Nick and Kristen write: Hi everyone! We know it’s been a while since we’re written last. It’s been a lot of studying Chinese. Last weekend we didn’t do very much. We walked around Taipei and just relaxed. However, this past Saturday, October 25th, we decided to see what it’s like to use the train system out here. Their railways are a lot older than their subway lines, and a lot more difficult to use as we found out when we arrived. We decided to take a practice trip to a port town in the north of Taiwan called Keelung. It’s [View Full Entry]

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Kristen writes: Sorry it’s been a while since we’ve written you last, but it’s been busy here since that time. Nick has started school at National Taiwan University, and it’s been rather routine here since we’ve communicated last. It’s been a lot of homework and study for Nick, so he’s been focusing a lot on that at the moment. I am supporting him as much as possible. I’m very proud of him!!! I know a lot of you have been wondering and asking what I’ve been doing since I’ve arrived here. After working for almost ten [View Full Entry]

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Kristen and Nick write: Hi Everyone! We hope everyone is surviving the economic fallout back home. Nick and I watch Bloomberg everyday (since it's one of our only English channels) with interest as the economy is tanking before our eyes. Keep saving that money and tell your Congressman and Senators to say no to this ridiculous bailout! These Wall Street bankers don't need a bailout, they need to go to jail! Everyone write in Ron Paul on your ballots :) Well, we don't have quite so many pictures to share with you this time because we've been stuck in the middle [View Full Entry]

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Nick and Kristen write: Monday, September 22nd, 2008: On Monday Nick had a morning lecture on Chinese Phonetics that he attended and then in the afternoon we went to the National Palace Museum. Many people say that if you only have time to see one thing in Taiwan it's the museum. We were very impressed. Their collection of Chinese treasures was amazing ranging from their bronzes to lacquerware to 19th century Q'ing Dynasty era furniture. By far our favorites were the calligraphy and landscape exhibits. Sadly we have no pictures to share with you because the museum didn't [View Full Entry]

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Kristen writes: Hi everyone! It seems like forever since we last wrote you - time goes by so quickly out here. I know we keep mentioning the humidity, but it's unbelievable and you are covered in sweat before 30 minutes has passed outside. You have to take two showers a day. We can't wait for November to arrive. The locals say it's an unusually warm summer so far due to global warming. On Friday Nick and I went to go visit Muzha up in the mountains of Taiwan, not too far from the city. Once we took the Metro to the [View Full Entry]

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Nick and Kristen write: Ni Hao! Sorry, it's been a few days since we last blogged, but we've been busy and the weather has been bad. So, we'll try to catch you up on our last few days of sightseeing. Wednesday, September 17th: Nick had his placement exam for his language program. He freaked out as usual about how badly he did, although Kristen knows he does much better than he thinks he does! He worries for nothing. The day before, Nick had lunch with some of his future classmates. Most of them are recently graduated from college or college upperclassman [View Full Entry]

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Nick and Kristen write: No pictures to share this time since the weather has been so crappy! We've encountered our first typhoon here in Taiwan. Typhoon Sinlaku came and stayed for three days, and dropped at least 50" of rain according to the news. It came Friday night and didn't leave until Sunday night. Saturday night was the worst because the high winds rattled all of the windows in our apartment. So much rain fell the other night that when we were out last night during a calmer moment, we actually saw water coming OUT OF (not into) a drainage canal [View Full Entry]

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Kristen and Nick write: OMIGOD! We'd like to introduce you to our new favorite appliance, our LG Washer and Dryer. As you can see from the accompanying pictures, it has a myriad of settings and features. Unfortunately for us, all of them are in Chinese! Yesterday, we attempted to do laundry for the first time, and we spent the first hour translating the different settings on the machine itself. If you look closely at the picture, you can see Nick's little post-it notes taped up on the machine itself. Not that they helped, No No! How long would you say a [View Full Entry]

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Kristen and Nick write: Hey Everyone! It's been a very busy two to three days, but we have finally settled into our new apartment in the sky. It's a beautiful loft-style apartment with gorgeous views of the city (including Taipei 101) at night and lots of sunshine during the day! It's a little small, but it's perfect for us. The kind of place that we've always wanted to live in at least once during our life, but everything is a bit miniature since Taiwanese are kind of tiny people. Both of us have to duck when we go upstairs to the [View Full Entry]

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Nick writes: This note is a quick one but we have great news: we have an apartment! No pictures yet but we sign the lease tomorrow afternoon. It is a loft apartment in a high-rise on the 13th floor with city light views and only a few blocks from my school. [View Full Entry]

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