Well I’m here. Actually not the here I expected but first let me explain.
So Emily and I arrived and are nicely settled now. A few days ago I decided to go down to the University to say “hello, I’m here.” and blah blah blah. Well I got there, that went fine, found out when registration would happen, etc.
Then later that day I got an email from them saying “we just noticed your major was International Business and Management and that major has been moved to the Taipei campus beginning this year.” I was very displeased to hear this news because we had already settled nicely into our home and Emily had begun her classes at the Taoyuan campus, plus we were beginning to make friends. I went back to the office the next day just to make sure they didn’t have it wrong (they didn’t), expressed my frustration to them, and found out that I could either switch majors, move to Taipei, or commute everyday.
Well, I looked at the other majors at the Taoyuan campus and decided I couldn’t bring myself to switch for fear of boredom or lack of interest. The only one that came close was a tourism major and after checking the course list I just couldn’t justify it.
Next on the decision table was moving to Taipei. Emily could switch to taking her class at the Taipei campus for this year (although next year she will have to be at the Taoyuan campus) and we could move to Taipei. However, that would mean unsettling our settled home, say goodbye to the friends we’ve already made, and without Sandy’s help (the really really nice friend who has pretty much made our lives here possible thus far) because she’s now at her school far away find a new apartment, try and convince our landlord to give us our money back, and move. After talking with Emily we came to the conclusion that we should stay in Taoyuan and I will commute everyday.
What does this mean? It means that my commute in the mornings is a bus, a train, and then the MRT (their Subway). It takes me about an hour and a half one way. Once classes begin, in the afternoons I can ride a bus that runs between the campuses home and I’m hoping that will be around one hour. Classes start most mornings at 8am so I’ll most likely be a good boy for the next year and go to be early.
For those of you who are curious, you can check out MCU’s (Ming Chuan University) website at www.mcu.edu.tw (you can view it in English, don’t worry) or if you’re really curious you can see my schedule for this semester at here….yes you read it right, I have to take Calculus which is definitely less than exciting to me since the last math class I had was probably six years ago or so. God is good though and we’re praying that it’ll be ok. Classes start the 17th so maybe I’ll get a chance to review some stuff online or something.
If you visit here you can see the train station where I get on in the morning or whenever we want to go to Taipei.
Nice blog kids. Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Sorry about the commute.
Sweet! It’s awesome that you guys are here, glad your getting settled, your neighbors sound great. The pictures were awesome … I loved the one with Em and Sandy eating, I had to do a double-take cause it’s just so great having you guys in my world
love ya!
Oh yeah, also, wicked domain name. I love it.
Hey Guys- You probably won’t have a lot of time to spend on your blog but it’s really great to see where you’ll be living. Hey Michael, good luck with your calc class. If you have a nose for solving problems, you’ll be alright. I made it through calc three with good grades, and I found the best thing for me to do was to work problems over and over and over. A solutions book is a good idea too. Then you go back to fundamentals and always go back to check that one plus one equals two and not four. If you’ve already got into this habit that’s great. I was always amazed when I would go back and check my div., add., subt., ect., how many mistakes I would have. I don’t think I would have past any of my tests or got most of my homework problems right if I hadn’t forced my self to do that. I hope you have a good teacher too – that helps.
Sorry to hear about your problems with your major. It sounds like you have good ideas to work it out though. And for Emily – nee how ma (sp?) Good luck with your language studies and I love you both very much. I have a friend who’s brother just moved to Thailand. He’s very good at putting photo albums together with comments. So I’m going to email his latest to you and you can look at it if you wan’t. Again good luck – Love Winnie
WHAT?!? IKEA? I’m so jealous! Have you got room in your flat for one more?
Love you both. Stay safe! 
Hello young lovers
From your letters thing seems to going ok. Sorry about your studies being moved to another school. The way you all desided to solve the problem was very good. I know how hard it can be commuting each day but when I was young I found out that it’s not so bad. All I can say now if I had to do it only one day a week I would be no good for a week. Age does have its problems.
The pictures you sent was very good and we enjoyed looking at them. The one thing I found being in the military and traveled all over,We found some very good friends and still remember some of them today. We will keep you in our prayers and hope you have a wouderful time there
Love you both very much
Meme & Papaw