The day started at 3am, actually, with two power outages that made the surroundings strangely mute. There were huge winds and heavy rain. I guess I forgot that this is indeed windy season, and the pretty leaves will be blown off before they change colours... After waking up, there's this mad dash to get the writings done for the supervisor meeting, and indeed I got it done (sort of). I got 22 pages this time, doubling the size of last week's stack. I got two new papers to look at during the supervisor meeting, and that was good news, I think. I ate something from C&D next, and had some painful feelings from my stomach (or some other body part), so I decided to go home and rest for a while. There was walking around campus in the evening, which isn't really a shocker anymore, I guess. Tomorrow, lots and lots of things to get done: Laundry, PowerPoint lyrics, buy books, hand in housing contract, making copies of the Trinitarianism book, update website, Bible study, exercise, study directed graph material...and those are just for the morning and afternoon! Yikes...

I meant to comment on this a long time ago, but never remembered to do it. Here are the names of the evening newscasts for three of the big Canadian television networks. CBC: The National. CTV: CTV National News. Global: Global National. Not sure what's with the obsession with using the word "national"...

There is a sense that I am living in a different world that is changing at a rapid pace, so fast that I can hardly keep up with it.

Yesterday's Final Jeopardy on the category 15-letter anagrams: Someone chatting about preserving natural resources is these 2 similar words, anagrams of each other.

Finally finished episode 1 of Lost. Boy that was a gruesome ending to a gruesome episode...

I'm starting to think that sometimes, it's best to slowly return to my own tiny little cocoon.

Next time that you would like to ask for my opinions? Please tell me the whole story. Otherwise it's useless. I'm having a huge headache right now.

"So let's agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don't drag them down by finding fault." --Romans 14:19-20a (MSG)

Supervisor meeting tomorrow. I'm in absolutely no appetite to do anything. And I certainly haven't been doing anything so far. Sigh...

4+ hours of television. Yikes. Kind of disappointing, actually. Anyway, Millionaire and Jeopardy are as usual. There's this very interesting Final Jeopardy clue which I will probably post later. The Biggest Loser was kind of heart-breaking in the beginning, seeing what Suzy did with the milk shakes. Later the men voted off an annoying person, so that's good, I guess. The Amazing Race was kind of weird, what with traveling for only 200 miles when usually they log about 10000 miles in the first episode. And with 40 people...not good. And one of the more endearing teams got eliminated, so that was a little sad, but not so much.

I went on a shopping spree this morning, buying stuffs like a water boiler, a knife set, a cutting board, some fruits, boxers, eggs, bottled water, chocolaty stuffs, and Lost. So...kind of unusual for me to spend like $170 in one morning, but I guess they're all useful stuffs, right? Maybe?

For Lost, I managed to watch two-thirds of the first episode so far. It's pretty, and scary, but I try to make myself not scared by it. Its quality makes it look like it's been made for a movie. Even the music is composed by the same composer for The Incredibles. So far so good. Let's see how far I would make it...

I had an office hour today, but I didn't realize it until I got to the office late in the morning. Not having a good memory these days, apparently... I didn't receive any solutions for the assignment, so I had to figure it out myself. It wasn't incredibly hard, but still hard. I got a few more customers this time around. First I had a group of 3 came in, one built guy showing no sign of emotions, and two girls. They were mostly easy to talk to and there's this semi-comedic moment when they realize that the reason they couldn't solve a question is because they put down 4 instead of -1 in one instance. Ok, so they were nice and stuff, and left in 30 minutes, so that's good. Once they have left, another guy came in. This is a pretty animated person, and I enjoyed talking to him, actually. Eventually, he realize that his class is behind on the course material, so I couldn't help him with half the assignment anyway...that's too bad. In any case, good office hour. Haven't had a good one in a while.

I skipped lunch today. I don't think it's a good thing, but I just didn't feel like buying the food presented in C&D and DC.

I'm having trouble dealing with growing up. It is especially painful to think that the relatives who are higher-up in the family tree are growing really old...I don't think I can handle that kind of a thought...

Boy, the shockers just keep on coming, aren't they? Yes, indeed, I have done some exercise and walked around the campus once again. This time, shaving 17 seconds off yesterday's time. It's pretty windy, but unlike the rest of the day, it was not raining. Not cold, either, so a sort-of-perfect condition for the walk.

I have a new credit card! And this time, my credit limit is 5 times my previous card's limit! It's a dividend card, so supposedly I get a tiny little cash back at the end of the year. So...time to spend a lot of money? Maybe not...maybe.

The Amazing Race starts again tomorrow, but I'm not so excited about it this time around. There's also The Biggest Loser tomorrow, but I'm not so excited about it, either. It has been a mediocre television viewing season so far, I guess.

Yesterday, went out and walked around the campus again. This time, I clocked in at 25 minutes and 43 seconds, which is close to two and a half minutes off the first time. I think that's a good sign...maybe. Once I clock in at around 20 minutes, maybe I'll start thinking about walking twice around the campus.

So it appears that tragedy struck my family on Saturday. Not disclosing many details here, but it involves my dad and this tricky thing called gravity. News so far is that my dad is recovering well, so that's at least some good news. The sad thing is, I wouldn't want to talk about this to people here in Waterloo, since most people here most likely won't care.

It seems that I like to torture myself by volunteering to do extra work...not sure if it's a good thing or not.

I think a couple of days ago I finally realized why the mild increase in the number of visits to this thingie here. Apparently I made a small comment on the episode of Jeopardy where David Madden was knocked off by Victoria. This was (for some mysterious reasons) picked up by Victoria and was put as an obscure link on her blog. So...very interesting. I'm still baffled by how the post got picked up so fast...Google doesn't index everyday, I think?

I made an elaborate lunch today. It was so tough to cut the meat with my tiny little knife...very frustrating. But the end result was very good, I think, for a first try anyway. Plus the steam egg thing finally worked, sort of. It was ugly, but at least it's edible...

Yeah, I'm keeping with this weekly scheduling thingie. Here goes week 3...

13 hours, 3 cities, $130 worth of food, 0 traffic jam, 292.9 kilometres. That's the day of driving to Toronto and back, then to church's gospel rally and back. Very tiring. There was a point where my body was feeling pretty bad, but I soldiered on anyway. Congratulations to Ray and Howe! You are now in the kingdom of God.

Really, it's not funny to make fun of overweight people (like myself).

Man, W. Klitchko vs. Peter. Awesome.

I took a day off today. I guess I needed it after the extreme exhaustion yesterday. I didn't waste the entire day, though. For one, I finally called and activated my ING account...and then finally made a nice attendance sheet (which made me appreciate my laser printer even more)...and as a shocker, I finally did another round of exercises! Half an hour's worth of intense exercise! Ok, now I'm exhausted again.

I forced myself to watch Survivor and The Apprentice yesterday, just to see what makes these shows so popular. Well, what I found are two shows that are boring and humourless. So I really don't understand why they are getting so many viewers... Sometimes, the society baffles me. Flocking to these two shows while abandoning the very well-done and now cancelled My Kind of Town. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of getting the Lost DVD set, just because Austin's watching it and it received several Emmys. Must be something good in there...

It's kind of sad when the only times that boxing makes the news are when (a) Mike Tyson did something crazy; or (b) someone dies after a fight. The media certainly isn't trying to shed a positive impression on this sport...

My plan of staying home for the morning derailed when I realize that I really need to put some pictures into my document, and I couldn't do that at home. So off I went to the office, thinking what a productive morning it's going to be. Well, got a call in the office soon after I arrived, and it's from a guy in 350 that wanted help with the assignment due 3pm. He said it would be just 5 minutes, so I thought there's no harm. It ended up being 45 minutes. Hmm...off to a productive start, isn't it? Later, another person showed up, said that she had quick questions. Well, I think another 45 minutes went her way...and I decided to close the office door for good. I ended up with 11 typed pages of stuff, still far less than I have planned, though. Ah, the annoying distractions of life...

So for the supervisor meeting, it wasn't too bad. Went over the things I wrote, and she started talking about the teaching requirements for the PhD. Turns out that there is an opportunity for me to teach at the end of October while she's away...so...hmm...I think I'm scared when I think about it, but really usually I don't do too bad with the presentation and stuff, so looks like I'll be doing that...

Just very exhausted.

Right now I'm typing away in my office. Quite tired, actually, after a cheap dinner from Mikey's. Also quite frustrated with the really strange wireless connection here. But most of all, I'm just too lazy to type the stuffs that I'm supposed to do. I mean, this is not a difficult job, it's just tedious. And I don't know why I couldn't have started this earlier... By the way, the promised cable repairman didn't show up today, unfortunately. So I guess the usual cable fuzzyness continues.

I really messed up the frame for my glasses this time. Maybe I'm feeling dizzy from it. Need to get it adjusted this Saturday when I go to Toronto...

Yeah, it is kind of hard to be almost always alone here.

I wasted the entire day, basically. I felt really dizzy and wobbly the whole day. And yes, I'm supposed to be writing stuff, but I didn't. So...not good.

I did walk around the campus again, this time scoring 27 minutes and 24 seconds. So I shaved off 38 seconds from the last time. Not as good as I wanted to, but still good, I guess. It's surprisingly exhausting, I have to say.

There was another excellent Final Jeopardy clue today. Too bad it dethroned a very entertaining champion... Category: By the numbers. Clue: The phrase "How I want a drink? Alcoholic of course" is often used as a mnemonic to memorize this.

Just saw one of the better games of Jeopardy! David and his awkward opening-credit smiles are finally let go. The two challengers were quick and both are quite pleasant. Glad that Victoria won. She made a large true Daily Double bet which made me gasp. I was rooting for the sailor, though, but it would have been good either way. The last two categories of Double Jeopardy were just painful to watch, though...Art Techniques? Movie Numbers? Yikes...

It was supposed to be the beginning of my writing madness. That didn't go so well when I fell asleep after taking the morning shower, and then having to have a last-minute notice on the office hour. The office hour was occupied by one student, and I certainly haven't had that for a while now.

So someone is supposed to come and fix the cable tomorrow or the day after. Hope it works...and looks like I'll be staying home for the writing madness...not a good sign.

There was the usual early morning church service. Afterwards, I stayed at the church for far too long, and eventually scored a dumpling lunch at the Yen's. The afternoon involved watching The Biggest Loser (heh) and then (being motivated) some intense exercise. My whole body is sore right now, but it was good. The evening was spent with people who were doing the Mid-Autumn bbq thingie. I didn't really like the food, actually, so I didn't eat much. There's one shot of the moon which is now my wallpaper. Came back with a mediocre episode of Mythbusters (still good, though, especially the voice breaking glass thingie).

Woke up early this morning, had a healthy breakfast, and then pretty much too exhausted to do anything else. So...not a good start to the grand plan of writing a ton of things this morning... Also, Bertrand emailed this morning saying I have an office hour at 3pm today...and I still haven't got the textbook yet! Looks like it will be lots of on-the-spot thinking, or more likely nobody will show up.

I found some strange freckles on my shoulder and on my back this morning. I'm not sure if it's a bad sign or not...certainly got me worried. Then again, maybe they have always been there, and I just didn't notice it before.

I was planning to go to Toronto today, but nobody can go with me, so I went for a shorter route. Canadian Tire was the first stop, where I got a surprisingly cheap desk lamp (priced at $13, but the cash register says 50% off...). Then off to New City Supermarket, where the traffic was horrible because of the Farmer's Market thing (note to self: don't go there on Saturday mornings). Eventually found free parking, and took home a little bit of stuff. Still, far less than what I would have gotten in Toronto... So, that's pretty much the adventure for the day.

As a shocker, I went out and walked around the campus as exercise. The lap time is 28 minutes and 2 seconds. Along the way, I encountered two groups of runners, all Chinese male, it appears. Then I go, I really don't like these runners...mostly because I can't run like that, not even close. Anyway, wish I had some people to walk with so that my mindless wandering could be less boring...

I should try to remember to take a picture of that moon tomorrow night...

Week 1 of the scheduling didn't work so well, probably because of my recovery (or the lack thereof) from jet lagging. Week 2 is hot off the press, and it will certainly not work at all. I should make themes for each week...hmm...maybe that would be too much for me. It does seem like this week 2 is going to have a "writing" theme, as per supervisor's request.

While I was really really hungry, I weighed 86kg this morning. So that's 3 down from the all time high.

Yesterday: Huge load of laundry in the morning. Scrambling at school with frantic calling. Fellowship in the late afternoon/evening wasn't too bad. 26 people showed up, which is more than usual. The little name-guessing game didn't finish, unfortunately, but they had a good time, I think. The most expensive Bible study ever was not too bad, either, although I start to wonder if the expense was worth it. Came home and pretty much passed out for the rest of the evening.

Yesterday: All morning trying to prepare for supervisor meeting, only to write down a few meaningless things and done nothing of substance. Well, unless you count scratching my head as something significant... There was a C&O social to meet the new grad students. I think I talked to one new student, which is like a record high for me. Then the supervisor meeting was not too bad, I guess. I'm expected to produce a big, thick, juicy stack of paper for her to read by next week, so I guess I need to do some work now. Went home, prepared the Bible study, had the pre-study, and it was all pretty fast and good. Once I had a theme in mind, it was pretty quick. I can only thank the Lord for that. By 8pm, I was pretty sleepy (actually, I wasn't even sure how I got through Jeopardy!), so then went to sleep. Eventually woke up at 8am, with a few intermittent breaks in between.

We have rain today! Apparently they haven't had rain in a couple of weeks now, so I guess that's a good thing. It's certainly cooled down a lot today, but not cool enough to bring on the long sleeves.

It was good to talk to Austin.

Apparently I'm doing a reverse anti-jet-lag thing, turning my biological clock back to Taiwan's time zone. Not good.

Very interesting Final Jeopardy question on "The Map of North America": Number of Canadian provinces that border the Great Lakes.

It's going to be a very busy day today. So busy that I almost fainted just thinking about it.

Hmm...now my arms and legs are quite sore. I guess I need to follow the old wisdom of warming up before exercising...

In addition to preparing for supervisor meeting tomorrow, there's the additional pressure of preparing for a Bible study for pre-study tomorrow. I'm not sure I can handle them all. In fact, I'm not sure how I got involved in this...

I have to admit, I'm quite sensitive in many aspects of my life. So that's probably why I'm very easily hurt.

Here I am, typing away on my laptop in my office using wireless connection. I'm sure this wireless thingie would become less of a novelty some time soon, but not now. If I have a good enough battery pack, I might actually be able to walk and type this thing, but I guess that's not to be.

So I'm in my office, looking to do some research work here. But...I simply couldn't do anything. I see Shengjun focused on making his program, and I go, why couldn't I be as focused as he is? Maybe I'm really not interested in what I'm doing with the research? Or maybe it's a lack of perspective of how to proceed? I don't know. In any case, supervisor meeting is tomorrow, and so far I've got nothing. Not unusual, I guess.

My right hand's fingers are involuntarily shaking. I don't really know why.

Day 2 in the supposedly "new" life: it was crazy. Little veggie, one banana, some exercise, no research. Started with Aaron's visit, hence the exercise. It resultd in a slightly low blow, which caused an amusing pain for the rest of the day. Class was slow again. Came home, ate lunch, checked email, and the TA prof said there's a meeting at 2:30, but didn't say the location. It was 2:15. So I rushed to school, followed people around, only to find out that the meeting was between the 3 profs, and the email the prof sent was misleading. Hmm...embarrasing. So I went home, slept, watched an amusing episode of Millionaire, went to Costco, Chapters, came back, ready to sleep. Then all of a sudden I've been enlisted to go to Toronto to pick up Aaron's mom. And his mom landed close to an hour ago. Yikes...so I went to my car, put my car key in the ignition, and it wouldn't turn. Ok...had to go back to my room, switch keys, and try again. And it worked, using brute force. So then off we went to Toronto, pick up his mom, had a stretch of traffic jams both ways since those smart construction planners decided that 12am is a good time to reduce a 3-lane highway to 1. The entire round trip was 3 hours, longer than the usual 2. Anyway, that was my crazy day, and all I got was being laughed at by Francis.

I believe in "smooth" driving. Nobody else around me believes that, unfortunately.

My planned schedule is all screwed up. I guess that was sort of expected...I shall try to do better in week 2.

Day 1 in the supposedly "new life" (or "life under fire"): No exercise, some veggies, no fruit, lots of chicken at Swiss Chalet, no research. I guess I blame my legs that are still quite sore for some odd reason. Also for some odd reason, I had some bounce in my steps...hmm...weird. Started the morning at around 7 with 2 hours of unpacking, which was kind of hard since there wasn't much space left in the suite. Dumplings for breakfast. Class at 11.5. The professor was so slow that I actually managed to solve the exercises in class...never happened before. Afternoon nap. Evening trip to buy a laser printer and wireless card. So now I print with laser speed and can go online wirelessly with tortoise speed. Now I'm quite tired again, so the hour of dedicated Bible study didn't work. So sad...

I've made a decision that once something comes up that needs to be done and can be done quickly, I might as well do it immediately instead of trying to write it down on some random piece of paper that is my temporarily to-do list and forget about it soon. I really hope that will go well...

One thing I'm quite afraid of is doing or saying something bad or stupid once and lose a friend.

Back in Waterloo...

Just got back to my room. I'm quite tired, so just a couple of short descriptions here. Total travel time: 24 hours. There were no delays with the flights, which was a surprise to me. But I've encountered way too many turbulences on the way (and that's not counting how Francis was driving my car). The layover was sort of painful, dragging around huge luggages for more than an hour. But overall, I'm here, and I need some sleep.

The suite is very clean again, I almost didn't recognize it. Alan's girlfriend must have done the job again.

Is flying a blimp around an airport safe at all?

Final post from Taipei...

Well, the rain is coming down real hard right now, but not much wind. So I think this should be fine. Maybe.

Leaving in a couple of hours, and I still haven't really started packing. The story of my life, then.

Some final thoughts on this trip: I guess in the end, I do not regret much about taking this trip. I certainly still could not fit in nor live in this kind of environment, but I'm glad to have made friends from church. Hope to keep in touch with them. I've looked forward to leaving here ever since I arrived, and I still look forward to it, but maybe with a little less enthusiasm now. Alright, next post from a difference continent!

The day we all went crazy...that was yesterday. From 6AM to 10PM, there were six of us that went from place to place all day long, with many others joining in between. First, a breakfast at Swensen's that proved to be a bit too western for me. Then a trip to YangMingShan that proved that I was the most physically inept of the bunch, which was no surprise anyway. We had lunch there at some kind of a historic site, I think, I'm not sure. Next stop, bowling. And I got the highest combined score...hehehe...so all that practicing sort of worked. Doing nothing significant at KFC was next, and then the mass dinner. Pretty good dinner, I think. A bit claustrophobic for sure, with 15 people around a moderate-size table, but it was nice. Of course I could have said more things about everything, but I'm tired... It was a good (and tiring) day, that's all I can say.

Then there was today...woke up late, obviously. Made the game for tonight's youth fellowship. Mesister took the keys she left for me, so there was some panic there. The game went well, and we were all surprised by Ching-9's ability to answer riddles. And the "strong chicken" team still couldn't figure out how to use the buzzer... Then I felt kind of depressed, and I don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm leaving a group of people that I got to know sort of well in the past three weeks. Maybe I'm just getting too emotional, I don't know.

The worrisome typhoon made a slight turn to the north, so it shouldn't affect the take-off for tomorrow's flight. Then again, we are still going to fly over the typhoon, so I'm not sure how that's going to go... Anyway, I'll make another final post when I wake up, pack, go to church, and then I'm out of this island.

Today's route: Home --> Taipei 101 --> Elim Bookstore --> MacKay Hospital --> Home. Ate a mediocre lunch at 101. A passion fruit smoothie went sour. Found out that the cost of going to the observatory is $350, which is quite a bit more than the $120 for the ferris wheel yesterday, so I didn't go. There's a bookstore that contains more English books than a typical bookstore in Canada. There's a $12,000 ($480CAN) headphone at Bose. "If I were a rich man..." then I would go for it. A long walk to the subway and a short ride on the subway took me to Elim bookstore, where I bought a book. Would have bought much more, but I guess I was in a fruitful mode of "self control." A long ride on the subway took me to MacKay hospital, where a few minutes wait and 2 minutes of meeting with the doctor yielded two things: (1) I don't have hep B nor C; and (2) The 2-minute meeting cost $350. So the ride to the top of 101 doesn't sound too expensive right now... Then there's the uneventful ride home, and my legs were sore again. So much for the planned mountain climbing tomorrow...

Two things that I won't miss in Taiwan: Food venders literally shouting for business, and the flyer distributors on the street. I just find that food venders that are shouting for business are very annoying. So to make a point, I usually don't go for food venders that do that, just to show that their incredibly intrusive advertising tactics do not work. Well, I'm only one person, so that's not going to change anything... About the flyer distributors, again, I find it really annoying and intrusive. I have to change my walking patterns just to avoid receiving (or refusing to receive) some useless pieces of paper, andthen have the trouble of thinking where to recycle the junk if I indeed got them. It's also a waste of natural resources, quite frankly. Both practices are, in my opinion, hints to this city that is in love with business and money.

Typhoon Khanun was formed in the Pacific today, and forecasters say it will hit Taiwan with full force on the 11th, possibly the strongest at 2pm. Hey, guess what, that is also the departure time for my flight to Vancouver! Yikes...I really hope CI does well this time...

Today: The attempt to get that "overseas Chinese enlistment deregulation" thingie almost failed by bureaucratic red tape, but eventually got done, sort of, I think... Lunch at Brother Hotel that involved lobster was surprisingly cheap, and the food was "cheap" in another sense... Afternoon trip to Miramar and the giant ferris wheel with Carl. The wheel is really really tall, and the individual compartments do shake when we move. But it has great air conditioning, so we were happy. We found out the high pollution of this city first hand when the photographs that we took of famous landmarks were all quite foggy.

I weigh myself today, and got 87kg. That's 2kg less than my peak. So, good news, I guess. There are four of us who are doing a weight loss challenge kind of thing. Not so much a motivational thing, more like just silliness, I think. I've volunteered to do a private website for that...

I may have said some things to Carl that would be embarrassing if he leaked it out, and there's a good chance that this could happen. I guess I need to really think before I talk, especially when interacting with super hyper talkative people.

Briefly recap last week's events... Monday: diarrhea in the morning, made a mess of the things; clean up the mess; took an early uncomfortable bus to Tainan; met 4 cousins; service commemorating the 10th anniversary of grandfather's death; trip to the graveyard that included some of the most beautiful pictures taken; large feast that I couldn't quite enjoy. Tuesday: trip to Kaohsiung; Italian lunch at a huge department store, at the 11th floor, which was way too high for me; bought shoes and CDs; trip to Gongshan; met up with Iris, Lawrence, Henry, Joy; Henry grew up so much! Wednesday: early comfortable train to Taipei; stayed at home for the rest of the day. Typhoon Talim was approaching, and we got out of the south just in time. Thursday: giant typhoon hits, mighty exciting; my room's door was rocking even though it's at the core of the house and every window was closed. Ok, there, I've finally caught up with the journal.

Today: Small earthquake in the morning that scared me a bit. Haven't had that for a while now... Went to Taiwan University to meet up with Su GuoShien. It was nice to be able to talk about things I'm studying without getting confusing looks all the time. There was a nice big Thai-style lunch. He's very talkative, and very much experienced in academia, so he was able to share a lot of his views and experiences. Toured around the book stores, and bought a book myself. Probabilistic Methods. I'm not sure why I bought it, but it's sort of cheap and I may need to use it some time in the far future... Met up with mesister afterwards, and bought some CDs. And that's pretty much it.

Mom's in Tainan right now, and I should join her on Friday, return Saturday, and fly home on Sunday. Now that's a tight schedule!

I guess I've always been curious of other people's lives. I've been known to flip through people's drawers, bags, closets, etc. or go into people's rooms without asking for permission (that was before...and I still get the temptation now and then). I also read people's blogs, even ones for whom I had very little or no contact at all in real life. I guess I just want to know how the rest of the humanity lives, because apparently my life sucks.

Note to self: Need to modify summer camp game program for distribution; need to go to the Songshan administrative office so that my folks don't get the "enlistment" notices again; need to send MYF mail regarding time changes.

Schedule for the rest of the stay here (subject to change, as always): tomorrow, go to Taiwan University to meet with GaGa's husband; Wednesday, go meet Carl and do something; Thursday, go to the hospital and then to Tainan to see grandmother; Friday, still in Tainan; Saturday, return to Taipei, go to youth group, pack my stuff; Sunday, go to church, say goodbyes, take lots of pictures, and go home. I get the chills when I type the words "go home"... And I will certainly be returning to a different world, what with gas prices at 1.30 per litre?!

Went to the hospital for the report from the blood sample taken two weeks ago. I was a bit late (supposed to be #6, but when I got there, they were on #8 already, so then they say I can only go in after #15), so there was quite a wait there. Apparently everything tested was fine, except for possible liver malfunction stuff. So, more testing was ordered by the doctor, and I got more blood taken out of me... I really don't like the needle and stuff (but then again, does anyone like it?), and I got a bit dizzy after they took two test tubes worth of blood from my body. I only saw the blood through the corner of my eyes briefly, and decided that's not a good thing to see. Yikes...anyway, that's probably the lightest of the news all day. Mom has cholesterol problem, and grandmother appears to have intestinal cancer, the same thing that killed her husband. So...shall I consider myself blessed for being relatively healthy and still alive?

Am I the only one who finds that me being overweight is not funny?

Knowing that I'm leaving this place in less than a week, it gives me a mix of conflicting feelings and emotions. On one hand, I've always wanted to leave here, for its torturous environment, also for the constant annoyance from people about the overweight and girlfriend issues. On the other hand, I might miss the people I've bonded with here, mostly from the youth group at church, and I cannot face the academic challenge that I will have to deal with in Waterloo. But now there's a third factor here: with grandmother being gravely ill, I wonder if I leave now, maybe I'll be brought back in the very near future. Ah, the contradictions. So ironic that I may earn my living finding mathematical contradictions, yet they are in my real life all the time.

Two trips to Danshui in 24 hours. Now that's really...strange.

Saturday: First, a last-minute rush to get to Danshui by 2pm (missed by a lot), to visit Epic's new "luxurious" place, only to find out that we were the first ones there. Then there's the joint youth service thingie. Well, let's just say that it was...strange. I guess it's mainly the sermon that the new theology grad delivered which was full of mistakes (obvious ones, no less). Interacting with strangers is, as always, awkward for me. After it's all over, there's the walk to the subway station (reminiscent of a similar thing I did 3 years ago) that included a jumbo ice cream. In the end, I think the best part of this is to spend time with the people from the church.

Sunday: Another rush, this time to church by 7:30am (missed by a little). I think I was too tired to do anything by that point. There was taking the tour bus to Danshui, there was a tour of the high school, there was a service during which I fell asleep (openly, embarrassingly enough) (I sat at the back, though, so that shouldn't be too bad), there was a big lunch, and then there was home (and not a minute too soon). Nothing really notable except maybe for some odd reason, HamMing appears to really like me.

Is it me or has there been way more disasters around the world this summer than in the past?

Yesterday: brutal day. Started with a trip to Costco (without a car). Got a few clothes, so that should be handy. Then a trip to meet Timothy with a detour to a department store. Then a trip to Daan Park that includes two rides on the subway, one bus ride, and getting lost in between. There's a concert involving mom, so guess that's why I was there. By the end of the day, my legs are really really sore (maybe it's because of the tight jeans and new shoes).

Starting a new attempt at making a schedule for myself. It's not going to work, but I'm going ahead with it anyway. Here is week 1 (partially done).