Weathering the Typhoon, Part 3.

Hello world, it's been an eventful couple of days since my last post. A typhoon is moving in and with it rain, so my camera has seen limited usage.

On Friday for breakfast, I had a fruit sandwich. Normally I don't go meal by meal about what I ate each day but when Cris and Sarah told me they were going to go get fruit sandwiches, my interest was pretty piqued. Have you guys ever heard of a fruit sandwich, cuz I haven't.

Basically it's a sandwich but instead of meat, there's fruit. Kiwi, dragonfruit, orange, pineapple, tomatoes... And yes, it is DELICIOUS. They need to make these in America. Hot damn.

After a long and dreadful class was a trip to Gong Hua, which is like NOVA in that it's a huge technology center seven stories tall filled with electronics. You can find everything here, from cell phones to Chinese dictionaries (which is why we were there) to resistors, capacitors, etc. This place seriously has it all. Chow, Tsay, Jenny and I walked around the place for a few hours, checking out cool phones and automated escalators (that eat people!)

Afterwards we went to Si Ling night market, or at least a part of it. Jenny told me that I needed to go to Si Ling at least once while I was in Taiwan so we went last night after Gong Hua. This is one of those places where I seriously regret not bringing my camera. If I tried to describe every night market to you guys they would all sound the same, but something about each one gives it its own charm, its own feeling. Si Ling and the night markets have indoor and outdoor sections, and a huge, huge dog section. Si Ling also has a lot of circus-like games that I haven't found in other night markets. We played this baseball game where you try to knock down numbers; it was fun.

You'll find whole night markets located in warehouses, and the food section is located in what looks like used to be a large, emptied out storage warehouse. They just emptied the building out and stuffed it full of food stands; it's like a food court on crack. We shared this huge ji pai (fried chicken) that was, literally, larger than Brian's head, and a delicious ou ah jien (oyster pancake) that wasn't as good as mom makes it but still pretty delicious.

The rain pushed us back to the MRT station, but it was almost closing anyway. We ran to the last train headed back to our dorms just in time. All in all a satisfying day.

This weekend we were supposed to go to Alishan, which is supposed to be a really pretty mountain. Unfortunately the roads to Alishan got owned by the typhoon, so we went to Dan Shui yesterday instead. Dan Shui is a really pretty harbor at the end of the Red Line on the MRT, and about 30 minutes away from Taipei. I imagine it being a really nice place to be; unfortunately it was raining cats and dogs when we went, so it was a little less convenient.

I did take my camera to Dan Shui, so this portion of my entry will be pictures:

A street in Dan Shui. Lots of shopping, but too rainy so we just took in the sights and powered on through.

Finally found a temple in Dan Shui and did some praying.

Went bowling because it was raining too much. Bowling costs like 5$ per person for two games, including shoe rental!

After dinner and chasing a bus down, we finally made it to the harbor of Dan Shui. It was still slightly rainy but it was still very pretty; will have to come back one day when it's not rainy.

Dan Shui night market at night, after a rain. I love the way rain makes everything reflect off the ground, and makes the air feel so clean and clear.

We bought some crackly things and took a few sweet pictures. Then it was time to put the camera away because the rain started falling down harder.

The train ride back to the MRT was fun; Brian made up this new game where you have to keep your balance with both your feet together. A bunch of us fell over; I fell into a pole, and then onto my ass. We also tried taking jumping photos in the train but we got in trouble.

And, finally, today the typhoon is kicking some serious ass. I called the typhoon out on not being bad-ass enough last time, and it is showing its hand this time for sure. After lunch we went outside, and the wind broke four of our umbrellas instantly. I'm talking like, DEMOLISHED our umbrellas. As in, the cloth part of the umbrella was ripped FROM the bent and cracked metal skeletons of the umbrella. Walking back, you can push into the wind and get blown backwards. You can not be moving and have the wind drag you around. You get stung by the hard, fast rain. You see trees knocked over, bikes flung around, broken umbrellas left on the side of the road. The entrance to our dorm is flooded. Basically the typhoon is being ultimate bad ass and I'm loving it.

I just wish I had food to eat for tonight!

Zai jian,

-Justin

Kareoking, Sunrises, and Legendary Taxi Rides.

Yesterday was one of those legendary days you file under your "Do not forget" folders in your cabinet of memories.

After class and the gym, I had a very productive four hours of studying. The plan was to go kareoking again yesterday night: basically every since that Lee Hom concert we've all been itching to get back into the KTV rooms and belt out some Lee Hom songs. So around 11PM I wrapped up my homework and we gathered the troops together for KTV.

Last time we went to KTV it was in the Xi Men Ding district. We went to another KTV this time, also called Partyworld, in the Sogo district. Another very rich and fancy place! (Also where I took that last shot of the roundish building in my last post, though I didn't know it at the time). I failed to get shots of the KTV place last time around, so I took a picture of the lobby this time. This isn't some 5-star hotel, it's a kareoke place! You would never find a place this fancy dedicated to only KTV in America, it's absolutely crazy!

We sang mostly Chinese songs much to the chagrin of our token white man, Robert Bittner, who was lost in the sea of Chinese music for much of the two hours we were there. However we sang some American music just for him (even if he is Canadian) and sang pretty bad-ass versions of "I Want It That Way," "Dancing Queen," and "As Long As You Love Me." We translated that last song into Chinese and it was EPIC.

The taxi ride home was of epic proportions as well, though it probably won't make much sense to anyone else reading this besides the people who were in the cab. Basically it was the combination of Brian Chow and Brian Tsay, who are both slightly mean hearted; Sarah Ho, who basically has the demeanor of an angel but was seriously ripping into EVERYONE that night; and Jenny Hunyh, the taxi driver, and me watching in amazement. A lot of fightin' words were exchanged in that taxi, but any conversation ending with the kind-hearted Sarah calling Tsay heartless and Chow "lame sauce over a lame pancake" is an epic one.

Yeah, I guess it was one of those had-to-be-there moments.

Afterwards, Jenny, Brian and I decided to go up to the roof of Guo Qing and take a breather. Half an hour of conversation turned into about three hours of conversation and I figured since I had actually been productive earlier today for the first time in my life, why not watch the sunrise? So we stayed up there until 6. It got really bright, but the sun was still blocked by the tall Taiwanese buildings. The sun didn't show itself until around 7 or 8 but by then we were asleep trying to get some shut eye before class. The sunrise did make for some very pretty pictures though:






Needless to say, class today was quite slow and tiring for me. Still, it was a great night with some great friends. Gan bei!

Tomorrow is Friday! Can you say TGIF? Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin

The Hello Kitty Restaurant.

Only in Taiwan will you find a restaurant completely devoted to Hello Kitty. You're never really able to describe just how Hello Kitty-ed out a Hello Kitty restaurant might be, but luckily, that's what pictures are for. So, I present to you in pictures the Hello Kitty restaurant we went to for Jenny's 21st birthday dinner on Sunday (yes, it was still her birthday we were celebrating haha)

The outside of the Hello Kitty restaurant. It is called Hello Kitty Sweets and while they specialize in cakes and dessert, their normal food isn't bad either.

Everything is Hello Kitty'd out, from the plates to the cakes to the food to the decoration on the coffee.

Hello Kitty signs and pictures everywhere.

Hello Kitty napkins and coasters.

A few good men hiding their masculinity in shame. Check out how Hello Kitty'd out the wall is.

Hello Kitty'd powder. Must have Hello Kitty-shaped powder shakers or something!

Birthday girl Jenny underneath the provocatively posed Hello Kitty. The sign behind Jenny says "YOU ARE SO SWEETS," and I'm not joking.

The whole group! And before my mom starts jumping for joy, I am kneeling on a chair.

All in all it was a good time. I heard that the girls' bathroom is seriously Hello Kitty'd out with a sofa and everything, but obviously I couldn't take any photographic proof. The guy's bathroom on the other hand was depressing; a urinal, toilet, and that's it! The girls' bathroom is at like the head of the stairs with an oversized door too; the guys bathroom is hidden away next to the kitchen. Not too hard to figure out who got priority in this restaurant, haha

Today we went to Xi Men Ding again to eat at this amazing noodle place. It's called something like Au Zhong Men Xian and it's a chain restaurant that is also in America. I've eaten the American ones but this one in Xi Men Ding is like 500x better. There's only a counter where they ladle out the soup in a bowl, and you basically stand around outside the store on the street eating. Then you give the bowl back to them when you're done and get on your way. It's not the most customer-friendly place but it is DELICIOUS. Ted said it best (again): "The intestines are like an explosion of flavor!" More like an explosion of awesome.

Only Tuesday and I've had two tests and three reports due this week already. Tomorrow is another test. Clearly I have it easy over here!

Work Hard, Party Harder.

After a long first week of school, we decided it was time to unwind in ultimate awesome fashion. On Friday right after class, we got ready to watch Wang Lee Hom at the Taipei Sony Ericsson Arena. The tickets cost about 1500 NT for some pretty nosebleed seats, but the Taipei Arena is pretty small to begin with so the seats were still pretty good. We all had a blast! (Except for the Brian but he falls asleep all the time anyway, haha)

These pictures come from the camera of the awesome Sarah Ho, without whom there would have been no pictures OR Leehom concert. Thanks Sarah!

Wang Lee Hom live is ten kinds of amazing. His voice is as good or better live than on his CDs. When he performs, he is sort of lifeless (a lot of the time he's just sort of standing there singing, which is admittedly kind of boring), but that still doesn't detract from the fact that he's usually singing while playing piano, violin, or his awesome yet slightly ridiculous dragon guitar. This dude is talented. Basically when he pulled out his violin for 落葉歸根 and played with a small string orchestra behind him AND sang, I was amazed. Sounded absolutely beautiful!

The only thing that we booed at was when Lee Hom was giving shout outs to all the different countries in the arena. He gave a shout out to Indonesia and Singapore, but when it came time to give a shout out to his home country, he totally gipped us hyped Mei Guo Ren and shouted out "TAIWAN!" Ted said it best: "That bitch is from New York!" It's ok, Lee Hom, we forgive you, sort of.

We went to Gong Guan again after the concert to get some food and drinks. For being a night market, Gong Guan is 100% DEAD on a Friday night at 11:45 PM. We couldn't find a single open restaurant or tea station in the entire area, it was slightly ridiculous.

Saturday was sleep in day, but my beastly roommate Kota likes to wake up at around 8 or 9 every morning so I was up by then as well. That day the girls decided to go to Wu Feng Pu, which is basically a girls-only shopping district, so us men decided to go look for some manly stuff, like T-shirts, cell phones, and laptops. What we actually ended up doing in the labrynith that is the Taipei main station underground mall largely consisted of this:

The underground mall is nice but the stores are personally of little interest. There aren't that many guy clothing stores and when there are, they are tiny. There are a LOT of video game stores, though, and a few pirated DVD places. At the end of one part of the mall, there was a huge dance troupe practicing their moves, and a bunch of people showing off their yo yo skills. It was actually pretty sweet. All in all, though, the shopping experience was kind of blah, though it might have just been because I was really, really tired.

We decided to take it up top and find the electronics store.

NOVA is a huge mall filled with small electronics shops. I think it might be 7 or 8 stories tall; we only went through three of them before we had to leave. It's jam packed with different, competing stores, so all you really have to do is go into NOVA, find what you're looking for, and walk around to all the different stores selling that same thing and compare prices. Yours truly was looking for a spiffy Asian-market cell phone to take back to the states. I tend to have an expensive eye, unfortnately; the three cell phones I picked out all happened to be more than 18,000 NT. That's 600$. Safe to say, I bought one. Just kidding, mom and dad, I didn't; your son has self control, really!

Today is Jenny Hunyh's 21st birthday so the men decided to get her some gifts. We got her some alcohol, Ted got her a beautiful cake that looked like it wasn't supposed to be eaten. But we did, and it was delicious.


Last night we went clubbing around Taipei 101 to celebrate her birthday. Yours truly has never gone clubbing either in the states or in Taiwan so it was a completely new experience for me. The 16 of us got into Lava at a pretty decent price (8800 NT for all 16 of us, including three handles of alcohol, Red Bull and Coke). Yours truly got pushed onto the stage to dance, but got kicked off by an angry bouncer about 30 seconds later. Apparently they don't like the robot dance in Taipei. We stayed there until around 2AM, when our friend Tiffany dropped by and told us she could get us into Room 18 for free. Honestly I'm not really sure what makes for a good club or a bad club, but according to my friends Room 18 was a lot better than Lava. They seemed about the same to me. Also, I'm not sure if it's just Taipei clubs or clubs all around, but people (especially the too-cool-for-school dudes) like to just stand, stare around and look cool on the dance floor. The dance floor is for DANCING, people!

And I know mom and dad are probably freaking out right now and getting ready to send me emails about not going too wild, studying hard, etc. Your son is alive, didn't get drunk and didn't fool around with any girls, ok?

We got back at 4AM smelling of sweat, second-hand smoke and satisfaction. All around, a very nice way to end a long, studious week! Now, back to the homework; I do have a LOT of it due tomorrow! Til next, time, zai jian!

-Justin

Study Night Fever!

Sorry for the lack of entries lately, it is directly proportional to the amount of cool and interesting things I have done in the past week. I said this in my previous post but I'll say it again here: Chinese class is so hard! Every night you'll find a group of people outside in the common area studying until 2 or 3 in the morning. You'll find another group of people the morning after studying until class starts at 1. Sometimes the same people are there. Sometimes those same people include me. Though I haven't had to memorize more than 60 or 70 words in one day, I have heard there are classes that have had their students memorize up to 120 words per day. Thus it's been hard to pack in interesting things to do for the sake of this blog, much less write in the blog period. Sorry, blog!

In an attempt to not turn this blog into a whine-fest of how hard class is, I'll tell you guys about what I've been doing in the gaps between class and studying. I have to apologize in advance; my camera has been lonely and out of commission for the past week, so there are no pictures to accompany this post.

The typhoon has passed and in its wake is a blisteringly hot and humid Taiwan sun. Luckily the only time we really have to endure it is on our way to class at around 1pm. It's pretty much ritual to be waking up at around 9am to the sounds of construction and drilling, cracking open the books for a few hours, and heading out to lunch at around 12. After lunch, it's off to class for three hours, and then after class it's either the gym (200 NT each month, which comes out to about 7$ a month!) or finding food around campus, by which time it has already cooled down to a more manageable humidity. After that, it's back to Guo Qing at around 7pm for a night of study night fever.

I went to Gong Guan night market both last night and tonight for food and some shopping. Gong Guan is the same place we went for lunch before heading up the Mao Kong gondola. Gong Guan is located across the street from NTU's main gate and it is so vibrant at night. I really regret not bringing my camera as it would have had a field day with all those neon lights, though I'm sure I'll be returning one of these nights.

Last night we went on a mission to find some food; I think by now I've tried at least seven different types of seafood fried rice. Maybe it's time for me to start ordering something else. Tonight we went on a mission to buy some clothes, but after travelling around some of the alleyways we ran into no luck (besides one shirt that had a bear on it yelling "Fucking axe!" -- brilliant, right?) I used my previous fobby fashion sense and directed them to a Bossini, where Cris and Xander proceeded to spend almost 3000 NT on clothes. Yours truly only got a T-shirt of which I will show you guys later, and no it is NOT the shirt I just described.

Tomorrow we are going to a Wang Lee Hom concert. Though I don't really listen to a lot of Wang Lee Hom I am excited to see what a sold-out Taiwanese crowd is like. On October 17th, a few of the EAP kids are going to see Linkin Park, but I'm thinking that a crowd full of screamo Taiwanese kids is a little too much for me to handle.

I promise my next post will be more interesting, hopefully!

Zai jian,

-Justin

PS Today was my roommate's 21st birthday. Happy birthday, Kota! The drinking age in Japan is 20, but I found him celebrating in our room drunk at 4pm. What a beast!

Weathering the "Typhoon," Part 2.

Quite simply, there was no typhoon to weather, just a LOT of heavy rain. Seems like it decided to skip town and invade Japan instead. So with that said...

Yesterday was resolutely boring. It was the Chinese Mid-autumn Festival, also known as the Mooncake Festival. The "party" ended up being another orientation telling us about where to poo, how to use the squatters, what we were and weren't allowed to do in the dorms (again) etc. etc. A few of us defintiely fell asleep. We were originally supposed to have a barbeque but because of the heavy non-typhoon rain, we instead had a massive hot pot indoors. You can probably start to imagine how stuffy and gross it got in a room with around 100 people and 10 hot pot pots boiling at full steam.

There is construction going on in Guo Qing, and as far as I can tell, it's happening directly above my room. Waking up to sawing and hammering sounds in the morning is NOT cool. Move to another room, and you realize apparently the entire third floor is undergoing construction or something. I don't get why they're doing any construction on Guo Qing at all, especially apparently they're tearing down the whole building in a year or two.

Today was our first day of classes. All I can say is when they called this a Chinese boot camp, they were not kidding. I already have three pages of vocab to memorize and four pages of Chinese to read, and that's the homework level each day! Also apparently they messed up my schedule; two out of three of my classes were changed last minute which had me getting kicked out of classes and running across the building to what was "supposed" to be my correct class. The first time it was kind of funny; the second time it was just plain silly.

I'm almost positive I'm outmatched in my third Chinese class. The people in that class clearly know Chinese; one guy was speaking pretty much fluently to our teacher (who speaks RIDICULOUSLY quickly). Other people in our class learned Chinese for eight years, or two but spoke at home with their parents, or something of that variation. I'm pretty much screwed. However, It's important to remember that even though the past week has been all about having fun, travelling and vacationing, the real reason I came to Taiwan was to learn Chinese. Not to party, not to vacation, but to learn Chinese. It's time to buckle down, wrap my head around that and remember it, I suppose.

I suppose it's time to start working on homework. Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin

Weathering the Typhoon, Part I.

For the past two days we've been living under the constant blanket of a typhoon warning. The whole stay in and away from windows spiel. Typhoons, in case you are wondering, are wetter, slightly less windy hurricanes. Anyway, on Friday the news said a nice, fat typhoon was headed our direction over the weekend. Our student volunteer, Kelly, said in the past that typhoons tend to make store signs fall; make trees break; and make bikes and, sometimes, cars fly. She said that this typhoon would be a category 17/20 typhoon, which is I guess one of the most powerful typhoons they've had in a while. But, so far, so good. The typhoon has been a slow-moving one, so while it was supposed to hit Friday night, it's now scheduled for Sunday.

Friday was the NTU club fair. Seriously, I've never seen so many people packed into one place at the same time before. It felt like a night market except instead of food booths surrounding you everywhere, it's club booths. I signed up for taekwondo (at Cris' prodding) and the Chinese instrument club (dad, I'm going to learn the er hu and make you proud!) I also signed up for NTU's orchestra but given I don't have my cello with me, that could be problematic.

Me and Atsushi in his club's clothes. This guy is seriously awesome. Also I realize there's not that many people in the picture; this is the outside row of the club fair.

Friday was also Brian Tsay's 21st birthday, which is just not a very big deal to any of the Taiwanese here, nor any of the Japanese or European international students that share the floor with us. We were going to go clubbing but given the typhoon's presence, we stayed in the confines of Guo Qing dorm. We partied for Brian anyway and got him suitably wasted; we also unintentionally got our other friend Cris wasted, but it's not our fault he gets plastered after two shots. I mean, come on, Cris.

That's our RA, Emma, joining in on the fun and making her mark on a wasted Cris. Given her limited English, she still knew how to write "Cocksucker" and "Teabag."

We decided what was supposed to be "one of the strongest typhoons in history" was merely just a "bitch rain," so today (Saturday) we decided to go out on the field and play some Red Rover and some soccer.

Thanks to my good friend Wendy Eav for weathering the typhoon and taking this pic!

The rain ended up getting pretty damn hectic for about 5 minutes during our hour or so out there. Typhoon rain is pretty painful when it arrives; it means a lot of really, really fast rain coming at you like a sucker punch from the side. For the most part though, the rain was definitely in the "bitch rain" category, which is to say, it definitely wasn't as powerful as I expected from a typhoon. That said, it was still a hell of a lot stronger than anything I've seen in California.

Red Rover was a bust; the rain was making everyone's hands far too slippery to keep anyone from breaking through the chains. So we played soccer instead on the field with 3 inches of water over it. We were playing against some good-as-pro Europeans, and it was pretty damn awesome. We were all disappointed in the "bitch rain" and challenge the typhoon to another outing tomorrow, when it finally shows up.

Apparently, Taiwanese people watch movies during typhoons, so it's time for me to follow suit. I'll update you guys about the typhoon soon, after it levels up from noob status.

-Justin

Xi Men Ding and Mao Kong.

It's been a long but incredibly fun past two days.

But before the fun was the NTU Chinese Entry Placement exams. They were TOUGH. The speaking was not too bad; it was conversational style. It was clear I didn't get enough practice; they even asked me whether or not I didn't have any family members or friends I could lian xi zhong wen with. No, I don't have anyone to practice with, and I guess it showed. Still, it wasn't as bad as the writing portion, which was near impossible. No joke, I left about 3/4 of it blank. I heard from my friends who are more native speakers that the last few passages in the reading comprehension section were about pollution and politics; I mean I hardly know how to order food.

Wednesday we went to Xi Men Ding, a long ride on the MRT involving quite a few train changes. Xi Men Ding is apparently the Red Light District of Taipei, and apparently there are prostitutes of the women, men, gay and straight variety roaming around. However, you'd never think it; Xi Men Ding is very fancy and bright, dense and four stories tall with shops, arcades, lounges, clubs and restaurants.


It's amazing how incredibly vibrant this place is. It's not like an American mall; there are stores on the first, second, and third stories, and there are so many small alleyways to duck into and find new stores and places to eat with their own bright neon facades, streets and motorcycles running through it all. The restaurant we ate at is called Modern Toilet, a pretty popular attraction in Taipei but placed sort of down an alleyway away from the main Xi Men Ding area.


The food here sucks really badly but there is no denying the charm of this place. It's got toilet bowl seats, bath tub tables, toilet bowl-shaped dishes and urinal shaped drinks. For some reason all the food came out smelling slightly like poo... maybe it was intentional? Also worth noting: despite every seat being an actual toilet bowl (no plumbing obviously), the bathrooms at Modern Toilet do not have toilets. Instead, they only have squatters. Irony much?

Afterwards we went to an arcade and then a kareoke place. I've got to describe this kareoke place to all of you. It is called "Partyworld" and it is ridiculous. It literally is the size of a hotel; about eight or nine stories tall. There are bouncers checking IDs at the downstairs lobby, which is as swank as a 5 star hotel's. You sign in at a receptionist area and wait for a room to be available. You're taken up into your room and fed random dim sum food while you kareoke; there's even a buffet outside of the rooms on every floor should you get hungry. Four hours of kareoke for 300 NT (or 10$) per person. Pretty crazy, right?

Thursday was Mao Kong day. Mao Kong is a gondola that goes up to the top of a mountain outside of Taipei. Before that was a little lunch; we ate xiao long baos (dumplings) and pai ku fans (pork chop).

This place had a picture of Zhou Jie Lun (Jay Chou) eating there. We asked about it and the owner was very proud; he showed us where he sat, what he ordered, etc. It was pretty cute.

A bus and train ride later, we were on the outskirts of Taipei at Mao Kong gondola. The ride up takes around 15 minutes and 50 NT. The view is pretty spectacular on the way up, and at the top, but we were greeted by a torrential downpour.


All there really is to do when you get to the top of the mountain is drink tea and eat food. There are buses taking you to one of 10-20 different restaurants and tea places up there but we opted for a tea place that is just outside the gondola station given the downpour. They serve tea to you in traditional Chinese tea fashion, very fancy. The view though was really something else. Advice: go up at around 4 or 5, stay for the sunset, and take the gondola back down at night. The view of Taipei at night is as or more breathtaking than at day.

The rain in Taipei is really something else. I thought I'd lived through some pretty hectic stuff in Los Angeles and San Diego but nothing really prepares you for Taipei rain. Even with an umbrella, the only thing on my body that was dry by the time I found shelter was the top of my hair and my forehead. This stuff comes at you from the top, sides, and bottom; it's kind of ridiculous. And this weekend we will be experiencing our first Taipei typhoon. Fun!

There are people mingling around in our hallway. Usually it's pretty dead around here but this will be the first night I've ever seen people hanging around out there. Time to go join, so til next time, zai jian!

-Justin

Banking, unpacking, and walking a lot.

The day started pretty early, around 8am. I tried to get all my monies changed into Taiwanese cash, and here is one nugget of FACT that I can now impose onto you guys: When coming to Taiwan, DO NOT bring Traveler's Checks. No one here knows they are, and when they do, they charge an extravagant fee. One bank charged a 10% service fee. That's 10$ for every 100$ you wanted to change into Taiwanese dollars. Other places refuse to change more than 200 or 300$. Basically Traveler's Checks are a huge pain in the ass so do not bring them here.

Afterwards I spent a few hours moving into my swank new pad:


Check it out. I know you're jealous. It's not a bad place to be, really. There's air conditioning, which is a HUGE plus. However, the mattresses are only about an inch thick (I'm going to have back pains tonight, hoo yeah) and I had to go through four different cables to get my internet to work. I never thought cables were so difficult to make but, apparently they are. Also, that sign hangs in front of our bathroom and in every stall. Why that sign even has to be there kind of worries me, to be honest.

I ate lunch in this alleyway next to school. It's famous for having lots of good food and I had an pretty awesome chicken katsu for 150 NT. That's 5$ for katsu, salad, rice, soup, and some mini tempura. Woot. I have a feeling I will be frequenting this alleyway often, as NTU does not provide meals, and the cafeteria downstairs looks sha-dy.

Proof that no country can hide from Starbucks.

That night we went to the Shi Da night market. One of my favorite things about Taiwan from the last time I came was the night markets. So many different types of food, people, things to see in such a small, concentrated spot. You walk around, yummy orange lemon juice in one hand, some sort of dumpling or Chinese fajita dripping in your other, taking in the sights with a few new people and having a good time. Can't get much more Taiwanese culture than in the night market.


Is it weird that there is a 7-11 in this picture? Yeah, sort of. One thing about night markets: there are no public trash cans ANYWHERE. So whatever you buy on the streets to eat or drink, you will be carrying it with you until you leave the night market. Same goes with if you go into a convenience store. They DO NOT provide bags to carry your stuff out, and charge extra to use a bag. So bring your own, or prepare to walk three blocks with a huge mosquito net in your arms.

A few oddities from the night market:

Yes this place is called Dr. Pasta. Apparently the pasta here isn't very good and is actually quite watery. Safe to say I haven't and probably will never try Dr. Pasta.

This is a sweet cafe. The main draw of this cafe is that the owner has all of his cats just sort of chillin' in and around his cafe. So basically you sit down at a table with your drink and this cat is just sorta there, sleeping next to you. Apparently there is usually an average of 10 cats lounging in the cafe.

Alright, my legs are KILLING me from all the walking. So until next time, zai jian!

-Justin