three more months

so it's been quite a while since i've left any news here. last time i wrote, the weather was beautiful, school was just getting started again, and it seemed like a lot of activities were going on.

right now, the weather is pretty unbearable and only going to get worse. i still have no working camera. on the very positive side though, i just finished my third term here and i have a week of vacation. lately i've been pretty busy with school and with kung fu. i went to hualian last weekend to see taroko gorge and some other very beautiful places with my kung fu club. we had some fun at the beach and in one of the national parks. the park had a nice section where a stream formed a cool pool and there were all these boulders around. i climbed barefoot through them in a big circle from one side of the stream to the other. besides that my club mates and i spent about an hour skipping these beautiful smooth marble stones across the little pool. our arms were sore the next day.



my chinese is slowly improving. my last report in class was to tell everyone what i would do if i were president of the united states. new words are starting to stick more easily now since the grammar is pretty much finished.

in kung fu i finished learning my third set and have started learning two new sets: 二路埋伏 and a set using a staff. i hope i can finish them before i leave in august.

almost one year now... since coming here i've been pretty clueless as to what's happening anywhere else. i've been following the news about the oil spill in the gulf of mexico. i hear that unemployment is still quite high back home. in any case, life goes on, and for the next three months at least, my life is here.