Charlie Charlie Charlie

A few new pic of my dog Charlie and a stray cat which lives on our doormat. As many people who only saw Charlie when we first got him, you may be very surprised by how huge he gets now. Well, we didn't really call him "huge" in the first place, only "a little fat", but after countless of guests exclaimed in surprise, "Oh! He is so huge! Is he really a Chihuahua?", we had to admit that he is overweight. To go into whys and wherefores of this matter, I have to blame my mom, who thinks that pet should live happier by eating more delicious food than dog food, so she always likes to add chicken or other meat to his dog food. I try to convince her that Charlie will be happier if she could spend more time playing with him and give him a healthier life so he won't have to suffer all those medicine treatments and injections when he gets old. Now I try to walk him as much as I can when I'm still in Taiching, giving him more exercises. I always wonder a life without Charlie, and embarrassingly, it always bring me to tear (ha ha). Well I quess he will live for still a long time (hopefully), so I don't need to worry about that for now.

Beautiful Kaoshiung

The last day in Kaoshiung we traveled the famous Love River by boat and had our dinner at the Chichin Harbor. To be honest, I was really amazed of how beautiful Taiwan could be while I was on the boat, trying to convince myself that I was still on the land of Taiwan. The night view was even more impressive, and I wished that Taichung could be just like that.

Dream Mall

The next morning after a short walk on the beach when we finished our breakfast, my uncle and aunt came to pick us up and drove us to our next stop, Dream Mall http://www.dream-mall.com.tw/, the biggest shopping mall in Taiwan. A friend of mine who lives in Kaoshiung said that it is now the locals' pride, and I have no doubt of that. The hotel we stayed in gave us three tickets for the Hello Kitty ferris wheel which was built on top of the mall, so Albert, my cousin and I hopped on to the ferris wheel like three little exciting kids while the adults went inside the mall for the air condition. The ferris wheel wasn't very tall itself, but adding the height of the mall, the views of the entire Kaoshiung city and the harbor are right beneath it. The cars were painted with Sanrio characters, and inside we got a cute Hello Kitty pillow which I believed had been touch by thousands of dirty hands, so I was taking it only with my two fingers when I took the picture. The mall was really big. We spent the entire morning and afternoon there window shopping, but still we couldn't go through every floor. There were a few stores that were quite special, including a restaurant that was decorated in a Taiwanese retro style, a store that sold all kind of cute clothes for dogs, and a Japanese store that sold everything for NT$49. I got myself a new camera case there.

the sun set

The outward appearance of the first western style building in Taiwan is mainly kept as it was used to, except that the first floor has been transformed to exhibition halls and the second to a restaurant. By savoring the delicious cuisine and the beautiful view of the harbor with our eyes, we made up for the pity of not having a chance to enjoy our meal there.

Fortunately, our dinner at the hotel was really nice. The sun was setting outside on the beach, and I snapped some photos before it went down below the sea level. It was the first time I ever watch a setting sun on the beach so vividly, and it surprised me of how quick the sun sank the moment it hit the sea level, too quick for me to snap the last photo of it.

So we had a fantastic evening, and our cousin stayed with us for the night.

Oh I forgot to mention the last photo, a building right next to the sea, which I believed to be a small part of the campus. Just imagine taking classes in a classroom which has an ocean view! The class must be popular!:)

school ends, holiday begins!

Finally, my first year in college was over and the final task for me to finish before I could say goodbye to Chiayi was to pack up all my stuff and move them from my dorm to my new apartment, which I'm going to stay for the rest of my college life. The dormitories in our school aren't enough for all the students, which means we need to draw for our beds, so in case of ending up having nowhere to stay when school starts, most students choose to find a new residence outside the school. When new semester begins, I'll be staying in my new apartment with three other girls from my school. The task was as tough as I thought because I hate packing, not to mention having to pack up all the junk I pilled up for a year. Thank gooddness my mom and my brother were there to help, and by cab we shifted five boxes in total to the apartment.
After we left Chiayi, we went straight to Kaohsiung and began our three-day tour. The tourists were my uncle and my cousin, who picked us up at the train station and drove us around the city before taking us to the hotel we were staying,which was right behind the sea-ajoining Sun Yat-Sen University. The view was fantastic and I wondered why I never thought of studying at this university. Not feeling like getting roasted on the beach yet, we headed for the Takao British Consulate nearby. I admit history is my worst subject and I knew nothing about this building, but I found an English website that tells great history details of it, http://uk.khhuk.org.tw, so check it out if you're interested. Takao is the former name of Kaohsiung, which in Chinese can also mean "hit the dog". Of course it has nothing to do with the origin of the name, but I bet that many foreigners may find the name intimidating.