Long time no see!

好久不見！

( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

It's been too long since last update, I know, but I'm glad you still visit my blog (which you apparently do as you read this ;) I'll try to write a short summary, including travelling in Taiwan, trip to Norway and starting school in Tainan.

After last update in beginning of February, I travelled around Taiwan with my family, rented a scooter and drove around an island called Lanyu, south-east of Taiwan. It's a small but beautiful island worth a visit:

You could drive close to anywhere...

...on this beautiful island

My family trusted me and let me drive the car most of the way. We started in Taipei and drove south to Taichung before we turned east and crossed Taiwan over the mountains, the beautiful mountains! In addition to all the other tourist, we also came across some wild monkeys up there. On the other side we drove through the magnificent Taroko gorge. I were there two years ago with a friend, and it felt really good to be back. Beautiful view, and a lot of tourists. Later on we went by boat from Taidong to Lanyu. After close to three hours on the ocean, we arrived. As we had a lot of waves during the trip, it was not the most comfortable way of transportation, and so I would advice others to go one way by boat, and the other by airplane. Try to go by boat just to know how it is ^^

After our trip around the island it was time to celebrate Chinese new year, this time the year of the snake. It's common to celebrate together with family, and so we did. Every day, all week, we could hear firework here and there. I didn't see any big firework like at Taipei one new years eve, but you were always reminded there was something special going on that week.

Later in february was the sky-lantern festival. Really cool. I went with some friends to a place not too far away from Taipei. There was buses back and forth all day long, and I am, as with all big events her, impressed by the organizing and crowd-control. When the night came, and people started the group-launching of lanterns... oh what an amazing sight!

At first we just watched others who launched lanterns...

...then we got to launch our own ^^

March 7th I went to Tainan to take a placement test at Cheng Kong University. The weather was beautiful! Warm, but not too warm ;) My new landlord let me stay over for free, even though I still hadn't decided whether I wanted to rent a room for the semester or not. The landlord also picked me up at the bus-stop and treated me with dinner. I believe their hospitality made me want to rent at their place.

Spring in Tainan

Winter in Norway

After the placement test I returned to Taipei to pack my bag before going to the airport. Me and my dad had tickets with KLM, and went by Amsterdam Schiphol to Sandefjord Airport Torp, a smaller airport close to my hometown. We had clear sky and so a perfect view from the plane when we flew up the Oslo fjord of Norway. After half a year in Taiwan, it felt a little exotic to see snow-covered mountains and frozen lakes. During the two weeks in Norway I met friends and family, but most important attended my niece's baptism. I got to speak Chinese with some family members for the first time, so although I'm still no expert in Chinese it was fun to see that I'd learned something since I started studying in August.

Returning to Taiwan for another six months didn't feel too bad after a short visit to Norway. I called my landlord and said I would like to rent a room at their place, and stayed one night in Taipei before going to Tainan. My landlord picked me up, served me dinner and showed me to my room. They also lended me a bicycle (which I still use) so that I could bike to school the next day.

This picture is taken just after I moved my stuff.
It's way more cozy now, and the landlord will give me a TV if I just ask for it.

I now live on my own, with my own toilet and shower. I share refrigerator, waterdispenser and washing-machine with the other people renting here. It's a quiet area, but whenever someone come or go by scooter, I'll notice. Hopefully I'll get used to it and not wake up late night or early morning because of it :)

As I change school and class the chance of having to review a few chapters or skip some were quite big. In Taipei we finished chapter 11, but the class I was assigned to starts at chapter  7. It's probably a good thing to review some chapters rather than skipping some, and it's no doubt I've already forgotten a lot of characters. My classmates seems to be cool, and we have two hours together every day. The third hour (which is required to get the student-visa) can be chosen from a set of elective classes. For example daily conversation, grammar, Taichi, Chinese painting and more...

So far so good! Living on my own, started new class and facing a warm summer in the south of Taiwan (^_^)