Well what have I been up too? My mom and dad came to Taiwan, we had an amazing time. It was like a month long trip packed into one week. No lie we took every type of transportation. Boat, plane, car, bus, subway, bike and if you would have given me just one more day hot air balloon and helicopter would have been accomplished. So I won't go into great detail of the trip because I am saving it for my famous book. That chapter will be titled the invasion on Taiwan.

I just got back from a surfing trip. SURFING IS DANGEROUS they have told me. But look last time I surfed was December, and it’s April. If I didn’t run away and surf I would have died. I was drying up like a fish out of water. Rotary ended up being cool with it. I love Rotary and they love me so it was all cool. It was funny because before I left my host father handed me a life jacket. I was like what's this for? He said for surfing, you have to wear it. Then I showed him some pictures of me surfing back home and he was like ok you don’t have to wear it. But it was an amazing 5 days. I went to the south of Taiwan with my friend Vanessa and some other exchange students. I didn’t do too much partying. When all my friends were sleeping in the morning and afternoon, I was surfing some really good waves. The most people in the water the entire 5 days were 15 guys. I couldn’t believe it. I was like this is perfect I have entered the gates of heaven.

I got back on Monday and began to help my first host family with their plum farm. I have now become Hill Billy Ching Chang Lee. I have picked plums. I have prepared plums. I have cooked plums. I have smashed plums. I have even gone to Taipei to go teach how to farm, prepare, smash, cook and eat plums. And next week I'm making a secret form of plum juice. Shit you all can call me Mr. Plum. And the truth is I hate plum. Ha ha but no problem I have learned to love it. Next weekend  I go on my Taiwan trip with the other exchange students. The following weekend I go back to Taipei to make a tagi kung fu presentation to the Rotary in Taipei. Then I have some free time to travel and learn more. Then I have to go home, June the 15.  I don’t want to go home.

I am not going to miss the other exchange students; I haven’t really gotten to know them all that well. My life in Taiwan is so different from theirs. I am going to miss the little kids that have taught me Chinese and Taiwanese. I am going to miss my classmates. And all the crazy things we have done. I’m going to miss my host families, and their relatives. I am going to miss my Rotarians in Shuili and Taipei. I’m going to cry like a little school girl or a grown man kicked in the balls. And that’s the truth. I never got attached to anything in life before until I came to Taiwan. Maybe it was a fear I had of just having to let go and deal with the pain. But now I’m so happy I opened my arms to all the things I found weird and absurd in the first months. Because it’s these things that made me accepted and opened the doors and arms of so many people.

I remember before I came I really kicked my self and almost lost it all. I cut the hand that was feeding me. But there was a man that spoke to us at the week from hell. I was with all the out bounds of Florida last year. He was a big Rotarian from New York I think. And he gave a story about an exchange student who lived in the middle of nowhere in America and how he changed a little city and just had the most amazing time of his life. I will never forget the story. He said everyone cried when he left. Everyone from the city knew him and went to see him leave. I'll never forget sitting there and thinking to my self if I get this opportunity to go to Taiwan and I am given a second chance by Rotary I will prove all who did not believe in me wrong and I will change my ways. I will open my mind; I will accept the different things of life. I will stop being the bullshitter. I had diarrhea of the mouth when it came to bullshitting last year. And I will not only take but give back to the people of Shuili. And I am proud to say that at 8 months that it has been a life changing experience. I remember all the words spoken to me at the week from hell. And I have to say as much as it may hurt, that I was wrong in my ways of thinking before.  All I needed was a second chance. It is amazing the way God works in our lives. I just hope people can give others more second chances in life. You might just get proven wrong about a person and good things might happen. But you will never know until you give them a second chance. This is all I want to write today. I’ll send a note about Mark and I in Taipei. Pray you’re all doing well and take it easy life is short so open your eyes to new things and take it all in with an open mind. Much love,

Javier