Hello there, my amazing nonexistent readers. How are you today? Well? I hope so. Moving on.
You know what Taiwan loves? No, not manga or anime, though they like it. Not cute stuffed animals. Not food, even though they realy like that as well. Nope. What Taiwan loves is paperwork. Or, to be precise, what Taiwanese government officials love is paperwork. Superfluous, redundant paperwork. Seriously, it get to the point where you should carry your passport and visa everywhere, because odds are somebody's going to want to see it. Just last week I wanted to take a look at the Taipei Public Libary, just to see if they had anything in English, but to simply get it you have to be older than nineteen and have some form of ID. Not even to get a library card. Just to look.
Moving on again. A key difference (one of them) between Taiwan and China is that Taiwan's been rabies free for a good couple of generations. China is not. Actually, rabies still runs rampant in China, even in Shanghai, where I used to live. I should know, since I got bit by a monkey at a zoo there and had to get a series of rabies shots, and, later, my thumbnail removed. The thumb's perfectly fine, but my pride will be forever wounded. Long story short, China has rabies, and since Taiwan's the equivalent of China's whiny college student who wants to get out of his mother's house, they love making trouble for anyone coming out of China. Not that I blame them, but sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in a fight between two petty children. China won't realize that Taiwan's never going to become part of it, and Taiwan just won't get over the fact that China has a large store of missiles...pointed right at them....and they're not far away....right, someone tell me what I was talking about, again? The sudden fear that China's going to nuke Taiwan into nothing has paralyzed my mind.
Which has meant that my poor dogs, Daisy and Happy, have been in the USA for sixth months so we could get them here. (The dog to the left is Happy.)
For the last two weeks they've been back, but in quarantine, just to make sure they don't have rabies. Even though we've gotten them rabies vaccinations since they were born and numerous blood tests show they're clean, they can't come home for another eleven days. Thankfully we got to visit them in the quarantine area in a city called Taichung (has a nice diner) today.
The poor guys have been stuck in a cage for the last two weeks, in this dirty hellhole they call a facility. Let's just say that Asia's standards of cleanliness differ greatly from that of the West. The sad thing was that I wasn't even surprised. I shouldn't judge, because it's not like they have the money to make it much better, and the employees were great (mathematically speaking, about 98% of the Taiwanese are extremely friendly. They have the highest percentage of friendliness in the world) but my dogs have already been through a lot. I'm surprised they don't hate us for dragging them through all the airports and planes, but they were happier than ever to see us. I love dogs.
Right. Enough semi-ranting for now. I'm tired, and the hour is late. Tomorrow I'm going sightseeing. We'll see how that turns out, yeah?
Story Word Count: 116,000 words and going strong. Seems that the closer exams get, the more I'd rather write.
Thanks for reading,
-Ari
Hello there again, nonexistent readers of my unknown blog. How lovely to see you all again.
This weekend I haven't done much, thanks to getting about a pint of blood drawn for testing and resulting in me becoming extremely giddy (dui, for some strange reason I get into a drunken-like state after losing blood) and then having to lie down for awhile. But I did manage to get some sightseeing in, and am I amazed. The hospital I went to is near the area where a lot of old government buildings, and all of a sudden my and my mom stumbled upon the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.
And wow, is it amazing.
For those of you who don't know, Chiang Kai Shek was one of the men who helped build Taiwan and made it independent from China. (Note: Never assume that Taiwan is part of China. It's not, and the Taiwanese would like to be very clear about that.) There's mixed feelings about him on the island, but they still built a huge memorial for the guy, and it's 
beautiful.
The gateway actually reminds me of a place from my story. The picture to the left is the actual memorial (thanks, Wikipedia!) and even though it doesn't quite capture how big and grand the building is, it's a good shot. Within is a big statue of Kai Shek sitting on a chair - yes, similar to the Lincoln Memorial, except this has Asian style. :)
So I saw that, and also some other beautiful buildings in the area. Personally, I think it's the best looking part of Taiwan, save Yangmingshan, of
course.
On other notes, the weather here is definitely taking a turn for the...different. Apparently Taiwanese winters are foggy. Really foggy. And rainy. Basically, very damp. I'm not sure if it will snow or not, but since I live on a mountain, I'll probably be the first to know. Today we celebrated Thanksgiving at my church, and we get two days off from school this week.
Writing-wise, my story's going pretty well. I'm writing the end, and it's 
quite exciting. It's not an action-packed ending, but it's really emotional, and definitely bittersweet. I don't like happy-happy endings. For me (and in my writing) everything comes with a price, and this time the price is big. NaNoWriMo's starting to wind down, so my heart goes out to all the novelists scrambling to get in their 50k quota.
Also, time for some book recommendations! The library at my new school is much better than the one at my old school, so I've been checking out books like a mad woman. Right now I'm in the middle of Cybele's Secret, a book by Juliet Mariller. It's the second in the Wildwood series, but it's not so much a sequel as a a loosely-related book in the same universe, through a different character's eyes. If you like historical fantasy and rich Ottoman Empire-inspired cities, then this is for you. Of course, I recommend reading the first book, Wildwood Dancing, first. It's vaguely based off the fairytale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, and it has the same magical feeling in it. The cover art is just as beautiful.
I think that's all for now. I'm really having fun with this blog, and I'm going to keep adding on more to it. Enjoy.
Sarn Progress: 111,000 words and going strong.
Cheers,Ari
Apparently so. It's been a long time since I've updated this thing (approx. two months) and a combination of guilt and boredom propelled me to post on it again. It probably doesn't matter much, since nobody reads this thing, but I think it will be good to keep tabs on my life once in awhile.
So. One of the main reasons I've been so lax in writing lately is because I've been sick. Got surgery when I was ten and I guess it wasn't ready to kick the bucket yet, because I'm still having some complications related to it...or something. It's been two months of testing and we're still not sure what's wrong with me. Something to do with my immune system and my endocrine system. All I know is that I'm getting sick of being sick.
But enough about me. Despite being housebound 75% of the time, I've managed to see a bit more of beautiful Taiwan. It's getting chilly here, which I didn't expect - winter clothes are coming on. It seems like time's moving pretty fast; next week we have our Thanksgiving break, and after that Christmas is just around the corner. And this month is November, which means...
NaNoWriMo. Possibly the most insane fun things ever invented in the history of writing. I'm far behind blogging about it, since November is more than halfway over, but better late then never. I'm not in NaNoWriMo this year - working on last year's draft suits me fine - but a load of my friends are, and I wish them luck. May rushed prose abound wherever you type, you guys.
Sarn Status: 107k, writing the ending. Hope to be done and editing by Christmas.
