Monday, May 25

All day today we were traveling on planes and trains. We left our hotel at 5:30 am. Jake had to carry my extremely heavy suitcase all the way to the station because the wheels broke. We rode trains for a few hours and then flew to Dallas at 11:30 am and got there at like 9 am. That was really weird, but cool. We left Dallas and flew into Charlotte around 3:30. I slept the entire flight. I loved Asia.

Sunday, May 24

Today, I slept in a little and got some lunch with Sally at Himalyan Curry, our favorite restarurant for CHEESE NAN. On the way home I found some Dr. Pepper. We took showers and went to Navin Gupta's condo in downtown Tokyo. He works for HSBC and it was on the 48th floor smack dab in the center of Tokyo. It had an amazing view. He answered all of our questions and talked a lot about the economy and gave us some advice. His wife had prepared tons of snacks and drinks for us. Tonight, we ate at a place where we fixed our own food on a hibachi grill that was on our individual tables. This was an excellent meal. We went home and just packed and fell asleep.

Saturday, May 23

Today was our free day. I went with a group of 9 to the Tokyo Dome Amusement Park. We got all day passes for 40 bucks and rode some pretty fun rides. There was only one rollercoaster, but that's all they needed. It was the biggest rollercoaster I've ever seen or been on in the world. It was a lot longer than most, too. It was not only in the center of the city buildings, but it actually went through one of the buildings. I loved this day so much. I'm a rollercoaster junkie! We rode an air conditioned ferris wheel called "The Big O", but it was still steaming hot inside and very long and slow. They had a fun ride like the crazy mouse and drop zone, too. For dinner we ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and it was really good. We all went home and took showers and whatnot and went to a club called Womb. The capacity was 4,000 people and it was 4 floors. They were open until 5 am, but Jake got too drunk so we left around 1:30 and took a cab home. We stopped at the 7Eleven and got crackers and Jake got yet another beer for some reason. I went to bed after this.

Friday, May 22

This morning we rode some trains to the area where Harley Davidson Japan was and grabbed some breakfast at the convenience store. The representatives from HDJ gave a presentation and did a very good job. We learned a lot about the company and they gave us a little gift bag of goodies. Then we shopped around the very expensive store and then rode the trains to the Sony District. I ate lunch at Dean and Deluca that was delicious and then we went to Sony. This was amazing. Sony was the coolest place we've been so far. We got to see all of the props from the movies Hitch, Superman (1,2, and 3), the DaVinci Code, and Angels & Demons. The absolute coolest thing we saw was the actual camera used to film Star Wars Episode 2 & 3. It had the serial number 1 and I got to touch it!

Thursday, May 21

Today I ate breakfast at the Olympic Center and had a short meeting in the meeting room to discuss our last few days here. We took the train to the Kimono shop owned by the professor from the all girl school and shopped around the mall in that area. I bought 2 really cute dresses for $5 each! I ate McDonald's for lunch and then we went to the Edo Museum and got some gifts for people back home. We ate dinner at a really good Italian place in the same building as the museum and then went to Sumo Wrestling. This was really interesting to watch. It was amazing to see the "little" guys beat the gigantic guys who looked like they weighed a thousand pounds! When we left the wrestling, there was a sumo guy outside and he took a picture with us. We took the subway to Shinjuku and went to a bar to buy a $13 beer. After that we went home and went to bed.

Wednesday, May 20

Today I slept in until about 10 and got some McDonald's. We took the train one stop to the shopping area at Yoyogi Park District and walked around. I got a t-shirt and got to see the grand opening of Forever 21. It was absolutely crazy. You had to have a time slot to get into the store and they had traffic directors directing traffic around the building. We left and tried to find Tokyo Tower near Roponggi and got very lost on the subway. I missed class this day and felt horrible for disappointing everyone. We ended up going to Shinjuku and finding a place called Dubliner's Pub. It was happy hour until 7 pm so we stayed until then and got $5 drinks and really good chips and salsa. We rode the subway back home and went to the 7Eleven and hung out a while then went to bed.

Tuesday, May 19

After breakfast we went to Gakushuin College for girls and watched a calligraphy class and a tea ceremony. Dr. Fox taught for a while and we got to see the differences in what is important to American boys, American girls, and Japanese girls. We left and went to Ernst and Young for a business visit. The guy who led the visit graduated from ASU in 1980. He took us to a restaurant and ordered us absolutely delicious food and beer. Then he took us to a bar and we had some drinks and danced a little. We took cabs home and went to bed.

Monday, May 18

I woke up at 7 this morning and we all met in a classroom to go over today's scheduled events and learn about the train system. We went to Gakushuin College for girls where princesses attend. They are extremely careful with security here. We watched their calligraphy class and flower arranging. We got home around 5:30 and went to a traditional Japanese restaurant where you eat on the floor with your legs down in an area under the table. They had hot dogs, and fried pork rind things which was weird, but then they had the big bowl where you cook the food at your table yourself. We went here with some Japanese students that were really nice. They took us to a bar called the Hub afterwards. We drank some beers and talked for a long time and then took cabs home and went to bed.

Sunday, May 17

Today, I woke up around 5 am and took the train to the Taiwan airport. We flew to Tokyo and checked into the Olympic Center. The wheels on my suitcase broke along the way and Jacob carried my bag for me. Everyone was pretty exhausted so we just walked around town near our hotel to see what was there and hung out at the 7Eleven and went to bed.

Saturday, May 16

Today, I slept in a little and got a bagel for breakfast from the hotel coffee shop. I bought a suitcase with Sally so we could fit all of the extra things we've accumulated so far. It was 800NTs and the guy would not let us bargain down the price. I'm not really sure it'll last until the US, but it's kind of cute! We'd planned to go shopping, but we had to leave for our Thai massases at 1:30. From 2-4 we got massaged. I was in a room with Tara, Sally, and Angela. It hurt a little, actually a lot, but it was really fun and interesting. It seemed to go by super fast, too. Afterwards, we went to dinner at an all-you-can-eat and drink restaurant at the top of a building. This was the best food I ate in Taiwan. The sushi was delicious. I went home and packed my stuff up and Jake put Ocean's 11 on his laptop for him, and me and Sally to watch. I think I fell asleep in less than 3 minutes.

Friday, May 15

Today we had breakfast on the bus and left at 6:30 am. We were on the bus for 3 hours until we got to AGV Beverage. They gave us some free tomato honey juice, water, oatmeal juice, diet coffee, and green tea. They took us on a tour of the plant and showed us how the plastic bottles are made. This was really neat. From there we went to ChingChang (spelling?) University and I got to meet Helen and Alice, my 2 penpals from Taiwan. They were the sweetest girls!!! Alice gave me her keychain of a whale that she's used for her scooter since she's had it. I loved her so much. We ate a bunch of interesting snacks that I acually really enjoyed and drank tea. We made these little felt animals that have smell-good beads inside them. Mine was a cute little piggie. Some ambassadors took us on a tour of their campus and then we left the school. We stopped in the 2nd largest city in Taiwan. I'm not sure what it was called, but we ate at Chili's and it was exactly like it is back home, delicious. We took the bus 2 more hours to Hotel Flowers and got ready and went out to Barbados and taught the bartender what a JagerBomb was, and then went to bed.

Thursday, May 14

I ate a bagel for breakfast at the hotel place and rode the green line and a bus to Joy Enterprises. This is by far my favorite business so far. They teach kids to speak english and I really think I could live in Taiwan and work for them. We got to play little kid games to see some of the ways they teach. When we left we took a train back to Taipei Main Station and ate McDonalds and changed clothes quicker than I've ever done in my life. We took some more trains to the university and did our case study with the Taiwanese students. I only had one Taiwan student in my group and he was extremely intelligent. Some professional Chinese Calligraphists came and let us try to write some things. I got one of the guys to write Emerson for me on a pretty piece of paper for my sister. We took the train to Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. I ate some Subway in the basement and then we rode the fastest elevator in the world to the 89th floor and walked up some more floors to the outdoor observatory, probably one of the coolest things i've seen. You could see everything in the huge city, but it was extrememly windy out there. We stopped at coldstone and then took a cab home. Tonight I had to shower in jakes room because our bathroom is leaking from above and smells like poop. Then I went to bed.

Wednesday, May 13

I had breakfast at the hotel place and then we walked to the presidential office and took a very long tour. Our tour guide had a very thick accent and was hard to understand, but he was extremely nice. We stopped by McDonalds and ate lunch and went to the top of a coffee shop and discussed the One Laptop Per Child case study. They gave us these kind of thick, sweet drinks that sort of tasted like sweet tea. From there we went to karaoke and had a blast. It was so much fun. We drank beers and sang tons of songs with the whole group that went. We took a train to another night market on the way home and walked quickly through it, then took the train home. We had the ladies at the front desk of the hotel to order us Pizza Hut to the hotel and watched Project Runway and fell asleep.

Tuesday, May 12

Today was amazing. The hotel ordered McDonald's for us for breakfast. I ate a bagel on the bus to Giant bicycle factory. We got to tour the factory and see how the entire assembly line worked. This was really cool. When we were leaving some of us talked to the guy that led our tour and he told us all about living in Taiwan and where he lived and grew up. He was really nice. After that we rode our bus to the Lien Cheng Saxaphone Museum/Store. These were the first saxaphones made in Taiwan. Meghan and the daughter of the store owner played some music for us. We ate lunch at a nice restaurant where we had our private rooms. There was a ton of stuff that I tried to eat and a ton more that I would never even think of trying! There was black chicken with bumps on it! When we finished eating we went to a flower garden that had tons of beautiful orchids and then we went to a winery. They let us taste 2 red wines and 1 white. We bought a bottle to enjoy later. We took the bus to a town with a lot of love motels and ate some KFC. It was really spicy and the chicken was pinkish. They had fries at the KFC too. That was strange. We spent 3 hours in a love motel. This was awesome. There was a big, comfortable bed with a canopy over it, a massaging chair, karaoke, a POOL, a hot tub, a thing you lay on that sprays water with hard pressure on you, and a lot more. It was a lot of fun, but this is where I broke my camera so my pictures end here. After this we took showers and went to Barbados. We had a few drinks and took a taxi home and went ot bed.

Monday, May 11

We had breakfast at the hotel place again and then I ate McDonald's, too! We took a bus to a pottery place about an hour away, but it was closed so we shopped around some pottery stores and then got lessons. We got to do one of those spinning things and make our own clay creation that we'll get to keep. This was really fun. I made a bowl with my name in Chinese on it. We took the bus to the spa and spent the afternoon switching from steaming hot water to freezing cold water to water with super strong, massaging jets. This was amazing and I never wanted to leave. When we left we went back to Lishe and picked out our favorite ten pictures for our photo albums and ordered Pizza Hut here. We took a train to the Main Station and went shopping at the gigantic department store and some other small shops, then got some Subway and brought it back here. Now I'm about to go to sleep :)

Sunday, May 10

Amanda Edden met up with us this morning and spent the day and night here. We had breakfast at the hotel place again and then took a bus for about an hour to a city with a gazillion steps to climb. At the top was a market where we shopped around for a while and I got a cute bracelet that means "fate of change" and then walked around in a really pretty temple. We took the bus another hour to the beach. We hung out and drank Taiwan Beer and played in the ocean and volleyball all day. This was so much fun. I slept on the way back to Taipei the whole way and then fell asleep again when I got home. I woke up at 10:30 pm and got ready to go out. We walked to McDonald's and got some dinner and decided we were too tired to go out so just went back to bed!

Saturday, May 9

I got up early and had a bagel and delicious apple juice at the hotel place. We took a train to Lishe and got Chinese makeovers and photoshoots. We walked around a park for a while and saw Chiang Kai-Shek. We saw some high school girls dancing to Britney Spears' "Circus". We all had lunch together at a Chinese place. The fried rice was really good, but the other stuff was iffy. We toured a museum with an audio guide and watched three girls play a stringed instrument and sing. It was so relaxing I fell asleep. On the way home we stopped by the night market. It was incredibly crowded and smelled funny, but everything was really cheap. I want to go back there and buy some Nikes. I came home around 9 and immediately fell asleep.

Friday, May 8

My days are all messed up, but I slept most of Friday on the plane from Narita to Taipei. We took a bus to Hotel Flowers and I immediately got my room and fell asleep, again!

Thursday, May 7

We left the Charlotte airport around 9 am and I slept the entire way to Dallas. When we got to Dallas I ate some McDonalds and got back on the plane to the Narita airport in Japan. I slept most of the way there, too. TODAY'S MY 21ST BIRTHDAY!!!