10:08 am greencastle, july 11; 11:08 pm taipei, july 11

...so, in case you missed it, danshui was a blast. lesse...of course, i skipped a lot in that last (really short) post. i'll try to patch in some of those holes now.

besides the mrt and walking, and besides taking the boat to get from danshui to bali and back, we also biked for about one and a quarter hours. see, on the bali side of the...uhh...i guess it's a river, but it leads right to the ocean and is already salty...there were a few places where one could rent bicycles to go around, alongside the river thing, the bay, look at the pretty scenery. well, we did just that, after renting two bikes for an hour. hah...so about 40 minutes on our way out, we come to a crossroads (oh, of course, after being passed a good many times by people that wanted to go faster than us [for we were taking it slowly to enjoy the view] and, interestingly enough, a good few people in actual serious cycling gear), where it appeared that one way would take us somewhere in towards civilization and the other way would lead us into a huge loop across another bridge (that is, us having already crossed one at this point) back to bali, passing by danshui--and, of course, we could turn back. well, so as not to retrace the same path, we decided to go for the loop. first, of course, we asked some people how long it would be, to see if we would have time. uhh...unfortunately, those twenty or however many kilometers sounded...just a little far for twenty minutes, so we just went back. of course, that didn't stop us from being late, but we didn't have to pay much extra. the people were kinda nice.

hrm...oh, played that chinese drum game, which is easier than it looks--or, at least, than i'd expected it to be. it really is just as simple as beating the drum on time...which about concludes that part of the story. but we did try a few other games, too, such as this one in which, for NT$10, or a little over 32 cents, one may try to find differences between two pictures--five per pair of pictures. as long as one doesn't fail within the time limit, one may proceed on. well, we did pretty well the first time, got through at least three rounds, but the second time was a little different...first off, rather than pictures of statues or scenery or whatever, it started with a picture of some woman in nothing more than a thong and a see-through shawl thing, not quite covering her; both lace. and it was unbelievably hard, not to mention awkward, if for no other reason than the fact that to any onlookers, there would just be some american guy (weird hair) and an asian girl (weird, spikedish hair) staring intently on a barely (and debatably) dressed lady. uhh...yeah...oh, and i discovered that i suck a lot more at those basketball games than i remember i used to. i mean...my first try, i didn't even break the 50 point mark (most baskets counting for one point, some for two, and really nice ones three; i think the computer judged on whether or not you used the backboard and whether or not you hit the rim), but i did better the second time around. sixty seconds per round, that is. *sigh*...ah, well. that's why i play ultimate, not basketball.

hrm...took some pictures--which reminds me, mindy took some with her cell phone, too, and i'll have to ask her for those. really great sunset, too. many pictures of that, but a bunch of them were just me hoping to catch a good angle and not being able to see well at the time. i'll see how they turned out when i get back home, where i have the *right* connecting cable.

oh, among the things that i bought, there was a bunch of candy, another gift or two, and more of that weird drink in the funny bottle that tastes like bubblegum and is kept sealed by a marble. unopened this time, and with the opening mechanism thing. i'll see about brionging that back. woo!

hrm...and nothing more worth mention until today. after a relatively uneventful poetry class session (just review of limericks, what we did last thursday, becase two of the five kids that showed up today missed the explanation; as a result, too, i had to stay an extra hour, gratis, helping them or whatever. meh, not a lot i can do, least of all complain.), i made my way to...yes, sogo! woo! no, but just to meet my uncle today. we didn't actually buy anything there. actually, i got there like half an hour before he did, so i wandered around for a while and considered buying a few things, but didn't any yet. may later; just gift ideas. then i wandered about a few nearby blocks, window shopping, and found a espirit store with a bunch of really cool stuff--namely, almost all of it marked down to %50, making a good portion of it an actually (get this) reasonable price! yes, i know, it's amazing! know what else? i found a really cool bag there! woo! for like NT$1680, about half over what all the other ones were that were almost as (imho) nice, but then, the price was halved! so it only cost NT$840! yeah, i definitely knew i was going to buy it. that is, until my uncle said that he'd get it for me, as a gift, if only because he had so few chances to do stuff with me. i was like, wow, no way, it's just something that i've been looking for, but he insisted. so now i have my pretty new espirit messenger bag, and i'm pretty happy. oh, yeah, and i'm pretty happy that my dad sends news that word is in about cross country camp! woo! of course, this comes with mixed feelings--that is, camp is august first through third, or something, but i recall that camp tended to be, what, just the weekend before school starts, right? if so, that's definitely bad, because i want at least a few more weeks of summer...aw, man. i really hope there's at least one more. and i hope that everybody cool who wants to can come to camp--namely, graduated seniors and people new to cross. hah...i know that i, for one, have exactly as many forms that i need in as i do sureties about cross country ultimate--excluding the fact that, unless either my father or i got it wrong, there was a certain sentence about an "_ultimate_ season" this year...(_*_ signifying underlines, of course, because i can't remember the html and don't have a connection right now; i'll change that if i get one and remember) which would mean that a good few of us stay on the team, and, so long as schimpf always gives us our *entire* frisbee friday, that i, for one, have decided that i shall actually try the full season and do as well as i can. i mean, it's my last season, anyways, and i'll have ultimate to keep the fun in the sport, right? besides...i realized earlier today, while thinking about this and resolving to practice hard if ultimate goes through, one of the reasons i actually do like running: it's indescribably easier to run, thinking about nothing else, barely even concentrating on keeping my pace, having to worry about nothing other than making it all the way to the finish, the end, or whever i'm planning to go, than it is to sit around and let the burdens and cares of school, college, and life in general weigh me down. oh, and if schimpf finally lets us listen to music while we run this season, i'll definitely get a much smaller, readily portable mp3 player to strap to my arm or whatever while i run--after all, if i actually try, then i'll likely not be running along with anybody with whom i can keep interesting conversation. we'll see how this all works out. of course, one of the things that falls into place in the back of my head and crowds all my thoughts a little bit more, all the time, is stuff like this--where i plan everything out, make all these easy forked paths for any sequence of events, and don't realize that there's something significant missing in the first...bracket or whatever, and so it all falls apart immediately. wasted time and effort...which is why i don't often go for optimism, and clear-cut black-and-white situations don't ever work out right.

...and so i straightened up some stuff on my mp3 player, cleaned up a few things there and on my computer, and have decided that i'll go to sleep relatively early tonight after reading some more barker. it's surprisingly good, i tell ya'. not zelazny-amazing, but it's good. oh, and stranded at the drive-in remind me of the pixies, only much higher fidelity and making more, better music. aside from "where is my mind?" of course; that song's incredible. finally started a playlist of nostalgic music today, something i've been meaning to do for a long time; everything in it reminds me distinctly of something, and it's impossible for me to listen to the song without remeniscing at least briefly. that song's on there, of course, along with many others. it's only (roughly) 36 kinda strong right now ("kinda" because maybe a dozen of the songs are tentative, and i'm not sure if the association came up unconsciously or otherwise, and one song i have in my head but of which i've failed to get a copy), but about a third of them...incredible. of *course* (*of course*, of course, of course) american pie is on there. and, with that...