美國人來了！

Alex came to Taiwan! It was awesome having someone from my old life in my new one! We had a crazy, wonderful week, and it was really lovely to have a friend whose met my parents and seen my house in 高雄。 

 I picked Alex up on Monday night at the airport, and the rest of the week, I helped him get around town, translated, and introduced him to how awesome Taiwan is and the awesome people I've met here!

 Alex and Nora practice Asian posing.

At 西子灣

 Biked up Monkey Mountain 可是...沒有猴子

 Taiwanese people at the beach near 西子灣

Some of the highlights of the week--

• I took Alex to meet my family in 岡山 and eat 火鍋 (hot pot)
• Introducing Alex to Taiwanese gym rats and hearing them say "You big!"
• Having dinner at my Canadian classmate's house, listening to my French classmate, Mia, do his "Americans visiting Paris impression", and having Jamal pull out traditional Moroccan clothing which he proceeded to have us wear and dance in
• Watching Alex destroy the locals in soccer
• Taking Alex to Chinese class for an hour (he went once to my class in America too)
• Going to KTV, 表哥 noticed that all of the Taiwanese songs were about break-ups and heartbreak (this is true)
• Eating dumplings and drinking tea
• Eating shaved ice
• Eating Indian and Thai food with Nora-Alex surprised us with his knowledge about Islam and after hanging out with him for a week, made me pretty excited to go home and have educated conversations that don't feature how to say things in Chinese
• Biking up a mountain with Alex and Nora and then to the ex-British consulate and checking out the museum there
• Having lunch with Alex, Barry (my only friend in my four hours of afternoon classes on Wednesday who talks to me), Randy (one of Barry's Taiwanese friends) and another Taiwanese friend from Spanish class. 
• Taking Alex to my International Political Science class on Thursday (the lecture topic was US-Sino Relations, aka the perfect day for a guest from home)
• Going to the beach with half of my Chinese class (one Japanese, one Belgium, and one Vietnamese student, plus Stoyan's super cute Taiwanese girlfriend)  
• Going to the beach again the next day
• Taking Alex to the night market and getting Mongolian BBQ and a massage 
• Eating 7-11 every single day 

 Beautiful Kaohsiung

 The view from the British consulate 

 Dinner at the Thai restaurant 

 Potluck Party at Jamal's!

 Everyone beats up the French (King Kong, Xing Li, and I are representing Vietnam, Japan, and the US)

 Pretending to take pictures with Drake

 A poor picture of a picture of the group in Jamal's outfits

 You never have to grow up! (My classmates are 30 and 26, respectively) 

Class trip to the beach

 Repping America 

 Another beach day (Life in Taiwan is good)

 Such a tourist

 Max took Alex to experience Taiwanese nightlife. 

 Alex taught me this pose.

 台灣很漂亮！Beautiful Taiwan!