 2024.07.01> In the morning I finish downloading albums from friend recommendations--I end up with 34 in total, more than enough for the 24 hours of planes and layovers. I make sure my three e-books are available for offline reading. I carry my suitcases to the door of our apartment. > I drive with my aunt, cousin, and brother in one car to the airport while my host parents take the other. We find the check-in gate, wait for it to open, learn we do indeed have to pay for the other suitcase. On the way to the security gate, I run into the Brazilian exchange student who was supposed to be on the same flight as me, but he somehow ended up with his delayed. > I listen to my friends talk in a voice chat as I finish the final part of the Bible and wait for my first flight. From Taipei to Narita, I spend most of my time reading Ender's Shadow while I listen to albums. It's a nearly four hour wait, but my friends are still talking even after the three hour flight. > The 12 hour flight from Narita to Texas is the longest. I read more of my book, listen to more music, and close my eyes for an hour or two when it gets dark though I only miss half of one album so I didn't actually sleep that long. When I wake up, the sun-protector on the windows gives the clouds a strange blue-green tint as if I'm on Neptune or Uranus. I watch the flight path on the screen until it shows us reaching the edge of North America. The first land I see is the tip of a caldera peaking through the clouds. > I get through customs and transfer to my next and final flight successfully. I pass two nuns and a priest as I find my way through the airport and watch an organ performance of Star Spangled Banner on Youtube over the shoulder of the old man sitting next to me in the waiting area. I try to finish Ender's Shadow on my final flight but I end up with two chapters left when we land. > Security is practically nonexistent compared to the last airport. I walk out of the same gate I entered 10 months ago. My family and best friend wait outside the door. > My checked baggage didn't make it onto the last plane, so we head home. My youngest sister's taken up residence in my room, so I sleep on the top bunk in the room she used to share with our other sister. I finish the last two chapters of my book. I say goodnight to my best friend. > The journey is over.  2024.06.30> I wake up earlier than I should with how late I went to sleep last night to listen to my friends play DnD, but the game was cancelled today. When Cain joins VC just to talk to me the other two (minus our DM) show up, though, so I get to talk with them for the last time from Taiwan. > After breakfast (danbing, the same as the first breakfast I had here, though my host mother doesn't know that when she makes it for me), I start packing. Though my clothing suitcase is packed full, the extra suitcase means the rest of my belongings fit with room to spare in the other two. > I'm dragged away for lunch, which is at a fancy Korean place with sketchy bathrooms. I get kimchi/seafood tofu soup and plum soda, which are both delicious. On the walk back to the car, I recognize the side street that houses a restaurant we once went to for a Rotary event. Half a minute later, my second host dad appears behind us, where he invites us to join them for Eli's last lunch before they head to the airport. We don't eat, but we stop in to say hi. > Once home, I finish packing. I doodle in MS Paint. I open up Bully, play for a couple of minutes, close without saving. Time seems to have been getting every slower over the past month. By now it's barely moving. > I make a face at something I'm reading. It reminds me of one of my sisters. I've spent the last ten months wondering if missing people is something I can even do. My question is finally answered, less than two days before I'll get to see my family again. > For dinner, we go out again to a Southeast Asian restaurant (if they specified a country beyond the region, I couldn't read it). I haven't had coconut milk once since I've been here and hadn't realized how much I'd missed it. > Before we go up to the apartment, we wait for the two girls I hang out with at Rotary meetings. They give me a childrens' book and I give them my email, and we say goodbye. I pack the last of my things. For the last time in Taiwan, I go to sleep. 2024.06.29 > In the morning we check out of the hotel and drive five minutes to the sky gondola station. The view is even nicer from above, but I don't think any of the photos I took did it much justice. > Then, we drive to the same Checheng village that Rotary took us to on the last trip when we couldn't go to Sun Moon Lake. We feed the fish, eat at a restaurant that was closed last time I went, and I learn that "ox-tongue pastries" are named that for their shape and not for any of the ingredients inside them. > I nap most of the way home. > For dinner, once our aunt finally forces us to get out of the apartment, we go to the night market. I get stinky tofu everytime, so I decide to mix it up and get takoyaki for once. This means a longer line and I nearly burn my tongue off from both the temperature and spice as I try to eat it in a timely manner. 2024.06.28 > In the morning, we get ready to leave. We're visiting Sun Moon Lake before I leave. > I sleep in the car for most of the ride and then get out at our first stop, the Hohocha visitor center. They have tea, thin tea-almond crackers, and tea eggs, but I give my egg away to my brother. > We drive on twisty mountain roads to one of the viewing platforms for the lake--it's smaller than the lakes I'm used to, but it has a pretty blue color and the mountains on its sides are really nice. > After we check into our hotel we walk down the local old street for lunch. I get a deepfried banana from a stand and then very plain millet congee with a side of bamboo from a tiny restaurant. > Later, after a boat ride across the lake we spend the rest of the afternoon lying around in the hotel room until we go out again for dinner. 2024.06.27 > Mixed up my dates, so just imagine the last half of yesterday is today instead.  2024.06.26> I spend the day reading through the forum. In the end, the real Book 8 was the friends we made along the way. > In the earlier days of the internet, people were apparently far more casual with sharing their real names, so I take it upon myself to check up on my favorite regulars. The user who claimed Lt Arlene Sanders name once mentioned how she was planning on studying journalism in America. Now, she's an editor of major paper there. Another user who talked about his dreams of writing a book like Seafort is now a sci-fi screenwriter and audio drama producer. One user shared the story of how he ended up getting married after reading Seafort. > One of the younger users who was an actual midshipman in the USNR during his time on the forum and was perhaps my favorite regular to come across passed away in 2013. There were plenty of users I couldn't find any other information on at all. Yet Seafort had an impact on all these people. > Between the debates on the finer technical details of the books and attempts to organize PBEM (play by email) RPGs set in the Seafort universe, one thread stands out. The longest on the entire forum. "Seafort's sexuality?" Of course it was the user who took Philip Tyre's name that finally asks about the elephant in the room. As most conversations in the series go, it's a civil and respectable discussion that eventually turns to broader topics like the possible futility of labels in general. Then, Nick Seafort (one of the two mods on the forum, who also happens to be David Feintuch himself) appears. Nicholas Seafort isn't gay. Debate over. I don't have half an essay outlined on this topic, so this is fine. > On the topic, though, it's the other actual midshipman who had linked me to the web of Japanese fansites. He does this with a straight face and, in all the threads, doesn't comment at all about the obviously different priorities of the Japanese fans. You see, while Seafort became popular among navy recruits and fans of older military fiction in the West, the Japanese fans are all fujoshis. Google Translate isn't around at this point and Midn Kevin has said his Japanese level is very low, but even without being able to read what's written on these sites. The vast majority of the images still up (tragically, as I can only access these long dead sites through the Internet Archive, most of the images are no longer available and are perhaps forever lost to history) make it rather clear. Either way, Kevin is my hero and I hope he's doing well in whatever mysterious things he's up to now. > The fansites remind me of my own goal to eventually make my own fanpage for the series (and Rodrigo). I'll get on that eventually. While the Western fandom generally agreed of Seafort's heterosexuality (although of the ones I could track down in the present, an interesting majority were gay. the type of people Seafort attract are similar in both his own world and ours, it seems), the Japanese fans not only agree with some of my own opinions, they go above and beyond. I'd certainly never considered a relationship between Alexei and Phillip. After considering, I still hate it. I'm very happy to have finally found opinions to hate in a fandom I once thought was eternally desolate. > Moving on from Seafort, in the afternoon I go out to a very cute cafe housed in one of the historical Japanese buildings in the next city over. I get fruit tea with delicious strawberry compote and pudding, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and gingerbread crumbs. > As I pick out my clothes for the last couple of days, I end up deciding to pack my clothes suitcase. The amount of clothes I own has increased, but I manage to squeeze everything in there. I'll pack the rest of my stuff on Sunday. In other preparations, I check out two more books on Libby and make sure they're downloaded for offline reading for the flight. (I have more than enough, but better safe than sorry. Besides, if I get bored of one, I'll have three others to switch between.) 2024.06.25 > Final day of classes. I do the final lesson of the An Approach to Calculus Course. I read The Old Man and the Sea. I draw a page and half in my sketchbook--only two pages left. > I don't see any of my classmates, so the times I waved at them while waiting for my friend on Friday will have to suffice as our final goodbyes. As I leave the campus for a final time, it feels like summer vacation is upon me, the same as leaving on the last day back home. > Right before I leave, though, I have a terrible discovery. My beloathed Horatio Hornblower not only had, but still has a decently active fandom. As I look through the Tumblr tag, I conclude this is probably because of the decently successful film series the books got. I shake my head and sigh. If only the film studio who bought Seafort had actually done something with it, then I could enjoy a Seafort fandom larger than me, myself, and I. > Once home, I decide to look into the never produced film--it turns out the rights were sold to a fan fresh out of film school who was unable to meet the Kickstater goal to fund just the time it would take her to write the script so she could start pitching it to actual film companies. Interestingly, though, I realize she bought the rights in 2015, meaning it was from the family, not Feintuch. I had been under the impression they didn't care about his writing career given the still unpublished Book 8. If this wasn't the case... did I have a chance at finding the Book 8 manuscript if I asked the right person? > This led me back to the Wikipedia page to check the source on the Book 8 information. Remember when I complained earlier about the lack of a Seafort fandom? The link leads to an old forum. Not the general sci-fi forum I've already dug through for every mention of Seafort, no, this was a Seafort forum. Boards and threads full of equally if not more enthusiastic fans in the early 2000s. I was in heaven. > As I dug through these chats, one midshipman mentioned a Japanese fansite in reference to his own (mostly broken by time) fansite. I'd found a couple of Seafort fanarts later uploaded onto Pixiv, but back in the day, the Japanese side of the Seafort fandom seemed to thrive on beautiful homemade websites. I really was in heaven. > In the morning, I complete the second to last calculus lesson. I review the first subject I failed of the Math 1110 diagonistic quiz. As I check the wording of my ticket to email the travel agent about paying to have an extra suitcase, since there's no way I can fit all my items in the two I brought with me, I realize my ticket already includes two checked bags. That was easy. > I go upstairs but can't get into the next book in the Time-Life World History series, so I record and rerecord a voiceover for the day in the life video before finally getting annoyed enough to quit and spend the rest of my time before lunch matching up clips from Bully cutscenes to MSI's Uncle. > For lunch, I get the same peanut noodles I got at my first full-library day and read a little more Hornblower behind the library. > Afterwards, I wander around the stacks shelving the books left in the carts to be returned. A while ago one of my friends sent me an essay he'd written about The Old Man and the Sea and since I've yet to read any Hemingway, I promised to check it out. There's no ebook version in my library, nor is there a physical copy in the English section of the school library--I did actually find one in the section for textbooks that are used in class, but it was a "simplified English" version that I didn't want to lower myself too. Yet today, in the Chinese fiction section for foreign books, I see it. I open it up, to see if I have any chance at diciphering the Chinese, and to my great delight, it has both the English and Chinese on alternating pages. I'll read it tomorrow. > After class I get one of the passionfruit QQ (my favorite bubble tea) popsicles from the freezer, but however they freeze their boba is less good than whatever Trader Joe's does. Shortly after 5 we leave to go eat dinner at a hotpot place with all my host families and my counselor, who I've talked to all of three times. > It's nice to talk to both of my host sisters from my first family, who also give me a gift of tea leaves to bring back with me. My host sister from the second family isn't there, but they give me a Taiwanese flag with photos from throughout my exchange on it. > My current host family tries to dip out on me but I convince them to take me along, because even if this is my last chance to see my first host family (they'll be travelling when I leave next week), I'm really tired and still have school tomorrow.  2024.06.23> I slept in rather late yesterday, but I wake up naturally around 6 today. I squander my morning before going out to lunch at the fancy xiaolongbao place my last host family took me to with this host family's grandparents. > Afterwards, we walk through the grocery store in the mall, which is all expensive foreign stuff, but that means they have kombucha (and San Pelligrino and Arizona Tea, but I restrain myself). > Then, in the evening, is the final Rotary party of my host club. Eli and Louisa are there, so I watch them smoke for a bit before going off to find my favorite kid. My first host family's eldest daughter is back from her exchange, so we talk a bit and I disappoint her by not disliking the licorice candy she brought from Denmark. > I draw on a tissue until one of the moms finds me some paper, and once it gets late enough that most of the kids, my first host family, and Eli leave, I accept second host father's offer of a can of beer. I try to be polite and participate in their conversation, but I really just want to watch the district governor awkardly dance while his wife sings karaoke on stage. 2024.06.22 > My last truly lazy day--tomorrow I have my final Rotary dinner, Monday and Tuesday I have class, and then I'll be travelling until Saturday and using Sunday to pack. > I use it well, and by well, I mean doing nothing at all. I try to work on reference sheets for Art Fight, but I can't force myself to hold my stylus for more than five minutes before I get bored. > I start watching Falling Down for my evening movie, but I end up pausing it and playing Minecraft with Xie An instead, which is a far more enjoyable use of time. > Now, Liuetenant Hornblower: Unlike the first book of the Hornblower series, this one isn't actually narrated by Hornblower. Instead, we have Lieutenant Bush, a senior to Hornblower, who is infinitely nicer for the fact that he actually mentions his feelings on occassion. Even Hornblower seems more likeable in this book, which is perhaps a combination of his own personal growth and the fact that we can only observe him from an outside perspective, which lets one pretend there's actually something going on inside that head of his. > The first arc of the book deals with their insane captain, who eventually is removed from service after a mysterious fall. This is probably the reason we don't have Hornblower as narrator, since it's vaguely implied that either Hornblower or the midshipman Hornblower is sweet on, Wellard, probably has something to do with said fall, but confirmation is ever refused. Another criticism for Seafort I had seen that mentioned Hornblower was one about Feintuch's proclivity for corporal punishment. I'll be the last person to pretend he's not weird about it, but this review certainly said that Hornblower only ever featured it sparingly and with actual necessity. This is... not the case at all for poor Wellard, so I'm not quite sure what this person was talking about. (In typical Feintuch fashion, Wellard can't even catch a break after he and Hornblower go their seperate ways, either--in the epilogue after both Bush and Hornblower are laid off after the war, they read in the paper that Wellard later fell overboard and drowned). > Overall, I liked this book significantly more than the first. Bush is a bit of the Tolliver type, which is further confirmed in what I've read of the next book in the series, and it's nice to get something from his point of view instead of only sticking with our respective Seafort of the series. 2024.06.21 > I spend my first period working through the pre-orientation Canvas course for my college--it's just about graduation requirements and schedule planning, which I'd mostly already learned on my own time, but the information about how advising works was new. > Looking through the mock schedule I made earlier in the week, I finally figure out how to fit in all my required math credits. For the astronomy degree, they give you the option between two different courses for most math credits: a calculus for engineers course or a "just calculus" course. I had instinctively rejected the engineering course, but the first math class in the "just calculus" course is Calculus 2, and since I don't have an equivalent AP credit to skip Calculus 1, I would have to take that beforehand. It turns out, however, that the Calculus for Engineers only requires you having previously taken a course included differential and integral calculus--this I have (I took AP Calc AB last year online for funsies, but didn't take the exam). > Afterwards, I finish the next the three chapters of The Age of God-Kings, completing that book in the series. Another calculus lesson that I'm able to completely comprehend for once. > Kimchi Shin Ramen and a red bean bun that one of the library ladies gave me for lunch, along with Lieutenant Hornblower for entertainment. I finish the book, but I'll talk about it tomorrow. > During the break period, one of my classmates comes to deliver this year's school t-shirt that I ordered and we have a nice conversation. She ends up inviting me to go to a douhua (tofu pudding) place near the school after class, and so, on my third to last day of school, I hang out with a classmate outside of school. > The shop is in the opposite direction of my house and it's blazing hot today, but at least that means I'm appreciative of the shaved iced on top for once. The place is both inexpensive and very delicious, and we end up talking for nearly two hours on topics ranging from exchange programs (she's going to France next year), language learning, and Taiwanese slang. I wouldn't do it again, but that's because of the sheer quantity of douhua that completely ruined my appetite for dinner and not because of the company, for once.  2024.06.20> I get through another lesson of my calculus course--I realize that I've perfectly timed it so that if I continue to do a lesson a day for all my days left in the library, I'll finish the course on my last day. As usual, the only questions I don't get are the ones that don't have explanation, so I mark them with question marks in my notebook and pretend that I'll look into the matter later. > I finish the last chapter of the first history book (The Human Dawn). Next up is The Age of God-Kings, which I get through the first chapter of too. > I bought another one of the cheap notebooks from the general store sometime last week and have decided to use it for planning and writing my Seafort ripoff. I commit the premise and short descriptions of the main characters' roles in the story to paper. > I return to the stacks after lunch, once I'm sure my classmate is coming to say hi tomorrow instead of today and after a lunch of taro bread and green bean soup--I've been wanting to try that soup since I first saw it in the pool's vending machine when I would lurk next to it, waiting for the previous class to leave, last fall. I should've expected it's a sweet soup, the same as red bean soup but with different colored beans, which means my fears of a strangely bitter soup are allayed even if my thirst for a nice salty soup are dashed too. > I finally edit together the videos I took at the beginning of the semester for a "day in the life at highschool" vlog, deciding to record the audio another day. When I try my hand at drawing Peter Kowalski from Bully today, my art somehow turns out more realistic than the game model, which was not quite the direction I wanted to go but a pleasant to surprise to learn I'm capable of getting that close to realism. > I don't watch a movie tonight, since I eat with my family (udon noodles--there's that salty soup I was looking for). Since I took a shower after school, I initially think I'm going to surprise myself by going to be by 9PM. Instead, I spend an hour and half going through what may be the world's stupidest thread on that old forum Feintuch use to frequent (he's not present in it, given that it's two years after his passing, but Seafort is brought up near the end). > I start every paragraph with the word "I" for no apparent reason. > I go through another chapter of the prehistory book, do more studies on how to draw Bully characters--somehow, the act of transferring the 3D models into 2D form in my sketchbook makes me miss the Bargue plates that I had been working through at the beginning of the school year. > I start Thus Spoke Zarathustra, picked up from the English section as I flip through books from my childhood--A Little Princess, Bud Not Buddy, and Bridge to Terabithia--that I can't quite bring myself to read in full. On my way back to my seat, I see a book with a diagram of a car engine on the front, and when I go to look through it, I find the Chinese translation of Zarathustra, shelved completely incorrectly, on the same shelf. > Lunch is a Japanese brand of cup noodle I've learned to love recently--not only is the flavor quite nice, but the dried vegetable packet has several kernels of corn. I try to sleep a bit afterwards, but it's too hot to drift off. > Tonight's movie is "Trainspotting," which was perhaps not the best choice of a film to watch while eating dinner, but nonetheless very enjoyable even if it had nothing to do with trains. Though the main character is perhaps not the sort of person one should emulate, I can look forward to cutting my hair more now. > For the first time in a while, I'm in bed by 10PM. > I spend the first period of my library day learning how to brew the coffee I roasted last week, which turns out to have quite a pleasant taste. > The taste is only made better when the library lady asks me if I just want to stay in the library for the rest of the week/next Monday, since all my classes will just be preparation for the final exam. I'd brought both my math and Earth Science textbook to spend today preparing for the related practice exams, so I enthusiastically tell her I'd much rather stay in the library and the textbooks stay in my bag untouched. > I read Orwell's Animal Farm in a single sitting, another chapter of the prehistory book, and the short story between Hornblower books 1 and 2. I like it better than the first book, so Hornblower has hope. > On the way home, I pass the same walking school bus twice (a group of elementary students being herded to their respective homes by a teacher), since after I pass them the first time I duck into a Hi-Mart to buy my favorite grapefruit coconut jelly honey tea (I've only ever found this drink in this specific Hi-Mart and the Family Mart at Tsinghua University. Most convenient stores cary the other two similar drinks made by the same company, but not this one, for some reason), instant noodles for my lunch tomorrow, and a roll of sour gummies. > As soon as I get home and empty my pockets I take a shower (now that I'm going to school everyday of the week, I need to be faster with clothes washing as to not get my uniform too sweaty--I switch between the uniform shirt and my class shirt but have to wear the shorts two days in a row before I can wash them). It's hot enough for a cold shower, and the post-shower temperature is perfect. I throw my shirt over my shoulder and put in my load of laundry before washing the dishes, feeling very distinctly alive. > I think about drawing but spend the rest of my afternoon doing very little at all, and eat my dinner while watching "Stand By Me," a movie I both enjoyed and now wonder about the influence it had on Feintuch's work.  2024.06.17> I now have a data limit with the new SIM card (my old one was returned since it's original owner, the daughter of my first host family, is returning to the country), so I spend the day reading the txt file I have of the entire Horatio Hornblower series. I finish the first book, Midshipman Hornblower, so now I'll complain about it. > I'd only heard about Hornblower because the Seafort Saga gets compared to it in the reviews of every book. I like Seafort, so surely it's apparently more popular predecessor must be good too (the Goodreads page has more than four times the reviews, and has 0.7 more stars). Instead, I'm a little confused. Seafort gets trashed on a lot, for very fair reasons. He's too in his own head, his overwhelming sense of honor makes him depressing to read, it's inconcievable how his crews likes him or how he continues to be promoted, etc, etc. Feintuch, as much as I like him, is no writing god, and I'm more than happy to admit that. After Hornblower, though? The improvements he made on his predecessor are near endless. > Right away, the comparisons between Seafort and Hornblower make sense. 17 year old midshipmans who are out of place and awkward among their respective crews. Hornblower spends the first chapter being depressed to the point of discomfort to me, and that's coming from someone who loves Seafort. At least, I later learn, at least Hornblower is evokes emotion when he's being depressed. He gets over it, sinks the first ship given to him, gets kidnapped by the French, burns down the French ship, and continues to be generally incompotent, with the occasional unexpected flash of common sense. We don't get to see him get close to his crewmates. There's one guy who is once referred to as "his friend" in a later chapter, which completed stumped me, given the fact that every other time we've seen the two interact was in a vaguely hostile professional setting. There's a single sentence, when he gets command of his third ship, where he has to be cold to a fellow midshipman "he had been playing on the deck with just last week." This is the extent of the personal feelings we get from him. What he does offduty is a mystery. > They make a point to tell him how weird it is that he's enlisting in the fleet at the late age of 17 in the first chapter, but we never get any follow up on that. We know he's decently well educated, but absolutely nothing else of his background. I can only assume this will be further elaborated in future books, but it makes for a boring first book. > Perhaps my biggest single problem is the promotion, specifically because I saw a review of a Seafort book that once called his promotion "unrealistic and undeserved, as opposed to Hornblower's". Seafort certainly didn't deserve his promotion, but he and everyone else knows that. He gets it under extreme duress after arguing the finer points of naval law in order to convince the rest of the crew to promote Vax Holser instead, yet does well in the cirumstances he's forced into, saving the ship from a technical error no one else would've thought to look for. Hornblower gets promoted several months into being a Spanish prisoner of war (the extent we know of how he feels about this is bad. They tell us it's not the conditions, because those aren't much different from shipside, but the knowledge that he's a captive that gets to him. They just tell us this, and don't actually bother to show it, of course) for no apparent reason other than the fact Admirality possibly wanted him to enjoy his prisonerhood in a slightly nice cabin, which he continues in for the next year and a half before finally being freed by the Spanish king. > In conclusion, I think Seafort is a far more interesting narrator than Hornblower, between interpersonal relationships and general cohesiveness of the plot, but most of that is probably personal preference. I'll read the rest of the series, to be fair to our dear Horatio, but my hopes aren't terribly high. 2024.06.16 > I sleep in, not as late as I'd like, because my host grandparents are taking me and Pudding out for breakfast. I get a mushroom omelette, remember that it's a real omelette with real eggs and not a delicious chickpea flower one like the ones my mom makes, and manage to force myself through half of it. The apple tea is good, at least. > In the evening, we go out to eat again with my host father at a Japanese place, which is decent. I duel with umbrellas against Pudding on the way back to the car. > I finish the other three reference sheets for the rest of the Castle Country characters, so now I only have the other two stories left to get done before July. 2024.06.15 > I spend the morning being mostly lazy and still not preparing for my presentation. I try and fail to track down Bully mods that were only ever posted on websites that stopped working years ago. > Then it's the afternoon, and time for the Rotary farewell party. I dress up nice, realize that I've somehow lost my antique Spock pin that used to be on my blazer. I restrain myself from explaining how I think the Bully storyline could have been majorily improved to Emanuel, because he actually did prepare for his speech and is working hard at keeping it in his head. > I prepare to face the consequences of my actions. I walk up there, and start talking about whatever seems easiest to talk about: my Earth Science class. I get the judges to laugh, I stumble over my words, I sit back down and go back to reading Midshipman Hornblower. I don't win, nor did I expect to, but I was able to do a speech in a language I barely speak with essentially no preparation, something I couldn't even do in English at this time last year. > After a less than mediocre dinner (I find myself missing real onion rings, and despair at the fact the best piece of bread I've had all year is one of those incredibly dry dinner rolls) and several more tearfilled speeches, it's party time. I didn't go to my highschool prom last year. I went to an afterparty and had fun with friends, but I don't like dancing. Okay, I like dancing, just not in front of people. Except, I realized, I don't actually care anymore. The music was bad and Eli was definitely making fun of me when she said she really liked my "experimental dance style," but I'm having too much fun to care. If I'd gone to prom last year, I wouldn't have liked it. I don't know if I would've liked it if I'd stayed home and went this year. I've grown, though, and whether or not it was because of my year here, I'm happy about that. 2024.06.14 > I read more of my pre-history textbook in my morning free periods, and then return to it later when neither teacher nor students shows up for my after-lunch art class. > I think about preparing for my final speech tomorrow, and instead spend my time looking through Bully fanfiction and watching Challengers (I know the characters' names and did not just call them by those of Seafort characters. No way). > My university finally gives me my financial aid offer. Though my expected need has gone up, tuition has gone up more. It is what it is, and I'm glad to finally have it. I look through student job listings and then through class options when one of my dormates asks me about what I'm thinking of taking. My lack of a highschool calculus course seems determined to make getting all my math credits impossible, but I'll try to figure it out again later. 2024.06.13 > I finish the Noble Prize Library book with the section on Steinbeck, the whole reason I picked up the book in the first. The book they choose for him is In Dubious Battle. It's a precursor to his more famous The Grapes of Wrath, and you can definitely see the later improvements in his writing, but I quite enjoyed it, especially the development of the main character. One thing I've noticed moreso in these older books is the abruptness of the endings. Perhaps it makes me appreciate Feintuch more. > When I woke up, it was to an email from the Housing services at the university I'll be going to next fall, telling me they had my housing assignment ready. The housing portal crashed and stayed down for most of the day, though, in the frantic freshman rush. It's not until evening that it finally lets me in, and I learn that I not only got into the arts program house I was hoping for, but also was lucky enough to get a single! I'm happy enough to even post a message on one of the student groups asking if anyone else who'll be staying there wants to talk beforehand. > A final piece of good news: I finish the main story of Bully today. I had been going through it faster than intended, mostly because I wanted to see Gary again, and while my wish was finally granted, it was only to through him through a roof. All's well that ends well, I suppose (for me, not Gary. He got expelled). > Artfight is soon approaching too, so I get my first two refs done for Castle Country after deciding I'll do all three of my stories this year. 2024.06.12 > Wednesday classes. The music teacher lets me read instead of playing ukelele, hopefully because she remembers she already made me go through this class twice last semester. > We have our last comic club meeting. I get this semester's artbook and spend most of my time talking to Ariel, the girl I met at my first meeting. We've been sitting next to eachother since, but haven't talked this much since the first time. 2024.06.11 > Today, I have the whole day free in the library. I do another lesson of calculus, read some more of the the Noble Prize Library book (I get through Eugene O'Neill, who I like less than Faulkner, but Homecoming wasn't bad). > I talk to my friends until they go to sleep. > I wander around the library some more. The downstairs part has all the fancy new books, but the third floor, where I've taken to lurking, in the "storage section." It's more recognizable as a library to me, shelves upon shelves of books instead of the small decorative stands downstairs. All except the oldest books, which don't have paper covers, have incredibly sun damaged spines, pale blues and pinks that make the titles hard to read. The English section is mostly childrens' books, which makes sense, with the exception of the bottom shelf of Noble Prize Library books, which I'm not entirely sure anyone else has ever read since they were bought, and the side of one shelf made up of textbooks. They have a long series of TIME History textbooks from the early 90s that have a nice writing style, so I pick up the first one (pre-history) to read through at a later point. The art section is a humorous patchwork of giant reference books of Renaissance painters and BL manga, and while the programming section is large enough to have an entire shelf dedicated to various Basic languages, there's no Applesoft Basic (this makes since, since the Apple II was never released here, but whatever).  2024.06.10> I wake up at 5AM, go back to bed, and then wake with my alarm at 6AM. We head out early since we have a longer drive today (the mountains, somewhere). > We walk through an old street where I buy a leather cuff. Not because it reminds me of a similar accessory of a Bully character, because I hate that guy. > Lunch at a restaurant that I don't love, except for the soup. I love the soup. The bowl is as big as my head, but that won't stop me. Afterwards, I pay for my gluttony by chucking it up in a squat toilet. Still tasted good, still worth it. > Afterwards, we wait for our turn on the train bikes. There's a decommissioned railroad through the mountains that now serves as a tourist attraction, where you can ride multi-seat "bikes" shaped like small train cars on the tracks. It's really pretty. > We go home, I read more Seafort. In the end, I can't finish this one in a single day because I do have school tomorrow, but I get through the last 150 pages as soon as I wake up, so I'll talk about it now. > I decided to read Voices of Hope because I wanted to see Seafort with his new crew, clearly picked to keep him as far away from Earth politics as possible. Instead, our main character is the son of Derek Carr. He's goes through the typical Feintuch motions in his own unique way. I get attached. And then Seafort shows up again. You see, the problem here is that Jared is the Seafort hater incarnate. This, as usual, does not stop Seafort from adopting another son. Most of the haters I've found on old internet forums stopped reading long before this book, but I wonder how those who stuck through felt about that one. Feintuch brings back the fish. But this time, God gives Seafort a chance to make up for his past sins against them. > He only realizes after the death of Carr Jr's best friend, in a sequence of events so unsubtle it's beautiful, as Feintuch shoves them into a closet to hide from the (nonviolent) alien. Kevin, the best friend, makes up his mind. He won't die in a closet (his words, not mine). He tells Carr Jr he likes him, apologizes for being rude to him, and tries to leave the closet to face the alien. Carr Jr tries to drag him back in. He fails. The ship's crew finally take their chance to shoot the alien, which explodes upon death, taking Kevin with him. Guy came out of the closet and Feintuch kills him for it. Real subtle, Feintuch. Real subtle. > In the end, it's actually Kevin's repressed feelings that allow them to communicate with the aliens at all, as Carr Jr is able to understand the alien's motion by remembering how he and Kevin used to wrestle. Understanding the alien continues to be the only thing going for Carr Jr, as the rest of the crew begs Seafort to beach his insane son but the alien refuses to communicate with anyone else. Seafort's grows further distant from the Church he once worshipped. He falls in love with the host mother of his daughter (we are, perhaps, mercifully saved from Seafort as a girl dad by the fact she is only four), despite the woman's violent (deserved) murder of a bishop on live TV. Not sure how he thinks marrying her will protect her, given how his last three wives went, but a man can dream. I fear for Tolliver, as both he and Seafort become increasingly less discreet in the language they use to describe their feelings for each other, especially given the earlier closet incident, but he once again survives. > Three times, Feintuch dangles the death of Seafort over my head. Each time, I pray it's true. Each time, it's not. In the end, he wraps it up well enough (it's still wide open, but I've learned not everything needs an end) that I decide I don't mind never knowing what was supposed to be in the final book, which had been nearly finished at the time of his death and was never followed up on by his family. Rodrigo has taught me well, perhaps, but I find myself more satisfied with this ending than that one. The final lines of the book, as Carr Jr finally decides he believes in the God he spent the entire book trying to reject, are "Someday, we're going to have a talk, You and I." Feintuch's talking to Him now. There couldn't be a better ending. 2024.06.09 > I sleep in even later today, because I was up till 2AM last night. Cousin and aunt visit, so we all go to Nanliao to a restaurant against the water to watch the dragonboat races. The food is really good and I like hanging out with my family. > After the typical rounds of Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros (I've discovered my winning character: Roy), I head to bed. Emanuel finishes Seafort Book 5 so I skim through my comments on Book 6, only to reread the entire epilogue. I think about how well Feintuch set up for the next book and finally surrender to the temptation. I will finish the series. > I only stay up until 1AM tonight, because I need to get up by 9 tomorrow and also because I can imagine Seafort getting mad at me. 2024.06.08 > Lazy morning, I sleep in late. In the evening, we have a Rotary meeting/party. My brother just has shorts on, so I figure my outfit is probably fine. Instead, I feel terribly underdressed at the fancy dress party with my bright pink Inuyasha t-shirt and jeans. > I play chess with the kids I usually hang out with. They don't know how, but since the app shows you the options for where to move, they figure it out. One would hope I could play better against elementary schoolers with no concept of forethought, but in their naiivety they ruin all the plans I make. I still win in the end, but they get one draw. 2024.06.07 > Friday classes are pretty normal. I spend my library period in the stacks again, though I strategically sit on the other side of the room, which only has untouched reference books and is half hidden by the wall to the bathroom, as opposed to my open and vulnerable desk from last time which smelled better because it was right next to all the books but also meant students occasionally walked by. > I don't get to go home at my normal time today, though. My class is having a farewell party (I'm still here for over two weeks). In Taiwanese fashion, it's mostly speeches. I was warned before hand, but everyone keeps clapping before I can get through my first section, so I give up and let them clap me away. Then there's too many photos, and then I'm finally finally released. 2024.06.06 > First day of Tuesday/Thursday class (all day in library). > Library lady makes me write cards to my classmates, teacher, and host families. It's boring but I realize once I'm done that I've written six very verbose thank you cards entirely in Chinese. Progress is cool I guess. > I do a lesson of calculus (the one question I don't understand is the only one they don't give an explanation for...), play around on my phone. For lunch I go downstairs to the cafeteria beneath the library, which not only has my favorite drink I can only find sometimes at convenient stores, but also still has boxed lunches that you can buy (at the main store, they're always sold out before lunch). My host parents didn't buy school lunches for me this month, so I have to fend for myself here. My old computer teacher sees me returning with my haul and offers me a zongzi, which is yummier than I thought despite the meat. > After lunch, I slip up to the stacks at the top floor. I wander around a bit, find the English section, which has some Orwell I've been meaning to read, but I find an ancient tome on the bottom shelf with Steinbeck's name, so I pick that one up. It's a collection of works from Noble Literary Prize winners. The first section is about William Faulkner, who I've never read before, but find myself enjoying. A Rose for Emily is short and good, so I start on the longer piece, As I Lay Dying. > I've brought my computer (my back did not enjoy the heavier backpack on the walk to school), so I play a bit of Bully too. > Finally, library lady summons me to print and laminate the cards, and I spend the rest of my school day running around to do that and talking to a girl who once helped me find my gym class. Library lady lets me use her name to check out my book.  2024.06.05> We spend the morning in a forest recreational area I forgot the name of, where there's a pretty lake and old street full of friendly vendors. I have a moment of weakness and take the free sample from one of the dried fruit guys, but after I tell him it tastes good he lets us go without asking us to buy things with money I don't have. Actually, I do have just enough money to buy a round of the really fragrant wood from the incense lady, and then I really am out. > We have lunch at a steak place, but they don't give me the fish option so I just have the noodles. I realize that on this trip I've probably talked to my second host sister more than I ever did the entire time we lived together. > On the final long bus ride back home, I let Emanuel listen to the other album and then laugh when Cain recommends the very same album to me after the fact. > Eli kindly lets me carry her bag along with mine, which I have to powerlift up the stairs as we rush to catch the train whose doors nearly close on my leg as we jump on. Her mom cooks me dinner, though, and I get to play with their cat so it evens out. My host family gets back late, so I only say hi before going to bed (after a little bit of Bully, because I missed that game and also finally downloaded the fanmade patch that makes it not crash all the time). 2024.06.04 > We visit An Ping Old Street today, where I buy winter melon tea, look through a retro manga cafe (I can't tell if you're allowed to actually buy the books or if you're just supposed to read while you eat, so I regretfully leave the golf manga behind), and order at a sit-in restaurant by myself for the first time (Emanuel is there too but I'm the one ordering so it still counts). We get the shrimp version of Taiwanese oyster omelettes, traditional style savory taro cake, and the filled toast that you only find in An Ping because of the Dutch. > We visit a castle nearby but don't have time to visit the Dutch fort, which I've seen from a distance and thought looked lame, but this time got to see all the cool brick work at the bottom and was therefore a little bummed out I couldn't get a closer look. > Before dinner we go to a market housed in the old Japanese general village, where I spend the rest of the money I bought on the trip at a trinket shop that divides their gems based on the five elements. Based on my birth year, I'm wood, which has the ugliest trinkets, but I eventually find a cute jade charm to add next to my fish keychain and also get a cool golden cross from the wood table, which the enthusiastic old guy thankfully doesn't tell me I can't do. > In the evening, after Eli leaves to go party, I listen to another MSI album (Less than Three) which I also like a lot. Eli returns during one of the... choice songs, but if she's paying attention to the lyrics she doesn't say anything. 2024.06.03 > After hotel breakfast, we're back on the road. > The morning activity is go-kart racing, but because of inflation the money we paid at the beginning of the exchange apparently isn't enough to cover to price of a kart, so if we want to play we have to pay ourselves. I deign to sit on the side and draw in my sketchbook. > I've been talking too much about the MSI album I've had on repeat for the last two days to Emanuel, so I cede to his request to listen to it on the longer section of the bus ride. I momentarily consider the possibility that I'm ruining how he's sees me, and then remember he can see the comments I leave on the Seafort books so there is no surprise here. > In the afternoon, we walk around a natural park with really pretty sea cliffs and then go to a beach to swim, which I can't participate in. I end up taking photos for everyone else and drawing more. > Hotel Number 2 is less fancy, but the beds are bigger and there's finally a giant staircase instead of just elevators. The Rotex put together a party, but after the mandatory game part, I slip out to return to my room, take another long bath, and accidentally follow through on an earlier joke to make space navy OCs. > When Eli gets back, we watch scary story videos together and then go to bed. 2024.06.02 > I finish packing my things for the finally Rotary trip and off we go. Because my parents are slow to leave, I nearly end up missing the bus, but I find it in the end. > The biggest difference between the previous Rotary trips is that this time, we have the Taiwanese outbound students that are going on exchange next year with us. I already know two, one of my classmates (going to France) and my second host sister (going to Texas). > The first stop is a temple with a giant Buddha statue you can walk around inside and a very heavy spear you can try to lift that belonged to Lord Guan. There's a couple stories in the Three Kingdoms where he shows up and before even doing anything, all the troublemakers run off scared, which I now completely understand if bro was holding a spear like that onehanded. > After lunch, which we have to sit with the outbounds for our countries for (the American students are cool, but none of them are going to where I live so I don't have much helpful advice), we also visit a sock factory. I finally find the arm coolers I always see old people wearing and buy myself a pair, as well as a very expensive pair of socks that supposedly won't retain odors for 15 days. I have the money to spare, and it's funny if the most expensive thing I buy here is a pair of socks. > The evening is the highlight, though, because we're having dinner on a boat. The food is mediocre and the tour guide talks exclusively in Chinese so I don't really follow along, but as soon as I finish my food I permenantly install myself at one of the windows below deck to get the best view of all the giant cargo ships that we pass by in the harbor. When we get to the end and start turning around, me and Emanuel play a game to guess what country each of the ships come from. We guess wrong every single time, but it's cool to see how many different countries there are (Sierra Leone, Hong Kong, Mongolia). I think wistfully of my Plan B (SUNY Maritime), and wonder if maybe the reason my financial aid is so delayed is because God really just wants me to go there instead. > Our hotel for the night is so fancy they have bellhops with silver suits on, but no toothbrushes to charge you for in the bathroom. There is a bathtub, so I take my first warm bath in a long time. 2024.06.01 > In the morning, my aunt and cousin leave. I don't do much in the morning, other than a couple MS Paint Seafort doodles. > In the afternoon, however, I realize the game I'd been downloading incredibly slowly finally finished in the background, so I could finally play it. Bully: Scholarship Edition. I only play a little bit because it crashes about half an hour in and I realize I hadn't saved since the function was introduced in the beginning, but it's fun so far.  2024.05.31> School. I learn they're making me go Tuesdays and Thursdays now that Chinese class is over, but they're just making me sit in the library instead of giving me classes, which seems even meaner. > After school, my host mom takes me and my brother to the meeting of some other fancy organization that they're apparently apart of, and I watch my host father get an award, though he doesn't start shouting about how corrupt the whole thing is because he isn't Seafort (this is probably a blessing), which Seafort does in the section of the book I'm reading while I sit there. > After my phone dies and I can't read anymore, I draw P. T. and Jared on napkins until my host grandpa tries to steal them because he likes them so much. I get them back by trading a doodle I did of the room we're in. I play two rounds of Mario Kart with brother and cousin before bed, but when I say bed, I mean finishing book six, Patriarch's Hope. > Patriarch's Hope was the book that haunted me when I was first trying to find the Seafort Saga. It was the only book I could find, both in libraries and tiny bookstores in Baltimore. I even tried just starting with it, but it was so unbearably boring I gave that up. Even now, with my love of Seafort, the first chapter was for some reason exceptionally boring and I cannot fault my past self. > We're back to Seafort as a narrarator, which I'm both disappointed and worried about, because I know Jared is going to die at some point and I'm becoming increasingly worried that he's died in the timeskip between this book and the last. Instead, beyond my wildest expectations, I learn the reason we've abandoned PT and Jared as narrarators to go back to Seafort is because they've successfully beaten the Feintuch best friend curse, and have been happily married for five years. Given how much emphasis Feintuch put on showing how their relationship in the last book paralleled Seafort and his childhood best friend Jason (and Rodrigo and Rustin, if we consider the other series), this is mildly insane. > Of course, when I say "breaking the best friend curse" I only mean the figuring out the feelings part. It's still a Seafort book, so 90% of the characters are dead by the end. Tolliver finally shows up in the epilogue now that Seafort's single again though, and despite it all, Feintuch manages to end the book on a nearly happy note. While perhaps not as beloved as the previous book, Patriarch's Hope is also quite nice, and I think for the current moment, it's going to be enough. There's still one more released book, but I'm satisfied enough with how things currently are to make the mature decision that I don't want them to change. > I go to bed around 1 AM. 2024.05.30 > I also fail to practice the presentation in the morning, because I'm still reading Voices of Hope. Despite this, my presentation goes fine even though I accidentally skip one part in the morning practice run and a different part for the real deal in the afternoon. I'm also the only person to do it without a script, because I had assumed we couldn't use scripts during the actual presentation. > My fellow classmates did a pretty good job too, though the problem with the topics we all chose meant that most of them were using vocabulary they learned specifically for that presentation, rendering it incomprehensible to the rest of us students. My topic was American and Taiwanese school systems, so I tried to use mostly words we already knew, with only three exception that I felt were pretty understandable in context. (My topic choice, which I momentarily regretted when I learned we could do literally anything and I didn't somehow make it about Feintuch, turned out to be very smart because one of my highschool teachers asked me to present on the very same issue to my classmates sometime next week.) > I walk with Owen and Emanuel to the train station, which will probably be the last time I ever see Owen again because he's leaving on Sunday, and then I go back home to read. > In the span of 24 hours, I finish Voices of Hope, the fifth book in the Seafort Saga. This is the first book to not only be narrarated by someone other than Seafort, but also to switch narrators, and is also perhaps my favorite. Our two new protagonists, P. T. Seafort (Seafort's son, an autistic gifted kid named after the one and only Philip Tyre) and Jared Tenere (son of Adam Tenere, one of the midshipman from the last book who now works for Seafort) are endlessly charming (if trying to destroy the world economy because you're convinced everyone hates you is charming, in Jared's case, but that's pretty deserved because everyone does actually hate the poor kid for no good reason), even if they suffer from the classic Feintuch best friend curse. It's both incredibly relevant to current events and also managed to predict both 9/11 and Homestuck. 2024.05.29 > I'd previously mentioned the Biblical city of Tyre/Seafort character Philip Tyre connection before, but while I'm reading today I learn that not only was the city destroyed by God, it was also supposed to be restored to it's righteous state 70 years after the fact. Given that Philip Tyre died to a magic space fish, it is entirely reasonable to hypothesize that he could simply blip back into existence 70 years later, since his death happened offscreen and the only evidence we have for it is that his radio cut off when he assumedly hit the fish. > I'm discussing this possibility with Emanuel before I realize that I should probably read the next couple of books to learn what the future will actually look like in 70 years before I start writing fanfiction about it, when it hits me. I should read. The next couple books. > I have my final presentation for Chinese class tomorrow, but instead of practicing for it, I open up Voices of Hope. 2024.05.28 > I finally reunite with the friend who went to the con for me, and the Bravern keychain is as cute as I imagined. I pay him back for both the keychain and entrance ticket. > I've been relatively indifferent to the whole AI art thing going on because I simply don't engage in any spaces where AI art is present, but Pinterest gets my hopes up with a really cool looking 80s sci-fi cover, which turns out to not be an 80s sci-fi cover but just an AI generated image. Now I'm an AI hater forever, because it baited me with Seafort-adjacent space navy men. 2024.05.27 > Today, Nicholas Seafort is responsible for me nearly falling down the stairs, because I'm thinking about those guys while playing badminton again and decide to stay after class to help put nets away when it starts raining, so I have to run back to the main building before it starts pouring. > I end up rereading the entire end of Fisherman's Hope while waiting for Emanuel to get to it, and at the moment I'm impressed by how hard the theology bit at the end hits, as soon as I step outside to touch grass (and walk home) I realize that the paradox isn't even a paradox and I was just getting way too into Seafort's Calvinist grindset. God can both forgive him and not condone his actions, which he has some weird aversion to believing. > I've started working on an animation in MS Paint, but I don't know if I'll ever get around to finishing it. 2024.05.26 > We visit a cute restaurant in the mountains of Toufen with everyone, which had good food, but the sort that gave the impression of food fairies would feed unsuspecting humans while trying to lure them into the woods forever. The combination of flavors was always slightly off and they just keep bringing more and more courses. The only completely normal dish was the soup, but all soup in pretty magical, and the glass bowl it was in was made in the city an hour away from my hometown on the otherside of the world. 2024.05.25 > I clean the beach while my host sister yells at me for saying I want to eat all the cute things, and even the Bravern keychain thing works out because one of my friends had a different errand in Taipei and was more than happy to go check out the con for me. > In the evening, my cousin and aunt from Zhushan visit so we stay up late playing Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. 2024.05.24 > During my two free periods in the morning, I try to ink a piece by hand, get bored, and read a lot more of the Bible. Once again, I must begrudgingly admit that Feintuch knew what he was doing with the last words of Vax Holser within the context of a couple specific verses from Proverbs. > At home I draw two new Castle Country pieces in MS Paint and learn that my favorite Taiwanese artist is finally selling the Bravern keychain I've been waiting for him to release.... at a convention in Taipei tomorrow, which I can't go to because I already agreed to go to a beach cleaning event with my first host family. 2024.05.23 > Today's Chinese class is mostly wedding-related vocabulary, which is funny because one of the doodles on my notes from last class was a very unhappy Seafort and Tolliver marriage, so I am now legally obligated to draw them getting married a whole lot more on my notes this time. Drawing fanart is a surprisingly good way to remember vocab phrases.  2024.05.22> I'm on a roll with Castle Country breakthroughs this week, because I realize by changing one thing I can not only fix at least three plot holes but also incorporate another idea I thought I was going to have to use on a future project. > In the afternoon, my classmates have an English presentation competition, which I get to watch. The topics range from "cats are cute" to "breakdown of the themes and lessons from Princess Mononoke" to "how and why should Taiwanese students become more involved in international affairs (student protests for Palestine)" to "what is peer pressure." I had to betray my classmates to the student from 201 with a British accent who gave the international affairs presentation and rightfully won, but they all did crazy well. 2024.05.21 > Chinese class is now even more boring, since all our classes are the student teacher classes. The student teachers are very cute but the difficulty level is so low even my other classmates are complaining about it. > I vicariously spoil Emanuel about various small events in the current Seafort book he's one (already to number three...) and draw a character using only Chinese characters in the margin of my worksheets, along with the usual array of Castle Country and Seafort doodles. 2024.05.20 > Back to school... I spent Mandarin class figuring out how to rewrite one of the Castle Country scenes that I felt did the worst disservice to one of the characters involved, which turned out to just make it a vaguely ridiculous misunderstanding. 2024.05.19 > Breakfast was toast, but fancy (not really) mountain toast: spread peanut butter, a slice of tomato, pork floss, and a fried egg. Boiled sweet potatoes and fresh melon to finish off the meal and a cup of coffee lovingly brewed by my new favorite cousin. > After breakfast, it was to work. Our cousin showed us how to wash off the bamboo her mom had cut the day before, and then we got to cut it up. > Next up was visiting one of the tea plantations, where me, Pudding, and Little Apple (the cousin), all piled on the four wheeler our aunt was driving. Half way there, she took her hands off the handlebars and put my hands on, so I found that driving a four wheeler on curvy mountain roads is actually significantly easier than driving a van across a parking lot. Me and Pudding chased each other around with sticks as we appreciated the view, and then we all went back. > Once home again, our aunt showed us how to identify good bamboo shoots and harvest them in the forest behind the house. All of us kid went back upstairs to play more Mario Kart while we waited for lunch, which was 50% (3 out of 6 dishes) bamboo this time, and all super delicious. > In the afternoon, we alternated between spraying each other with the hose, racing up and down the road, and sitting in the restaurant. I've been to a lot of cool places in Taiwan, but so far I'd been fine never coming back because I knew it would never be the same again. Zhushan, however? I could stay here forever and ever. > Eventually, we had to go back. Pudding got an ugly haircut from our aunt, and then back in the car we went, Pudding greiving his hair. We got home around dinner time: dumpling, no bamboo. 2024.05.18 > The day of the TOCFL exam! > I had followed an Indian teenage expat on Instagram earlier in the week, replied to his "hi" message and then ghosted him, but on the train I suddenly develop an interest in side quests before the final boss, so we have a nice conversation before I arrive at the university. > Besides my fellow exchange students, most of the other people taking it are significantly older, mostly from elsewhere in Southeast Asia. The guy who is assigned the seat next to me is mildly intimidating in how he doesn't even wait for the translation of the instructions. > For once in my life, I'm not the fastest at a test, but when I finally do finish, it tells me I got a B1 (teacher needed us to get A1, expected the smarter students to get A2, both below B1). I couldn't understand most of the questions, which I took as a sign I was getting most of them right since the computerized test gives you harder questions when you get one right. My flawless technique of choosing the answer that sounds the best to my ear worked wonders though, even on the reading part where I was just guessing how the unfamiliar characters sounded. I did get B1 on the mock test I took online a month ago, so I didn't really learn a whole bunch from the TOCFL class they made us take all month though. > Waiting for my host family to pick me up, I finally find the university bookstore, which is the best bookstore I've found so far and also had a very nice and large English book section on various mathematical and scientific subjects, which I somehow convinced myself not to buy. > Then it was to the car for a two-ish hour drive to Zhushan, my host mother's family home. I met her parents and two of her siblings and got to eat a delicious meal which was only 25% (4 out of 12 dishes) bamboo. I was beginning to see why it was called "Bamboo Mountain." My parents kept calling it the country side, but the city is still bigger than the closest city to my home town... After dinner, though, it was back in the car. I'd been expecting to stay the night at the family home, but up into the moutains we went. > Besides bamboo, there's several tea plantaions in the mountains, and you could smell the tea leaves in the wind. The night view of the city from above was really nice, and just when I thought it couldn't get any better, we came to our destination. Across the road was an old fashioned open air restaurant area that was to die for, but to my shock my brother immediately got out of the car and ran over there. It turns out the building we parked in front of wasn't actually our destination, and that we weren't staying in a mountain hotel--this was the restaurant and house of the aunt I had met on my first day. > After getting out our stuff, everyone walked down the mountain road to the point where there weren't street lights, and where there were fireflies. I flexed my impeccable firefly catching skills. Once back at the house, my cousin finally decided to accept me via attacking me with an organized pillow attack with Pudding. I mostly let them beat each other up, but I had no qualms at beating them up via Mario Kart. We played three tournaments, then fought eachother in Super Smash Bros and Super Bomberman, before finally being forced to go to bed by the parents past midnight. 2024.05.17 > Half day of school because our school is being used as a testing location for some big national test. > I'm trying to resist the urge the actually reread Seafort, so I force myself to finally get through Psalms. Everything always comes back to Feintuch though, because I realize he probably purposefully named Phillip Tyre after the historical city of Tyre, which were both associated with sailors, known for their beauty, and eventually destroyed by God... 2024.05.16 > Today, we do a full practice test, both listening and reading. I get 49/50 on listening, 42/50 on reading, both A2 level. While I wait between questions on the listening section, I frantically speedrun Seafort fanart in the margins. 2024.05.15 > We're finally onto our beloved badminton in Gym class. Comic club meeting in the afternoon, but my favorite guy isn't there so don't have anyone to explain Nicholas Seafort to. 2024.05.14 > For our practice TOCFL in the afternoon, I get 49 out 50 questions correct, only missing the very last one. > After class, I finish the Garzey's Wing piece and watch As You Are. I feel like this semester's piece is less good looking than last semester's, but the coloring is cleaner if nothing else. 2024.05.13 > My classmates have their midterms today, so I get to stay home. I talk to my friends on Discord and make my characters in Picrews. > I buy two things of instant noodles, one for lunch and one for the future, but I'm so hungry I end up just eating them both. > The deadline for this semester's comic club art book is coming up, so I get the lineart done before bed.  2024.05.12> For lunch, I get to meet my host father's parents and younger brother at a... European? restaurant. The name is in French, the waiters are all dressed like Germans, and the beer is Japanese. I get a clearly Taiwanese-level spicy vegetable spaghetti, am vaguely disappointed in the quality of the fries, and enjoy a very delicious (but also not particularly European) soup. For a drink, I get a whole wine-sized bottle of kombucha. > Once we return home, my host mother reveals that they do actually have a Switch, so me and Pudding play Mario Kart together. I lose the first two tournaments, but as soon as our mother joins us on our third, I hit my stride and absolutely demolish them both (aka I finally figured out a good bike for my play style). We take a break for a couple of hours, then play some more where I still win the majority. > For dinner we finally go to the night market across the street, where I use my intrinsic American talent to pop one more balloon than my brother at the shooting range, letting us win a consolation prize of Pokemon cards that I'll give Neo. We're both equally bad at dart throwing, but the stinky tofu, clam soup, and drinks are all good. > Before bed, we take a break from Mario to play Super Bomberman, which I am only okay at, and then switch the Super Smash Bros. Last time I hung out with my friends they did a very bad job of teaching me how to play, but in five minutes Pudding does a better job exclusively in Chinese, and I manage to get to the point where I'm beating him half the time. 2024.05.11 > I spend most of the day reading stupid comics. > In the evening we have a Rotary dinner, where my host mother learns I eat raw fish. I'm a bit confused on why it was a shock, given that she has both fed me fish before and that one of the earlier courses was sushi, but nonetheless. > Before bed, I finally get around to drawing Junji Ito's Tomie for an art trade that I'm been procrasinating for weeks on. 2024.05.10 > I only get a 22% on today's practice test, but the guy grading me only got a 30%, so I end up being glad he didn't have to give the foreigner who can barely speak his language a better grade than he got. > After class, I spend my time reading about St. Aelred of Rievaulx. 2024.05.09 > In the afternoon, instead of normal class we have a guided tour of the city. But our guides aren't just any guides, they're a bunch of first year high schoolers. I don't manage to make any new friends, but I get to learn a bit more about the city, I guess. > More importantly, it gets me in the mood to go book shopping, so I drag Emanuel off afterwards to check out the manga shop I used to pass on the way to the station in the morning at my last host family, which was always closed then. We take our time looking through the whole store, before I finally give it one last shop and ask the shopkeeper if they have any LOGH manga I somehow missed. He wordlessly leads me to the entire shelf of LOGH manga I must've walked by at least twice. They have every volume except for the first and the two most recent releases, and for dirt cheap ($3 a piece) too. I settle for getting volume 23, because it has Julian on the cover and the tail end of one of my favorite arcs and I'm not entirely certain which volume contains Kircheis' death. If I can figure out how to ship things, I might have to come back. > I've also gotten Emanuel to start reading the Seafort Saga now that he's done with Rodrigo, so I skim through the first book once I'm back home and realize that these guys are significantly more insane than I remembered and that perhaps I should've let him live with just Rodrigo because Seafort might actually be worse. 2024.05.08 > Boring day full of studying. I don't do much. > I get to talk a little bit to Joyce, who I haven't seen since I stopped taking the train, about our goals in life, to my computer teacher from last semester, where I show off my awesome test score, and then to my favorite old lady. 2024.05.07 > Eli is home sick, so I go to class by myself. I look longingly at the manga shop across from the bus stop where I switch buses, and promise myself I'll let myself be late and take a look next time she's out sick. > On the walk home, I finally check out the game shop that I always passed between the train station and my school for the last 8 months, and find out that despite all the exterior posters being for Nintendo switch products, most of the stuff inside is actually Gunpla (Gundam figurines). There's a couple cool Evangelion ones, though none of the only set I really want, an 0079 Zaku, so I call it quits and remind myself I'd have no room in my luggage either way. > I spend the evening getting into a far more responsible waste of time: mobile games. The character I choose in the beginning turns out to be British, but his personality is fire so I'll forgive him. 2024.05.06 > Finally, it's time to see if all my reviewing for Earth Science has meant anything. The result? It did! > I get a 43%, which is significantly higher than my 17% last time, plus the guy sitting next to me only got a 54%, so I think being only 11% lower than a native speaker is pretty good. On the astronomy section I got 7/9 questions correct, with one error being because I overthought a simple question because the answer was so simple, and the other being because I had no clue what the question was asking. 2024.05.05 > I had already told my host mother I was hanging out with friends today, so I spend the time outside walking around the neighborhoods between my house and the school (I get a cheap can of coconut water from a random vending machine next to an abandoned building), reviewing my textbook in the park, and then walking to the city's public library. > The public library is cute, but disappointingly small for the size of the city. By my rough estimate, it was about the one near my hometown, except that this city has over 100 times the population of that town. If there was a foreign language section, I couldn't find it, and the comic section doesn't have any LOGH, though a book with two of the same characters in its title momentarily gets my hopes up. > It's also Oberstein's birthday, so I redraw that one Garfield top surgery comic with him and Reinhard. 2024.05.04 > Weekend! I find out that when I made plans to hang out with my friends this weekend, they said Saturday, not Sunday, so I skip out on them. 2024.05.03 > I watch the first episode of Girls Band Cry, a really nicely animated 3D anime airing this season. > I also remember that I need to start working on my art piece for the Manhua club's semesterly art book, themed "isekai," so I take the time to watch the 3 episode OVA of the "worst isekai ever made," Garzey's Wing. At least, that's what I'd been told. It was actually entirely decent, to the point where I went and researched all the reasons it gets hated on and decided none of them were valid. It wasn't a masterpiece by any means, but it was pretty average, art-wise, for the time period and, story-wise, a lot of stuff being released then and today. 2024.05.02 > There's a chance of rain, so Eli's host mother just drives us both to class. > While all the internet friends I've made in the previous 18 years of life have lived on different continents, I learn that one of my LOGH mutuals actually lives only around an hour away from the closest city to my hometown now that I'm on the other side of the world. > After class I stop by a general store on my walk home because they have a sizeable book collection, but no LOGH manga is to be seen. I end up buying a tiny notebook, a fancy Japanese felt tip pen, and a mechanical pencil that I only learn didn't come with lead after I get home. > In the end, I take so long that my highschool classmates get out of class, and I learn one of them actually lives the next street over. I suspect that she not only went to the same middle school as my brother, but also must've had the same English teacher, because their accents are very similar. 2024.05.01 > Instead of a club meeting, all the second year classes have an English singing competition in the afternoon. > They've added some hand/arm motions that I only have half an hour to learn, but my class does pretty well with our song, That's What Makes You Beautiful. > Class 201, the smartest class (I'm not sure how far down the grade hierarchy goes, my class is 214 but it's the bilingual class with the best English grades so it doesn't make a lot of sense to me why they're at such a low number?) sings my beloved Take Me Home Country Roads, which I suppose is the universe's way of answering the question of whether I'd have been able to make it into 201 if I had actually been born in Taiwan. > The best performance is a very offkey but very enthusiastic preformance of Never Gonna Give You Up by one of the other classes, though. > Book of the day is The Meaning of Proofs, which I was initially going to give up after the first 20 pages because it was discussing a whole bunch of stuff way over my level, but I kept going and a learned some cool things. |
