So the last couple days have been difficult because I've been sick since Sunday, but it got very interesting. After Saturday night at a Taiwanese Dance club (strange experience in its own) I got sick and had to stay home from our group excursion on Monday, but forced myself after those days to go to a few night markets with the group, to work out, and to witness one of the strangest places I have ever been to.

The night markets are fun, especially if you force yourself into the underground sections and explore the traditional Chinese fare available. You can see pig's feet, tail, chicken's feet, watch a fish get killed and descaled, watch shooting shrimp hang out, and then I watched them execute a chicken. Debating becoming a vegetarian it was pretty awful. The other place I went to alleviate my cold and throat issue was the Traditional Chinese Daoist Master/Doctor. It was cool, but something beyond anything I've experienced. This guy asked me a few brusque questions about my symptoms (luckily I had a translator), then asked about any other health problems I may be having (sleep issues, some back soreness). He had me sit down, take a powdered medicine and prescribed more of it for later, and had his assistants tape small amounts of powder to my acupressure points and then taped sensors with flashing lights over those spots. The different frequencies that the lights flashed at were supposed to activate my Qi and special internal organs since all of the frequencies of the modern world can block my Qi-flow. I walked out feeling less congested though I'm unsure of whether it was from his treatment or the medicine or from simply being dried out by having to sit still for an hour during treatment.

Jake

8/29

I figured I'd write a quick blog before heading out tonight. Last night, in the Plaza de Tom Jones, the stage still remained standing. As some Colgate kids ventured out with us Wesleyan guys we ended up stumbling upon another concert there. This time it was a Galecian Celtic-style band, which was awesome. We had some drinks and danced a little. I was at the head of a conga line during the encore. We met some German and Italians and spent the rest of the night at the bars and wandering around a bit. Today we had another tour of the city on the Baroque style, which was fairly interesting. After a nap, Jackson, Bohao, Ilir and I headed out to play some random spaniards in basketball. We played for almost 2 hours and I realized how out of shape I am in. I just got back from dinner and am going to hang out a little before going out as nightlife doesn't start until super late here.
Joey

Justification of the Inquistion

So last night, Monday, who came to Santiago de Compostela, but Mr. Tom Jones himself. A couple of guy and I headed off to find some dinner when we stopped off at a schwarma-like place, which was the best meal here yet. After that we went through the rain to see Tom Jones live. Though sadly he did not end up playing She's a Lady. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIfxBthfFkg After a very interesting concert we met up with some other Wes kids for a light night at a bar and called it a night shortly after. This morning after not reading the play and having to write a paragraph on it I proceeded to my second class only to sit for an hour and 45 minutes having the man deny and attempt to justify the Spanish Inquisition. He made consistent comments about truths and myths, one myth being that the Inquisition did not persecute Jews and Muslims. While walking out of class, a kid in my group commented how he would like to his perspectives on the Holocaust. I've been catching up on some sleep in exchange for breakfast/lunch today and am heading out on an official tour of the famous Santiago Catedral, where earlier in the week I saw an exhibit on the Codex Calixtinus. I will leave it at that for now. Also, the exercise room here is extremely pathetic, as a kid on my group and I attempted to be somewhat productive yesterday. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Santiago_de_Compostela
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Calixtinus

Update 8/27

Santiago de Compostela has been great and we finally got the afternoon off so I had some free time to regroup and just chill for a bit. The eating schedule here is fairly interesting and I believe I am losing way too much weight. 125 almost seems realistic at this point. I have been so busy I haven't had any time to do anything let alone sleep and surprisingly don't feel too sleep deprived at all. I am looking forward to heading back to Madrid next week, but don't particularly want the awesome times here to end what seems like so abruptly. We are taking two classes here in Santiago and they are pass/fail so I ended up just winging my presentation today, which surprisingly worked out better than expected. Basically, all the Wesleyan/Vassar kids are hitting it off and having a great time. In addition, Colgate has a program that parallels ours and a couple of us have gotten to be friendly with them as well. With all the programs combined there are about 8 guys, most from Wes, which is nice because we are becoming what seems like a little, tight knit group. The night life here is insane and never seems to disappoint. We typically have gone out around 10pm for tapas and then after the bars Spaniards end up going out to the discotecas around 4am. Good indicators of a failing economy? Given how much more free time I have I will try to keep posting more regularly, but we'll see. Hi Dan
Joey

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=412260695487912&set=at.412260662154582.86582.100001119552151.505026501&type=1&theater

My group and I at Chiang Kai-Shek

Well it's been tough to write anything about my time here until now- We've been running all over the place. We went to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial a few days ago and that was great, and I'll post the pictures once I figure out how to do that. My roommate Mario should be moving in shortly-he's a really cool guy that plays some amazing music, I might post some on here with his permission. I managed to get sick within a week of being here, hopefully I'll shake off this cold and get better soon.

I've had a lot of fun so far getting to know the other people in my program (including finding out that most of the males in the program got interested in it by playing Dynasty Warriors), and exploring Taibei. The thing is, no one warned me how much I would realize my situation in the States is. I have great friends, a loving family, and that became readily apparent when it hit me that I will be here for another 3 1/2 months. All I can say is that I miss my parents, my brothers, my baby sister, and all of my extended family Everyone at Wes and friends from Glenview who have probably gone back to school, and those who are still waiting for that day to come faster. Hope you all are having as good of a time as I am.

Brief Update

Things are crazy here and people are always out and about. Therefore, I apologize for the lack of posts and will make one large one when everything settles down at some point. As for today we just got back from Portugal, which was very cool. I have a 10min presentation for tomorrow to take care of so I have to get going.

Day 1/2

Disclaimer: I've been up for well over 24 hours and nothing too interesting happened today. Sorry, Dan...

When I walked through JFK this morning, I realized I hadn't been there since Birthright and began to reminisce as I waited eight hours for my flight to Madrid. Once I met up with some Wes kids the time passed much more quickly. The inflight entertainment was made up of me sitting next to a fairly large woman with a little chihuahua and watching Hunger Games. We then had another five hour layover in Madrid for our flight out to Santiago de Compsotela (a small town in the northwest corner of Spain). When our flight arrived, we walked out on the runway onto a little prop and continued on our brief one hour flight to the final destination. After 10 of us, including myself, didn't receive their checked luggage, we hopped on a bus and proceeded to get our rooms in a dorm that is clearly in the process of being heavily renovated. Then we got a quick lunch of some very terrible pizza and other assorted cafeteria food. Our classes and excursions begin tomorrow and I'm certain there will be some more interesting stories to tell besides two guys on the program killing a bottle of duty-free cognac to pass the time in the Madrid airport. Heading off to some orientation info sessions now, so I'll leave it at this until mañana. Maybe Barack will write something about his Chinese-Taipei extravaganzas...
Joey

Just got into my hotel in Taiwan before orientation. I get settled and go to check my email so I can tell my family I got in okay and all is well. I find this message from my program: 

Dear all,

This is a notification of the coming typhoon "TEMBIN”,
which is very likely to massively affect Taiwan on Aug. 22nd
and 23rd, especially on the 23rd. 
We are keeping a close eye on the news and are currently continuing
to stick to our original plan for airport pick-up and orientation. In case
your flight is delayed, or if you must land somewhere else, please make
sure you stay in touch and update us your whereabouts as well as your
updated new flight information, if available.

Thanks for the welcome Taiwan

-Jake

Barack and I will be posting update's on our excursions abroad.