Last night was horrible. i managed to stay awake till 9 in the evening, couldn't stand it anymore and went to sleep. i hate jet lag. anyway...i got in a fight with ray. well not really. i was just really really mad because he decided that he had the right to criticize me, even though he doesn't. He criticized me about the most sensitive things also. it sucked. He has no right to criticize me. i'm not perfect and neither is he. i told him that i wasn't perfect and he said well you should be. i was like...what the hell. it's not right. i don't get why he keeps doing it. my dad says it's because he's jealous, but i'm not so sure about that. even though i hate him like crazy, it still hurts when he says all those mean things. this is great for my self esteem. my own brother things i'm fucking horrible. *sigh*

my schedule for the fall, 2002 quarter... (you might hafta scroll down a bit)

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
MAT 061A 1410-1500		MAT 061A 1410-1500		MAT 061A 1410-1500
CHN 001BL 1610-1700	CHN 001BL 1610-1700	CHN 001BL 1610-1700	CHN 001BL 1610-1700	CHN 001BL 1610-1700
WLD 057E 1810-2025		WLD 057E 1810-2025

These past three weeks have been the most unbelievable three weeks i've ever had. it's been a mixture of fun, work, stress, hecticness, and depression. but it was mostly fun. I went to Taiwan no knowing exactly what was going to happen to me. I didn't know what kind of person i would turn out to be or anything. The first week, i was kind of lonely and i still wanted to go back to san diego cuz i didnt know anybody yet. but the people i worked with were really nice to me and they listened to my ideas and were supportive and what not. yet there was this one lady who was kind of a bitch. she asked me whether i wanted to lose weight or not while i was in taiwan. ordinarily, i wouldnt be offended, but this lady isn't exactly very thin either...actually far from it. i didnt even know her either.

The first weekend i was there, i went to Kaoshung to see some of my family. I saw my grandparents and my uncle and aunt and their two kids. i also hung out with one of my older cousins there for like a day. that was really fun. we went and drove around lost for a long while. I took a really cool picture with his digital camera of the sun peeking out of the clouds. it was really pretty.

During the second week, it got more fun at work because i started getting familiar with the people and we started joking around a lot. That's when i got to know Vanessa and Web pretty well. Starting that week, it's like i came outta a shell. We started picking on each other and two of us would team up to pick on the third person. Naturally, it usually ended up being me and web vs. vanessa. It was great fun. That was when they found out that i laugh a lot. They didn't believe me when i told them that i laugh a lot in the states also. It's funny. I probably bugged them sooo much. Even though they both deny it, they know they love me ;)

Hedy thinks I ask strange questions. Jamiee thinks it's funny. Everybody else just think i laugh a lot. Web thinks I bug him too much ;) Vanessa thinks i bug her too much too. They all love me. they know then do ;) heehee.

Vanessa became like a sister to me. I felt like I could tell her anything and not be judged...except for when it came to food...she thinks i eat too little. I wish i had her metabolism. she eats so much yet she's still so thin. we went to the night market to get food one day and then we went to this big computer place, but it was closed. Little did we know that they close every 2nd and 4th tuesday of the month. at the night market...i ate very little and she ate her own thing and then helped me eat mine. it was great. the whole time she was berating me ;)

The next day, web and vanessa took me and ivy out to dinner at this italian place. when i ordered a margarita, they wouldn't let me drink it all cuz they didn't wanna get me drunk. so i ended up splitting it with ivy and vanessa.

That friday, everybody was going to the water park to go play. but i decided not to go. instead...i went to TaiZhong to see my cousins and my aunt and uncle. I stayed that weekend. On saturday, i was riding their bike and when i was getting off, my pants got caught so i fell and scraped my elbow pretty bad. That kinda sucked.

On the last monday there, web brought me to the computer place again cuz it was actually open. There are two stories at that place and we went to the top story first, and then as we were about to leave, i asked him what was in the bottom story. At first, he was gonna bring me down there to see because they had books and stuff but then he thought about it and was like...oh wait...theres porn down there...mebe we shouldnt go down there. so we ended up not going. he wouldnt let me run down the up escalator either, but thats because he didnt want me falling and cracking my head open. or that's what i'm assuming ;) After we got his computer stuff, i made him bring me to toys r us. leme tell you...that was a huge disappointment. It's so small and you can't play with anything. it's ok...somehow i still managed to have fun. ;)

Tuesday was my birthday. It was weird. I got really depressed that day. I couldn't figure out why. I turned 18. That night, they took me and alan (it was his birthday too...but he turned 25) to dinner at this place in the mountain. we sat outside. it was soooooo beautiful. we got to see the lights of taipei city from there. it was amazing. i left early though, because i still had to work overtime. I got home, and i was like...oh crap i don't have the software i need to work on this. but i still managed to get only 4 hours of sleep that night. i dont know how. but i did.

The last wed i was there was soooo hectic. Web decided to give me all the stuff that i needed that day. I had an output meeting on Thursday. which meant that i had to finish as much as possible by wed. I worked from 9 in the morning to 930 at night. it was crazy. i was exhausted. i felt even worse for web though because he had so much shit going on.

On Thursday, the typhoon came. kinda. ive never been in a typhoon before. everybody made a big deal outta it. i didnt really see why though. apparently...typhoons are dangerous ;) i wanted to go play in it, but nobody would let me. *shrug* what can you do. I got so overwhelmed that i got depressed. i'm not sure how that makes sense, but it works. i started crying and vanessa helped me through it. i couldn't have done it without her. i'm so glad she was there to help me. web was supposed to help me with the output presentation, but he didnt show up because of his eye exam. so i freaked out cuz i didnt know what to do. it was horrible. i was crying in vanessa's office thingy and i figured i had gotten a hold of myself by the time web called to tell me what to do, but nooooo...i burst out crying again. i was embarrassed. but it was cool...both of them were really understanding and they worried about me. but i got a hold of myself in time for the meeting and i kicked ass. :)

Friday...there was no work...the typhoon had come. Saturday was when i left...while i was packing, i talked to both vanessa and web. you know the whole multi-tasking thing is what i'm good at ;) heehee. vanessa called first and had asked whether i had called web yet...i had forgotten...naturally...so i told her i would after i hang up with her. we ended up talking for like an hour. i love her. :) then after we hung up, i called web and woke him up. felt kinda bad, but he said it was alright and so we talked while he slept (if that's possible) and i packed. i hung up with him just in time to leave. :)

On the plane on the way back to the states, i got really sick. i felt like throwing up. i tried...but nothing came up. so i went to sleep. it was horrible. but then when i got into the car i felt even sicker. we had a 2 hour drive to get home, considering we got into LA and not SD. before we got to irvine, i had managed to throw up...of course not much came up because i hadnt really eaten much...well anything really. my brother had just said...can you turn the other way and my mom had just given me a bag just in case...and right after she gave me the bag...i threw up. after that i went to sleep. it was great.

so yea...that's my trip in a nutshell. i had so much fun. ive never wanted to go back to somewhere as badly as i wanna go back to taiwan right now. Professor Wu wants me to go back during all my vacations...summer and winter. i want to. :)