Katherine and Emily

On a hot sunny day, the sweat rolled down my body. Although this was just a two minute walk. The sun was blazing as hot as ever, and the wind, well there really was no wind. The temperature so high that I think you can cook an egg on the street(well that is actually impossible with the raging motorcycles and cars rushing left and right, forward and backward). When I finally got into McDonalds, I was so happy that there was air conditioning. While my mom ordered a nice, cold sundae and some delicious nuggets, I went to find Katherine and her little sister, Emily. Katherine and Emily are one of the few people in my school that knows how to speak English as well as I do. When I finally found them in the really packed Mcdonalds, I greeted them and they greeted me. Soon after that my mom had gotten the order and brought it to the table. There were also fries in the order. I ate slowly and talked to Katherine(BTW to all who are reading this she is not my girlfriend, I repeat she is not my girlfriend... well maybe I like her a little but what's the big deal?).  Her little sister was sort of annoying though but I got used to it eventually(I think). Anyways they brought some toys to play and I played with them. There was a toy where you need to put on this helicopter top and you pulled this string really hard(but not to hard or it might break) and it would fly out. Her sister brought a more original toy but overall we had fun. Today was a fun and nice day and i can't wait to play with them again.

Taiwanese Tea Farm

On Sunday 9:00 a.m., I went to a Taiwanese Tea Farm. Most of the people here are from my school. At the tea farm, the first thing we did was signing your name on a sheet of paper so that you can get some tea for free(or I think for free). After that my friends showed me how to play a Taiwanese yo-yo that they bought at school. Soon after that we went to pick tea leaves. The tea leaves you had to pick needed to have a heart and two leaves. I was glad when when I got a lot of them, but my friend collected two times as much. When a few bags were filled, I was exhausted. I was sweating like crazy. At last, it was time to eat. We ate on a little grill and had to put up the fire ourselves. There were six different groups, all of them had the same supplies but at different places. My group was near the tea leaves fields. My friend wanted to did everything that my dad wouldn't let me do. I was really angry that I couldn't do those things such as light the fire and put in some coal. At last, things worked out. The things we ate were mostly fish balls. All I ate were three pieces of meat. At the end of the day everyone took a picture together with the packs of tea. It was a nice day and overall I pretty much liked the tea farm and i am hoping to go again soon.

一心二葉

Travis' friend, Leo

The tea leaves we picked today

My mom with her friends

My friends & I were in charge of B.B. Q.

Our group & school principal

Science Mueseum

My friends and I went to the science museum. The first thing we were doing was going to buy a movie ticket. I don't know why but at soon after my mom said that we shouldn't. We went to the children section of the museum where there were these things like lego. I made a fish while my two other friends made a tree and a dog. Meanwhile, my friends' mom (auntie Mendy) went to check around and found a shop full of airplanes. The airplanes were made of styrofoam but flew pretty well. The shopkeeper told us we could take them out to play because there was more space. Unfortunately, I accidentally threw the plane to an unreachable place. The shopkeeper says it was okay. So I went back to the inside of the store. Then my friend threw the airplane onto the top of a light. The problem was that it was stuck there. So my friend paid the money and cried a bit. Then my mom bought an egg for me. If you put the egg in water it was supposed to crack and then a baby dinosaur comes out. You let it stay in water then it would grow. My friend wanted this preserved beetle, and it was really disgusting. Then he saw this really disgusting thing. It was a pigeon sliced in half so you could see the inside of it. At the end of the say My mom, dad and I went to this night market and then went home.

The Cruise Part 2

I am on a cruise that goes from Taiwan, two cities of japan and then back to Taiwan. On the first day at sea,  I felt a bit queasy, which is a part of seasickness. Then I gradually felt better. My mom and dad had maximum dosage of seasickness which made them take medicine. At  last we got to a smaller part of japan in a day's time. When we got off the ship the first thing to do was to exchange some Taiwanese money for Japanese Yen. We got into a cab, he drove us to a market and we got off. The weather was very very VERY hot. I think it was a heatwave. One problem when we got to japan, on the boat i don't know when I got sick. Worst of all is I had stomach illness. Very bad illness if you ask me, I had to keep going to the restroom for diarrhea. Anyways, When I got to the market there was a lot of stuff. The funny thing was that they had mini coke cans, half the size of normal ones. One of the best things there was A&W ROOT BEER, Taiwan has they're own distasteful, horrible root beer. There was also a little box of sugarless mints, each one has fifty tablets. When we were done shopping for soda and shirts, we went to a Japanese restaurant, the food was like seemed like Korean BBQ. The funny thing was that there was a butt washing machine, I couldn't activate it that was because I wasn't brave enough to sit on the seat and press the on button. The thing was my grandpa tried it and said it works. The last thing we did before going back to the ship was having nice cold shaved sugarcane ice, or at least I think that was what it is. So at last we went back to the cruise and rested.

very expensive watermelon...it's about $25/each in Japan

tasty shaved ice......Yummy

My dad ordered a Mango shaved ice

Cruise Part 1( The Departure)

Last Sunday I had a vacation to Japan. I got there on a Cruise with tons of rooms, space and restaurants. There was also an arcade with at least 10 machines. When I found out there was an arcade, I really wanted to go there to play. When I first got onto the boat, I rushed to the room my family and I were supposed to stay in. When I got there, I opened the curtains and saw the big, wide sea. Just when the boat started to move, I was think that I was getting sea sick. My head and stomach started hurting really bad, although I think it was because of motion sickness part of me thought it was sea sickness. Then it was time to got to japan!

View from our room on the cruise

Tug of War

one! two! three! pull! could be heard repeatedly on and on. The crowds cheering wildly and the coaches rapidly yelling one! two! three! pull!. It was a partially cloudy day with a bit of sunlight. It was the day the finals of tug of war was held. Teachers encouraging their students, crowds of people cheering wildly. Students running for first place, and a show for rollerblading with teachers and students. I was so excited for the finals that I could hardly wait. It was supposed to be after the rollerblading show. When the rollerblading was done, it was time for the finals. My classmates and I held the rope, the opposing team did so too. At the sound of the gun,My classmates and I pulled with all our strength, the opposing side did the same. I pulled and pulled with my classmates. Finally the first round was won be the opposing team. We had the second round, but the last was lost. So we were in second place. I was okay with that, because it was fun and I know my classmates and I did our best. At last we were dismissed to go to the carnival. I bought three scoops of ice-cream and one sausage on a stick and all that was only seventy-five Taiwanese dollars, equal to around two American dollars! When I finished my sausage and ice-cream I went home to take a nice, long shower. That was the end of my day with the tug of war, so i went to sleep.

The Zoo

I went to the zoo a week ago and there were many things I have never seen. I went on a gondola ride which was very creepy, it was very steep and long, over 4 kilometers long.  It was the first time I've been on a gondola and I was a bit nervous, but I got used to it at the end. At first i was so scared that i was grabbing onto the handrails so tight that my muscles were white. Then my mom offered me to play teeter on her new htc phone. Although i was still scared it helped me maintain my cool. The gondola was not hooked on a wire though. It is snapped on to it.

When we finally got to the zoo, I was so happy not to be so high up. The first thing we went to saw were penguins. The funniest thing is that there was one named jackass.LOL. The next was a lesser panda. It is a raccoon and a panda fused together but it was lesser. There were real pandas alright but nothing i enjoyed. They were slumped there sleeping the day off. The very last thing to do was that we saw this funny drink producing machine. It would drop down a cup then fill it with whatever drink there was on the menu. But it only gave half a cup:(