So I went to Hong Yi's place to worship wo de zu xian (the Yu ancestors), hence the first couple of incongruous photos in that Google pics photo album. My aunt told me to lie to get out of it bc she said it would be really boring and that the food would be contaminated by incense ash...her being catholic probably had to do w/ it also.
Anyways, after a huge feast I fell asleep in bed while watching "Castle in the Sky" with Hong Yi's two little girls. It felt so nice to sleep on a real mattress. And it was the softest mattress I've ever slept in! It was a slice of heaven. When I was in my fog of sleep the girls were going crazy (feng kuang). They kept saying lou dian (opening?) and trying to lift each other skirts. They would fight to keep it down while trying to pull up the other's skirt. They woul tickle, punch, slap, kick, basically use any means necessary...it was both shocking and funny to watch these girls play/fight. You Kai Qi would start to punch at her sister's legs and stomach and arms and You Luo Li (who takes Taekwondo) would kick her sister in the head, chest, etc and then tackle her. Anyways, it was very amusing to watch. Those girls are tough!
Later they took me to Danshui but You Luo Li, who is older, had to go to class so she couldn't come and I heard she started to cry. So it was just the 4 of us. It was so muggy out there at Danshui. When I stepped out my glasses instantly fogged up and didn't get better until several minutes later.
After strolling around we took a boat to Ba Li where I ate A LOT...sigh...Hong Yi never believes me when I say I am full....
After dinner I ate these tie dan (hard chewy eggs, that have been marinated and then laid out in the sea air to cure, and then repeat this process many times, during which the egg actually shrinks to more than half its size). They also sold small sparrow (?) eggs.
Then we all got foot massages. Most of the ppl working there were blind or nearly blind. The foot massage was PAINFUL. It's supposed to be medicinal rather than relaxing like in the West. It was a wake-up call bc the masseuse told me that I had bad circulation due to lack of exercise, I had a bad digestion, and I had a bad back...Well I injured my lower back in Europe during the attempted mugging (the guy had a running start and then kneed or kicked me in my small lower back). I've been doing nothing but eating for the past week and half so I guess that explains the bad digestion and bad circulation. Oh and when I go out w/ Hong Yi he only orders the DEEP FRIED and super SWEET stuff loaded with carbs or he gets the strangest parts of the animals stuff..that my aunt said is unsanitary and has high chances of getting you sick (ie snails carry some virus)....GREAT...I told her what am I supposed to say? It's what my dad's side likes to eat..
After eating another gazillion things, we left to get my replacement cell phone (which had none of my numbers on...even though my SIM card was switched?? i don't know why i thought all my contacts would stay on my card...)
Then we went to Shilin ye shi (night market). Where Hong Yi bought me MORE food...despite protests and of course more drinks bc it was so hot outside. I had this limeade but it was made w/ tiny little limes. I also had an ai yu (I love ai yu! it's clear gelatin usually had with syrup and lime juice) drink. At the night market I got a pair of jeans and since my waist is small but I have a "big legs" they gave me a size up and then altered the waist but cinching it. They also changed the length and they did this in like 5 minutes....at no extra charge. I told them that in America they dont' really do this...you just have to find a size that fits you and that usually takes forever or it doesn't happen at all and you compensate with a belt or other means. The whole time the girl woudl bring me other sizes and make recommendations too so it made the process fast and easy. I didn't have to look for any jeans myself. Then I bought some other t-shirts, this guy told me the designs won awards in competitions...I didn't know they had competitions for t-shirt designs... Then I started looking through trucker hats since EVERYONE wears them in Taipei...and I felt weird wearing my cloth hat.
Anyways, it was sort of awkward shopping with the family so I said I was done shopping. It was midnight and he drove me home. He said the ye shi didn't end till about 2 AM and we had only see maybe 1/3 or less of it. It's a MASSIVE night market.
So I went home with so many bags bc in addition to the cell phone and accessories and my clothes they also bought me some a danshui bing (it's apparently famous and everyone who gets married buys one) and some other food to take home.
So my aunt always uses MSN...and she just told me that today I will have to eat lunch by myself; this will be the first time in Taiwan that I will order for myself haha it should be fine even though I can't read the menu.
I heard this on the radio last night:
Angela Chang "Aurora"
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Taipei 101 Observatory
I was too tired to update last night so this is about yesterday's excursion.
For lunch my uncle treated us and his sister's family to a Zhejiang restaurant (I didn't really like the food--he said Zhejiang and Jiangsu are known to have bland and slightly sweeter food).
After lunch, we sang some karaoke. The only song I could manage to sing most of the lyrics was Yue liang dai biao ni de lian (the moon reflects your face) and Lao shu ai da mi (Mice love rice) they are both Mainland songs (which according to them are very simple and repetitive...perfect for an American....).
Oh and in the car I heard a bunch of old classic songs that I used to hear as a kid. I can't remember nor find most of the songs on youtube but I found two of them:
Wen bie (Goodbye Kiss) by Jacky Cheung
Ting hai ku de shen ying (sea listen??) by A-mei
We took the fastest elevator in the world (2 of them, made by Toshiba, travels 1020 or so mph--don't quote me on that, takes 37 seconds to get to the top) up to the top of Taipei 101, my ears popped several times but it wasn't as unpleasant as you would imagine.
A lot of these photos are already on Facebook bc loading photos is so much faster on fb...but I'm posting some photos here that I didn't bother to post on fb (cuz i already reached my 60 photos per album limit and I'm too lazy to start a new album).
Views from the top:
According to Wikipedia, Taiwan is ranked 14th in population density...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density
Monaco is 1st, Hong Kong is 3rd, Singapore is 4th, South Korea is 19th, Japan is 30th...
I live in the most densely populated district in Taipei (Daan district).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_densely_populated_administrative_units_in_the_world
Largest tuned mass damper in the world and the only one open to the public. It's what keeps Taipei 101 from collapsing during typhoon and earthquake situations. It is precisely due to Taipei's volatile environment that Taipei 101 is considered an engineering marvel.
Evening shots of Taipei City:
There was fireworks off Taipei 101 last night...but we were waiting for our table at the Thai restaurant at the time so I missed it.
Ceiling of the mall next to Taipei 101
Performance outside Taipei 101
Later we went to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (xin guang san yue) shopping mall and ate at a fancy Thai restaurant. REALLY GOOD but I was too hungry to bother to take any photos...oh well. Just know I had a feast! Oh and Zach Lifton just happened to be in the area so he came up to the 7th floor and we chatted. I'm going to check out the kungfu dojo where he trains at.
For lunch my uncle treated us and his sister's family to a Zhejiang restaurant (I didn't really like the food--he said Zhejiang and Jiangsu are known to have bland and slightly sweeter food).
After lunch, we sang some karaoke. The only song I could manage to sing most of the lyrics was Yue liang dai biao ni de lian (the moon reflects your face) and Lao shu ai da mi (Mice love rice) they are both Mainland songs (which according to them are very simple and repetitive...perfect for an American....).
Oh and in the car I heard a bunch of old classic songs that I used to hear as a kid. I can't remember nor find most of the songs on youtube but I found two of them:
Wen bie (Goodbye Kiss) by Jacky Cheung
Ting hai ku de shen ying (sea listen??) by A-mei
We took the fastest elevator in the world (2 of them, made by Toshiba, travels 1020 or so mph--don't quote me on that, takes 37 seconds to get to the top) up to the top of Taipei 101, my ears popped several times but it wasn't as unpleasant as you would imagine.
A lot of these photos are already on Facebook bc loading photos is so much faster on fb...but I'm posting some photos here that I didn't bother to post on fb (cuz i already reached my 60 photos per album limit and I'm too lazy to start a new album).
Views from the top:
According to Wikipedia, Taiwan is ranked 14th in population density...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density
Monaco is 1st, Hong Kong is 3rd, Singapore is 4th, South Korea is 19th, Japan is 30th...
I live in the most densely populated district in Taipei (Daan district).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_densely_populated_administrative_units_in_the_world
Largest tuned mass damper in the world and the only one open to the public. It's what keeps Taipei 101 from collapsing during typhoon and earthquake situations. It is precisely due to Taipei's volatile environment that Taipei 101 is considered an engineering marvel.
Evening shots of Taipei City:
There was fireworks off Taipei 101 last night...but we were waiting for our table at the Thai restaurant at the time so I missed it.
Ceiling of the mall next to Taipei 101
Performance outside Taipei 101
Later we went to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (xin guang san yue) shopping mall and ate at a fancy Thai restaurant. REALLY GOOD but I was too hungry to bother to take any photos...oh well. Just know I had a feast! Oh and Zach Lifton just happened to be in the area so he came up to the 7th floor and we chatted. I'm going to check out the kungfu dojo where he trains at.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Yun Han's Friend's Birthday
Today I first went to my aunt's place and had delicious lunch with spicy beef soup, clam soup, and hang guo cao nian gao. Then we watched "Poseidon."
At night my cousin, Yun Han, some of her friends, and I went to Flavor, which is the only Swedish restaurant in Taipei, according to "Gastronomy" magazine. The Swedish owner is married to a Taiwanese girl, he came by later and gave us all these red drinks. He later told us they were aphrodisiacs...he said the girls' shots have cardamon while the guys' shots have cinnamon among many other spices and liquor. He played the happy birthday song in the restaurant too since we were the only ones left. Then when he brought over the shots he sang in Swedish.
On Valentine's day he said only the people on the e-mail list will be allowed to come (we are on the e-mail list) and all the foods will be aphrodisiacs...interesting. (He said no touching until you leave the restaurant haha).
I didn't take pictures of the red wine, coffee, or potato soup but you get the idea. The wine was pretty good it was something Diablo and it's from Chile. It got Ben pretty drunk as you can see haha...
When we were outside he later told me to go to Green Island, which he swears has better diving than the Great Barrier Reef. He said that there are hundreds of hammerhead sharks there and they don't bite bc they are too busy having sex (he demonstrated with hip thrusts). He also said there are many marine creatures there that you can't see anywhere else. He also told me to go to the National Palace Museum, which he swears is a must see even if you don't appreciate art. He said that he's been to many capitals throughout the world but Taipei is his favorite...he said that the people are nice, the food is great, the scenery is beautiful...
He said that it took him awhile to get used to Taiwanese food but now he loves it. He said the restaurant next to his used to be Hakka and he would eat there. He urged me to try native Taiwanese and Hakka/Hokkien food as well.
I'm excited...I've never been diving before. I also want to go to the famous tourist spot, Kenting.
My salad with balsamic vinegarette.
Salad with bacon and honey mustard sauce or hollandaise sauce.
Baked mushrooms with blue cheese.
Swedish meatballs with some fruit jam.
Pork fillet with potatoes au gratin
Beef.
The gift was an expensive Italian pen with strategically placed magnets in order to open and close it. It's hard to explain but it's pretty neat.
drunk Ben and the birthday girl
Apple pie a la mode.
The chocolate mousse cake that my cousin and I got on Roosevelt Road. It costed 666 NTD.
Afterwards, we went to Yong Kang Jie to get dessert.
Mangoes, kiwis, and strawberries with a scoop of mango sorbet. Tangy and delicious.
And then we went to a kids' playground and fooled around. We had a pullup contest and then played on these spring things.
At night my cousin, Yun Han, some of her friends, and I went to Flavor, which is the only Swedish restaurant in Taipei, according to "Gastronomy" magazine. The Swedish owner is married to a Taiwanese girl, he came by later and gave us all these red drinks. He later told us they were aphrodisiacs...he said the girls' shots have cardamon while the guys' shots have cinnamon among many other spices and liquor. He played the happy birthday song in the restaurant too since we were the only ones left. Then when he brought over the shots he sang in Swedish.
On Valentine's day he said only the people on the e-mail list will be allowed to come (we are on the e-mail list) and all the foods will be aphrodisiacs...interesting. (He said no touching until you leave the restaurant haha).
I didn't take pictures of the red wine, coffee, or potato soup but you get the idea. The wine was pretty good it was something Diablo and it's from Chile. It got Ben pretty drunk as you can see haha...
When we were outside he later told me to go to Green Island, which he swears has better diving than the Great Barrier Reef. He said that there are hundreds of hammerhead sharks there and they don't bite bc they are too busy having sex (he demonstrated with hip thrusts). He also said there are many marine creatures there that you can't see anywhere else. He also told me to go to the National Palace Museum, which he swears is a must see even if you don't appreciate art. He said that he's been to many capitals throughout the world but Taipei is his favorite...he said that the people are nice, the food is great, the scenery is beautiful...
He said that it took him awhile to get used to Taiwanese food but now he loves it. He said the restaurant next to his used to be Hakka and he would eat there. He urged me to try native Taiwanese and Hakka/Hokkien food as well.
I'm excited...I've never been diving before. I also want to go to the famous tourist spot, Kenting.
My salad with balsamic vinegarette.
Salad with bacon and honey mustard sauce or hollandaise sauce.
Baked mushrooms with blue cheese.
Swedish meatballs with some fruit jam.
Pork fillet with potatoes au gratin
Beef.
The gift was an expensive Italian pen with strategically placed magnets in order to open and close it. It's hard to explain but it's pretty neat.
drunk Ben and the birthday girl
Apple pie a la mode.
The chocolate mousse cake that my cousin and I got on Roosevelt Road. It costed 666 NTD.
Afterwards, we went to Yong Kang Jie to get dessert.
Mangoes, kiwis, and strawberries with a scoop of mango sorbet. Tangy and delicious.And then we went to a kids' playground and fooled around. We had a pullup contest and then played on these spring things.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
ARC and Post Office
ARC (Alien Resident Card). My aunt and I waited for hours today to get my ARC. I couldn't even get it today. Then I had to go to the post office to open up an account because my scholarship money will be deposited there (post offices in Taiwan are different....) they won't deposit the money into a private bank, only gov't controlled post office. I couldn't do that today though bc my aunt only brought a copy of the temp ARC... At first they asked for my stamp thing but I don't have one of course...
I HATE bureaucracy. It's so inefficient and tedious.
Anyways, I'm exhausted. I went to return my "Alias" DVD and apparently it was overdue so I was fined 20 yuan. I got the next DVD...I finished both disc 6 and 7 tonight and now I'm done with "Alias" season 4. I can't wait to watch the last season...season 4 ended on a cliffhanger...Michael Vaughn is a "bad guy" and it was no coincidence that he was Sydney's handler. Furthermore, his real name isn't even Michael Vaughn. Once he revealed this to Sydney their car was smashed into by an SUV...
For lunch I went over to my aunt's house and called my mom...it was her birthday and I forgot...
I love my aunt's fishes. They are such curious fishes always swarming over to me when I sit down and observe them.
My aunt cooked for me today. She said she stewed the beef broth for 3 hours this morning. It was really good. Then I got zhua bing and shen jian bing for post-lunch snack. We got there around 4 pm when it opens in shida ye shi and we got there before the rush (they even had a counter going-ppl had to pick a number...and remember this is at 4 PM....). I was too lazy to take pictures but I took a picture of the lady cooking the zhua bing. I added garlic and chili sauce to it-delicious. I washed it down w/ hong cha gen limon (black tea + limeade)-very refreshing.
For dinner I had Korean food (Korean food and Thai food seems to be very popular in Taipei)-bulgogi with 2 eggs over easy. Ha tai tang (seaweed soup) and sweetened black tea (hong cha). For dessert, I got boba drink and ice cream (vanilla and mocha flavors). Vanilla is called xiang cao....'fragrant grass'..I was confused at first...I guess grass refers to the vanilla bean...
I'm going to go shower and then watch"Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer" now.
I HATE bureaucracy. It's so inefficient and tedious.
Anyways, I'm exhausted. I went to return my "Alias" DVD and apparently it was overdue so I was fined 20 yuan. I got the next DVD...I finished both disc 6 and 7 tonight and now I'm done with "Alias" season 4. I can't wait to watch the last season...season 4 ended on a cliffhanger...Michael Vaughn is a "bad guy" and it was no coincidence that he was Sydney's handler. Furthermore, his real name isn't even Michael Vaughn. Once he revealed this to Sydney their car was smashed into by an SUV...
For lunch I went over to my aunt's house and called my mom...it was her birthday and I forgot...
I love my aunt's fishes. They are such curious fishes always swarming over to me when I sit down and observe them.
My aunt cooked for me today. She said she stewed the beef broth for 3 hours this morning. It was really good. Then I got zhua bing and shen jian bing for post-lunch snack. We got there around 4 pm when it opens in shida ye shi and we got there before the rush (they even had a counter going-ppl had to pick a number...and remember this is at 4 PM....). I was too lazy to take pictures but I took a picture of the lady cooking the zhua bing. I added garlic and chili sauce to it-delicious. I washed it down w/ hong cha gen limon (black tea + limeade)-very refreshing.
For dinner I had Korean food (Korean food and Thai food seems to be very popular in Taipei)-bulgogi with 2 eggs over easy. Ha tai tang (seaweed soup) and sweetened black tea (hong cha). For dessert, I got boba drink and ice cream (vanilla and mocha flavors). Vanilla is called xiang cao....'fragrant grass'..I was confused at first...I guess grass refers to the vanilla bean...
I'm going to go shower and then watch"Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer" now.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Day 8
Today my grandma came to visit me. She took the MRT from Yonghe. I woke up at 8:30 AM today for some reason and after watching an interesting BBC documentary about the lives of Iranians in Tehran (which was 1 hr and 30 min). It's really interesting, you can watch it here on Google video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=554201962695917482&q=rageh+tehran&total=6&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0.
Afterwards, I went back to sleep and slept very soundly until I was roused violently from my sleep from loud banging and yelling and then I realized what the lady was saying and remembered that my grandma was coming to see me at 11 AM even though I told her 1:30 PM would be best bc I needed to bring my photo to ShiDa and eat breakfast...she insisted though.
Anyways, against my wishes she climbed the 5 stories and then when she got to my floor started yelling out my name but I was still in the shower so I yelled that the door was unlocked.
She brought over giant peaches, pears, and longans.
longans
She didn't bring this over but since I'm talking about fruits....this is one of my favorites. Ba la (guava).
We went to ShiDa but everyone was out for lunch so I asked a lady who ended up communicating w/ me by typing in English on her computer it took me a few seconds to figure out what was going on. I tried speaking to her in Mandarin and English then I read on her screen (which she was pointing at), it said that she can speak English but she lost her voice. She told me to come back at 2 PM and that we'll get our schedules at orientation (August 31st, 9 AM room 504). I was planning on going back sometimes between 2-4 PM but it's nearly 3 PM now and it's POURING outside so I doubt I'll get it done today. The thunder is so loud today sounds like it's almost going to hit people on the ground. When I was at Watson's there was such a loud thunder clap that this American ducked to the ground and hugged his head and then looked to his friend and said it must have struck the metal roof of Watson's. (I bought a ton of toilet paper and tissues (bulk) and a small sunblock (only size available) at Watson's).
I was lucky though I got back to my apartment right before it really started to come down. My grandma kept telling me to turn around and go back home before it rained bc we didn't bring out umbrellas (it was so sunny today and not very cloudy this came out of nowhere...welcome to Taiwan!), but I said we were almost there I had to show her the closer MRT since she got off at GuTing and Taipower station is much much closer. So I saw her off and briskly headed home. I got hit by some large pellets of rain before I started jogging home with my bulk toilet paper hitting me and my streetside bought limeade in hand.
Oh for lunch we went to lao da dao che mian in ShiDa ye shi (shida night market). It was SOOO GOOD. I got a fan che ban jing ban rou mian (tomato beef noodle soup but it had lean meat and jing...not sure what that's called). I've actually never had this before bc whenever I got niu rou mian I would get hong shao niu rou mian (beef braised in brown sauce-noodle soup).
Oh yeah and during lunch my grandma handed me this.
I told her that I didn't need lipstick but thanks anyways....
Then she showed me how to assemble the metal chopsticks. She said that the disposable chopsticks at the restaurants weren't healthy because they were recycled and disinfected in factories. She said only the ones where you break them apart are sanitary because they are brand new and not recycled....eh...well I accepted her gift to be polite.
So this is unrelated but I was too lazy to update last night. I went to an arcade with Yun Han and her friend and we took these pictures in a huge photo booth that takes pictures of your whole body and you have to like manuever yourself based on where the camera is and what is blocking what...hard to describe. The machines were all in Japanese. Afterwards, you went to a machine where you selected girly icons like stars or flowers etc which you could add to the photos. You could also add bunny ears and draw stuff and etc etc. I took some photos of the photo strips...
I actually played with this one I added all those twinkling stars at the base of the photo haha. As you can see I had fun and got carried away.
After this we played hoops in the arcade. I won the first time then Guo Zhi won the second time when we switched to another set up hoops machines (these bball hoops didn't move like the previous but were higher up).
Afterwards, I went back to sleep and slept very soundly until I was roused violently from my sleep from loud banging and yelling and then I realized what the lady was saying and remembered that my grandma was coming to see me at 11 AM even though I told her 1:30 PM would be best bc I needed to bring my photo to ShiDa and eat breakfast...she insisted though.
Anyways, against my wishes she climbed the 5 stories and then when she got to my floor started yelling out my name but I was still in the shower so I yelled that the door was unlocked.
She brought over giant peaches, pears, and longans.
longans
She didn't bring this over but since I'm talking about fruits....this is one of my favorites. Ba la (guava).
We went to ShiDa but everyone was out for lunch so I asked a lady who ended up communicating w/ me by typing in English on her computer it took me a few seconds to figure out what was going on. I tried speaking to her in Mandarin and English then I read on her screen (which she was pointing at), it said that she can speak English but she lost her voice. She told me to come back at 2 PM and that we'll get our schedules at orientation (August 31st, 9 AM room 504). I was planning on going back sometimes between 2-4 PM but it's nearly 3 PM now and it's POURING outside so I doubt I'll get it done today. The thunder is so loud today sounds like it's almost going to hit people on the ground. When I was at Watson's there was such a loud thunder clap that this American ducked to the ground and hugged his head and then looked to his friend and said it must have struck the metal roof of Watson's. (I bought a ton of toilet paper and tissues (bulk) and a small sunblock (only size available) at Watson's).
I was lucky though I got back to my apartment right before it really started to come down. My grandma kept telling me to turn around and go back home before it rained bc we didn't bring out umbrellas (it was so sunny today and not very cloudy this came out of nowhere...welcome to Taiwan!), but I said we were almost there I had to show her the closer MRT since she got off at GuTing and Taipower station is much much closer. So I saw her off and briskly headed home. I got hit by some large pellets of rain before I started jogging home with my bulk toilet paper hitting me and my streetside bought limeade in hand.
Oh for lunch we went to lao da dao che mian in ShiDa ye shi (shida night market). It was SOOO GOOD. I got a fan che ban jing ban rou mian (tomato beef noodle soup but it had lean meat and jing...not sure what that's called). I've actually never had this before bc whenever I got niu rou mian I would get hong shao niu rou mian (beef braised in brown sauce-noodle soup).
Oh yeah and during lunch my grandma handed me this.
I told her that I didn't need lipstick but thanks anyways....
Then she showed me how to assemble the metal chopsticks. She said that the disposable chopsticks at the restaurants weren't healthy because they were recycled and disinfected in factories. She said only the ones where you break them apart are sanitary because they are brand new and not recycled....eh...well I accepted her gift to be polite.
So this is unrelated but I was too lazy to update last night. I went to an arcade with Yun Han and her friend and we took these pictures in a huge photo booth that takes pictures of your whole body and you have to like manuever yourself based on where the camera is and what is blocking what...hard to describe. The machines were all in Japanese. Afterwards, you went to a machine where you selected girly icons like stars or flowers etc which you could add to the photos. You could also add bunny ears and draw stuff and etc etc. I took some photos of the photo strips...
I actually played with this one I added all those twinkling stars at the base of the photo haha. As you can see I had fun and got carried away.
After this we played hoops in the arcade. I won the first time then Guo Zhi won the second time when we switched to another set up hoops machines (these bball hoops didn't move like the previous but were higher up).
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