Day 135 -- Goodbye KS, Hello Tai-Chung

Woke up early to help Miyuki with her luggage and I couldn't sleep afterwards, so in the end I decided to finish off my packing earlier... Gosh, it was harder than what I thought. Not to mention carrying all my belongings to the ground floor! Just in case you don't know, I stay on the 4th level with no elevator and I carried all my bags alone. Thinking about it, it's really crazy but oh wells, I did it, so yay!

Another crazy thing I did was to take the TRA to Tai chung with all my barang-barangs -.- How dumb can I get, but after today's experience, I'd learnt my lesson.. I will not try to take TRA with too much stuff ever again.

And the theme today was -- E.A.T.

I spent the whole day eating! I had the railway bento (like finally!) on my way to taichung. And because I already had the plan to eat my day 1 away in Taichung today so yups, the only part of my body that moved the most was my mouth :p

Had nice ice cream from 宫原眼科, the original bubble tea from 春水堂（本店 somemore!). And the eating continued after I reached 逢甲夜市. Had the famous 大肠包小肠, which was also my first; 红茶臭豆腐, which I ordered because I saw that they had korean kimchi in it; Matcha red bean egg tart which was MEH~; and a lemonade in a box. It was so so, but I bought it because the packaging looked cute *facepalm*

Was so full from all the eating but I'm not regretting it at all. If I don't eat them now, I will truly regret it when I return! So, let me grow fat and enjoy all the nice food now then worry about the massive weight gain later :p

Day 134 -- Final Farewell with friends

It seemed like it was the day for final goodbyes with new friends made in Taiwan.

I had lunch at this restaurant called 异人馆 in a district near 左营。Other than Xin fang (who was the classmate who treated all of us), there was also her other friends, Li chun and Zhu laoshi. Didn't expect it to be so many people, but it was during lunch that she mentioned that it's a lunch with combined purpose. Firstly, a farewell to me, then a celebration of her getting 1st in some competition, and to thank her friend for supporting her. But nonetheless, I was glad to know new people even though it was technically my last day in Kaohsiung. Li Chun was a really friendly girl, and perhaps our ages are relatively close, it seemed like we can relate to many things. Zhu laoshi on the other hand, was a very wise lady. If I have the opportunity to talk to her more, I believe there will be so many things I can learn from her! And as usual, Xing Fang was the life of the group. With her, there's no need to worry about a lack to conversation topics :p

After lunch, I met Miyuki at the beach to catch our last sunset in NSYSU. Just idling on the shore, looking out into the horizon, watching the setting sun and listening to the waves as they hit the shores. It's a feeling I will not forget. Neither will it be an experience I will get to enjoy in the near future (assuming I am stuck in Singapore most of the year).

After the sun had set, we went to meet Alice for one final meetup this exchange. We had Shark Bites, as were craving for the awesome Chocolate Banana Waffles we had in the beginning of the semester with the Japanese neighbours. But dinner was disappointing. We ordered the waffles only to see that it wasn't anywhere near to what we saw or ate a few months back :( But nonetheless, it was good to meet my buddy for the last time on the last day in Kaohsiung. Take care my dear buddy and hope to see you soon!

I had such a long day, yet it felt so fast. Too fast, too soon, I am bidding this awesome place farewell.

Day 133 -- Goodbye Minyu!

Sent Minyu to meet her family! It seemed only a short while ago that we arrived in Taiwan together and now we are heading home one by one. This is simply too fast! But luckily we're all in the same university and still able to see each other next semester!

Enjoy your time with your family and see you next sem, Minyu! :)

Day 128 -- Farewell was made easier with partying

A few of us surprised Dunia with dinner at Mr. Onion... It was a good mix of her friends from Guatemala  as well as friends made during dragon boat. So guess which one do I belong? (No prizes for the correct guess though :P) It was a great dinner, and perhaps a memorable one I should add. It was the last dinner in Taiwan for Phillippe and many girls were leaving on Monday or Tuesday, so it was really one of the last few moments we can actually sit together for a proper meal. It seemed like time passed so fast with good company. We ate and chatted till the restaurant was closing and it was so hard to say goodbye to some of them. But goodbyes were inevitable and who knows perhaps in the future, our paths may cross.

The after dinner activity was at Lamp and it's more of enjoying the moment with the company than to enjoy ourselves. But nonetheless, we all had our share of fun dancing and drinking together for the last time. But I have a race on the next day (read about it on Day 129!), so I can't party for the whole night with them, and had to leave halfway.

So if the physical goodbyes weren't enough, goodbye my dear friends. Take care and God bless. I certainly hope to meet up with you guys again in the future!

Day 127 -- Finally Finished!

After 2 papers and 1 presentation squeezed in a day, I am finally (unofficially) done with all my papers! Reminiscing the past week, it was crazy! But it is also only in Taiwan can I start studying for my finals just one week prior to the papers and still try to manage it. I can never do this in NTU, never.

Perhaps I looked offended (blame it on my 'default' face) when the teacher or classmates side-tracked to other unrelated topics during class, my drama review teacher actually asked me into her office and apologised (?) to me for side-tracking. I didn't mind because I felt it added life to the classes, but oh wells.

Went for Pavel's rooftop (farewell) BBQ party after lessons and I'm so thankful that I got a free ride to Love River from one of my favourite classmate from creative drama! She was always so helpful, especially when I was struggling with ideas for my assignments she actually helped me with it. Not to mention the free ride from the Fine Arts Building to the Gym every week so that I will not be late for my training every Thursday!

Back to the BBQ, Pavel was a really great host, making sure we had food and was comfortable, which wasn't much of a problem because the people present was either friends or friends of friends. In short, we were all connected. We had a great time eating and hanging out as usual, and I tried this national drink of Czech Republic, Slivovice, for the first time! It was so nice! The alcohol content was really high, and it did burn a little, but the taste and texture was so smooth! I'm certainly going to try more if I ever have the chance to visit the country! 

Day 126 -- Sleep deprived

I concussed last night at 10, and set my alarm to 5am, thinking I will have ample rest before doing another day of revision. But I guess I screwed my body clock, and I only napped for 2 hours before I realised I couldn't sleep anymore! So I mugged till 5 and decided to go for a morning run. It was crazy, but I'm glad I did.. The fresh air and the endorphin my body generated after the run certainly did wonders for my revision afterwards.

After revising for more than half the day, I made an impromptu decision to go to the beach for a short sunset gathering with the other international students! It was great meeting up with some of them because people were leaving, and though we say we will meet again, what's really the chances of us meeting again in such a huge group?

After the short meetup it was mugging again. As usual, I was disgusted by the sight of the books.