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.