" Overflowing Blessings "

" 8/8 "

We finally had our very first road trip!!

Xian just bought a new car (that they said would need "break-in", this was the word i heard they used) and plus that we wanted to do something before Vic & Goldie move to China (nearby Shanghai). So, we all confirmed that we were going to Hua-Lien, southern part of Taiwan.

We took two cars. Xian's & Vic's. (as if one car was for 'couples' and another one was for 'singles' lol)

Everything was already set, what time to meet, where.. But just as things are going smoothly (or we thought so), news came that there will be a typhoon.

School & work were declared no classes, and we have no choice but to change our destination to Tai-Chung. (middle part of Taiwan). It was a nice experience, i mean not the part where it was raining continously.. But the fact that we all made it together for this trip (hmm.. not all actually, Jeff wasn't able to come with us) My first time to go out with all of them in this roadtrip, cause i only go out with them mostly for badminton games.

We started friday afternoon, actually 'late afternoon' already coz we waited for Jo till 17:00. Anyways.. from Taipei, we headed first to Hsin-Chu, Vic wanted to take us for a coffee, he said he knew a good place. However when we reached there, Vic wasn't able to remember where was it, so we grab dinner instead and continued with our 'so-called destination Tai-Chung' =)

After so called 'we can't seem to find our way', after spending those non stop phone calls with the owner of the place we were going to stay, after reading all those street sign marks, after counting how many corners we would see before turning to the right one... we finally made it! *whew* Sad to say it was kinda' late already, plus the fact that when we saw the bathroom, there was only one. As in.. O-N-E. I mean.. how can you exactly put 9 people in a one bathroom? just amazed me how we all managed to fit in. LOL.

Anyways, Vic hit the bed first, guess he must be really tired from driving. We started playing poker, my eyes were already shutting in half even Xian was trying his best to explain it very clearly and slowly (Sorry Xian, my mind was not really working normally after 12midnight) LOL. I'm not sure what time did we finished, but all i remember was Ginette was already tipsy, we tried getting her phone out of her hand just for prevention (coz she drunk dials! hehe) And you know what, I've been out with Gin before and there was no any problems with her sleeping with me, but that night.. ohhh!!! She was just... turning left & right, with her nose allergy, she was making these loud noises, i know it wasn't intentionally =) so no worries, but i think other friends were pretty concerned. And there's Xian on my right side, no.. he's not quiet too. =D

Oh! forgot to mention the place, (aside from the one bathroom thing), Vic & Gu stayed at this one room just the opposite of the living room, Kenneth & Beth slept at this second deck where there's a stair going up beside the wall. And us! "US" as in Ann Mari + Jo + Xian + Me + Gin.. the five stooges as what i call, all slept together. It was a japanese style of flooring, so we just put the thick blankets on top of the floor and jumped in!

I think.. that i really do have some problems whenever i do sleepover. I can't sleep that well, and i hate it when the next day comes, i am always the sleepy one, friends would say... 'ur still sleepy'?? aw crap. =( don't know how can they sleep so soundly and fast! Sleeping is hard for me especially whenever i go for business trips. i hate business trips!

Anyways, we woke up late the next day and it was not an early breakfast anymore, but we still digged in. Their coffee is not cheap, we have to pay individually if we want to, a small cup of hot coffee for a price of 100NT something. After getting ready and everything all set to go, we headed out to the city to check places, take photos and we went to hot spring. The place was cool, and it was a private pool. Like we don't have to share it with other people. Guys were inside the room watching tv, sleeping, resting.. and us girls were just on the other side of the room relaxing. We needed to get out before 18:00, coz the rain is still pouring down hard, Vic & Gu had decided to go back to Taipei that night, and since we are not yet done with our roadtrip, we decided to move to Shin-Chu. The hotel place Mindy helped us booked wallas for 4 person only actually, but we somehow managed to squeeze two more. one bed was me + Gin + Jo. the other one there was Xian + Kenneth + Beth. But in the end, Kenneth decided to put these two beds together. No worries, Xian was a gentleman =)

(Oh yeah.. before we all passed out that night, we called Bryant first and we were just talking and laughing, Xian was making an imitation of Kenneth 'capre' LOL when we heard someone knocked at our door) crap man! we all turned silent! we were probably laughing hard and was pretty very loud. We did not dare opening the door for we don't want them to find out that there was six all of us in the room. haha!

Sunday we headed out to Chung-Li for a filipino kind of 'fiesta', Jo's parents actually have one, the others had been there before and they said it was good. I think it was only me & Xian who were for the first time. It was pretty lazy afternoon, very relaxed & so sad to see that we have to go back to Taipei to face reality. haha! And just as when were had fun & enjoyed our moments, we saw how the typhoon affected our country. Good thing that we did not insist of going to Hua-Lien, for it rained continously in that area, small villages were swamped out by floods, people had died, even some rescurers gave up their lives accidentally by helping out civilians, it was sad for all of us, it was a time for people to mourn, a time for the government officials to stop blaming each other and grow up instead. We were lucky that nothing had happened to us. God's blessings :)