Travel (行)

Unlike Taiwan, people travel by cars a lot. Everyone own at least one to two cars in the family. I remember before I leave America, a friend of mine back in elementary school said, "not having a car in America is like not having pair of feet." It is true. Driving is a survival skill in the States; it will be really hard and inconvenient to travel without a car because American's public transportation is not the best in the world, and the land is huge.

I drive a 1988 GLE Volvo, and the problem of driving an old car is that it could break down anytime. This picture was taken when my car broke down on a highway. So it is critical to know about cars and take care of them. Still, I am impressed by this car because even though it's so old, it still functions well. Good enough to take me to school and back home. 

In the U.S., usually people can start driving a car at the age of 16. You can actually start driving at the age of 15 1/2 with a driving permit. In America, you will fist do a written test on driving, then you will have a "permit", that you can drive a car with an adult's supervision. Then you will take the driving test on "actual streets", not training area. A person under 18 must have a permit for half a year before you can do the driving test, so a lot of teenagers get their permit when they are 15 1/2 and get their license when they are 16.

For motorcycles, it is very rare to see people writing scooters, but sometimes there are motorcycles on the freeway. There's a minimum of 125 C.C. to be a the freeway. 

In Davis, I usually travel with a bike. Davis is famous for its bicycles; it's a bike-friendly town.

They even have traffic lights for bikes on the streets. I drive my car when I go to school in Sacramento. UCD students also go to school by buses. It's a bus system runs by the university, and the bus drivers are the students. School hires both men and women. My housemates always take the bus from the apartment to campus. It's one of the more convenient public transportation in Davis, which is really fortunate because again, U.S.'s public transportation isn't that convenient. Last time when I took the train, my train was scheduled at 11pm, but the train didn't come till almost 3am. I really miss Taiwan's MRT, train, and high speed railroad sometimes.

Live (住)

I would say this is the easiest topic to start sharing my life in America.

I now live in Davis, California (戴維斯，加州), near the capital of California, Sacramento(沙加緬度).

University of California, Davis(UCD) locates here. So Davis is a college town. I live in a apartment in South Davis with five other people who go to UCD (I, however, go to Sacramento City College). Three Taiwanese American--Jeffrey, Stephen, and Derek, a Singaporean American--Josh, and a quarter white American--David. We all go to the same church and fellowship except one, Derek. The weather in Davis is hot and dry in the summer, and cold and wet in the winter; it's Mediterranean climate(地中海型氣候). It could be as hot as 40 degree C in the summer and as cold as -2 degree C in the winter. Unfortunately, it doesn't snow here. It hail, though.  There are a lot of Asian-American students on UCD campus, and the apartment complex I live in now are mostly Asians. Davis in general, however, is really diverse. You can see white, black, Asian, Hispanic, Jewish, Europeans, etc.  Davis locates 20 minutes away from Sacramento, where the Kings(a NBA team) is right now, and so far, I go to school in Sacramento. 

Davis is a typical college town but smaller and quieter. A lot of people find Davis a boring town compare to San Francisco(舊金山) or Los Angeles(洛杉磯) , which are the bigger cities in California. 

Check out my Facebook for more pictures about my life in Davis:https://www.facebook.com/joseph.liu.944?ref=tn_tnmn

Why am I starting blogging, again?

The last time I had a blog was back in junior high school in Taiwan. I used 無名小站, and it was popular until Facebook appeared.

Recently, I started this blog because of my housemate, Stephen. I love how he puts his thoughts on a blog. It's a good way to reflect. It's also a good way for me to practice my English.

Last but not least, I haven't been sharing my life in the U.S. with my friends in Taiwan, so this is a good chance to let people in Taiwan see what my life looks like here.