101 at night

Nothing happened this past week really. It was probably the first time I really had a chance to stop and relax since I got here, but I never realized how boring that could be. So on the weekend I really searched hard for something to do, calling friends and asking them what they were doing so that I could possibly tag along. Ultimately, I was only able to sleep for the most part.

When the sleep was not enough to get me through the day I went over to my friends place in the Xiaonanmen area, and to my surprise there was a large parade of people from the protest earlier that Saturday. A sea of people followed me all the way from the MRT station down to the Carrefour down the street holding flags and banners with anti-mainland China slogans. President Ma wanted to assure the people that talks with the mainland would not mean that he was giving up on Taiwan, but many radicals here believe so.

Classes are starting to wind down too. Every week, we are doing more work, but the class environment is less tense. We all know that our speaking ability is horrible so we just do what we can and proceed. Three months is not a hell of a lot of time to work with language, but I use this time to accelerate my ability like no other. In the end my teacher will most likely be able to say that I was the one who made the most progress the fastest. This is not because I sit in the textbook everyday wondering what questions she will ask on an exam, but because I talk to people everyday and interact with the natives, picking up daily useful expressions and vocabulary. As far as I am concerned, my academic goal for coming here has been achieved.