4-7-10 to 4-13-10

4-7-10
today willie swardo and i went on a hike in the smaller of the 2 gorges to go and catch some shrimp. we rushed to the fishing store to get a net for me. we got there and i got a big ol' net perfect for catching some shrimps. on the ride to the gorge we passed through a bunch of beautiful areas. we drive on a one lane road for quite a while going up the hill. it's lush greenery all over on both sides. it's a pretty amazing sight. on the way there we ride over a bridge that goes over a small river. on top of the bridge is all kinds of sticky nasty muck. i was going through it and tried to turn on the scooter. sadly the tire just skid sideways. i slammed the brakes and continued to skid. i didn't wipe out but i put my foot on the ground and bam, a big splash of green muck all over the lower half of my body. oh well just more clothes ruined on my travels... So onto our hike. we got on this little path and started jogging because my guides had to be back to teach later on in the day. our first stop was for a giant spider. his web was awesome and he was just enormous! i captured him in my net, but i think he may have lost his life in the capture. he was mostly black with some really cool yellows as well. i released him into the forest again and he didn't move... Anyways we continued on our trail to the sacred shrimp fishing grounds. we hiked through all kinds of cool stuff. along a river bed, through the trees, and finally across the river a few time. when we finally arrived at he fishing hole we were all ready for a swim. a small waterfall leads into this pool that is big enough to swim in and play. here is where the shrimp were hiding. we hopped in and the water was pretty cold. im glad we all had wetsuit tops or actual wetsuits to keep us warm. we started swimming around and the water is beautiful, clear, and actuall blue! I saw tons of fish in the water, but nothing very big. there looked to be some sort of mini trout in the water as well as asian sucker fish. we fished for about an hour each catching quite a few shrimp. we saved them in a bag until the end. we thought if we caught enough we could bring them home for a meal!!! we only caught about 10 keepers, but plenty more that we'd thrown back. in the end brian caught a shrimp that put all the other shrimp to shame. i mean this thing was a monster! we documented the shrimp and then let them all go back into the watering hole. after that we hiked back to the bikes and headed for home!

4-9-10
Today brian and i went out to hit the surf. the first spot we checked was the river mouth. it looked pretty darn good. some solid lefts and rights. there was a nice peak as well. the weather wasn't too good. no rain, but it looked like it should have been raining. anyways we made our way onto the rocky beach with the scooter and moto. i got stuck multiple times in the rocks, but brian made it pretty far. we parked the bikes and got into the water. the water felt so good. the air was cold, but the water kept you nice and warm. it waas a very interesting wave. the peak moved all over the place and you had to be in the right place at the right time to score a good wave. i got about 3 rights and a left before the coast guards walked out onto the beach. we saw them from about a half mile down the beach and brian told me they were going to kick us out for sure. once they were straight outside of us they got on their mega phone and started using the alarm function and waving us in. we each waited until we caught a good wave in so the coasties waited for about 10-15 minutes for us. we came in and asked them what the problem was. they told us it was a very dangerous spot and that many taiwanese had died there. i couldn't see any danger in the water so i replied that we were great swimmers and the surf was not big enough to worry about at all. they again said how dangerous it was. we didn't want trouble so we headed to our rides to leave. one of the coast guards was taking photos of the whole thing and documenting everything so i figured i should get a photo with them so i pulled out the camera and asked to get a photo with them. they told me i couldn't have one for some reason. So the session was cut short and we decided to hit another spot. before leaving the river mouth we did donuts and burnouts in the sand on the bikes. i created a bunch of figure 8s on the scooter and then did a wee little jump. we headed to the dump to check the surf there. on the way we saw a dog that had green paint on its face. after firther inspection it looked like someone painted war paint on the dogs face. i took a photo and we moved onto the dump. the surf kinda sucked at the dump so brian took me to a fishing wharf to get some food. we looked at all the fish they'd caught and it was really interesting. i can't believe the people here eat sunfish! so bizzare! Anyways we stopped in and got some fresh tuna and salmon sashimi. it was sooo tender and good. fresh sashimi rocks! we headed to the house and prepared for a wonderful friday evening. We got our rain gear and went out to dinner. i don't remember where we ate, but my belly has fully recovered and is used to the taiwan food so i'd imagine we ate some local delights. after eating we headed to surfer ken's bar. surfer ken is our friend in taiwan. he's a surfer in his heart and loves the water. he's a good friend and he has a bar! we went to the bar and played darts, hung out, and had some drinks. We left the bar for some late night mcdonalds and headed back to the house for some sleep to prepare for more activities to come!

4-10-10
Today we went to a place called ji ci. I had broken the throttle on the white scooter a few days ago on the way home from surfing. brian and i were surfing at 2 bridges. we got out and headed towards home. brian needed to hurry so he wasn't late for teaching, so he took the lead and started booking hard. i kept up until bam something happened. the scooter was still on but i couldn't get it to move. i figured it out pretty quick that the throttle cable snapped so i hollered at brian, but he was long gone. i instantly started fiddling with the bike hoping i snapped the cable at the top so i could just hand pull the cable to get moving. didn't turn out that way. i knew brian was in a hurry so i started pushing the scooter home. what do you know it starts pouring rain too! thats ok i have my wetsuit top and boardies on. i keep pushing hoping brian would come back and get me. after a while i hear his bike heading back, but before he got to me i heard it go back the other way. dang so close! well i pulled the bike over put all my stuff in the scooter and grab my board. im gonna hitchhike back or end up walking home. as i finally get my stuff tucked in the scooter i hear brian. he picked me up and everything turned out ok.

so back on point, but me and the crew were seperated from the beginning, because i had to get the scooter fixed. me and chuckles the mechanic got the scooter and he rigged me up a new throttle cable really quick. so i got on the road about an hour later than the other boys. i got to take it slow and sight see on my journey to ci ji. I began in hualien and got on the coastal rd. which is light our highway 1. it runs right along the beach almost the whole coast of taiwan. the day was sunny hot and beautiful. perfect for a long ride. The beginning of the journey i was able to take in how awesome the terrain of taiwan is. on the ocean side of the road is a beautiful blue ocean with some sandy beaches and some rocky. on the other side of the road are these huge mountains sometimes going up so high you cant see the top through the fog. the mountains are bright green and you can't see a spot without tons of trees. anyways i continued on my journey to ci ji and to get there you pass through a more mountainy town away from the coast. here was just as beautiful as the coast. tons of greenery and it was awesome. i finally made it through the hills and made it to ji ci. swardfish and willie had told me to meet them at some bungalo thing near the beach. i met there and found our good buddy casey furtado who we all knew through loma. casey and i were both under the impession that the guys were to meet us there. we called em up and they were just down the beach. so me and casey went to meet them. we met up with brian willie and another friend charlie. willie left to go play basketball so it was just the 4 of us. we got in the water for a surf. the water was again nice and warm, and there was very little wind today. this made for clean surf, but not too big. brian and i played on like 5 waves together. we party waved as much as we possibly could. one wave he jumped off his board and grabbed on to me. it was pretty funny. after about a 2 hour sesh we got out. brian knew of a sweet cave just up the road so we headed there. we parked our bikes on the side of the road and followed a river through someones land. there was what i would call a taiwan bull in the field we crossed. he was roped there so we weren't worried, but he sure did give us the mean face! we continued on climbed some rocky structures and made it to the mouth of the waterfall. you can go right which is a cave that you have to swim into or swim left to the waterfall. we'd heard rumor of the right cave being infested with bats so we decided to give it a look. we got to the mouth and all heard bats. that was enough for us we headed left to the waterfall. we climbed on up and made it to the waterfall. it fell from pretty high up so staying under it didn't hurt, but it wasn't super nice. we climbed back out and the bat cave looked pretty interesting again. i gave charlie the camera and he was the chosen one to check out the cave. the rest of us grabbed some bat sticks to beat off the bats when the came out. charlie entered the darkness and started flashing shots. a few bats came out and we all screamed and ran like hell! this made me decide that i don't like bats or monkeys. they both scare me. we got on the road home and made quick work of the terrain back home. on the way home we stopped at a night market for some good eats. we first got a bunch of fireworks to play with. we got these roman candle like things that shoot into the air and then exlpode like a normal 4th of july rocket. we did those for a while and headed into the market. there was all kinds of smells and things to see. we got some food, i have no idea what it was but it was kinda like a tortilla but thick rolled up and a bunch of meat in it. kinda like a taco, but deffinately not! it was great. i saw some soft serve ice cream so i got that for desert. then we cruized around the night market playing games and people watching. i played a ton of the grabber game. its the claw that grabs stuffed toys. only here in taiwan you can grab sweet toys and watches and jewelry ect. my goal is to someday get gary the snail from spongebob squarepants. we walked around more and saw all kinds of silly things. 3 games that really stuck out were
1st: a game where you have a beer mug and you are supposed to slide it down a "bar" and have it hang over the end but not fall off. almost like a shuffleboard game you would play in a bar. no one played it because it was too much and you could never win.
2nd: this game was basically for kids. i don't know that you could win or loose. there is a basin with tons of wee goldfish in it. the object is to net goldfish and put them in a cup. so kids grab a net and go crazy trying to get fish in their net and then put it in their cup. it was so funny watching the little tykes getting fishies!
3rd: this was my favorite game. much like the fish game this game involved a basin of water and animals. this game involves little turtles! so there are at least 100 little turtles swimming in a basin. each one has a rubberband around its belly which held a paperclip to its back. now the participants had a stick about a foot long with a fishing line and hook attached to it. the hook was covered in rubber so it wasn't sharp at all. the object of this game is to capture the turtle by the paperclip on its back with your hook and put it in another cup. im not sure that you win anything. maybe just the joy you captured a turtle or something. i didn't see prizes, but it was the silliest thing ever! so after the night market we headed back home to wash up for more activities. we headed to a dance club called crazy bar. now dancing isn't really my thing and it never really will be. however here in taiwan i went with a good attitude to have fun. we all danced together and had a blast! it was funny because all the local people were soooo small. i was towering over every girl i danced with. it was hilarious! we had a good time and headed home for some much needed sleep after a busy day of activities!

4-11-10
another big day. we slept in pretty late because we were all tired from doing so much the day before. today was a big day of hiking. in the golden canyon. our goal was to hike from the bottom to the top where the waterfalls were. im not sure of distance, but our total hike time was at least 6 hours. it was sooooo fun. anyways the hike began with me, willie, sward, casey, and charlie. we got on the trail and instantly discovered some sweet critters. There are these mega snails that cruiz around everywhere. there shells come to a point at the end and their shells don't crush like ours. they are very hard and strong. they actually work for protecting the snail. anyways they are all over the place. we continued on through this small trail barely wide enough to walk on which lead for about a half hour. it was so pretty. the land here is sooooo green its unbelievable. the next critter we found was a worm. it was on the trail and it was huge. i've never seen a worm so big it was like a small snake! it must have been well over a foot long and girthy too. we picked him up and played with him for a bit then sent him on his way. we continued on and finally made it to the river walking session. we jumped off this structure that is used to flow the water into town. it was a low jump but jumping off stuff into the water is always fun! the rest of the walk was in a river bed. we crossed the river countless times and found countless spots to do fun things. the next thing we came upon is an awesome rock that has a sweet pool below it. we all swam to it and did stunts off it a few times. shortly after casey decided he had gone far enough and needed to hike back. he had a long drive back south to where he lives so he didn't have enough time to finish the trail. we said our goodbyes and trecked on. the next notable spot was mini waterfall that was known as the waterslide. i went first and it went pretty slow. i bounced my booty off a bunch of rocks and kinda got my ass kicked. next it was time for brian and willie. they did a tandem movfe down the slide. i laughed super hard when they went. it was so silly seeing their expressions as they bounced down the natural waterslide. finally charlie went and his was deffinately the funniest. he came screaming down to the bottom where he booty bounced into the air off the bottom hidden rock. it looked pretty painful, but he was in good spirits. we all had a chuckle and hit the trail again. we continued through the riverbed and saw all kinds of pretty spots. we saw aborigional homes so far from society it was awesome. it made me think how fun it would be to camp up there and live off the land for a week or so. i think it would be a blast and what a good way to sit meditate and really experience the beauty of Gods creation. This trip has truly been a blessing for me and i thank God for giving me this opportunity! as we continued on the trail everyones belly started yelling. we finally stopped for the food we'd packed. we had lunch boxes. basically rice, vegi, some strange meat, some seaweed, and some tofu in a little box. You also get some other meat thing which i can say seemed like chicken fried steak? not sure. it was good and filling. brian decided to feed some of the fish in the river so he threw some rice in the river. then he threw a mini handfull of rice at me and a full on food fight began. we battled until all the food ended up in the river or stuck to us. brian had vegis and rice stuck to his back, i had some rice in my hair, charlie did as well, and willie had a ton of wet sticky rice stuck to his back. the rice stuck to us until we had to do the next river crossing it was super funny. we went on hiking and the next event was a small pool we stopped at. the rocky ledge overhang was dripping drops of water into this pool of water that had a beautiful blue hue to it. it was so blue it was almost flourescent. there were fish swimming around in it too. it was a really cool spot. After that spot we found what we were looking for. rocky ledge leading to the waterfall. we started our climb up and made it ot the first pool. that was the easy part. at the first pool we found a mega frog. he was one of the bigger ones we had caught so far. this one was particularly easy to catch. i wondered why, and when i picked him up i figured it out. he only had 3 legs. 2 front and one back. i wondered how he'd gotten so big with such a disadvantage. we decided he got giant because he ate his own leg. mmmmm frog legs! well before the first pool we did pushups and jumping jacks to warm up because the water is cold! we got warm and hopped into the water. the heat we had just created was instantly sapped and we rushed to the first waterfall to climb up. brian went first, then willie, it was my turn next. i got about half way up and willie reached his hand for me. i thought to myself it was like a movie i was either going down or going to make that reach and grab his hand only to be rescued to safety. i was bold and made that reach to grab his hand. sadly it slipped out and i wiped out down the waterfall. i crashed into charlie who was below me and we both went down into the water. sorry charlie. no one was hurt but it was deffinately funny. i let charlie go next for a go on it. he went and made it most of the way up. he was inches from making it up. he straightened out to stand up and ended up leaping back down to the pool below the waterfall. It was my turn again, i made it up this time without a problem. then it was charlie who did the same. made it up with no issues. then another short swim to the next waterfall. this one was quite a bit taller than the last, but it had better ledges for climbing. it was sketchy dont get me wrong, but it was alot nice than the last falls. we all climbed up and made it to the main fall. there is no way you could climb this one. we played in the waterfall and the small pool for a while and headed back down the treaturous falls again to the safety of the riverbed. it was a little scary on the journey down as you are climbing backwards down a waterfall. it wasn't a problem tho. we made it to semi dryish land and started journeying back home. we journied for a while longer and played a game. we set up a bunch of rocks stacked up like hippies do at the beach and started a firing range. we threw rocks at our stacked rocks until they were all knocked down. it took us at least an hour of throwing rocks at our rocks. it was super fun. we said it was like a game our parents once played as children. something like kick the can. a simple game that had no real winner, but was fun because you are with good friends in a wonderful place. as we continued on down the river we saw the most amazing birds EVER. i've never seen such a bright color that was natural. it was incredible. you know the black bird with the blue feathers that does a crazy dance on the planet earth previews? well this bird was like that, but with the most incredible orange i have ever seen. it looks like if it were dark out the bird would have glowed. it was intense. the black colors mixed with the orange made it soo bright it was hard to miss against the greens of the surrounding forrest. next we saw a yellow brid that was the same style but yellow it was amazing. as we continued down the river we stopped at an abo (aborigional) home. we walked into their little tent and saw spit from beatle-nut which is their version of chewing tobacco but very different. from what i undetsand beattle nut is a nut wrapped in a mint leaf with some sort of white chemical in the mint leaf that reacts with the nut and gives you a buzz. you spit it out and for some reason its red. even though the seed is white and green and the leaf is also green. either way it was all over the place in the abo home. we took a photo to document and continued on. next we found some freshwater crabs. we played with them for a while. they weren't so fun as they were so fast they escaped instantly. the river had lots of their motls. their molt is what crustations do when they grow. basically like a snake shedding its skin and growing bigger. so we dontinued down the river bed. next we found some mini frogs. they were so small they could sit on your pinky and it was a perfect sitting spot for them. we each caught one and played with it until we were bored with them. we arrived at the rock we had jumped off earlier and some of the bolder crew decided it was a great place to skinny dip and do mega nudie jumps off the rock. it was a very interesting experience to say the least. after jumping off rocks again we found a pool with hundreds of small tadpoles in it. willie grabbed a handfull of them and we petted them like puppies. we let em go and didn't hurt a single one. we love all critters! we had made it back to the forest part again where we leave the rocky river bed and head into the forrest again when we found a bright green praying mantis. we played with it for a while and really pissed it off. it was swinging its little hacksaw arms at us and we laughed at it because we knew it couldn't hurt us. we all held it and played with it. we let it go and then we found another one. we searched our brains to remember what they ate for food and decided that we had learned in grade school that they ate eachother. we caught one and looked for the one we had caught earlier to see a battle to the death. we couldn't find the first one so we let the 2nd one go to live and fight another day. at the stair to the forrest area we split up. brian and willie thought the riverbed path was easier and faster whereas charlie and i thought the terrain through the forrest was easier. brian and willie made it back to the bikes faster, but im convinced they worked harder than we did. they said they saw monkeys on the way back and im glad i didn't see them as im scared of them from my experiences with them in indonesia. we got on the bikes and headed home to the house. we got home and one of willie and swardos tiawanese friends had just gotten to our house. Henry is his name. we hung out at the house for a bit and then got ready for dinner. today was johns birthday, another one of the homies, so we had decided we were going out for dinner to celebrate. we went to this place where you cook your own meat. we ate and ate and ate and ate until we were about to burst. we had every kind of meat from every animal there ever was it was awesome. for desert we broke into the ice cream. everything was all you can eat so we had tons of food and tons of ice cream. we decided that when we go to that resteraunt we deffinately made them loose money... not so awesome for them, but awesome for us. we ate like pigs and enjoyed it. after that we were all so tired we were in bed by 10ish.

4-12-10
today everyone had long days at work so i was kinda on my own to find fun things to do. i slept in till about 10 then got on skype and chatted with pops. glad to hear he's doing pretty well thats been one of my prayers is that hed be getting along just fine without me causing a ruckas at the house. we chatted and finalized the plans for hawaii as well as east cape later on in the summer. stoked for both. they are going to be AWESOME!!! so i went out and decided that today i was gonna score some surf. i went to the spots i knew and ended up surfing the 2 bridges. i really wanted to surf the river bed. sometimes the water is pushing so fast from the river it makes an endless barreling right. not good for surfing, but i may be able to ride a barrel in the same spot for about 5 minutes... i need to catch it on the right tide, swell, and river water power before i leave taiwan for sure!!! so again this spot wasnt working so i went to 2 bridges. the wind was whipping but its was totally offshore. the waves were solid chest high waves with some that were even bigger. i got there and bronzed on the beach for about an hour before deciding to finally get in the water. it was a good choice to hit the water. i for sure scored. i had a few waves im pretty sure i got nice clean barrels on. its so hard to tell though because the lip was completely blowing off the wave. for example if you duck dive under a wave. the wind blew so much of the lip off that it felt like it was raining when you came up and you couldn't see a darn thing. either way i had a few lefts and a few rights that were super fun waves. there wasn't a ton of power on the waves, but you could ride forever. it was awesome. i had my fun with the waves and decided to get out. i didn't wanna head back home yet so i got on the road south. i drove south for about an hour stopping and going as i pleased. i took pictures of the landscape and all kinds of interesting buildings. after cruizing for a while i found a street that headed down towards the ocean. it was blocked off so you weren't allowed to go down, but being adventurous i found a way down and checked it out. i found out pretty quickly why it was blocked off. it was an old road that had collapsed into the ocean in many spots... i found my way through it all and drove for a while. i got kinda sketched out after i saw tons of holes in the road. i thought to myself man it sure would suck to have the cement collapse under me. i had better head back, so i did just that. i rode back up the main road, but wasn't done with my mini adventure yet. i continued on to another small road and decided to go on it. it headed away from the ocean so it went out into the hillside. i rode it and saw all kinds of amazing flowers and plants. there was a section where the whole hillside had pinks, whites, and red flowers. you know the type that have the small green seed pods on them that pop and shoot seeds everywhere? well they naturally grow in taiwan and there were whole hillsides of them. gosh the flowers were breathtaking. it was great to see. i also saw somme other pretty small white flowers. they reminded me of my grandmas house in san marcos. their whole backyard was full of these flowers. rumor has it that if you put the pedals on a hook you could catch yourself a handful of blue gill there... i also saw some really cool red hibiscus flowers. they were bright red, but when you looked at them in the sunlight you could see through them. the last flower i saw was an orange and red flower. not sure what it was or what to compare it too. it had a ball of flowers that were close together that looked like a single flower from a distance. when you got close you could see they were a bunch of flowers. they alternated colors from orange to red in a cirular pattern. the innter ones were red, then orange, then red, ect. the bigger ones had more alternating patterns where as the smaller ones had less. they were really cool and i enjoyed my time out and exploring. i got on the road home which wa sabout an hour drive. on the way i chilled drove slow and enjoyed the scenery. i went through the usual tunnel home at a slow speed. usually the tunnel is the spot to go fast. no wind resistance and its downhill. i enjoyed the cool dark air in the tunnel. when i came out of the tunnel i was going slow and just cruizn when a dog jumps out from no where and startes chasing me and barking its head off. it scared the krap out of me so i BOOKED it on the scooter and quickly gained distance from him. He was a stupid dog and he scared me so i wished bad things upon him. i figure survival of the fittest will soon come into play and he'll jump out in front of a car and get bonked good. i came back to the house and swardo had a long day at work so i only saw him shortly. i talked with willie for a while and decided i needed some good old american quizine. pizza hut it was. the food here in taiwan is ok don't get me wrong, its just nothing compared to the good food from the states. i miss my carne asada burritos, and my 5 dollar pizzas, and my real fast food. i went to pizza hut and put my order in as best as i could. i don't speak chinese, but it went well. i had about a half hour to kill before my pizza was done so i went to check the surf again. i checked and it was no good, but i found a sweet dirt trail along side the ocean so i rode on it for about a mile. it reminded me of racing around in my truck. another thing i miss is my loud music and driving in my nice comfortable truck.i got my pizza came home and had a good ol pizza and beer. i took a short nap after that and headed to school to meet willie, brian, and john for some dinner. we went to the night market. we got some fruit drinks which we do all the time. fresh mango and fresh pineapple blended up and put into a cup for me. mmmmmm fruit drink is soooooo good any fruit mix and its all fresh fruit. no milk no icea cream just fruit. its so darn good! anyways we got some fruit drink and then headed deeper into the night market for some food. we found a place that serves "coffin cakes". coffin cakes are thick pieces of bread with w small u shape cut out of the bread so you can put stuff inside it. i got kung pao chicken in mine. the stick the kung pao in the bread and then deep fry the whole thing. it's darn good. after having dinner we went to the grabber machin area and i tried my luck at getting a gary the snail. i had one so good and it almost fell into the win area. it landed just shy and broke my heart. i will get him someday though. i bought some freshly squeezed orange juice from the smoothie lady and we all headed home for an early night again.

4-13-10
Today wasn't a very eventful day, but its been great so far. i slept in until 11 am. i guess i've been pooped lately. i got up brushed my teeth and cleaned up for the day. i met the guys at school so we could head out for lunch. on tuesday we go out for lunch with tim. he's brian and willies father in taiwan pretty much. he takes care of them and whenever they need anything he's the go to guy. we had sushi with him which was incredible. we ate soooo much we all felt like we were going to burst. After a wonderful lunch brian and i headed out to check out the local fish stores. the first one i had found already when i got lost one day and decided to go in and check it out anyways. it didn't have too many awesome fish, but it had cheap tanks. i've almost convinced brian to get a fish tank and rejoing social aquarium in taiwan. we'll see what happens tho. they did have baby frontosas. they are cute with a little bit of baby blue and white and black stripes. they are the same type as the fish i have named brian, after swardo as well as my old frontosa names spot. both super cool unique fish. we headed to another store which had a weenie dog guarding she store. the dog was pissed at us and showed us her teeth. we walked by and she was pissed. the owner called her over and she mellowed out. i wanted to pet her so bad but she gave me mean face. i'd rather have my fingers... we looked at the fish and they had awesome fish. in their huge display tank they had enormous fresh water sting rays, huge arowanas, and a big beautiful peacock bass that had to weight at least 10lbs. it was sooooo cool. we played with the fish and headed home. we took wee little naps and brian had to leave again to get back to teaching. willie and i had some errands to run so he did his and then we met up to do mine. we needed detergent at the house, some soap, batteries and some other random stuff. we rode to the carrefour store which is the supermarket here. i got some strawberry oreos , it was a shot in the dark, but they turned out awesome. i had some tonight. i also got a taiwan dark beer. it was really good. it wasn't very dark in color but the flavor was awesome and dark. i very much enjoyed it. i also got some gum and bread for sandwiches. on the way out we saw some of their jets taking off across the street from the military airport. the jets are sooo cool and loud and fast. it was really fun to watch and hear. after that we headed back to the house. on the way home we stopped at a fruit market and saw all kinds of local fruits and bought a few as well. i got some mangos, apples, and bananas. there were all kinds of fruits i didn't know what they were, so i stayed away from them, but some seemed really interesting. i will have to go back and get more for sure. i came home and willie went to work and i decided i would do some reading. i am still reading the screwtape letters by c.s. lewis. its an interesting book and deffinately keeping my attention. i read for a while and then began typing this novel... now its time to go get dinner with the crew. hope you all enjoy my writing and my adventures. Miss you all too!!!