Counting Down the Days.

The entries are getting further and further spread apart as I attempt to fit in as much of Taiwan into my life as possible. Lately, I've been keeping myself very busy doing all the things I've been wanting to do and going to all the places I've been meaning to go during my stay here in Taiwan, as well as studying for finals which are in a few days. It's been busy but at the same time it's all been a blur, so it all just seems to be passing by way too quickly and way too easily. Slow down, time!

Last Monday was the NTU International Concert. It went really, really well and serious big props to Salah Monster and Simon for pulling the whole thing off. A bunch of acts from Guo Qing performed, from rap acts to dancing acts to acoustic guitar acts. Yours truly was the lead singer of the Guo Qing Rock Band, which consisted of me, Dan on guitar, Casey on bass, Xander on drums, Salah Monster on violin and Michelle on backup vocals. Aside from the Tai Da school song everyone had to perform, we also performed Canon in D and two songs by Yellowcard, "Only One" and "Breathing." We had never practice or played all four songs in a row back to back before the peformance, and we had just learned how to play the Tai Da song before the performance, so that we pulled it off as well as we did was a MIRACLE. Given, seeing the performance on video again, it wasn't that great, but it was great for us, and we were happy with it! And that's all that matters.

The stage is set!

Thanks to Sherry Lu for these frankly ROCKIN' pictures of me doing my thang.

The Guo Qing Rock Band.

PS I don't come in until around 3:15.
PPS Rocking out on stage with strobe lights and smoke machines is a memory I won't soon forget. Living out my rockin' out fantasies. It was absolutely brilliant.

The following week was a blur of studying and periodically going out to eat. Thursday, Jenn and I went to take sticky pics in Xi Men Ding (her idea, I swear) and grab dessert at this place called VVG Bon Bon. It is a very nice dessert place specializing in cupcakes... but they ran out of cupcakes when we got there. We had some overpriced cookies (3$ for a single cookie?!) and some mediocre cake. I guess there's a reason why they ran out of cupcakes after all. However the look of the store was quite nice but still... it wasn't really worth it.

These pictures from Jenn's camera. The surroundings and environment is pretty sweet and I thought the spoons, the cups, and the goblet of water was pretty awesome. I just wish the food was a little better (and for Taiwan, a little expensive). Probably the cupcakes were rockin' because that IS what this place is famous for, but running out of cupcakes is like In n Out running out of hamburgers:不可以!

Friday night, Chow De Kai, Michelle, Jenn and I went to Mango Tango for dinner. Mango Tango is probably the best Thai food I've had in Taipei and the restaurant itself had a VERY cool atmosphere about it. All the seats are couches, except for tatami seats with pretty innovative seating solutions, modular tables and lowered footwells.

Chow De Kai, Me, Michelle and Jenn in front of Mango Tango. Yes, it was a double date. These pictures also from Jenn's camera.

Saturday, the EAP counselors woke us up at 6 in the morning to go to this Aboriginal amusement park. The park is usually about 2 hours away but because there was a lot of traffic, it took us about 4 hours to get there. The park is like a one-third scale, lame version of Disneyland. There's a slightly lame version of Space Mountain, a very lame version of Jurassic Park, and a Pirate Ship. The coolest thing about the park was probably this dropping ride (ala Supreme Scream). The park had space themes, Mayan adventure themes, and basically everything besides Aboriginal themes. Kind of weird.

Early birds in front of the Aboriginal amusement park. This front entrance is probably the most aboriginal part of the park; after this entrance, there is NOTHING that resembles aboriginal culture whatsoever.

Sunday, Jenn and I went on adventure to find the Shi Lin residential garden. They were having a Chrysathemum (sp?) theme for the gardens, so EVERYTHING was of the chrysathenum variety. It's been very, very cold (colder than Los Angeles by far) lately here in Taipei, so it was nice to take advantage of this warm day to walk around the gardens.

Afterwards we went to Taipei World Trade center because December 7th was the last day of this Taipei electronics trade show. Basically, it's a huge convention selling a bunch of electronic stuff, and because it's the last day, they were seriously discounting everything they had on hand. I've been looking for cell phones since I got here, but the only type of electronics they WEREN't selling at the show was cell phones, so that was a bust. Jenn was looking for cameras, but the amount of people at the show was ridiculous. I've never been so jammed in an enclosed space in my life. We decided to forget about it and just leave.

真的客滿了!

It's time to power down, count the remaining days and savor the moments. I really wish I weren't leaving so early; I'm leaving the earliest of all the EAP students here. But it's time to really count the days, hang out with the amazing friends I've made here and make the most out of my final week here in Taipei.

Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin.