I’ve been super busy with running around with my cousins: Adam (my aunt’s son - 14 years old), Rudy (my uncle’s son - 20 years old), and Grace (my uncle’s daughter - 15 years old).

On Saturday July 21, 2007 - We got an emergency phone call from my aunt’s husband saying that he somehow ended up in the hospital from a super bad stomach ache.  So we woke up at 6AM in the morning to rush out of the Howard Beach Hotel in Kenting.  By 6:30AM, I called my aunt’s maid to tell her in English that we’re heading back, but by then my aunt’s husband had already returned from the hospital.  So we took our time and went downstairs for breakfast in the hotel.

We checked-out around 9AM.  Then we bought some super expensive beef jerky from Kenting.  Literally, we went to a farm where they grew the cow to make the beef.  Each bag of beef jerky is around $15US.  And I thought Jack Links were expensive!

We got back to my aunt’s house around 11AM.  Then everyone whipped out their laptops or hopped on a desktop and started the computer session.  This went on through lunch and eventually Adam wanted to go to PingTung to shop for more manga books.

This was the department store we went to:

Of course we had to stop by McDonald’s, per Adam’s request, to buy some ice cream before he can continue his manga browsing.

While Adam was waiting for us to finish our McFlurries, he wanted to buy some StarBucks delicacies.

Then Adam was ready for his manga adventures.  So my aunt went with Adam to buy manga.  I went with Rudy and Grace to browse the explore the department store.  But we mostly ended up at the arcade.  The price was $300NT for 60 coins to play at the arcade.  Most games costed 3 to 4 coins to play.  So we split half.  I paid $150NT = $4.69US.

We played for 2 hours in the arcade.  Adam was done buying his manga and we had to rush out.  But we still had around 20 coins left.  So we just spent it all on those claw games.

On Sunday July 22, 2007 - We were forced to go to church in the morning.  We didn’t get home until 11:30AM.  Then we just bummed around the house and went online again.  Rudy spent most of today playing Command and Conquer.  Grace spent most of the time chatting on Chinese YIM.  I spent a lot of time on Skype talking to William.  Time flies when we’re on the computer.  I also tried to take naps to avoid feeling the heat.  The record today was 38 degrees Celsius = 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit.  Inside the house, the temperature was a toasty 88 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

On Monday July 23, 2007 - At 12:30AM in the morning, Adam decided to start a philosophical discussion about life to avoid going to sleep.  He kept on talking and talking until I told him that he’s purposefully doing this to us to avoid going to sleep because he took a lot of naps while we were at church.  That shut him up pretty quick and we were finally able to sleep by 1:30AM in the morning.  Anyhow, I was told by Rudy that Adam does this frequently Sunday nights because he wants to avoid school on Mondays.

By 8AM in the morning, Adam was out of the house and at school.  We were told to wake up but no one did.  Rudy, Grace, and I kept on sleeping until 9:30AM in the morning.  It was just too hot to sleep anymore.   Rudy generously went out and bought us breakfast around 10AM.  Breakfast is always downstairs due to the ant problems.  So I took my laptop downstairs too.  I took a picture of the living room to remember how toasty it was after breakfast time.

Update:  After breakfast on Monday July 23, 2007, we hung around and played on the computers.  Then it was time for Rudy and Grace to go back home.  Their ticket for the Taiwan Maglev was for 5PM.  So we left around 3PM to make sure we didn’t hit any traffic.

While at the Maglev station, there was a 7-11.  Rudy and Grace got 2 hotdogs (no buns, because buns costed extra).  My aunt bought some coffee.  Meanwhile I was checking out the Maglev Collectors Section:

Maglev Cookies in a Maglev shaped box

Maglev replica toy set

Maglev t-shirts, cups, pens, etc.

Maglev cups (with and without the high-speed rails