Click on the link (Pics people yay)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25546563@N04/

Hao Jiu Bu Jian

Hey everyone this is a quick update i know we have not updated in a while but so much on so many tests and Henduo xin ren. So will really update ASAP And Andy has a new camera so he is taking loads of pics.
So please guys in your updates maybe ask for certain pics and we will supply.
Thanks
Steve.

Daily life in a week

Hey everyone here is some more pics of what we have to go through here in taipei.
1st thing is to look at the MRT map and work out which stop we have to get off at (here is where we are "at the far end of the green bit..... and our uni is up near the top of the green bit")
Then its onto the tube and get ogled at lol. Us waiguoren!
Then off for about 10 mins walk and into the uni gates.
Then get into class and then after do some studying in the listening room:)
Then off to the Tee House for some good food with my 2 American friends, Brittney and Kenan.
More pics later.

Pics everyone Pics

Hey people this is a few pics of where we are living now. The top pic is of Andy ontop of our apartment looking down with disgust at the Taiwanese scooter rampage. And the bottom one is the same as the top only at night. More coming to a blog near you!!

UNI UNI UNI UNIa ah ah ah... do ya do ya do ya

Ok sorry about the title but i am excited about today cause i went to university yay i am now a student.... can anyone lend me 5 squid cause i seem to be broke all the sudden lol.... anywho.
I got there late cause i was waiting for the lift to arrive (side not lifts in MTC are rubbish) so i got in and andy and my other 8 class mates 5 men (1 Canadian, 1 Italian, 1 Spanish and me and andy) and 4 Ladies (1 yank, 2 koreans, 1 Japanese).
Wo de Laoshi shi jiao Miss Lin, i said duibuqi yinwei i was late and she was ok with it, they had not started yet.
We went over how to pronounce pinyin letters, it is a little basic but you have to start somewhere.
Anyway got to do 2 hrs of homework a day so gota get on top of those characters buh.
I will update more tomorrow cause we may move on from the basics.
Laters

My story so far

Hey people as you can guess mine and Andy's adventure will be some what similar however i cant say i was worried about the flight, although BA was a good one and i had lots of leg room YAY.
OK heres the low down.
First couple of days we stayed at a friends house near the mountains, it was cold for this time of the year and we had to sleep on the floor(which was ok until the spiders came and eat andy hahah--- kidding he is still alive).
We moved to be near the uni and near civilization but stayed in a hostel which was a nice place but mozzy hell.
Then found a nice apartment which we stayed for 3 days and now we are in our new apartment in a place called Jinmei (which is like being in bamber bridge south of preston).
Ok so most of you want to know if we are happy of crying to our moms every night in a man hugging cuddle????
Answer!! Andy wont let me :)
We are fine and ready to start uni in 2 days YAY. Also i would like to say that we have been eating KFC most of the time only because we have been brain washed by the 24/7 adverts that come on every 60 seconds telling chinese people to eat KFC.
I went to the kingdom hall in Shida which is a chinese cong and they had 21 new aux pioneers this month, this is the cong i will be in for the next 6 months:)
There are lots of japanese and korean bro and sis and too many Yanks lol.
After the meetings on friday we all goto the night market and have shaved ics and bananas(dont ask). Also in the market we found a tea shop that sells meals at $80 which is £1.25 and you get a cup of tea, soup, choice of meat and rice, cabbage and a pancake, how awesome is that:).
Any way though you may want to read from me as i have not wrote anything in a while.
Hope all doing well and i miss everyone
Steve

Story so far

I appologise in advance if I rant a little ,not really used to this sort of thing.(day 1,fake geordie accent) set off from heathrow about 10 pm , after playing endless games of 20 questions on the way ,somehow proving im slightly psychic.anyway flight was about 12 hours to hong kong then a short blast over to taiwan.can't say I enjoyed my first experience of flying ,was somewhat obsessed with the amount of air between me and the ground !Arrived in taipei 1am local time ,got a lift to our digs which were on the edge of the city near the mountains ,it was unusually cold ,which annoyed steve but made me smile.Slept much of day 3 feeling emotional and homesick.We were staying with 2 brothers 1 chinese who spoke no english and a spanish bro who is fluent in english and mandarin (boo hiss)day 4 ,decided we needed to get something done so went searching for a hostel ,because we were too far away from uni ,got a mrt card which allows you to travel the metro ,and eventually found a hostel which overlooks the main train station and taipei 101 (tallest building in the world)was abeautifull sunny day ,20c ,taipei is a great city with a diverse archetecture .Today enrolled at uni which starts on 3rd march ,only gonna be in a beginners class cause of lack of experience with characters.also looked at an appartment which is only 2 stops from uni .first impressons are ,completely different culture ,very youth oriented ,fashion consious but polite .everyone has scooters and rides like manics .thats about it sorry for boring you promise to get some pictures for next update -andre