My worst experience in Taipei

So I was debating whether to blog about this but I think I should just to get it out there and then to forget about it because it is frankly ruining my experience in Taipei.

So last Friday (I think?) I went to a speech contest at Sun Yat Sen Memorial, which is pretty far from where I live. I had to change trains twice to get there. Anyways, it was frankly one of the most miserable experiences I've ever had the misfortune of suffering through. Now speech contests are NEVER fun but I had the sheer luck of going LAST, # 80. So I took the subway all the way to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall and got there by 8:45 AM....but I didn't say my speech until 5:30 PM. That alone could have made it miserable since I had been nervous all day and had been rehearsing my speech multiple times throughout the day before I was up.

Anyways, the worse part of it was that when I gave my speech (which was on cross-strait relations) the judges gave me the dirtiest looks. The old man even crossed his arms and glared at me and never once wrote a single thing down on his sheet. All of the judges frowned at me. The weird thing is that I thought my speech was extremely balanced probably even in favor of Taiwan since the mainland had shown aggression in the past (with 3 missiles being shot into the Taiwan strait), which I described in my speech. However, I think the thing that really rubbed them the wrong way was that in my conclusion I talked about next year's presidential election. I said that Taiwanese people should optimistically choose a new president that could improve relations with the mainland and could also possibly revive the stagnant Taiwanese economy. Now obviously the only party that could do the former (and arguably the second) would be the KMT since the DPP or green party is bent on independence and provoking the mainland. And I didn't know that this speech contest was organized by the government and thus the judges were all DPP supporters. So basically, I dug myself a hole.

However, what really disgusted me was the fact that the only people who won were those who had frivolous topics or those that pandered to Taiwanese pride. From the few vapid speeches that I remembered they talked about how Taiwanese street food (i.e., fermented fried tofu, awajin (scrambled eggs w/ oysters), bubble tea, etc.) and how they loved shopping at the night markets for cheap, knock-off shit. Some other winning speeches talked about how friendly Taiwanese people are and the differences between Taiwan and their native country. Basically, if you said you loved Taiwan and liked Taiwanese culture you won. Most of the winners also spoke in Taiyu or Taiwanese despite it being a Mandarin Chinese competition. The judge who spoke at the very end even spoke Taiyu...when he spoke Mandarin he had the worst Taiyu accent he sounded like A-bien (Chen Shui Bian), the current president-also known as Taiwan's George W. Bush.

It was the biggest joke of a competition I have ever been in. Also, the winners were mostly chosen for the photo op afterwards more than the quality of their speeches. A couple of them deserved it and I didn't catch all of the speeches, but I distinctly remember some of the speeches that were complete vapid shit and they won. More than 90% of the winners were white and blonde (even though most of the contestants were Asian), they threw in two Asians (one from Korea and one from Malaysia for good measure though). The one from Malaysia could barely speak Mandarin and had a horrible accent and a piss poor speech but it was about how much Taiwan was better than Malaysia (more freedom to speak his mind-what a joke) so they awarded him of course. The Korean girl talked about how diverse Taipei is and people are so nice to her and she even sang a Taiwanese song at the end. The other Caucasians that won talked about how much they loved shopping for counterfeit goods or eating Taiwanese street/junk food. Concerning the guy who won first place, I can't really say anything because I couldn't understand a thing he said. He was a Caucasian guy in a suit studying at Taida but he spoke with a really thick Beijing accent, I think those two factors assured that he would get first place. Second place went to a middle aged blonde mom who is married to a Taiwanese man, most of her speech was in Taiwanese. She was actually pretty entertaining and I think she deserved to win.

I should probably watch what I say though because despite the government's propoganda I would not consider Taiwan to be that democratic. The DPP party has its own TV channels and news stations where they spew propoganda and smear the opposing party. They even manufactured rumors about the Ma Ying Jeou, KMT's strongest candidate. Apparently, they said that it was impossible for him to afford to send his daughters to American private universities on a mayor's salary....but they neglected to mention his wife, who is a successful businesswoman. But people here basically trust whatever is said on TV or published in a newspaper so Ma's approval rating plummeted from over 80% to less than 50%.

It's also gotten violent. Just yesterday in front of the CKS memorial a driver who support Chen Shui Bian ran over a reporter multiple times. He reversed then accelerated, reversed etc. The reporter didn't die though and I don't know what happened to the driver. I'm told that it's very dangerous to speak out against the current administration since most people in Taiwan support the DPP despite all the corruption. The only news article I could find online in English was this and it differs a little from what I read because it says a truck ran over several photojournalists. That's all that's mentioned about the 'incident' too. I'm told the incident is all over Taiwan's news stations though (I don't have a TV though).

For those that don't know the protests and barricade of CKS Memorial is due to the current administration's wish to alter the name of the arch. I think originally they wanted to tear down the whole arch but I think they settled on just renaming it "Liberty Square" (zi you guang chang). KMT or blue party supporters oppose it because it is a historic and cultural relic that they think shouldn't be touched.

Anyways, from what I'm told the national police force (DPP) is at odds with Taipei's police, which is KMT. Obviously, there's nothing Taipei's police can do though. So the people themselves have tried to protest and have been beaten by the police and even run over by automobiles now...

So yeah things were much nicer for me in Taiwan when I was completely clueless about politics. Society here is really chaotic and fucked up. My grandmother's friend who is in her 80s was in a taxi cab when she arrived at the airport. The cab driver (who are almost always DPP supporters bc of their class) asked her where her allegiance lies. When she said KMT the cab driver made her get out on the side of the road and then he drove off...Note that the airport is not even in Taipei but a different city (Taoyuan) at least 45 minutes away.

I was talking to my Thai friends and they said that Taiwan is turning into Thailand. In Thailand the president, Thaksin, was kicked out of the country by a military coup. They say that Taiwan needs a military coup as well...

Back from the Alishan trip! (阿里山， 日月潭， etc.)

It was a great trip. It exceeded all expectations. The location was fantastic and breathtaking and I made lots of friends. I nearly missed the bus ride in the morning too! Everyone had to wait for me bc I overslept. My phone also didn't ring-Maru said he called dozens of times but it didn't ring. Finally one of his calls came through and I realized I had fallen back to sleep after waking up from my 6:30 AM wake-up call (bus leaves at 7 AM). So I ran to the bus and got there around 7:15 AM I think.

Anyways enough talk here are some photos:





The rest are all posted on Picasa Albums: http://picasaweb.google.com/macro417/AlishanSunMoonLakeEtc?pli=1

Oh I was worried that the typhoon would ruin the trip but it didn't affect anything until the very last day.

Damn it's finally getting cold in Taiwan...

Stabbing at Taida

....I don't even know where to start.

My friend, Mike Toy, got stabbed in front of Taida (National Taiwan University aka Taiwan's most prestigious university). He was exiting the MRT/subway when a mentally deranged man slashed out randomly at people with a machete! Mike was cut on his right upper arm down to the bone and he felt to the ground. The next and final victim was a 50 year old man from Singapore, who was talking on the phone. This man sustained much more severe injuries-he nearly lost his hand and has to stay at the hospital for at least a week.

news in English:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/11/24/2003389270
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2007/11/24/132146/2-foreigners.htm
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/news/article_1375791.php/Two_foreigners_stabbed_on_Taipei_street


more details (article in Chinese):
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/071123/17/oqpq.html

________

Today has been so weird. My phone basically stopped working besides text/SMS messages and an occasional receiving call (can't make calls). My cousin Yun Han is leaving tomorrow morning for Atlanta, GA to see her fiance who is studying at GA Tech. I also missed my teaching session in Beitou bc of the phone issue and bc Alex mixed up the dates and thought that we were going to Lava tonight. Then I ended up going to this really far place to eat crab...

ya know what...who cares....I didn't get stabbed by a machete. Life is good.

We are going to see Mike tomorrow at the hospital in Neihu and Conor is bringing food and reading materials.

The weekend is nearly over

So I haven't updated in awhile cuz I've been pretty busy and lazy...

This weekend was pretty wild. Didn't do much on Friday, seemed like everyone in Taipei was going to the Linkin Park concert. I saw the LOOONG queue from the subway/MRT. Albert said that all the Taiwanese ppl had all the LP lyrics memorized and were singing along. All I did was teach English all the way in Beitou and got 1400 NTD (700 NT/hour) even though it actually was 2.5 hrs long I thought I would let it slide since it was the first time I met them plus they were really nice. The dad picked me up at the MRT station and then I had a really nice dinner cooked by the wife. The kids were also a pleasure to teach. Later, I helped them read books while the dad prepared hot tea, it was pretty nice. On the other hand, I teach a college student, a Hakka (ke jia ren) who btw are none as 'Chinese Jews' as Alex (Canadians are none to be racist haha) calls them, and he pays me 530 an hour...I'm thinking of requesting a raise since Taipei is so expensive.

Last night, I skipped out on Amy's Cafe in Tian Mu since, I read online that each plate of food is 400-500 NTD....so I can just go to a cheaper place for authentic, Mexican food hah. I ended up having Indonesian food with my French classmate and a local girl (she got on my nerves) and the food wasn't good but it was damn cheap and filled me up. Later I met up w/ some Taida folks and went to BED (a hookah bar). They ordered some drinks a capuccino flavored hookah and 2 plates of Thai food....somehow the bill came out to be 4,300 NTD or $130 US...uhhh W T F BBQ? And that didn't even include the rounds of beer that my friend Winston paid for at the bar. I dunno...but it's all good bc the locals paid for it all...they are ballers (architecture students from Wen Hua Da Xue, the school known for having really hot girls albeit stupid since it's one of the worst schools in Taipei it's on top of Yang Ming Shan, a mountain). We say some famous pop singer at Bed that I've never heard of.

Afterwards, we went to Luxy and got in the VIP section upstairs since we know the bartender there. It was a sweet deal since we got a ton of Black Label Whiskey, Coke, Henieken beer, and snacks for 800 NTD (the cover alone is usually 600 NTD). We also had our own private bathroom, section, and balcony to look over the main dance floor. (Oh the locals from Bed also went to Luxy and they can get us in for free! It's nice to have rich as hell local friends).

We ended up moving around to all sorts of places (it's a huge club). There's another VIP section where the floor changes to different colors and ppl started break dancing there. We also had fun taking over some random leather sofas there and drinking a lot of Long Island Iced Tea and annoying the poor bartenders hah.

I think I smoked way too much last night what w/ all the cigarettes and cigar. I had Marlboros and horrible tasting Mild Sevens (Japanese cigs). The DJ was supposed to be some famous hip hop guy called Premiere. It was a fun night except for the drinking game I had with the locals. They made a drink combining whiskey, vodka, beer, and pineapple juice (only in Taiwan)...it was sick. I wasn't very good at the guessing game (everyone throws out a zero or a 5 and you guess a # and if it's that # the person to your left has to chug a glass of that vile liquid. I lost 4 times in a row....and then more times afterwards as well. I started taking really long drags on the cigs just to get the taste out of my mouth.

Albert also was a great wingman and set us up w/ some really fine girls from Fu Da (girls from Fu Da and Wen Hua are said to be the finest in Taipei). A lot of other sketchy stuff happened which I won't discuss on a public blog haha.

I was supposed to go to Jiufen with my classmates today but I completely overslept. It's because I forgot to set my alarm when I came home last night. I just went home and passed out. When Jimmy called at 10 AM I was so confused I had completely forgotten about waking up early. I've been recovering all day today...basically being a bum, surfing online and napping a lot. I really need to start my presentation on Wan Hua though. I also need to finish my workbook. Blah didn't do anything productive this week besides get paid.

Random Observations in Taipei; Jay Chou Concert

So I've noticed that just about everyone I meet seems to turn out to be mixed...sooner or later. I thought I was good at spotting mixed Asians or hapas but it turns out I'm not. From now on in Taipei, I think it's safer to just assume everyone I meet is mixed since it's the case more often than not.

The list so far:

Jimmy H. (Puerto Rican mom, White dad)
Claire T. (Malaysian dad, white mom)
Michael J. T. (Hong Kong/Cantonese dad, white mom)
Tom L. (Cantonese/Toisan mom, white dad)
Amy F. S. (Japanese, Chinese)
Janine (Chinese, white)
Alex H. (white Canadian dad, Shanghai/Fuzhou mom)
Maru (Japanese dad, Taiwanese mom)
Hirohatsu (Japanese dad, Taiwanese mom)
Enoch C. (Taiwanese mom, white dad)
*

(*Due to a request, I went back and edited the surnames to only show the 1st initial. )

and new names seem to be added everyday since I find out my friends are mixed later on....or I meet new ppl

Another random observation, in China and in America ppl usually assume I'm Korean, but recently in Taiwan ppl have been asking if I'm Japanese. I'm not sure if this is an insult or a compliment...I guess it could be taken either way. Clint and his Taiwanese friend both asked if I was Japanese. When I first met Clint he asked if I was "full Japanese" hah I was like I'm not Jap at all.

So I went to the Jay Chou concert last night. I was a little disappointed for the ticket price (1500 NTD) but I liked the last 2 songs: Huo Yuan Jia and Shuan Jie Gun, oh I also liked Fa ru xue (Shasha's ringtone haha).

My photos are all really blurry...but I'll post 'em up later. I also have some clips (w/ no sound bc my camera-Nikon cool pix-can't record sound....). I gotta run now and get dim sum.

____________

UPDATE 11/12

Due to popular demand (un hombre):

JC Photos are up:





That tiny guy w/ an electric guitar is JC himself!


Alex and Jimmy with the rainbow rod/candy stick/short staff/bo li gun...what have you
(bo li is slang for gay in Chinese)



http://picasaweb.google.com/macro417/JayChouConcert

That link is for Jimmy-feel free to take any or all of those photos and do what you please, post on FB whatever...I was going to post and tag them on FB but I was too lazy to add the photos to two locations online.

So I'm just going to upload 2 clips bc there's no sound and it's probably pretty boring to watch.

Good News Articles about the ROC and the PRC

ROC
(daytime view from Taipei 101 observation deck)


3 NY Times articles on travel to Taipei:

Why you should go to Taipei

Taipei finds it's groove

Taipei's night life

PRC

A Time article on China's emergent middle class:
China's me generation

(actress in a Beijing dance studio)
(30 yr old actuary in her Beijing apt.)

(actress in front of Beijing's skyline)

(I also read an MSN article stating that China is ranked 5th in most # of millionaires, the U.S. I believe is still in 1st place but China has the fastest growing population of millionaires I believe it rose around 34%. Based on anedoctal experience, I have never seen so many luxury cars, i.e., Rolls Royce's, Bentleys, Mercedes Benz's,. Audi's, etc. in my life before I went to Beijing).

In other news, my cell phone is messed up. I can no longer receive text/SMS messages. The screen is also blank. I must have dropped it one too many times, I don't know. I'm also not even halfway through my comic book, Sacred Land. So far it's about the farmer flinging manure at the troops sent to quell their protests.

Arts Festival at CKS Memorial-Flash Performance

So I was napping when Conor called me but I decided to go since I had noticed all the commotion during kickboxing so I figured it would be a pretty big event-plus he said 'circus' so I assumed there would be acrobatics (and Chinese acrobatics is always amazing) so I dragged my ass out of bed. The first couple of performances I saw when I arrived were SHITE (i.e., old , idiotic man from Holland punching a balloon, Taiwanese ppl hip-hop dancing and breakdancing), but the Taiwanese circus act made up for it. The circus or theater group is called "Flash" and it's the first Asian circus league or something...I lost the program but it was amazing.



Here are some short clips I took w/ my digital camera bc I realized the photos were so poor:






Get ready for a ton of blurry photos from the 2007 Arts Festival (specifically the Flash 2007 performance):

This is a guy covered in white powder and he's doing headstands and sorts of tricks while balancing on two columns-made up of mulitple small wooden blocks stacked on each other (very unstable-he demonstrated this once by pushing it so that it scattered). He stacked it even higher and then did a heastand and did a back flip off it the columns. Really cool.




This is a guy on basically a giant metal hula hoop and he's inside it and rolling around. He also gets out and does tricks w/ it.

This is the two girls doing acrobatic stuff in the air w/ this metal contraption while the guy in the background sings and plays Marilyn Manson's version of "sweet dreams."





This girl is in the air in this hula hoop thing doing flips and stuff. Meanwhile, a girl is playing the gu zheng (traditional Chinese musical instrument) to Nine Inch Nails "hurt!" Awesome.


Conor convinced me to go to this other performance, which will be on Nov. 10th. Jay Chou concert. I bought the ticket at an electronic booth in 7-Eleven. I love 7-Eleven...you can do everything here. Get a full meal (they microwave for you), use the ATM, PAY my phone bills, etc. etc.



In other news, I'm trying to read this comic book which is all in traditional Chinese...and I'm not making much progress. I've been looking up all the words I don't know and it's taking forever so I think I'm just going to read/skim and not care about all the unknown characters. I can probably still get the gist of it.

Monday Update

Today I woke up late again but at least I'm getting better...I was only 10 min late to class this morning.

In class today, we discussed the possibilities of reunification of Taiwan and the mainland (tong yi). The teacher also asked the guy from Pusan, S. Korea about his views on reunification of Korea and he said that most S. Koreans are for it. He said recently S. Koreans were allowed to visit their relatives in N. Korea (bei chao xian) for the first time but only on the border. The Taiwan Guomindang gov't allowed Taiwanese to visit relatives in the mainland (tan qin) in 1987. The teacher also asked about our views on standardization of the Chinese language and terms since many terms used in the mainland differ from that used in Taiwan (i.e., fan che vs. xi hong si (tomatoes), ji cheng che vs. chu zhu che or da di (taxi), jing cha vs. gong an (police), guo yu vs. han yu or pu tong hua (Mandarin Chinese), xiao fan vs. ge ti hu (private enterprise), lou vs. ceng (floor), jia da che vs. zi xing che (bike), bing bang vs. bing gun (popsicle), etc. etc....we have to write short essay on tomorrow's test on this very topic).

So after class all of the classmates excluding Yong Am went out to eat, plus a Taiwanese girl from Taida, who Jimmy met through a language exchange ad on Tealit (haven't looked on that site yet). We went to this Korean bbq place where you cook your own meat. It was pretty good but not nearly as good as in ATL nor NYC.

Then I went home and SLEPT..I set the alarm but I just kept sleeping until finally around 5 PM I made myself read the short essay, which we'll be tested over tomorrow in one section of the chapter test. (I should be studying now since I haven't even reviewed the lesson vocab nor the supplementary material-comparing terms used in mainland China vs. terms used in Taiwan-but I'm procrastinating). Then after getting stuck (I couldn't read some of the characters bc it's not typed but purposely written messily since that's how it will be in real life) I was about to take a nap again but I got a text from Conor. So I met up w/ him, and 2 Japanese girls, one of them was Nico who dropped out of my class, and the other was a kawai girl named Ella (from Tokyo-her Chinese was remarkably good and her English wasn't bad either). We went to "Jamaican Coffee" and ate for about 2 hrs bc Nico is so slow and bc we were chatting. So I chatted right through Judo class-oh well. So I jokingly said that I think any place outside the US is the third world..and then the topic of a/c came up and I said that I find it strange that most Europeans don't have A/C and Conor said that he hates A/C, that it irritates his eyes....I've noticed that the French girl also dislikes A/C and blinks a lot and rubs her eyes in class and then tells the teacher to turn off the A/C or fan...really strange. As an American I cannot live w/o A/C...haha I said Americans are really fragile ppl we can't live comfortably w/o certain luxuries/amenities. I also learned how to say 'mistress' in Chinese bc Conor called Nico a K-1 mistress (long story...had to do w/ our lifelong dreams...). It's qing2 fu4 (情婦）I know the characters bc Conor has a really cool phone that has a dictionary w/ Chinese characters and the English definition. I can switch b/n English & Chinese when texting too but I'm not sure how to do it...

Then I went to lift weights and it was a good workout cuz I'm nearly back to the weight I benched in the US (I dropped a lot coming here bc i'm unmotivated or something w/o my regular lifting friends). Today I benched 200 lbs.

I think tomorrow I'm going to finally contact my unpaid internship and also contact the lady to teach her son English...I need to stop being a bum and sleeping through my days.

I heard this song at the Korean BBQ place today:

(it's from the classic K drama-"Full House")

OK I better start studying the vocab now.

Mid-Week Blues

I feel like I waste so much time on Facebook, Blogger, AIM, MSN, and YouTube. Those are the big culprits...others include, Hotmail, Gmail, MSN and other myriad sites that provide free videos/movies/music for me to download or streaming video. I planned on avoiding FB and AIM/MSN altogether today but alas around 11:30 PM, after I ate my delicious chicken curry stew I got for 50 kuai at 7-Eleven, I couldn't resist anymore and signed on to Adium (pgrm for Macs that puts both MSN and AIM in the same dialog box) and then logged on to FB. I mean I can only read Mountains Beyond Mountains and listen to iTunes for so long and then I have to find other means of diversion (I don't have a TV in my room and I don't feel like asking my neighbor for DVDs anymore bc last time he got his panties in a twist bc he said I got fingerprints on them).

This novel is finally getting good though (I stayed up till 3 AM last night partly bc I couldn't sleep but mostly bc the chapters on the American trained soldiers, who deposed popularly-elected Haitian president, Aristide, and the TB stuff was really interesting). I never knew American foreign policy in Haiti was so fucked up (publicly denouncing the military junta but at the same time covertly supporting them). Also, the MDR Tuberculosis in Peru was really interesting. I thought it was really interesting that Farmer wrote a book or article asserting that AIDS didn't reach N. America from Haitian refugees but the other way around. He states that American and Canadian sex tourists brought AIDS to Haiti. So far the only drawback is the way the author (Tracy Kidder) portrays Jim Kim...like he's some pathetic lackey of Paul Farmer, he should check some of his undying adoration for Farmer and stop panning everyone else around him. He's a great guy no doubt, but he's not a god nor a saint.

For lunch we were going to go to the Chinese medicine soup place again but it was closed so we ended up going to the local hole in the wall (I go here all the time...it's good and really cheap-today's meal was only 68 kuai, average cheap meal near Shida is 120-200 NTD). I got 12 boiled dumplings (shui jiao) and a dan hua tang (egg drop soup). I went here again for dinner and got what Maru got-the niu rou xi fen (beef noodle soup but w/ dong fen/xi fen or thin, clear vermicelli noodles instead of the regular thick, white noodles).

After class today I went to Yonghe to see my grandma and got help on my duan wen (essay and accompanying questions). Then we went to the Vibo ( or wei bao-cell phone company) office and worked that shit out. It'll take a week for them to send me the hours I spoke last month.

So today I went to Judo but the coach or student leader of the club didn't even show...it got really boring so I told the girl that I was leaving bc I had something to do. So I went to gymnastics...but it was already past 8 PM and most ppl had already left. So then I was frustrated and bored and not ready to go home to study for my test so I decided to run on the track until I saw Brandon playing b-ball outside, so I decided to join him. I shot around w/ someone's basketball until this guy pulled a muscle so that was my opportunity to play. It didn't get really fun until later we played against these guys from Mongolia bc they were really good. I thought they were Japanese at first bc I couldn't understand what they were saying but they told me they were Mongolian. One of the guys was around 6 ft 3 and pretty agile. He also could shoot pretty well which is rare for a person of his height...he made about 90% of his shots from outside the paint and of course he made nearly all his layups, even with Brandon guarding him and Brandon is around 6 ft 1 or 2 and pretty good. I pulled a calf muscle guarding one of the Mongolian guys.

So Brandon tried to convince me to get a palm pilot in Taiwan. It's 6,000 NTD or 200 USD and the Chinese dictionary program is called Pelec Dict.(?) and costs 60 for the basic and 100 for the better one (more characters). I think I might go buy it but I still have some reservations about dropping that much cash at one time. He said it's the most worthwhile investment he has ever made in his life though and he doesn't regret it one bit.

Shit I've wasted too much time online again...it's nearly 1 AM and I still need to cram some more.

I'm really looking forward to Friday--Katie Liwen said she's going to take us to Yong Kang Jie to eat tang bao/ xiao long bao (steamed pork dumplings)-not at the really famous place but at a cheaper place in that same area.

Also, I think it's time I finally go to the unpaid internship...I'll shoot an e-mail out tomorrow afternoon. I might also decide to start tutoring English. I feel like a bum...plus I'll feel less guilty about spending money if I start earning some disposable income.

Taizhong Biking Trip and Hakka Ground Tea (Lei Cha)

So on Saturday I got up bright and early at 6:30 AM bc departure time for Taizhong was 7 AM. We actually headed to a small cun (village) outside of Taizhong called, Hou Li, first to bike on the nature trail. It was pretty cool we went over this bridge and through this long narrow tunnel through a mountain. The weather was also fantastic.

Afterwards, we went to Taizhong Shi (Taizhong City proper) to this International Festival with performances and foods from various countries...they handed out these coupons, which got us free food at the stands of our choice.

Finally, we went somewhere else to have Ke Jia ren lei cha (Hakka Ground Tea) made from ground up green tea leaves, black and white sesame seeds, and assorted nuts (sunflower, peanuts, walnuts). After it was finely ground up by us with a mortar and pestle...to the point that oil secreted from the tea and nuts...they added boiling water. We had that with this desert and some puffed white rice. It was pretty good.

Photos will be up soon.

I'm still recovering from last night. I've got a major headache and am just all around fatigued. This morning when I brushed my teeth I ended up dropping the Garfield mug given to me by either my aunt or my tang ge (paternal cousin). It shattered into pieces...I saw what was going to happen but I didn't even try to catch it...I was too groggy.

Last night we got back from the Taizhong trip around 8 PM even though we were supposed to be back by 7 PM and I was groggy as hell from uneven napping on the bumpy bus ride. Also, I had been eating all sorts of random international foods from S. America and Asia and I ended up with a bad case of diarrhea I'm not sure what it was. It could have been the Honduran burrito or the already cut and peeled fruit or etc etc. Anyways, I gave in to peer pressure and went to the dodgy Club Wax. Where Conor was celebrating his 23rd (I think?) b-day. Then the kickboxing crew showed up. I ended up dancing on stage and on the bar...again peer pressure...mostly Mike's. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to Gong guan and ate at Yoshinoya.

I think I'm going to the electronics market today to get a case for my iPod. I might play basketball tonight but that depends on how I feel later tonight.

UPDATE:

my tangge said he already changed the plan from the 386 NTD one to the 500 something one but this month it's still the 300 one and this month's bill is 1,562 NTD! Shit/Mierda/Maird/Kuso. So now on top of the headache I have from all the tequila i drank last night, I have a headache from the stress of calling my damn cousin.

Dinner with Judo Club Members at 長壽 BBQ/Buffet Restuarant

So today I went to dinner w/ the Judo club members and we got all got on motorbikes to this restaurant in 公館 (Gong Guan), which is close to 台大 (Taida). It was DELICIOUS! It was an all you can eat BBQ place. For just 330 NTD, there was a buffet area w/ all sorts of meats, seafood, fried rice, stir fried noodles, cold noodles, all sorts of salads (great potato salad, seaweed salad, sprouts, kimchi, etc.), appetizers, soup, rice, fruit punch, pineapple, chocolate cake, green tea...oh it was heavenly. Oh and every 30 minutes or so they would come out with a new dish sometimes it was marinated raw meat which you took back to your table and grilled it over glowing charcoals or it was a dish already cooked (i.e., honey glazed yams with sesame seeds, spicy Korean dough things...don't know what it's called, soft shell crabs-already cooked in a spicy sauce, lamb chops (raw)). Anyways we ate for more than 2 hours. At the end we didn't even have to pay for the meal bc the guy said it was covered by our 500 club fee that supposedly we already paid for...eh anyways.

I'm definitely going back to this place. Oh and I asked but nobody really knows the third character so the name of the restaurant is 長壽＿＿前 (Chang Shou). Go to this website and if you know the 3rd character-post a comment! (www.llbbq.com.tw)=> OK I think the third character is just an antiquated way of writing 站（zhan).

Oh in class today we talked about plastic surgery (美容）and Maru mentioned how Koreans all get their eyelids altered and then Jimmy said that in America a lot of parents buy a pair of silicone breasts for their daughters when they graduate from high school haha. Anyways, it reminded me of that when I got on Facebook bc one of my Facebook friends joined this group called, "Face it-Some Asians Are Just Unbelievably Hot And Beautiful!" So being a curious being, I browsed the photos and videos posted in the group.

I found this K Pop song to be really catchy:


And I found this J Pop music video to be hilarious bc of the inane lyrics and how she constantly gropes her own boobs.


Oh and Yosuke (AKA Yo-Yo) taught me a lot of dirty Jap phrases:
Baka Jin (dick...I think?)
Jinkasu Yaro (Jizz)--this one was hilarious bc he explained in broken, rudimentary Chinese w/ hand motions
Shinei (go die)
Hala yi bai (I'm full)

Oh and it's past 2 AM...but I'm not tired. This is bad since I went to class this morning at 11 AM...and class starts at 10:20 AM. I hope I won't be late for class again tomorrow morning. Luckily today we didn't have our quiz until the third hour. I think I'll review for my quiz quickly and then watch a "4400" episode and then hit the hay.

Update: SHIT! it's 12:14 AM and class ends at 1:10 PM so...it's not worth getting up for class now. That means I have missed today's quiz AND today's activity (debate/skit), where I represent the boss. Man, I really need to fix my sleep cycle.

Chinese Medicine/Food; Tae Kwon Do; Kickboxing; Midnight Meal; Test

Today Liwen took us to the much touted Chinese medicine restaurant...and I have to admit I was skeptical bc zhong yao or "Chinese medicine" doesn't exactly conjure up great culinary pleasures like a filet mignon or Korean Kal bi BBQ beef does...but it was delicious! I was really impressed. It wasn't what I expected. I got the ___soup w/ free range chicken (I won't even attempt to spell out the Latin word for the Chinese medicinal soup...pax something...and it's supposed to be good for my skin). Maru got the Ginseng chicken soup and rice w/ free range chicken strips and sauce. Li wen is doing some Buddhist thing where she only eats veggies for 10 days...so she got this cabbage dish and a enoki dish (the little white mushrooms) both were also delicious. I also got a xi mian (thin noodles w/ some sauce-really good. And I got a green tea sweetened with honey. After eating everything I felt really healthy and clean inside as well as satisfied and full. I'm definitely going back there in the future.

Today was the first time I went to the TKD club and I didn't know what to expect but it was a really fun workout. I love the feeling of kicking as hard as you can into pads. Next time they are even going to start sparring.

Right after TKD I rushed off to CKS Mem to kickboxing and I went to the advanced class today, which was cool bc we learned how to do a proper uppercut with both hands. I still need to remember to keep my guard up since in TKD we keep the guard pretty low near the chest...since it's not really close combat like boxing/kickboxing but more long and mid-range w/ lots of kicking (so protecting the face is not as important as low blocking of kicks to the legs and torso).

So after working out from 7:00-11:30 PM, needless to say I was famished! (I had dinner at the Korean place right before TKD). So on the way back home I called Xuan Zi and luckily he was home. So we went to the 24 hour diner type place but it served Taiwanese food. I got an egg pork chop burger, some veggie sandwich (shao bing), green tea, and a scallion pork bun.

I feel like this Taizhong biking trip on Saturday is getting in the way of a lot of stuff...Cheap Hippie Kickboxing is having a big party that day...and it's also Conor's Bday....oh well I think I'll be able to make it to Wax on Sat. when I come back.

Now it's time to study for my test. I also have an activity tomorrow where I represent the boss and I need to debate the workers who are going on strike...but that's easy so I'll just wing it.

Heard this song during kickboxing (Danish music):


the music video is disturbing...yet cute, since it's animated...

Monday Update

So I always have 2 alarms on my cell phone (it's set on daily so it goes off EVERYDAY including weekends if I forget to delete them). I don't mind usually bc I just turn it off and then just go back to sleep (on weekends). Except I did that this morning...

I have two alarms, one at 8:45 AM and one at 9:15 AM. My class is at 10:20 AM. When the first alarm went off I even woke up and checked facebook wished Conor a happy birthday and even watched some of "Aeon Flux" (a classic animated TV show that aired on MTV in 1995 and was later made into a crappier live action version w/ Charlize Theron).

Anyways, I checked the time and it was around 9 something and I felt I still had plenty of time to nap and then wake up and brush my teeth and get ready so I paused Aeon and went back to sleep. Only the next time I woke up was either noon or 1 PM I forget. Anyways, I know I definitely woke up at 1 something and then I was like oh shit...I ended up surfing the net for awhile, chatting w/ Jess the cow etc., and then by 2 PM I finally dragged my ass out and went to the night market to get some sustenance-I ate a fan che niu rou gan mian (tomato and beef noodles). Ah no I had that for dinner...for lunch I had tonkatsu (fried pork chop) w/ curry stew and rice.

Then I got the homework assignment from Jimmy and went to the library to finish that. Then I went to Judo, which put me in a bad mood bc I ended up w/ the beginners group (bc David Rosales told the coach that I didn't know the basics yet). Now I know I probably should be in that group since I've only learned Judo for 3 days but still. Then I went to lift weights, which put me in a much better mood.

Anyways, this song pretty sums up how I'm feeling today:


Now I gotta study for my quiz tomorrow.

Weekend Blur

So it's Sunday night and I can't really recall what I did this weekend...

On Monday, the teacher always has us discuss what we did over the weekend in Mandarin and usually I can dredge up something respectable or productive like hiking up a mountain or going to a museum or going to some interesting place in Taiwan...but this weekend all I can think of is getting plastered.

I definitely remember going to Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT stop several times this weekend.

I went to Wax (all you can drink) and Hips (a Latin club) for the foam party. I also went to Luxy twice but we ended up going elsewhere. After Hips, we walked to this 24 hour dim sum place called Cityview HK or something...and it was delicious. The best luo buo gao ever and really great shumai but it was pretty expensive.

In other news, my plants seem to be dying and I don't know why...I water them and I put them on the windowsill...it's annoying me.

Ah and a lot of drinking means a lot of time in bed recovering...which meant I watched a ton of DVDs! I watched a lot of "The 4400" and I started "24"...I didn't think I would like it but now I'm hooked. Elisha Cuthbert was kidnapped...now what? I have to wait for my neighbor to come back so I can borrow his DVDs. I also watched a lot of "The Boondocks." I'm usually too lazy to watch many movies but I watched "Ratatouille" and "The Bourne Ultimatum."

Oh and it's finally starting to get somewhat chilly in Taipei...but it's still really muggy.

Dadaocheng; Kickboxing at CKS Memorial; Wax Club; Mary Jane Thin Crust Pizza

So it's Taiwan's National Day (10-10) is nearly at its end (it's 11:46 PM). I spent this entire day sleeping basically, but I think I deserve it since I've had an eventful 2 days.

On Tuesday, I had a group presentation and a lesson test. Then after class and a brief lunch our class and the afternoon class met up at Guting MRT and to go on our class excursion to Di Hua Jie, which I have to say was sort of a let-down. She did tell us that it has been in decline since ppl now just go to Danshui or Dong Qu (Eastern district). Also, the Taiwanese gov't long ago moved its base from Dadaocheng to the area near Taipei 101. Still it was interesting to see Taiwan's historical roots. The buildings (thought dilapidated) still bore it's Japanese baroque and minnan (Southern Chinese) roots. So I took some photos at our first stop (out of 12), which was a tea house, before my camera died on me. I learned about fermenting tea, curing it (roasting it over charcoal), etc. Then we drank some tea and it made us all nearly fall asleep. I know tea is supposed to have some caffeine but it never fails if I drink HOT tea (and I stress hot bc cold tea has no such effect on me) it always makes me feel really calm and sleepy.

The teahouse
where they cure and dry the tea leaves

charcoal
curing, sifting machines

My favorite part of that excursion was actually the Hakka restaurant which wasn't even planned. A lot of ppl left but the teacher took Lise (French), Matic (Slovenian), Sebastian (French), Ji Ru (Costa Rican/Taiwanese), and me to the restaurant and it was so delicious.

The class field trip was supposed to be from 2-5 PM but I didn't get back to my place until 7:30 and then my landlord called me demanding payment (she's a major bitch...always griping at me about something). Then I rushed off since I was going to Taipei Kickboxing for the first time at C.K.S. Memorial, which is free and taught by the Danish kickboxing champion, Anders (www.cheaphippie.com). I didn't really know what to expect but it was great. The weather was great too--Taipei is finally starting to cool off. It was great since the kickboxing is outside on the giant plaza at CKS. My legs and abs are still sore from Tuesday night. It lasted from 8-10:40 PM.

After I took a shower, I met up w/ Pierre at Luxy and he said the cover was 600 but it turned out to be 1200 NTD bc there was some famous DJ from Japan. A bunch of French girls and a Korean girl from Fu Ren Da Xue also did not want to pay the exorbitant cover so we changed venue to Wax. And lo and behold, I see drunk aSebastian there. We all ended up crashing at Mike's place that night since my place was too small.

Today I went to Mary Jane's Pizza and it was delicious. I got the chicken & shrooms pizza.



I also watched "Ratatouille" today and I could definitely relate to that rat since I want to be a chef too.

Typhoon Aftermath

This was one of the strongest typhoons I've seen since I came to Taiwan. It ruined my weekend...and it's seemed to have done some damage to Taipei as well.

Cabin Fever; Internet; Iwo Jima

I've been stuck inside all day and I'm starting to get cabin fever. All I gotta say is thank god for the internet. I've been watching DVDs and free movies/TV shows online (I'm not going to name the site, but I found out about it from a comment made on a YouTube video...ah the beauty of the internet). I'm currently waiting for a "4400" episode and "The Bourne Ultimatum" to finish buffering. I went through several episodes of season 4 "The 4400" and season 1 of "Firefly;" they are both sci-fi/fantasy TV shows. I just finished watching "Letters from Iwo Jima," which I heard is better than "Flags of Our Fathers." After my shower I'll probably start "Flags." (I haven't showered in awhile bc last night there was only cold water and being couped up in a small apartment all day eating junk food + not showering + Taipei's heat and humidity...not a great combination--to be blunt, I'm pretty rank). I'm really getting sick of the sound of rain. The rain has let up a lot since this morning and last night but it's still relentless. At least now I don't have to use my headphones to hear though...

I really can't wait for it to stop raining. Aunt Mimi says the typhoon should be gone by tomorrow morning. I can't believe it's nearly Sunday.

My internet has been acting up though. It's really slow and I like to open up multiple tabs and windows but there's an issue with right-clicking and the box being hidden behind windows. I don't want to restart bc my movies/TV shows are still loading and are nearly done.

Anyways, I really like this song from "Iwo Jima." It really fits the movie.



I felt the movie was kind of slow and dragged along at times. I liked the faded out grey tint of the movie, though I feel like Clint Eastwood is overdoing that. All of his recent movies have been some melancholy and the picture is always a somber grey tint with all the colors faded out. It does the trick, but it's overplayed.

Typhoon; Car Accident; Foreign Servants; Arm

So I usually rejoice when I hear about an oncoming typhoon...but alas this one is hitting Taipei over the weekend, which basically ruins my plans. I bought sandwiches, bread, Ramen, fruit, and juice since I'm going to be holed up over the weekend. This really blows.

Anyways, now on to what I really want to write about. My aunt just told me that my mom told her NOT to tell me but she felt I should know...she kept telling me not to get worked up and I was like fuck just tell me already! Well she told me that my dad completely totaled the old Toyota and was put in the hospital. He sustained injuries to his torso and was even hospitalized. Of course it wasn't his fault but he hasn't seen any money yet bc the insurance companies are still dealing with that. Well I want to make damn sure that those responsible for this are going to cough up every last penny. I contacted my cousin who is in NYC (although she's a patent/corporate/something? lawyer I'm sure she still knows about this type of thing). I want to make sure my dad does not back out of suing these bastards for all their worth.

I really don't know what the hell is going on...in the span of less than a week my 87 year old grandmother was viciously attacked by a stray dog, to the point that she can't even leave her small apartment nor MOVE. She has to have food delivered to her by her friends. She said last time she tried to walk to a cab she fell on her face. Now I get news from my aunt that my dad is in bed recovering from a serious car accident. I haven't spoken to my parents in weeks...and now I can't even call them right away since there's a fucking typhoon.

Thank god Xuan Zi gave me a bunch of his DVDs bc I think I am going to be bored out of my mind this weekend.

I just finished season 3 of the "The 4400." I think the play pretty good music. I liked this song which was in one of the episodes I watched recently. It's "Open Your Eyes" by Snow Patrol...and it really fits my mood right now.



I was pretty tired from going to Brass Monkey (a bar) last night. I took quick naps during my 3 hr class I was so out of it. I missed one problem on my quiz bc I completely misheard the question (I definitely would have gotten it right under other circumstances). Jimmy was completely out of it too. At one point I started laughing out loud during class bc he had this vacant expression on his face and was staring off into space and the teacher asked why he was fa dai. I saw Geoff in the hallway and he said he had a hangover too...but his class was only 2 hrs long so he got to leave at 12 which is when I get the most hungry and the most tired...I seriously considered just leaving during break to go eat. I heard from Jimmy that Pierre dropped 2,000 NTD last night.

I thought it was pretty funny in class today when the teacher asked the Thai girl if she knew any servants. Okay maybe I should first preface this remark. The textbook mentions that all blue collar work and maid/servants are held by immigrants, specifically Filipinos, Thais, and Indonesians (Southeast Asians make up the lower class in Taiwan...Jimmy said that's why Taiwanese girls don't want to tan). They even have specific phrases for Filipino servants, Thai servants, etc. (as Taiwanese ppl feel it's below them to do such work). The teacher said that it's probably the same case in our respective countries. Anyways, the teacher just flat out targets the Thai girl and asks if her friends are servants in Taiwan...it was hilarious but I checked my laughter. During lunch we discussed this and the fact that most of us have Filipino maids at our apartments. At the apartment I live at there's a free Filipino maid who lives w/ the landlady. She goes to all 5 floors and cleans the hallways and the bathrooms.

Anyways, after eating spaghetti bolognese (and the rest of Maru's salmon cream pasta) at the Italian pasta place in the night market I went straight home and slept for hours and put my phone on silent. I slept through my language exchange meeting...later I saw she called at least 3 times but I don't really care...I was so tired..plus it's raining cats and dogs outside. I also forgot to go check if my scholarship money was deposited. They way things are going...I'm doubtful.

My arm is feeling a lot better. I think the 2 day supply of pills I got at the free clinic really helped, the drug is called Piroxicam (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug or NSAID which decreases inflammation in joints). Hopefully by Monday I'll be back in action since I've been out of commission for 2 days now and not doing any exercise for 2 days feels really odd to me. I didn't go to taekwondo, gymnastics, basketball, nor the weight room. Speaking of...Geoff and Connor are going to the free kick-boxing thing which I saw posted on the bulletin board but I found out our class outing to Di Hua Jie is on Tuesday from 2-5 PM...and we have class (and the lesson 22 test) from 10:20-1:10 PM. Tuesday's going to be mighty busy, but at least Wednesday will be free bc 10-10 is Taiwan's Independence Day.

Long Week..and it's only Wednesday

Man it's been a long week...and it's only Wednesday.

I'm pretty pissed bc it's been about a week and a half since I've gone to gymnastics and I finally decided to go today and the only guy from our group who was there was David, who left for dinner soon after I arrived-he said he's going back to the gym after dinner to workout in the weight room. I called Wei Yuan and found out that just for today practice was to be held at 6 PM...wtf. I didn't get the memo...apparently he said he just found out at 4:30 too and 4:30 PM is the usual time of practice. This happened last Friday I went (I was 2 hrs late but that's bc I had to meet w/ my language exchange partner) and when I arrived there wasn't much of anything going on so I decided to leave. I'm so pressed for time that I haven't had time to go to my internship, English tutoring sessions, nor extracurricular stuff that I want to check out (like the free Muay Thai lessons at CKS)...so showing up to gymnastics and wasting my time doesn't rub me the right way.

Anyways, so instead of studying at night I've been watching "4400" a lot. In the last episode I watched near the end they had a dramatic montage accompanied by the song, "Into the Fire" by Thirteen Seasons.



Original song (nearly 2 minutes shorter):



The good news is that Jenny from the MTC office told me that my scholarship should be deposited this Friday. Thank goodness. I can't wait to get shitfaced on Thursday. This week has been dragging along.

I heard there's a typhoon coming, which normally would be cause for celebration...only it's coming on Sunday...hopefully I can miss Monday though. Keeping my fingers crossed.

UPDATE 10:10 PM:

I went to Judo today...I intended to go to gymnastics but it got boring so I told our group leader I was going to the weight room...then David showed up after dinner and we crashed the Judo class( he's a blue belt and has been taking Judo for 8 yrs...so he ended up teaching me for awhile). It was pretty intense...and fun. I sparred (for lack of a better term)..wrestled/grappled with this Spanish guy who learned Ninjitsu so he kept using these dirty ninja tricks on me. He would fall on the ground and then kick me over his head and then twist my arm around. At one point I realized he wasn't letting up and my arm is not meant to be twisted at that angle so I told him to stop. He also kicked my foot so that skin was ripped off...I guess he has long toenails. I'm going to gymnastics and Taekwondo tomorrow to see how that goes. I already agreed to buy a Judo uniform...I think the price is steep (800NTD) but David insists that's really cheap for a Judo uniform since they are really thick; he said he wore a TKD uniform once and it just ripped during Judo.

After class I went to dinner w/ the two black belt Judo guys (one of which is the teacher). It's funny how ppl are outside of a formal setting. During practice they are so serious and disciplined...outside of class they just talked about going to pubs, picking up chicks, and that their gfs are NOT in Taipei..if you get my drift. Shaun (Guo Shi Rong) the guy who showed me his Judo scars--he had surgery on his knee bc the cartilage was ruined when his knee went the wrong direction during competition--invited me to his house bc his friends were playing mahjong but I don't play so I said some other time.

Grandma attacked by dog; Watermelon; 4400; Classical Music Concert; Lesson 21; Scholarship Status; Taizhong Biking Trip

So I called my grandma (who lives in Yonghe) today after lunch and the first thing she told me was that she was bit by a dog! She said a stray dog ran after her when she was walking to her friend's apartment. She said her shoe was covered in blood and she had to get shots and stitches. I'm pretty pissed...she said that the dog doesn't have an owner so she can't hold someone accountable. Imagine an 87 year old woman being viciously attacked by a dog and then having to go to a hospital to get shots and stitches. That really pisses me off. I think someone must own/abandoned that dog and I want to hunt that person down and kick their ass...or at least sue them/decide on a settlement. What a scumbag.
____________

Anyways....this is completely trivial but due to the urging of a particular Jess...I bought the much touted Taiwanese watermelon which is smaller and has yellow flesh. I ate half of it last night when I was on my "4400" watching marathon (I'm on Season 3 now).

Small watermelon...


but quite tasty.
The watermelon was really good. I'm also addicted to 4400 now...I don't know what will happen when I'm done w/ season 3...my neighbor hasn't downloaded season 4 yet. I guess I'll move on to "Firefly" or "24" or some other American TV show he's downloaded and put on discs.

Masao from class invited us all to a classical music concert tonight, which his girlfriend is playing in (she plays the clarinet). I got a free ticket and we are meeting at Jiang Zi MRT stop at 6:40 PM. I have a lesson 21 test tomorrow but I think I'm ready so I can still go out tonight.

Class today was pretty interesting. We debated duo tai (abortion) and we got both extreme views in our class. The teacher is for it. I also had to perform my skit today where I played the son who wanted to marry an African girl and the father who is against it...quite amusing but not my idea haha.

This is amusing picture is in our textbook right below the dialogue.
The caption reads, "Ni yi wei xia yu bu chuan yu yi xing ma?" It roughly translates to: "Do you think it's wise to go outside without a raincoat when it's raining?"

In other news, it's October 2nd and I still have not received my September stipend NOR my October stipend....Taiwanese bureaucracy...sigh...

So they announced over the PA system multiple times today but Jimmy and Masao still managed to not hear it. I guess I'm more observant...or I just have ADD and tend to pay attention to distractions. Well, I asked about it and it's a Saturday trip down to Taizhong where we rent bikes and ride around some place and then go to a Hakka tea ceremony. It's only 350 NTD (the cost of a meal) and it includes lunch, transportation, insurance, and bikes fees. That's what I call a good deal...plus I've never been to Taizhong (Taichung) so Jimmy, Lise, and I signed up after lunch. Looking forward to it. It's only going to be one day...departing at 7 AM and arriving back in Taipei at 7:30 PM.

Mid-Autumn Festival; Cross-straight Relations; Ilan

So I've been pretty busy/lazy this week. Classes resumed on Wednesday after the Mid-Autumn Festival/Moon Festival/Zhong Qiu Jie. Thursday we had our lesson 20 test on drugs and on Friday we had a quiz on lesson 21, which covers relationships (pregnancy, abortion, affairs, prophylatics, etc.).

My legs are so tired bc on Wednesday gymnastics training lasted from 4:30-8:45 PM...I guess it lasts that long everyday but David and I stayed even later this time. I ran into the other gymnastics guys at Shida night market after I took my shower. My neighbor and I were heading over to eat lu wei (you choose the items and they cook it in this broth, chop it up, add sauces, and then bring it over to your table), when we say them-they were going to an Italian pasta restaurant, which my neighbor (Xuan Zhi) says serves bad food and is expensive.

Anyways, I guess I should cover some of what I did over the long weekend...

My uncle drove us through the longest tunnel in Asia (8 miles long) which cuts through a mountain and it's called Xue Shan Shui Dao or (Hsuehshan tunnel). It was just built recently and it allows Taipei folk to go to Ilan (Yi Lan) in an hour and a half (that's not counting traffic, which got pretty horrible due to the long weekend). I found this article by accident, which talks about the tunnel to Ilan: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0720/p04s02-woap.html

In other news, Chen Shui Bian's bid to have Taiwan represented in the UN failed...big surprise there. Last time I checked Taiwan was still called R.O.C. and is only recognized as a state by 11 Latin American and African countries, which Taiwan bribes every year with aid money for the third world. Asus or some other Taiwanese brand recently developed a small laptop costing about $200 intended for use in the third world. Taiwan also has the world's largest charity foundation. Don't get me wrong....I think Taiwan's 23 million people should be represented...but as long as China is in the Security Council I don't see how things are going to change. That's why I'm in favor of Ma Ying Jeou's proposal in pleasing Beijing rather than trying to provoke it. I recently also found out Chen Shui Bian barred the Olympic torch from touching Taiwanese ground.

On a lighter note, here are some photos from Yi Lan (from my cousin's camera).

"cow tongues"-they're actually just crackers-really tasty too.




We went to the world's only (?) cold springs resort--all the others are hot springs (water that is heated due to volcanic activity, which is really popular in East Asia). I also went to a spa resort in Yi Lan (well actually in Su Hao).







Then we drove to Toucheng and Su Hao and some other places on the northeastern coast of Taiwan where we saw lots of surfers and hang gliders and had amazing seafood.



I'm going to post most of the pictures on Picasa bc it takes forever to load photos on to Blogger.




The rest of the photos are up on Picasa.