[11/24/05 - 11/27/05] Hanging out with Family
I flew down to Kaohsuing to hang out with my relatives for a couple days since we have Thanksgiving off. Hehe I rather spend an hour flying down than 6 hours on a bus =P which a bunch of people did to get to Kenting. I ate lunch with my grandparents and uncle at their house and had a bunch of seafood and hung out and chatting with people. Since I'm a nerd I started doing a bit of my chinese homework hehe. Dude I had 2 uncles, one of my grandma's nurses, and my dad helping me with my homework so of course I got it done waaay faster than normal. Then in the afternoon my pops took me shopping since I told him I need some winter jackets so I wouldn't freeze my ass off in Taipei. We then walked around the Love River at night and ran into my 2nd uncle exercising after dinner.
One
of Love River's bridges |
The water around Kenting which is the southern part of Taiwan |
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The next day X told me they were planning to do paint ball so I asked my dad if we go could go down to Kenting. We got down early and half of the crew was still sleeping so I walked around the National Kenting Park for a bit with my dad checking out the scenery. I thought initially that my dad wanted to play paint ball but he ended up deciding not to even after we told Joe to go ask him haha. Joe's good with parents I think and then I told him to play the Japanese card since my dad went to college there and understands but then Joe lost points for not remember that he met my dad the day I moved in. But then again stupid Joe doesn't remember talking to me at all either ... what I loser hehe =P. I ended up only playing for an hour because I felt bad making my dad wait in the car while I ran around shooting people. So I discovered that I can't really aim and getting hit in the head and face with a paint ball doesn't hurt as much as you would think. I ended up having a lot of bullets left over because every time I tried to peak out and shoot someone I got shot at by like 2 different people. Oh well perhaps next time I go I'll be better and get to run around more and actually hit someone.
Team
B aka the cool team with Joe, Derek, Jenny, Me, X, and Warren |
All of posing for a picture right before we started |
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By the time we got back to Kaohsuing it was dinner time so my dad took me to this really nice Japanese restaurant and we had this really yummy 10 dish meal. They gave us stuff like sashimi, tempura, goose liver [grossness i didn't eat that], salmon caviar, lamb, fish, etc. I was already full by the 3rd dish so yeah by the time dinner was over I was super full.
My dad decided to take me sight seeing again on Saturday and we drove around the city looking at sites that I visited when I was a little kid hehe. We hit up this lake with these crazy buildings in the middle. I was looking through my grandparents photo album and the pictures they have of us at the lake me and my sisters are all unhappy and grumpy cuz it was hot and we didn't want to be walking around hehe.
A
Confucius statue with two smaller buildings |
A dragon with various gods around it |
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I think Speed, one of my grandpa's huge ass dogs, likes me the best because he's always following me around and sticking his head underneath my hand when I'm walking around so I'll pet him hehe. One of the nurses has this little son whose probably either 3 or 4 and he was telling his mom that he wanted to come to work with her and he would take care of the dogs while she took care of my grandma. He came over one day and actually saw how huge the dogs were and bursted out crying saying he didn't want to come to work anymore hehe.
A
dragon and tiger in front of two towers |
Kulo with his new ball ... my sis Lena likes him the best. |
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[11/23/05] Going Down to Kaohsuing for Thanksgiving
My pops is in Taiwan for a couple weeks doing business stuff so I'm going to go down and visit him and my grandparents for Thanksgiving. All my close friends from the dorms are going down to Kenting which is like an about an hour to two hours drive away from my grandparents house. X planned all this kick ass stuff to do like jet skiing, riding ATVs in the sand dunes and shooting bb guns at each other hehe. I think my dad is kinda bored hanging out with my grandparents so I'm gonna convince him to drive down to so we can go run around shooting bb guns and I'll pretend to be the son he never got to have for a few hours =P hehe.
[11/21/05] X's 21st Bday Dinner at the Roiser Cafet
For X's 21st bday we all went to get Paper Hot Pot at Rosier Cafet. Taiwan people love to eat hot pot once the weather starts getting cold because it really warms you up. Hot pot is basically a pot of hot soup where you can cook your food in. The cool thing was at this restaurant each person got their own individual paper bowl with a flame underneath. The place was like a cute really flowery cafe restaurant basically you felt like you were at your grandma's place eating dinner. They couldn't fit all of us so the girls all sat together and made the boys sit by themselves in the back room. The food was pretty good and all the girls loved the ice cream cake they had for dessert =D. YAYY X's your finally 21 now I can take you to bars and clubs back at home hehhee. More pictures from dinner
Me
with my yummy food |
Eating cake back at the dorms. Her parents who are in Hong Kong sent
her a cake sooo spoiled X =P hehe |
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So I no longer look like Quisimodo cuz my right eye swelled up on Sunday =( but I can still tell my eye isn't back to normal and I think my right eye looks a bit smaller than the left. Thanks Lea for coming with me to the drug store to go buy the eye medicine. I called my pops when I woke up and discovered my freakish eye he told my mom I sounded like I was crying when I talked to him but I really wasn't =P.
[11/19/05] Bumming around the Dorms
I watched 40 year old Virgin with Vinnie, X, Lisa, and Melissa at like midnight in X's room. The movie was really funny but I'm sure it would have been a lot more funnier if I was watching it with a bunch of guys hehe. There's more girls in our program than guys so the guys always seem to be hanging out with a bunch of girls. I just gotta say if girls are sooo comfortable that 3 chicks are basically laying all over you while you watch a movie chances are you won't be able to hook up with any of them. Heheh ohh and if they don't care about showing skittles at all ;) hahaha well I think we all just don't care thoo it's cute when the guy gets all embarrassed muahaha. Yes you know who I'm talking about hehe it's ok we'll all love you Vinnie heheh. We know you're not gay we just treat you that way heheh =D. Ooh my sis Lena is going to go see Relient K and MXPX. My favorite song at the moment is Story of the Year - We don't care anymore. Yes that was random but this is my page so deal with it or i'll kick your ass =D plus I don't give a rat's ass what you think anyway sooo there =P. So according to Vinnie I like screeeeamo type of music hehe.
So
I'm trying to be a snow bunny either that or I think I look like I'm
5 getting ready to go play outside in the winter hahahahah =P. I jacked
this pic from Lisa heheh |
I borrowed this from Daniel it's the view from our roof top kick ass
huhhhh. |
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[11/18/05] ICLP Field Trip to MOCA and Watching Harry Potter @ Ximen Ding
We had a mandatory field trip for ICLP where they took us to go visit this really old building and yah it's basically the same thing we've seen at the other field trips. Then they took us to MOCA which is the Modern Art Museum in Taipei. There were some pretty cool exhibits one was this room completely filled up with memory foam and another was this exhibit about the Gorilliaz and was by the same artist that does their art work. My favorite exhibit was this video made my Tokyo Plastics that basically had these Japanese anime banging their heads on drums to the beat. You should go check it out on their website pretty cool look for drum machine.
Melissa
and Me ... it's getting cold in Taipei |
My
Modern Convo class (Vinnie, Me, Hong Lao Shi, Peter, Christine, and
Warren...Eliver is missing) |
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After we got back from the field trip we all decided to take a quick nap before going to watch Harry Potter the Goblet of Fire. I really liked the movie but then again I haven't read the book in a while so I kinda forgot the plot. Some people were saying that they skipped alot of parts but I thought they covered all the major points pretty well. Everyone should really go watch it =D.
Moral
Tales Class ( Christine, Crystal, Me, Kiki, Jing Lao Shi, Peter, and
Warren) |
Harry
Potter Ad at Ximen Ding |
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[11/16/05] Pao An and Confucius Temples Field Trip
We had our last Art field trip and saw two temples. The Pao An temple and the Confucius temple are basically across from each other. The tour this time was much better since we had a tour guide who spoke to us in English. We definitely got the most information out of this field trip for our little summary reports we have to write after each field trip. Most of the time we all try to bs some stuff or I like to google the topic and steal that information hehe. This time everyone busted out pens and were taking down notes =P. I think I'm basically sick of temples now especially since near the end of the field trip I started getting a headache from the incense that were constantly burning.
Outside
the Confucius Temple |
Some
of the art work on the walls of the Pao An Temple |
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[11/12/05] Tea house Field Trip
For our Arts and Culture class our teacher wanted us to meet her at the Gong Guan bus station at 8:10am and she said she would only wait 5 minutes before leaving behind late people. First of all it takes at least 20 minutes to walk to the front of campus from our dorm so that basically met that we would have to wake up at 7am on a freaken Saturday morning. Wow was that super sucky. As usual our Art class field trips end up being super boring and most of us resent that we have to go. We went on a tour of a part of Taipei where the tea business originally started. I mean in one sense it was pretty cool and interesting but we couldn't really understand what our tour guide was saying so after a while it kinda got boring. We walked from tea house to tea house trying different teas and learning about tea culture. Once we were finally done 4 hours later we ate at this pretty yummy Vietnamese restaurant in the Gong Guan area.
The
first stop on the Tea tour |
The
original store front of the first tea factory |
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The
wharf and an example of the type of ship used during the high of the
Taiwan tea trade in the late 1900s |
Joe,
Me, Vinnie, and X trying taking a break from drinking tea |
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Life is kinda depressing at the moment since I found out some issues with my mom and her eye sight so I'm pretty glad that I'll be home in 6 weeks so I can go home to take care of her. I guess there really is no use being bitter about the curves life throws you so I plan to work out my aggression at the gym these next few weeks =P. Oh and for some reason my teachers decided that they're making us give speeches in class now and I have an 8 minute presentation due in 2 weeks. Holy shit man I can't talk that long in Mandarin =(.
[11/11/05] Danshui Field Trip
My moral tales teacher Jing Lao Shi was taking his 3rd floor students to Danshui for a field trip and asked if our class wanted to join them. Most of the 3rd floor student who get one on one tutoring with the teacher are older students like around their 30s. Me, X, Lea, Warren, Crystal, Vinnie, Christine, and Daniel decided to go along since we hadn't gone to Danshui yet either. I heard had that it has a great view of the river and the ocean is pretty close by too. Most people go there because it's sorta like the Santa Cruz beach board walk and they have different type of street vendor foods and a kick ass sunset. The only thing that sucked was by the time we got out of the station the sun had already set so that was pretty annoying but we still ended up having a lot of fun. We took a bus to the famous bridge and then hung out around that area before getting on a ferry and going back to the main section.
The
sunset from the MRT window |
The
Cali kids plus my teacher and this German lady |
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The
boardwalk lights |
The
famous Danshui bridge ... sooo purdee |
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[11/07/05] I Miss My Cali Friends
So I was reading Minji's Xanga and that made me think of the things that I miss about the good old days. Haha I'm listening to Boys II Men's song It's so Hard to Say Goodbye as I type this update - sniffle - hehhe. I miss going on crazy adventures like sky diving with Kathy ... getting Derek drunk on Boones and then sharing a dorm bed with 3 people ... hanging out at Eunji and Minji's apartment and dancing around with stuffed animals ... having Minji push me into talking to guys when we went to hit bars ;) ... chatting with Carlo all night long till the sunrise then passing out ... watching football games with the Castle Crew and playing kings and asshole oooh and that one time we played mud football soo fun .... hitting up the gym with Lauren for kick boxing classes ... making Tuesday night dinner for friends ... acting super girly with Stephy ... making Ed drive me places ... meeting up with Linh on our street corner and going to 9 am classes and falling asleep ... all the road trips like Whistler, Lake Tahoe, Lake Havasu, Lake Millerton, LA and San Diego. Ahhh the memories well hopefully I'll end up making a lot more happy ones in the future =D. Muahhh I love all my friends and family. Haha my sisters say they're planning to kidnap me when I go back for winter break so I don't leave them ... so silly =P. - Hug - -Muah -
*side note - I've been eating gummy bears alot lately cuz it's my latest it candy and I like to rip off the heads of 4 bears switch the bodies then pop them into my mouth and eat them hehehe. It taste better that way =P
[11/05/05] Yehliu Day Trip
I figured that since we never go see touristy travel stops in Taiwan and just keep going to night markets or clubs that we should go somewhere different. My parents and sisters went to Yehliu last time they were here and really suggested that I go. My sister Lena really likes to look at pretty scenery places and did a bunch of research for me. So props out to my big sis for making me more cultured haha and telling me to visit places other than night clubs. Yehliu is about an hour bus ride from the Taipei Main station. It's the along the Northern coast of Taiwan and really pretty. There was actually 15 people from the dorms that woke up at 10am and were ready to go. We only had to wait for Warren =P. Hehe I was soo surprised that Jonathan, Sandy, Cindy, Phobe, Dennis, Lisa, Melissa, Miranda, Christine, Eliver, X, Lea, Vinnie, and Warren ended up coming. Since I was the one who "organized the trip" haha I really just had to figure out what bus to take. Everyone thought I went to Yehliu before but I didn't. Haha during the day I felt like a teacher cuz I kept counting to make sure that there was 15 people and no one got left behind. It actually ended up being kinda hot and muggy so it wasn't that fun walking around in that weather. We climbed one to some of the rocks to rest and then got yelled at by tour guides to get off. Opps yes we're dumb American tourists =P. We decided to climb up a small little mountain and it wasn't that bad cuz there were stone steps but at the top it was just dirt and a rope and kinda a bit hard to get up. The part that really sucked was trying to get back down =P but we all made it safety down again.
The
famous rock of Yehliu |
The
scenery of Yehliu |
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It started to get dark around 5ish and none of us had eaten lunch so we went to the nicest restaurant they had there and ended up having a super yummy seafood dinner that ended up costing us each about 6 bucks. =D. We were all pretty tired from walking around in the sun all day so after getting home most of us just passed out. Ahhh I love sleep. More pictures from the trip.
[11/04/05] Lisa's Bday @ Chili's near 101
Lisa turned 23 on Tuesday but since it was in the middle of the week when everyone was having midterms we decided to celebrate it on Friday night. For some reason for bday dinners we always seem to go to American restaurants but then again it might be because we usually have big groups and will only fit in American places. We went to the Chili's in Neo 19 next to Warner Village and Taipei 101. There's a bunch of younger people around that area and that's where the Lava club is. Some of the dorm people have been there before and said it was a pretty chill bar. After dinner was over we went to the arcade area and the girls took sticky pictures while the guys played video games. Man the guys were all into this one punching game and were trying to see how could get the highest score. They were really getting super in to it. Guys are soo weird sometimes heheh. More pictures from the night
The
girls after dinner plus Daniel |
Warner
Village and Neo 19 |
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