Outdoor B-ball; Novel Experiences; Wang Leehom Concert; 4th Meal & Movie

I didn't plan on doing anything today besides chillin' cuz I'm pretty tired from a long week. I slept in all day today and then did some laundry and ate lunch at Stone Bowl (Korean); I had the dong fen (vermicelli) seafood soup.

After my post-lunch nap I finally dragged my butt out of bed and left for the gym...but it was closed (I guess it's closed for the entire weekend? B/c I got there around 4 or 5 so that's pretty early to close). So I ended up playing b-ball outside. I played w/ this guy Xiao Ma, who was pretty good. He works in marketing and he's a surfer! I was pretty surprised when I learned about that bc I didn't know there were Taiwanese surfers (I always thought of that as a Californian or Hawaiian phenomenon haha). Anyways, I found out bc I asked what he does on weekends when we were waiting to play the next game. So he said he would call me the next time he drives to the beach on the weekends-I'm not gonna lie I'm really stoked bc I've never been surfing before.

This transitions to my next point, which is that I have had so many firsts since I've come to Taiwan.

1. 1st time learning traditional characters
2. 1st time experiencing an earthquake (and a strong one at that, 6.6 magnitude on the Richter scale!)
3. 1st time eating uterus (not particularly pleasant but still...my tang ge said he would take me to eat snake too!); 1st time eating tie dan
4. 1st time going to a hot spring (i will do this tomorrow, so I'm including it in my list now)
5. 1st time surfing (I will do this in the near future, so...ditto).
6. 1st time going to a ye shi (night market)-pretty fun experience
7. 1st time I've enjoyed modern art (haha OK maybe this shouldn't count but it's true! I enjoyed MOCA and I normally don't like modern art).
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Hopefully, this list will get a lot longer as the days go by.

I went to the FREE Wang Leehom (Wang Li Hong) Concert today after dinner at zhong zheng ji nian tang (Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, which is only 2 MRT stops down from the one I'm closest to so it was very convenient). Nico said it would start at 6:30...then when I called her during dinnertime she said 7:30 PM...well I got lazy and didn't go until 9 PM so I just caught the last song, which was "Cockney Girl."

Get ready for some blurry photos...

The zhong zheng ji nian tang (Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall gate).





The white blob in the middle is Leehom flanked by two hot dancing chicas haha. There wasn't nearly as many ppl as I expected...still I wasn't going to wait in line to get an autograph (Nico was there since 2:30 PM and she even stayed afterwards to get his autograph...girls...)

The last song I heard ("Cockney Girl"):



[So, I didn't like this song at first, but now I think it's pretty catchy.
Oh and uh...that girl's "cockney" Chinese is so terrible that I can't figure out what she's saying...if anyone understands please tell me the translation-appreciate it!]

So, normally I come home so full that I can barely breathe...but this entire day I ate by myself so I didn't get forced to eat tons and tons of expensive, huge portions. [Oh yeah for dinner I went to the closest restaurant-the Korean place (a different one than lunch) and got...whatchamacalit the rice dish w/ beef and veggies and sweet & spicy red sauce in a stone bowl so that the rice on the bottom gets burnt a little. YUM.]

Anyways after I got back from Leehom, I went to "Welcome" and got a bunch of food for my 4th meal. I went home and ate New Zealand kiwis, Mandarin orange yogurt, Kaoliang beef jerky (niu rou gan) made from Kinmen yellow cattle (beef that is not tainted by antibiotics and other stuff). I was still hungry so then I ate Ah-Q Ramen...sooooo good.

I think Taiwan products are packaged well...everything always looks so bright and appealing.

New Zealand kiwi (so cheap! only 69 NTD for a box of 7 or so)-it's sweeter and it has yellow flesh instead of green. It also has less hair on the outside and has that extra stump on the end.

I ate my 4th meal while watching "King Arthur," which was better than I expected. It reminded me a lot of "Gladiator" and "Braveheart." There was a lot of cheesy moments though, especially when Clive Owen tried to be dramatic. I thought Keira Knightley played her role as a pagan Saxon pretty well though. She just did her classic brooding, sexy face (the same as in "Pirates") where she tries to look tough but she just comes off as sexy and smoldering. I didn't really buy the scenes where she fights and kills people in battle w/ her small little knife and twig like arms. Even though some parts were really corny I still liked it-pretty entertaining.

Then again I didn't pay a cent...I borrowed the DVD from my uncle, who bought it for barely anything in mainland China (he goes to the mainland for work-chu cai-and he always brings back tons of cheap DVDs-like whole seasons of CSI and LOST, etc.). He's going to Guizhou next week I think...I'm pretty jealous. I heard it's beautiful there. His job is pretty cool...he goes to these places to study the local alcohol (he's an alcohol researcher).

Yun Han said she liked Jude Law and "Closer"...so I thought of the soundtrack (Natalie Portman looks nice as always):



I better go to bed since I'm being picked up by Maru's uncle at 11 AM tomorrow...and then I have to climb a mountain! Then relax in hot springs...should be fun. Kevin Chang said there's lots of buffaloes at Yuan Ming Shan.