[4/29/06] Hanging out with Kat for the last time in Taiwan
Kathy got into law school in New York so she's leaving Taiwan tomorrow. I haven't hung out with her in a while so these last few days we've been hanging out and chatting a lot. I went to eat hot pot with her classmates around the Shi Da area and then hit up a bar and drank some beers with them and her teacher. It's a bit sad that I won't be seeing her that much but I know I'll end up visiting her in NYC some time in the future so I'm not depressed about her moving on while I'm still here in Taiwan suffering hehe. Her teacher is actually a classmate of one of my teachers such a small world huh.
Goofy |
Normal
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[4/23/06] Manifest and Lyricks Music Video
I saw this video on my friend Derek's myspace and really liked it so I decided to share it with all you ppl too hehe. I think the singers are cute too and they're Asian I think Korean. I know really what is the world coming to Crissy actually giving attention to Asian guys hahaha. Yes Taiwan has turned me into a fobby ... actually it's probably watching all the Korean dramas lately that's done me in haha.
[4/22/06] Taiwan Glamour Shots
Ever since I was little I wanted to get my pictures in taiwan because they make you look soo pretty and I saw how the ones my cousins took turned out. I got Lea to come with me and she was probably bored out of her mind for the 7 hours she had to sit there. But I'm glad she came cuz I need help with what to wear and how to do my hair heheh. It's a good thing I brought clothes with me because a lot of their outfits looked weird and I would never wear them. I got 5 outfit changes including different hair and makeup. Taking photos really drains you even tho you wouldn't think because you're just standing around or sitting most of the time, but I had to nap once I got back home. I go back next Monday to choose which photos I like then I get to pick up the pictures in about a month. My makeup artist Jia Jia was really cool and talkative tho I didn't quite understand everything she said. This is her website here. Yah I'm not quite sure what it says either haha I just look at pictures =P. Ohh the studio I took my photos at is called Chuech. They have pictures up on their site but only on the Chinese version. I would totally recommend them if you're in Taipei and wanna take studio pictures.
Me
goofying off at the end of the day. Man they made me look white |
I
sorta look like an Anna Sui doll here hehe |
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[4/14/06 - 4/17/06] Hong Kong Trip
ICLP which is the program that I'm in to learn chinese gave us Monday and Tuesday off so me. Lea, and Vinnie decided to hit up Hong Kong and make good use of our 4 day weekend. Hong Kong is waaay more crowded than Taiwan and there are soo many ads every where. We stayed at Causeway Bay in the Wang Fat Hostel, which I would totally recommend to anyone going to Hong Kong. It was weird we even saw business people staying at the hostel. The MTR is alot better than Taiwan's and riding around on the double decker trams was pretty interesting too. X also went home for the weekend so she ended up showing us around for 2 days and her mom invited us to super great dim sum. There are soo many high rises you can only imagine all the people packed inside of them. The taxi drivers drive waay crazier than the ones in Taiwan and drive super fast too. Actually X does the same thing when she was driving us around to see Victoria Peak so maybe it's just a Hong Kong thing. We hit up Lan Kuai Fong one night, which is this area where it's just bars and all the foreigners head over there. Seriously, there are waay more white people than Asian in this area and you hear English being spoken everywhere. I didn't end up buying that much stuff in HK just cuz I can find the stuff cheaper in Taiwan thoo I did pick up some Korean Dramas with Rain in it heheh. And now on to the many pictures I took from the trip.
The
view of the harbor with the whole crew |
The
double decker trams |
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Along
the Walk of Stars |
Walking
around the City |
In
Central looking at more sky scrapers |
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Causeway
Bay at night |
Some
cool looking escalators |
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Lan
Kuai Fong the foreigner bar area |
Some
of the many sky scrapers |
The
Lotus flower signifying the return of Hong Kong back to China |
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Big
Buddha on Lantu Island |
The
Wisdom Path with Sutras |
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Update: I totally forgot to mention that when I was flying out of Taiwan to Hong Kong I saw the movie star Aaron Kwok. The only reason why I knew he was famous was because Lea recognized him and at the outside immigration section there was a bunch of screaming chicks taking pictures of him. Ohh he also did the movie star thing and wore sunglasses inside hahah. I ended up walking past him and he smiled at me hehhe.
Aaron
Kwok |
Him
again how he was sorta dressed at the airport but with a jean jacket
too |
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[4/8/06 - 4/9/06] Sun Moon Lake and Xi Tou
The international club on campus planned a overnight trip to Sun Moon Lake and Xi Tou since James was part of the planning committee a group of the cali kids decided to attend the trip. It took about 5 hours on the bus to get down to Sun Moon Lake. The day was overcast and we weren't given that much time to explore around the lake. We took a 30 minute ferry ride across the lake but it was kinda boring. After that we ended up going to Xi Tou which is a National forest. The scenery was pretty and we stayed in some decent cabins. I really loved the blankets cuz they were super warm. We didn't get to see any fireflies at night but we saw tons of frogs. X killed a huge one on accident cuz she squished it while walking. I'm soo glad that I bought my flashlight or soo many more frogs would have died that night. The food really sucked the whole trip and it was a good thing Amanda brought hella snacks. We ended up hiking around Xi tou for 4 hours, which isn't that bad but we ended up getting lost alot and had to back track. I mean the forests in the states are waay better but I guess it's a nice place to go if all you see is the city in Taiwan. My mom told me that my dad and her went to Xi Tou for their honeymoon, so that's kinda cool going to a place they went to soo long ago.
Amanda,
Lea, Sandy, Phobe, and Me waiting to go back to Taipei |
Me,
Lea, Shinpei, and Adam during lunch time. Little kids kept running up
to Adam and saying random English sentences soo cute |
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Amanda
and Lea on a bridge that is soo much easier to cross during the day
instead in pitch black darkness |
The
Sky Walk where u get to walk up among the trees |
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Group
7 standing in front of the Sun Moon Lake rock |
Me,
Santa (our favorite volunteer yah I don't know why he's called Santa
either =P ), X, and Lea |
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[4/7/06] Hanging Out in Gong Guan
I went to Gong Guan with Jenny and Lea to a Korean place for dinner then we went to go check out some glasses. I found a cute pair for only 40 bucks. They checked out my eyes and said I have a slight stigmatism which means I'm more sensitive towards light and certain areas look bright or darker than others. So the salesperson was really interested in talking to us and wants to do a "group date" on day, which is basically you get 4 girls and 4 guys who don't know each other and you all go out and hang out. I was totally wondering why he was asking if we go to clubs or bars and then he wanted to know if my bf was a foreigner. HAHA soo random to get picked up buying glasses too bad the guy is kinda old and not cute. I've been buying a lot of cute tank top shirts lately cuz they're soo cheap there tho the only bad part is that since I actually have boobs and most chicks here don't the boob area doesn't really line up right =/. I may just have to give a bunch of shirts to Lena and Windy hehehe.
These
are my new glasses, which I think are stylish yet make me look smarter
=P |
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[4/6/06] Learning Calligraphy
For my cultural class this semester I'm taking Chinese Calligraphy which is actually pretty cool and our teacher is really nice. It's just actually a lot harder than it looks. Next week we're getting tested on writing some words soo I'm hoping that my characters end up looking decent and not jacked up. Joel wants me to teach how when I get back and in return he's going to feed me food to make me fat =(. How mean huhhh. I ended up talking to Carlo for the first time in a while on aim and i'm allowing him to teach me Linux. Yup I said ALLOWING haha cuz he's been trying to convert me forever but I have resisted his attempts to turn me into a computer dork. Paul's into Grey's Anatomy so we'll both watch an eppy and chat on aim while we watch. Sigh reminds me of the good old days where once me and Lauren got back from the gym we would watch the Bachelor and chat on aim about how retarded the girls were. Mann I really watch waaay more tv here in Taiwan than I ever do at home. I sprained my ankle some how I don't even remember doing it so I started swimming to get in shape we'll see how well that works.
My
Chinese Name - Cai Ying Jie the teacher wrote this for me to copy |
Me
attempting to write my last name purdeee |
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[4/1/06] Bored in Taipei
I'm kinda tired and bored of being here in Taipei. Lea gave me a bunch of Asian pop songs so I've been listening to that lately =D. JJ Lin is pretty good I like all his songs. It's soo cool cuz I can actually understand what the songs are singing about. Machi raps in Mandarin and Taiwanese and I can actually understand what the whole song is about soo I'm realizing how much Chinese I am actually learning =D. Haha I might even start watching Korean soap operas since Jenny and Lea seem to love this actor/singer called Rain. I didn't really realize just how much I miss my family till I talked to my parents the today. Haha I think the conversation that I had with my dad was the longest one we've ever had on the phone =P. He's not a big talker. I'm going to go back down to Kaohsuing at least one more time before I leave to see my grandparents and uncles. I really need to spend as much time with them as possible while I still have the chance =/. I only have 2 and half more months left here then it's back to my real life. I feel like this year has been a break from my real life, while it has been tons of fun I'm ready to establishing my career. The weather is getting pretty hot and humid here so I think I'm going to start swimming to get in shape. Oh I'm also starting to get blisters from lifting weight cuz I attempting to be a bad ass and not lift the puny 2lbs or 5 lbs stuff =P.