End of the Road.

I am writing this blog entry from the Tao Yuan International Airport. My flight leaves in an hour so I have some time to kill before it's time to leave Taiwan. My flight lands in Tokyo first for two hours, and then it's off to America.

Yesterday was a fun final day in Taiwan. I woke up early to get some last minute shopping done; Giordano was having a 50% off sale on all their pants, so I bought a pair of grey pants. Afterwards it was KTV with all the EAPers and our teachers. It was fun to hang out with the teachers in a non-school format but the microphones quickly got taken over by the more advanced students, leaving us non-advanced students sitting on the side not really knowing any of the songs being sung. I left early.

That night was the final EAP dinner at the Taipei Sheraton Hotel. It was all you can eat buffet and it was pretty good, but the selection wasn't huge. The best part of the dinner for sure was the dessert buffet, what with fondue, crepes, etc. etc. Everyone came out for the final dinner and it was where the majority of us said our farewells. We spent a really long time trying to get people together and taking random pictures in different permutations. I would upload them all for you right now to see but Jenn stole my jump drive, so I won't be able to upload them until I get home.

Afterwards, Cris, Tsay, Gladys, Jenn, Tiff, Laura and I played Uno and chatted until the break of dawn. It's currently 10:15AM and I have only gotten about half an hour of sleep. This is my effort to get back on sleep schedule as I will be arriving in LAX at 11AM, effectively arriving the same date and time as I leave Taiwan.

I will probably be blogging more about my experiences in Taiwan after I get back to Los Angeles but in case I don't, I have to say this about my experience in Taiwan: If you're thinking about travelling abroad, do it. If you want to learn Chinese, please give Taiwan a thought. Tai Da is an amazing university to study Chinese at, and the people here are great. The worst part about this program, for me, is leaving.

Zai jian.

-Justin

The Back Alley Restaurants.

I'm going to take some time out of my blog in Taiwan to tell you guys about the back alley restaurants next to my dorm. If you plan on studying abroad here in Tai Da, you will probably be living in Guo Qing and thus frequenting the back alley restaurants almost every day. Remember one of the first posts here, where I took a picture of the back alley and said, "I think I will be frequenting this place often"? Well, I did. We come here pretty much every day before class at 1pm. So here's a list of restaurants I've been to in the alley, just so you know in case you plan on coming, or just so I have a memory of the awesomeness that is the back alley next time I'm back in America and seriously craving some gloriously cheap Taiwanese food. Starting from the beginning of the alley to the end...

This place sells various kinds of fried rice and fried/wet noodles in different styles, ie Taiwanese, Cantonese, etc. Most of these restaurants come with free soup, drink etc., but this place goes above and beyond, offering free slushies and free dessert as well. That said, the prices are a bit more expensive, and the food isn't as good as another fried rice restaurant we went to religiously.

This place sells roasted Thai chicken. Not much else to say except...

...that this place is better. But, like most restaurants in the alley, this one will make your clothes smell heavily of Thai chicken, so make sure you're wearing clothes you plan on washing, or that you don't have a date with a vegan afterwards.

Sababa pita place, in the first left hand alleyway off the main alley. This place looks and feels it could be straight from America, with its English speaking workers, American music playing in the speakers, and largely Caucasian customer base. This place is a little expensive by Taiwanese standards (ie, the price is also American) and the portions aren't very big, but the taste is VERY good. Go here if you're not too hungry but still feel like eating a little something.

This curry house gives good portions and has a lot of different, free drinks to go with the very spicy curry. Medium hotness is enough to make me sweat and panting for water, so watch out.

We came here for lunch before Man Day pt 1. This is also where Jenn ate and got really sick. The pasta is mediocre though this place is always packed whenever it's open... but it seems to close at hella random times. I know people who like this place a lot, ie Cris and David, but I personally don't like it very much.

Jenn and I had our first lunch together here. I don't remember the food but I remember the drinks being pretty good. I guess it's natural, given that the place is called "The Soda Fountain."

All hail the fried rice place. We ate at this humble little restaurant more times than any other restaurant in the alley, and by a LOT too. Why? The fried rice here is amazing. Hard to put my finger on what makes it so good, but it's just so fresh, down to the small carrots and peas. And it's cheap too: A whole plate of fried rice for 2US$? Hell yea! And the service is fast, which made for quick last minute eatings before class possible. If I could take any restaurant in my entire stay in Taiwan back home with me, it would be this one. I love you, fried rice place.

Comebuy, which is a boba store. The name isn't very good, I admit. It's a chain here in Taiwan, and it's pretty good. The boba is always the right consistency and sweetness.

Romin told us to go here for cheap, good chicken katsu. It was cheap, but it wasn't good. For good chicken katsu, look across the alley to...

...this restaurant, which we affectionally dubbed "The Red Chair Restaurant," because all the chairs are red. This is the first restaurant I ever ate at when I got to Guo Qing with Chow De Kai, and it's quite good with good portions, good katsu,and an awesome green tea calpis drink.

This bakery has not-so-great bread but awesome cake and a hot cocoa that saved my ass one night when it was raining and I was craving hot cocoa, so good on ya Kapok.

This place claims it has California cuisine, but what is California cuisine exactly? Apparently, a bevy of different pasta dishes is. Also, there's no Californian stuff inside the restaurant, just a huge flag of Brazil. Strange.

Discovery Pasta: We make it different. Yeah. You make it disgusting. Next.

This place is famous for hand-cut noodles. That dude out front with the big white blob in front of his is actually cutting pieces of noodle quickly from a huge thing of dough. The 牛肉麵 here is awesome, as is the 'ovaltine.'

Out the end of the alley and to the left, you'll find this breakfast place that sells really good soy milk and these Taiwanese omlette things. Me and Chow de kai used to come here before we started waking up too late! Good for light breakfasts.

"The Lost Tea I Found!" I can't believe that's the name of this store, but there you have it. I had some absolutely perfect lemon tea with aloe and boba here. Absolutely awesome.

Tomorrow marks my last day in Taiwan. It's been a pretty busy yet chill few days since my last post, with packing, going around for last minute giftings, and making sure to hang out with people out in the hall one last time. Sunday was a chill day after the drunkenness of Saturday. We went to this restaurant called L'Idiot, which is French with a way-cool interior and very, very good food. Today we had our exit exams, which was the same, hard-ass entrance exam we took in the beginning. It seems like I improved a little, but I think most of my improvement is in speaking. After that, it was simply packing my alternate life in Taiwan away, in addition to recording with the Guo Qing Rock Band a better version of our performance back in the awesome band rooms in Xi Men Ding.

Now, more packing and hanging out with people in the halls. I really, really don't want to leave this place, but I'm starting to come to terms with it.

Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin

Kicking the Crap Out of Our Livers.

Last week was finals week and there's not much to say about finals week besides that there was a lot of studying all week long. The best bonding time comes during finals because no one wants to study, so everyone comes out of their rooms looking for someone, anyone, to talk to and disturb them from studying. So, even though a lot of studying was done, this past week also included several random instances of epicness, including Brian and I beating each other with sticks, and then beating Gladys with sticks, or random awesome conversations at 3 in the morning, or being caught 'cheating' with Nan Sheng and then catching Shu naked in his room.

I don't have much time to blog right now, so I will say very little about what transpired the past two days. Finals are over, and this is my last weekend in Taiwan. Thus, I am kicking the crap out of my liver appropriately. Friday night we celebrated our RA Emma's birthday with some drinking. She kicked the crap out of her liver and ended up throwing up. We also played some drunken Uno for the last time. It wasn't as epic as the last time we played drunken Uno but then again, very few things are.

Last night we went clubbing for the last time in Taiwan. It was very, very fun, at least what I remember of it. I'll always remember pretty much everyone in EAP at club 7-11 outside of Plush having a party of our own. And then overtaking Plush and dancing the night away. It was a fun night until the alcohol hit me. And that's all I'm going to say about that. I have to thank Jenn for taking care of me!!!

Yesterday was Danshui as well, but I'll include that in another, future post. Right now I have to get ready really quickly for my relatives, so until next time, zai jian!

-Justin.

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.

Why Taiwan >>>>>> Hong Kong.

So it's been a week since my last post, and yeah, there's no way in heck I am going to be able to recap everything I've done! From Wednesday to Sunday, I was in Hong Kong, and quite simply, leaving Taipei for those five days made me realize how much I love and will miss Taiwan. Because I can't possibly go over everything I did in Hong Kong, I'm simply going to make a list of reasons why I think Taipei is way better than Hong Kong, and then bombard you with a few of my favorite pictures from my trip there.

So, here goes. Reasons why Taipei is more awesomer than Hong Kong:
-Taipei food is cheaper. Way cheaper. You can be getting fat and full in Taipei with really good food for like 4$ US while you'll have to spend at least 10$ in Hong Kong.
-Taipei people are more easy going. They walk at a leisurely pace and don't push or shove you out of their way. Even the escalators in Taipei are more easy going. I swear, the escalators in Hong Kong are on crack or something, they move SO FAST that the first time we got on one, we almost fell over. No joke.
-Hong Kong people are ruder. They're not so willing to help like Taiwanese people always, 100% are. You'll approach someone to ask directions in Hong Kong and before you can even get the place you want to go out, they'll wave their hands and say "Nope, I don't know" and walk away. In Taiwan, the locals ALWAYS help, or at least try to.
-Taiwan service is better. For example, Hong Kong taxi drivers all have hella attitude and all try to take longer routes just to make more money. Given, Taiwanese drivers do this too, but Hong Kong drivers are way less subtle about it; they'll circle the same block a few times, they'll add 70 HKD to a cab fare randomly when the ticker clearly says a trip under the bay costs 30, and worse of all, they just all seem like they hate all their passengers. We were in multiple taxis in Hong Kong, but one guy in particular stood out: we told him the address we wanted to go to, and he didn't respond, nor did he move. So we asked him if he knew where it was, and he basically yelled, "Of course I know where it is, why don't you just show me?!" In addition, we went to this sushi place for lunch on the last day. There were six of us, and he gave us three menus. We asked for more, and he said "We're out of menus," and then, looking flustered, pulled one from another table and said "I guess you could use this one." The waiter messed up our order and brought a wrong, much more expensive plate of raw shrimp instead of salmon. We told him we didn't order it, that it was his fault. You would expect him to take it back or something like that, but nope, he said that we had to eat it and pay for it, since he already brought it out. Seriously now?
-Hong Kong's MRT system is depressing. This is minor, but Hong Kong's MRT system is all painted in dark shades of grey and dark red, and the trains themselves are grey and metal and generally depressing. Taipei's MRT system is brighter, well lit and generally a more pleasant place to be.

There are a few things to like about Hong Kong. The sushi in Hong Kong is ridiculously cheap; I'm talking like 1 USD for two pieces of salmon sushi. The club scene in Hong Kong is awesome, mostly because they're all concentrated in one area: Lan Kwai Fong. I imagine it being a lot of fun if you're Caucasian, are drunk and have massive yellow fever. But seriously though, it seems like there are a lot more clubs in Hong Kong, and that they're a lot more classy and fun than the ones in Taipei. Also, Hong Kong desserts, especially desserts that contain mango, are out of this world! And, if you're into skyscrapers, Hong Kong does that better than Taipei does too. But I guess it really depends on what kind of person you are. A chill, relaxed San Diegan like myself enjoys the laid back lifestyle that Taipei has to offer, whereas I'm sure someone from New York would hate Taipei and love the fast-paced, pushy and rushed lifestyle of Hong Kong.

Me, Jenn, Romin, Nancy, and Jeremy at Avenue of the Stars.

You simply can't deny the beauty of Hong Kong at night.

Hong Kong is famous for their mango desserts, and it's easy to see why. They are delicious!

No trip to Hong Kong is complete without a trip to Dim Sum. This place was pretty darn good and not that expensive either.

Exploring the main Hong Kong island.

We were hankering for a good ol' American Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving so after calling around a lot we finally found an Italian restaurant called Fat Angelo's serving a Thanksgiving feast!

Lan Kwai Fong, also known as the clubbing district of Hong Kong. I found this place to be cool because it's just bar after bar, and you see people millin about in the middle of the street having a good time. Lan Kwai Fong is also on the hilly part of Hong Kong so bars are stacked in steps up and up the mountain.

Me failing at fitting everyone in the picture at Club 9 Lounge. This place had a cool outdoor chilling area and no real dance floor; it seemed like it was strictly made for lounging, which was pretty cool.

We went to Macau for a day. Macau was actually pretty fun with lots of stuff to see, but I'm not sure there's more than one day's worth of stuff to see so I'm not sure if I'd go again. Still, an interesting place with a European flavor with a hint of 1/3rd scale Vegas.

There's a restaurant called Margarito's in Macau that apparently was the first place ever to make these kind of Dan Ta's. These are the most amazing dan tas to have ever graced the innards of my mouth. Seriously, this was AWESOME.

Back at home base HK, we went to go see the Big Buddha. It bothers me how touristy they've made the Big Buddha. They built this little town where you can buy souveneirs and watch videos about Buddha and everything. It feels like an amusement park and that just bothers me.

No trip to HK is complete without a go up to the Peak. We caught HK on an extremely clear (and cold) day, so the view was awesome!


Another chain of dessert places in HK that's famous, called Honeymoon Desserts.

This is the so-called "Ladies' Market," but it's more like "Tourist's Market." Everything here is target towards tourists, like bad HK t-shirts to souveneirs, etc. Still, admist all this junk you'll find some good stuff; there's a street full of shoes, a separate one with electronics, etc. I bought my first pair of Chucks here. And as for shopping in HK, the only shopping I really did there was at an H&M they had in Langham Place. Go figure.

My last meal in HK was stinky tofu. Jenn tells me that stinky tofu originates from Hong Kong so I had to try it here and let me tell you, this stinking tofu from a random stand in the middle of a street filled with aquatic material was the best stinking tofu I've had both in HK and in Taiwan. Yum-oh.

I know from the sound of things, Hong Kong isn't all that great of a place to be, what with it's rude people and stuff. But it's actually a lot of fun. The thing is, I couldn't imagine living there for an extended period of time like I am in Taiwan. Hong Kong is good for short trips but too much of the pushy lifestyle would make me go beserk. When I got back to Taiwan, I was so pleased to get off the plane and walk through the airport with no one pushing past me, and get into a cab with a pleasnt taxi driver taking us exactly where we wanted to go with holding a pleasant conversation with us. I was glad to go back to the alleyway next to our school and eat cheap fried rice. Hong Kong was fun, no doubt, but Taipei is just a better place to be.

I've been back in Taipei for a few days now, and besides are awesome rock performance on Monday, not much has gone on. I'll talk more about our awesome rock performance in my next post, once I've uploaded the video of our performance onto Youtube or something. It's pretty bad, but it's still pretty awesome.

Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin.

Behind the Music: Guo Qing Rock Band.

The past two days have been nothing but class and practicing with the Guo Qing Rock Band. Quite literally, we wake up in the morning, study a little, practice downstairs, eat, go to class, practice some more, eat, practice some more. The NTU International concert is the Monday after we get back from Hong Kong, and we leave for Hong Kong tomorrow morning, making these past two days the last two days we have to practice before the performance. Is the Guo Qing Rock Band ready? Absolutely not, but we're getting there.

Today, the EAP program put our EAP money to good use and bought us all Thanksgiving dinner at TGI Friday's. You can't get more American than TGI Friday's, and the food was good, but it was a set menu and admist all the hungry hungry people (there were about 40 of us!) we didn't really get to being stuffed full like you would at a Thanksgiving dinner back home. Shame!

I'm really missing Thanksgiving back home right now. This is probably my first Thanksgiving ever not spent with my family and cousins at home pigging out on turkey, stuffing and pie. I love it here in Taiwan but this along with missing the LA Auto Show with my dad (the first time since I was like 4!) is starting to make me a little homesick!

Afterwards we spent a good half an hour watching this kid in front of Sogo. He had just learned how to walk, it seemed like, and he was having a BLAST doing it. This kid was seriously awesome; so energetic yet unable to speak, he would look at us and shout out, and stomp away, falling over. Whenever he saw my camera he would pose for it. And he tried chasing after this other girl his age, failed, and went to the girls in our group instead. What a womanizer!

Kid creeped up on my in the middle of my BYAH! pose.

Get it, shawty.

The Guo Qing Rock Band spent the rest of tonight at this band practice place in Ximen. Apparently band practice rooms are popular because it was really tough to book a room here on a Tuesday night. Basically it's a place chock full of small rooms for you to practice drums or guitar. Then, there are a few larger rooms with provided amps, drums, and mixers for your whole band to practice in. Basically the place was absolutely sweet and I loved it there!

We had an hour break during our practice session and we spent it outside on the sidewalks of Ximen. Ximen is famous for its various performers on the sidewalks, from legless homeless people playing the harmonica to singers trying to pawn their latest homemade CD to people making puppets dance on the floor. So the Guo Qing Rock Band, with guitar, bass, violin and singer sitting around, felt right at home practicing. Salah Monster drew a crowd with her violin playing and we tryed to get some money out of the gig but it was a no go!

Casey and Nancy showing the locals how it's done. Just give us some money!!!

Our second hour showed massive improvement, and we were feeling pretty good about how we were performing by the end of the night. We were nothing compared to the absolutely ROCKIN' band practicing right next to us, but we were playing pretty well compared to how we were playing when we first got there. Living out our rock band fantasies, rocking out on guitar, drums and microphone while looking out in our room over the busy Ximen district was really something special.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Hong Kong until Sunday, so I probably won't be updating for a while, but you can bet I'll be returning with hella pics and things to write about. Though, is it really Adventures in Taiwan if I'm in Hong Kong?

Anyway, until next time, zai jian!

-Justin