In The Shoes of Mila Librodo

Japan is very cold, especially at night. We would know, we got hungry and there wasn't any food in the house. We walked to a mall in freezing weather because the other place we wanted to go to turned out to be closed. We got Raman and were the loudest ones. We had to learn a lot about Japanese etiquette. It's kinda funny, in Taipei we would run into 7-11 for AC not heating.  Ban. K is one subway stop and a bus ride from our apartment.  Ban. K is the mountain that we're going to be skiing at this season. It's small, smaller than Squaw. Since I've been skiing, which is 20ish days, I've only gone one lift out of four. Ban. K has a very good lunch selection. There is Raman, Udon, curry, and even churros, which are my favorite. Much better than the 20-dollar chicken nuggets Squaw has.  Team Bankie is the team me and Dai are joining for the year. Unlike OV Free they specialize in moguls. There are some couches from the Japanese national team, and athletes too. Buildin...

Two countries so close, but different in so many ways. From the Spanish-sounding words of Tagalog to the crisp-yet-elegant tones of Mandarin. In the country made up of thousands of islands, the smell of fish sauce wafts through the air. Only a two-hour plane ride flight away, stinky tofu overpowers everything else.  When looking at the neon signs that fill the streets of Taipei, you might notice the spelling… Sometimes Tamsui might be Dansui. In Manila, all you see is the English alphabet, as it is used in Tagalog. Going to Filipino malls, you’ll hear a good amount of English. In The Philippines, malls aren’t places to break the bank but to hang out with friends. In Taipei however, coffee shops are a more popular place to hang out, filled with Chinese chatter with little to no English. English is Taiwan’s Achilles heel, they don’t use it often. People here will try to use English, and we always had Google Translate.  In the city of boba tea, education is as essential as food. ...