did not partake in the hand feeding. prior experiences of wild monkeys jumping on my back, stealing my hat, and showing their teeth at me was enough of an experience for me. i threw them food from a distance. we finished with our food and then went to surf. again we caught some damn near perfect swell. we scored tons of waves until we were sooo tired we were ready to pass out. we all packed on the scooters for a nice somewhat rainy drive home. it took us forever and we had to wear our rain gear, but we made it home and sacked out for the night.
4-19-10
this day was kind of a WASTE because it was just traveling. nothing too fun, but still exciting so i'll write a short bit about it. i woke up late, i was supposed to call my pops, blew it and didn't, i got to my train at the perfect time. made it to the airport and flew for like 2 hours to okinawa japan. got off the plane and the time was an hour different so it was dark. i had to get money from an atm to ride on the train. no atm anywhere so i caught a cab who drove me to an atm. then took me to my hostel. i got in chatted with some other hostel friends and sacked out. pretty uneventful day. made some plans to go to an island off of the coast of japan called tokashiki island the next day. i stayed in a "pravate room" this night, that means it wasn't 10 bunk beds in 1 room. it was only one and i was alone. yay.
4-20-10
woke up early so we could journey to tokashiki island. the crew was me, my new german friend claudia, my mixed canadian azn friend gerald, and finally a new japanese friend names julienne. we all met at the hostel and decided to journey together! we hopped on the early fairy to the island. i didn't have enough money so like a loser i had to borrow some for the ferry ticket. my bank only let me take out 10,000 yen per day aka 100 bucks. and japan is expensive. i had run out by the 2nd day and atms were super hard to come by that took a usa atm card. anyways i borrowed some money and we got on the dang ol ferry. gerald felt super sick and i thought he was gonna spew and i was sitting by him. he didn't spew and we all made it to tokashiki island in about 30 minutes. we got off the boat and looked for our bus to one of the beaches. a man approached us and told us that he would give us a ride in the taxi for less than the bus. we hopped on the taxi and headed to our beach destination. we got there and we were all so hungry we had to stop to eat. we stopped in at a little supermarket 7/11 type of place and got some food. i got some fruit and bread. yeah for breakfast! after breaky we headed down to the beach. the water was crystal clear, blue, and not another person on the beach. we were AMPED. me and julienne got super excited and grabbed our gear and headed out for a snorkel. the others lagged behind. we snorkled for about an hour then saw that claudia was maker her way towards us. we went to h er and she snorkled with us as well. the fish were really cool and agressive! we had butterfly fish swarm all over us. they thought we had food. we would rub our fingers together when we saw them and they would instantly swim to us. i had a school of about 30 fish swimming by me at one point. i tried to escape, but they followed me. they even got so brave as to bite my fingers! they didn't hurt at all. so i kept pretending i had food and they kept biting my fingers. it was a really cool and fun experience! we all had a blast in the water and we decided to re up on the sunscreen and then explore a little. we walked aorund the beach and found a really cool lookout spot up on a cliff so you could see the whole beach we were staying at it was really a sight to see. you could see the dark areas in the water where the coral reef was at and the white white sand underwater the bright green trees all around the beach and the pearl white sand. it was an incredibly beautiful spot. i was stoked to be there. we next went to a local eatery for some lunch. we had the okinawa special which is a noodle soup with pork. we also had a small bit of sashimi. it was a pretty solid lunch i must say. after lunch we headed back to the beach for a snorkel. we got in the water and tried a new spot. we found out that we were not supposed to be ther because of boat traffic so we swam to the safe zone. this time the water was murkey on tap because of the water temp. the surface temp was at least 10 degrees warmer than the water that was about 4 feet deep. this made it murkey on the top. it was harder to see the fish and coral clearly unless you dove down and held your breath. i did that the whole time and had a blast doing that and seeing all kinds of fish. the group snorkled until we were too tired to snorkle more. we next headed to another beach on tokashiki to see more fish and do more snorkeling. this beach however, didn't have much coral and there weren't too many fish. we went on a short walk together then i went to sleep on this covered area while the rest of the group explored. i gathered that they didn't do too much so i was ok with the nap i took. after napping our taxi came again and we took the taxi to the ferry. the ride home was super nice and smooth. i hung out with a bunch of japanese people about the same age as me on the ferry. we did yoga and hung out and chatted the whole way home. it was very fun. once home we unpacked and headed to the city for some food. we went from place to place looking for some good eats. we never found anything perfect. we finally settled on a place. i walked in and walked out. it was too expensive and the portions were too small for my taste so i went to the good ol american mcdonals. i spent half as much and got twice as much food. i was stoked. after that we walked home on the big tourist st. we saw all kinds of things. the one thing that stuck in my mind was alcohol bottles with cobras in the bottles. it was scary i don't think i would ever drink something like that. after exploring eating and looking at crazy snake drinks we went to bed. i had a busy day of travel with plans to travel north and i needed my rest. i slept in the hostel with the dorm style rooms so i slept in a room with 4 other people in bunck beds. it was cool but one old man kept walking in and out of the room and decided to be super loud and wake up early. he was a rascal and he made me angry by waking me up!
4-21-10
On this day we got up and got ready to go out on adventures pretty late. we were all a little sunburnt from the adventures the day prior and it really took it out of us. anyways we got up did some walking to get some food. i decided i really wanted to see something called the japanese naval underground. it was an underground bunker with tunnels all over that the japanese used in okinawa durring ww2. we took a taxi to the place and it was cheap because we all split the cost. we arrived and it was kind of interesting you walk in and then start going down these stair deeper and deeper until you get down deep enough to feel the temperature get colder. it was crazy to read that the whole tunnel was dug out by pick axes. you could see all the pick axe markings on the wall, it was nutty!!! we continued on and i got to learn about hte japanese side of ww2. it was crazy to read some of the horror stories. one room in particular that was very interesting was a room that had mostly plaster like walls with all kinds of wholes in it. the room was one of the rooms that was like a "captains room" so it was for the higher ups in the navy. anyways the inscription on the wall said "wall rittled with hand grenade - when commited suiside". That was a very intense thing to read. that kind put the war into a better perspective for me. after that we kinda just cruized in and around the tunnels until there was no more tunnel to explore. we left theh tunnels and attempted to score another taxi. all taxis were taken so we started hoofing it to find a bus station. we got down a big hill and found a supermarket to get some food. we then ate and as we finished a taxi rolls up. we hopped in and made it back to the hostel. After arriving at the hostel i quickly packed up because i was going to a city to the north called nago. it was away from the city and was near the okinawa aquarium which is supposed to be one of, if not hte best aquarium in the world! so i got on the tram, then got on a bus for 3 hours and got off at my stop in nago. i didn't really have directions to my next hostel so i started hoofing to where i thought it was at. i made it about 3 miles trying to ask people where it was until i finally found someone who would help. thank you kfc japanese man for drawing me a map. the sad part was i had walked about 3 miles in the wrong direction with a heavy ass backpack full of stuff! dang. i walked back and it sprinkled off and on until i got to the hostel. i dropped my stuff on my bed and walked to the deck where there were hammocks hung overlooking the beach. i rested snoozed and regained my strength with some snacks. i decided it was time to explore so i walked onto the beach which is about 10 yards from the door to my hostel. It was literallr right on the beach. so i walked up and down the beach collecting shells and skipping rocks. the beach was really cool, there was very little sand, you walked on broken coral almost the whole time. After walking a while i got back to the hostel at dark and decided to hit the sack. i heard alot of noise outside my room so i got up and joined the festivities. i met some german women who were bikers, they were also obviosly lesbos. so the biker dykes from germany and i sat and ate sushi and relaxed. they had beer too so i joined in on a beer as well. after that one of the locals came out with some sort of chinese 3 string guitar and started playing and singing. we all got up and danced for a while. after dancing he brought out another guitar and he and i played for everyone. it was a blast! at the point it was getting past midnight so i hit the sack to prep for my big day at the aquarium.
4-22-10
i woke up and got dressed quick to get to the bus station for the aquarium. i caught my bus and got to the drop point shortly after. i could either catch another bus, walk, or catch a taxi the rest of the way. i thought it was close so i decided to walk. I also missed the bus so... well i walked lost for about an hour before making it to the aquarium. i got in and was instantly in awe of the place. each room had a theme with the fish. deep reef, shallow reef, open water, deep open water, ect. i walked from room to room being so stoked! i finally got to the main room. it was a huge room it looked like a movie theatre, it had seating for hundreds of people and where a movie screen is usually at was the mega tank. it had whale sharks, tuna, giant sharks, dorado, jacks, and everything else you could think of. i sat and watched for about an hour an a half or more before i got up to walk up to the tank. i walked up and i could really tell how giant the fish were. the whale sharkes were giant. about the size of a semi truck! and there were at least 5 or 6 of them in the tank swimming around, that kinda puts how big the tank was into perspective. it was awesome. around the aquarium there were different viewing spots of this tank. you could be in a mini tube looking up at the fish. there was a half circle that let you see the whole tank by distorting the view. it was awesome. i saw a dolphin show after and it was nothing too exciting, if you've been to sea world you've seen it before. next i watched a video on the seas surrounding okinawa island. it was interesting to see how much the people here relied on the ocean. next i went ot the shark tank that had some of the most bizzare sharks in it. they were flat like manta rays, but had teeth coming out every direction from their faces. it was cool. i then walked through the whole aquarium again and spent another 2 hours looking at everything again. at that point i decided it was time to hit the road so i started my walk back to the bus stop. mind you it's about 5 mile walk each way. i walked and came upon a place called the tropical dream something. it was a bunch of green houses holding all kinds of flowers fruits and the local plants. i walked through it and it was soooooo beautiful. i walked into the first greenhouse which was just orchids. they were EVERYWHERE and soooo pretty. the scent when i walked in was overwhelming and so sweet it was amazing. the next room i walked into wa sa fruit room and the sweet citrusee smell was enough to make me sooo hungry i wanted to start plucking fruit from trees to eat. i didn't and moved on. it went like this for about 20 more greenhouses. each one different from the next and sooooo pretty. God's creation is so amazing, I was just in awe of it when i was at the greenhouse place. i left that and got on my walk home. i walked to the bus stop caught a ride and then made it to the hostel. i chilled for a while and then it was time for dinner. i saw a sign for mcdonalds and i was in the mood for a phat burger so i walked 2 miles each way to get me some food. it was wonderful food i was content, full, and ready for some sleep so i hopped in bed and sacked out.
4-23-10
well im in nago still and im just about out of cash so i need to find myself an atm machine that actually takes a visa card. i asked the hostel owners where the nearest one was at. they drew out how i could get their on a map so i was set. they even let me borrow a bike. it started to rain as soon as i got on the bike, but i needed some cash so i could get out and do some activities. i got to the post office, which is where the usa atms are located. this one didn't have an atm so the people drew on my map to get to the bank. i rode the bike in the rain to the bank. i got there and they didn't have atm machines either so they sent me to another bank. that bank didn't have us atms either so that bank sent me to the city office. i got to the city office and they drew on my map how to get to another post office. i got to the post office soacking wet and kinda agro that i couldn't get any cash. this was the last one in town and because i didn't have money i couldn't even pay someone to drive me to an atm so this one had to have it. i walked in and bam atm right there. i slide the card in enter my code and try to get money. 3 times it says it wont work. so im freaking out thinking the cc company put a stop on my card for being used in a bunhc of other countries. i try one last time on the atm machin next to the one i had been trying. first try and yes im in luck i get some cash. by that time it was about 1 in the afternoon, i was soaking wet and hungry! i walked across the st to the convenience store and got a yogurt drink and a muffin for breakfast. i then hopped on my bike and was in good spirits. food and cash and im on top of the world. i get back to the hostel and drop the bike off change into dry clothes and get on the road again. im going to go to the nago pinapple plant. i caught a cab and walked into the pinapple park... it was basically a place where they grew pinapples. back in the day before dole started dominating the industry with the hawaiian pinapple this place was a big deal. now its not such a big deal, but it was really cool. first thing i did was ride in a pinapple car. it was a golf cart with a pinapple on top. it took me on a short ride throgh the park. it had speakers and spoke in english about the pinapple factory. it was pretty sweet. i got off the pinapple car and started my walk through the pinapple factory. first stop was the winery. all you can drink pinapple wine. i dabbled in there for a while and had myself a hefty amount of wine and continued my walk. through the rest of the pinapple park there were venders everywhere with free samples of everything. it was like costco with 10 times more samples and samples in big quantities. i tried everything from pinapple cake, to pinapple chocolate. it was awesome. at the end you get to eat all you can eat pinapples so i partook in that until i was full. then i decided i wanted to do the whole thing over again. i did more pinapple carting, more pinapple wine, more pinapple coockies, ect. i left feeling so full i didn't want to eat the rest of the day. it was wonderful. i went back to the hostel did some reading and then sacked out for the eve.
4-24-10
my final day in japan i didn't have too much planned. i had to make it back to the airport, pick up my stuff i left at the first hostel, and do some beach walking. so i got up and lounged around in my room, did some readin, watched a movie on my ipod and then got up for a walk. i walked ont he beach right in front of the hostel for a few hours. the water was so clear and blue, the weather was nice, and i had time to kill. i combed the beach for sweet shells and some sweet coral. it was so relaxing and nice. i then walked back ot the hostel and took a short nap on the hammock. i listened to the small waves crashing on the beach and the wind chimes. it instantly put me to sleep. i woke up a while later and it was time for me to get on the bus. i grabbed my stuff said goodbye to the hostel staff and hoofed it to the bus station. i got on my bus and rode back to naha. i relaxed on the streets of naha for a while. i found a spot that looked like a nice spot to eat sat down and pulled the little food i had from my bag and ate lunch. after lunch i grabbed my stuff from the hostel and took the metro to the airport. i walked into the airport and my sandal broke! i had my board bag and my backpack full of stuff, but sadly i didn't bring shoes and my damn sandal broke. i talked to the man at the airport who was doing customs stuff and i scored some duct tape. i taped up the sandal and was ready to get on the plane. i got on the plane and rode back to taiwan. once i arrived in taiwan i caught a bus to the train station then hopped on the train to hualien. once at hualen i called brian to pick me up. this is about 1 am. he picked me up and we dropped my stuff off at the house and headed to surfer kens lounge. we hung out at the bar till about 4am and headed in for the night. we got home and insta sacked out. i didn't wake up til about noon. what a great sleep.
4-25-10
today we had planned on doing a bbq with tim and john our tiawanese parents. we met up with them at a beach in ji-ci. the surf was looking ok so we got in the water right away. me, willie, brian, and dan got some fun waves. my 1st two waves were little barrels, but i couldn't make it out of them sadly. we continued surfing until it was time to eat. we came in and ate TONS of food with the group. we had about 10 people at the bbq. it was wonderful to eat taiwanese bbq food. after the bbq i took tim out in the water. he's not a very good swimmer, in fact he can barely swim so it was a very interesting experience. we went boogie boarding for about a half hour. i pushed him onto a couple of waves. some he caught great and some he had some nice wipe outs on. the bottom was all rocks so when you wipe out it scratches your belly pretty well and tim had a nice pink belly. next i took john out in the water. john is also not much of a swimmer, but we got him on some sweet waves and he did great. after catching waves with tim and john i went in a had some more food. i took a short nap/rest and then the surf crew got in the water again. we scored some more waves. it wasn't as good as it was earlier in the day, but we still had some fun. it started looking like rain so we started packing up to get home. it started raining while we were on the road. i didn't want to get soaking wet with all my clothes on so i wore my boardshorts and my wetsuit top home. it kept me warm, but not so dry. we got back to the house all wet from rain and tim invited us to go out to dinner with them later that eve. we cleaned up and met tim for some dinner. we ate at a fish resteraunt and it was darn good. we ate all kinds of things. i didn't know what most were, but it was darn good and i didn't care what it was. we ate our fill and then walked over to giraffe park. the whole crew played arcade games for the next hour and by that time it was getting late and we all were tired from so many activities. we headed for home and a good nights rest.
4-26-10
I didn't do much in the morning on this day. i kinda just chilled. i had fresh mango and an apple for breakfast while sitting on the balcony at brians house. the weather was hot, the sun was shining, and the birds were singing their songs. it was a wonderful way to relax and wake up. after sitting for a while i headed to school to meet brian and willie to do some fun activities. brian told me to bring my boardies so we could get in the water somewhere. so i brought em and we headed out. we stopped in for lunch at an indonesian warung. in thought we could get som classy indo food here in taiwan. the food wasn't much like the food in indo, but it was good so i was happy about that. we ate and while eating the movie the patriot was on. we saw all the good parts finished our food and decided what we would do the rest of the day. willie is kinda sick so it was just brian and i for this adventure. we went up the road a while until we got to a river. we were almost out of gas once we got there and we still had to make it back to the main road. we didn't worry about it changed and got into the river. this river is very famous from what i understand because it has natural jade in it all over. we combed the river looking for jade and capturing little critters. we caught a mini frog, a crab, and thats about it. we found all kinds of jade it was awesome. while climing up the river slipping and sliding off rocks the whole time. once we got far enough up we decided we had better get back to the bikes and head back, because we might both run out of gas and have to walk a ways. we needed to conserve time so we headed back. on the way back we found some small pools to jump into. we found one that was maybe 4 or 5 feet deep and got to do a pretty solid jump into it. we both hit bottom on our first jump and our feet went into the stickiest nastiest mud ever. we decided we could do better jumps into the pool so we did it again and this time we did much better jumps. we continued our way back down the riverbed to the bikes. at the mouth of the river there was a group of tiawanese tourists looking for some jade as well. we saw 2 epic wipe outs. one person flew up into the air and landed right on their back in the water. we were dying laughing. the other persons wipe out wasn't as good, but still funny. we got on the bikes and limped out way to the closest gas station. we made it just fine, filled up, and headed for home. brian went to work and i cleaned up. i was supposed to pick up johns daughter to go skateboarding with. i went to johns house and chatted with the family and Bernie, john's daughter, and i hopped on my scooter and went to the skatepark. it was kinda rainy so the ramps were too slipery to really ride, but we worked on ollies together for about an hour. Bernie has really good footwork for a little girl and by the end of the skate sesh she could do somewhat of an ollie. i was super impressed as its the first thing you really need to learn, but its super hard to learn as well. well once we decided it was time to stop sweating in the mild rain we headed back. john and his family invited me to have dinner with them so i ate with the family at their house. it was a super good dinner. johns wife tiffany is an incredible cook. we ate until i could eat no more. then john went back to work and tim came in to eat on his break. so i ate again so i wouldn't be rude in not eating with tim. i was so stuffed i could pop. after eating we said our goodbyes and i headed back home for some much needed sleep.
4-27-10
i woke up late today and started taking care of things i needed to do. i finally unpacked from japan. i did some laundry, finally shaved my beard off, and took a nice hot shower. i then went to school to visit willie and brian. willie is still a little sick so he left work and went straight home. I decided i would play with the kids for a while so me and the children played in their little cars and raced around having a good ol' time. after getting the kids all wild it was time to leave. we left and headed to lunch. every tuesday tim and his wife amy take the crew out to lunch. this time we were taking them out. so me dan and brian were taking tim and amy out for lunch. we went to a resteraunt called the 2nd floor. which is a super classy sandwich shop. we got there and they were booked full of reservations till about 2. we decided we wouldn't wait 3 hours to get food so we went to another resteraunt. this was an indian/taiwanese resteraunt. we went in and had curry meals. it was so darn good. i ate chicken curry. i loved it and was stuffed. we all had a good lunch and parted ways. me and brian went to see dan's new house. he got a sweet pad overlooking the ocean on the 10th floor/top of an apartment building. its an epic place! we finished checking it out and went back home. now its about 3 pm and we're resting and relaxing. not sure what this evenings plans are yet, but im sure we will have some fun adventure. thanks for reading everyone. i miss you all!
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