il Giardino Romantico

Mind you, this is still the first day of our welcome event!  All international students were invited to a free dinner at the Adelphi Hotel, which is only about a 10min walk from where I live.  It was a nice opportunity to dine in a HOTEL, and socialize with new friends.

As we were walking towards the hotel, I was surrounded by people from the Mainland.  You know, folks, I spend five years working my arse off, and flying over so many countries, I wasn't going to spend the whole time here speaking Mandarin.  No offence to nice folks from across the strait here, but I hope you understand what I mean.

I couldn't get away from them walking faster than they were, so I decided to slow down.  And just as I slowed down my paces, who did I happen to see but my buddy from the same coach ride the day before - Mamo from Japan, with his new American friend, Sam.  I was overjoyed to see them, so I stuck myself to them...

At the entrance, already, you feel the Liverpudlian's passion for soccer football:

This was a raffle to win a ticket to ONE GAME AT ANFIELD, TRANSPORTATION TO AND FRO, AND FREE MEAL!! Of course, I didn't win.  I think it was because I forgot what Benitez's first name was.  You had to write down the full names of all three people on the board.




And this, of course, is the dining hall.

A few tips on how to make friends here, the first question on these events held for international students, would obviously be: Where're you from.  If you are asked a question, always ask back just to be polite, even if you're not really interested.  then you can talk about almost everything excluding politics and religion.  So, you could talk about your halls of residences, what you've seen so far, where you could go to buy things to help you settle in.  I know football probably sounds like the ice breaker here, but trust me, you want to be VERY CAREFUL with that subject here.

As for the food, this is my first dinner here, for I only had a small sandwich before I went off to bed and adjust myself to the time here.  I was a little concerned about the vegetarian selection, as you would always have to specify your special diet if you were in Taiwan.  It turns out that, this is more of a vegetarian paradise than back home!  The only non-vegetarian food was LAMB. Everything else was vegetarian.



The food was delicious.  I'm sorry I couldn't wait till I adjust to the correct white balance setting before I started eating.  It was delicious.  I finished that whole plate within minutes.  Desserts here are super-sweet.  Took a bite of a brownie, and couldn't swallow down another bite.

There was Disco and Karaoke afterwards, but my buddies and I were more into chatting.  We went to the lounge to get some beer and chatted till the night was over.  It was quite interesting actually, 'cuz there we were, one Taiwanese, one Japanese, one Korean, and one American, sitting together, chatting about...FOOTBALL.  The Korean, by the way, is here to study FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT!!!

So, that is all from my first day at Liverpool.

  中文大綱：這餐是學校招待的。還不錯呀！畢竟窮學生哪有機會來這種高級飯店用餐呢？在路上被大陸人圍攻。不是有意要排擠啦！只是我辛苦工作存錢又飛了幾千里來這裡，我真的不想每天都說國語。我加快腳步想要逃離，結果沒兩下就被跟上了。後來我決定放慢腳步。果然，讓我遇見前一天跟我坐同一台車來學校的日本同學跟他的美國朋友。我就整晚纏著他們不放。到了大廳就看到大家排隊要抽獎！這是一張免費的Anfield入場卷＋接送＋免費晚餐！當然，我沒得到，不然你們早就會看到我炫耀了啊！

這裡的素食很好吃，而且比台灣還要方便。整個晚上的肉食只有一樣：羊肉。其他全部都是素食餐點！！可是甜點真的會甜死。我吃了一口就吃不下去。隔壁的香港小妹也跟我說他受不了那種甜。晚餐過後還有Disco跟卡拉OK，可是我們這群人比較文靜，就跑去lounge那邊聊天喝啤酒。有趣的是我們一個台灣人、一個日本人、一個韓國人、跟一個美國人坐在那聊足球。那個韓國人讀得科系可能會嚇到很多人：足球管理！不知道Fangorn有沒有心動～～

就這樣，我終於結束了漫長的第一天。