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

Doing Everything BESIDES Going to Wu Lai.

On Wednesday, Romin, Jenn and I were planning to go to Wu Lai this weekend. A nice, relaxing sightseeing trip. Instead, I just had probably the most jam-packed weekend I've had here in Taipei.

Friday was our first practice for the Guo Qing Rock Band. That's right, I'm in a rock band here in Taiwan. We're performing for the NTU 80th anniversary international student concert which is sometime in December. We procrastinated a lot but the end of the story is that on Friday at 4 PM, we started practicing together for the first time ever, and at 6:30 PM, we had our auditions for the concert. And we just got a new guitarist Thursday night, and he learned the part over night. Well, how do you think it went?

We're performing a rendition of Canon in D, followed by Yellowcard's "Only One" and "Breathing," along with our own rendition of the Tai Da school song. We only had Canon in D and "Only One" prepared, and prepared is a loosely used term here. Also, while my voice was easily hitting every single one of the ridiculously high notes the lead singer of Yellowcard likes to toy with, after 2 and a half hours of practicing, my voice was completely shot.

So, come audition time, our band was completely off, my voice was cracking every time I strained for a high note, and we didn't have a Tai Da school song to go along with it. We got chastised by the director for sure, but as there weren't too many acts auditioning for the concert anyway, we still got in which, now, I'm thinking might not be such a good thing. Afterwards we got some dinner in the alley and I hit the bed early.

Saturday, after some practicing with the Guo Qing band in the morning, Jenn and I took off for a day in the sun. We were supposed to go to Wu Lai on Saturday, but the morning practice meant we wouldn't be able to leave til 11, so we decided to leave it until Sunday. Instead, we went around Taipei trying to find things we had wanted to do for a while but couldn't based on 1) time or 2) weather. Speaking of which, the weather on Saturday was AWESOME! Not a cloud in the sky, sunny, warm, perfect.

First, we went to the Su-ho paper museum. We had been told by our classmates who went there during a field trip that it was a pretty cool place (we didn't go because the field trip involved skipping class: yeah I'm talking to you, mom and dad!). Indeed, it was mildly cool... for a very short period of time. It was a LOT smaller than we expected (about the size of a McDonald's here in Taipei, really) and there just wasn't all that much stuff to see. Still, what they DID have there was pretty cool, like a house made of paper, and various paper-made products like chandeliers, fire-proof paper, etc. And I found something for Vince to bring back to the States, so it wasn't all a loss. But yeah, we spent about 45 minutes there.

Paper house, probably the coolest thing there.

Next, we went to the Sun Yat Sen memorial hall. In the MRT stations, there's always pictures of various places to sight see around Taipei, and the Sun Yat Sen is one of them. It's really pretty in the pictures but in real life it is sort of... eh. It pales in comparison to the monumental Chiang Kai Shek memorial, but the Sun Yat Sen memorial hall is cool because while it's not such a breathtaking monument, on a sunny day like Saturday, it seems to be the to-go spot for locals to go, hang out and socialize. There were children running everywhere with kites, playing around. There's a small park inside the memorial where families picnic together and let their dogs run loose and play with each other. There's a huge group of people watching a painter paint the view. It's a cool place to be on a nice day to check out the Taiwanese locals socialize and have fun.

I want this in my life.

Afterwards, Jenn and I fulfilled our (or at least, my) tourist needs and went to the top of the Taipei 101. I had been wanting to go since I go to Taiwan but busy schedules and the want for us EAP-ers to not do touristy things have kept me from going. Recently, a very early-setting sun and crappy, cloudy weather has kept me from going by myself. But today it was a beautifully clear day, so it was definitely time to go! The ride up to the top of 101 takes 400 NTD and 44 seconds up the world's fastest elevator. Going up that elevator is a weird feeling because you feel all your insides shift but you don't really feel the speed, if you get what I'm saying. Anyway, it's certainly weird.

At the base of the beast.

World's fastest elevator taking us up the 101.

Make sure you go to the top of the 101 on a nice day because they'll only let you to the 91st floor open air observation deck on nice days. On other days, you're limited to just the 88th floor indoor observation room, which is 360 degrees, but still, viewing the Taipei city outdoors without a tinted glass panel in your way is really something else.

This is the view of the Tai Da campus. You can see our classrooms and our dorm rooms in this view, as well as our favorite local night market, Gong Guan.

Sunset on the 101.

Observations from the top of 101: The view is spectacular, but standing on top of the world's tallest building you can't help but think: it doesn't actually feel all that tall. But it is the tallest building in Taipei by a HUGE margain, and because of that, you can literally see everything in Taipei that isn't blocked by mountains. Seriously, the view is amazing. And it's even cooler that I went after becoming pretty familiar with Taipei county because seeing all the different places I've been to from the top of 101 is pretty awesome.

Saturday night, a group of us went to this free concert hosted by Taiwan Beer. Taiwan Beer is, I suppose, the largest beer company in Taiwan and they put on a HUGE show with fire, fireworks, smoke, lasers, and the whole nine yards inside what seems to me like a basketball gym. It was a seriously cool experience to go to a Taiwanese concert with what I assume are really, really huge Taiwanese performing acts. I don't really listen to them or know who they are but they involved these people:

I stole this picture from Tiff; thanks in advance!

I've heard of at least one of them, A-Mei, which means she must be pretty big. She was the main performer of the night and the crowd went CRAZY for her. I've never been to an Asian standing-room-only concert but it was pretty crazy. There were hundreds of people packed into that room and I've seen concerts like this broadcasted on Asian television but seeing it live is something else completely.

Today me and Jenn were going to go to Wu Lai but we woke up too late so we failed, again. Instead, we went to the Taipei Zoo. The Taipei Zoo is actually pretty decently large and has a nice selection of animals to see. Plus, I got to use my 55-200 zoom lens, which never gets any action, but it produced some AMAZING shots for me.

Muahaha.

Not much to say about the zoo: I mean, a zoo is a zoo. It felt like being back in the San Diego zoo, except for the fact that everyone in this zoo was Taiwanese. Another observation: Taiwanese people have the funniest way of expressing themselves. For example, this kid was drinking a bottle of water, and handed it to his dad. The dad asked the kid, "Is this the water that handsome men drink?" and the kid replied "Of course it is, dad!" and they chuckled while the dad drank. So witty!

So that was my packed weekend in Taipei. In short, I got nothing that I had originally planned to do this weekend done (ie, Wu Lai) but it still ended up being a great, great weekend nonetheless. Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin

PS It took me three hours to upload and edit my photos, and write this blog entry. I did not realize it took that long!

The Villa Herbs and Mr. J (pt 2).

The weather has changed DRASTICALLY! It is seriously cold now. I'm talking seriously cold. I'm not sure if I've ever seen weather this cold in LA. During the day I'll be wearing a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, and a jacket, and I'll still be cold. And when the wind picks up and nips at your neck and face... oh man. I need more clothes and a scarf immediately. If you're reading this, mom and dad, your son is freezing. Send him more money :]

Yesterday Jenn and I went to The Villa Herbs. We found this restaurant way back when with Brian and Tiffany during our failed Ice Bar escapade. We passed by this restaurant and thought, wow this place is REALLY cool! So we picked up a card and forgot about it until a few days ago, when I suggested we check it out. It took us about an hour and a half of wandering around Taipei, asking locals, and getting pointed in every direction to find this place. It's located in a seriously random alley in seriously random district of Taipei, so yes it is somewhat hard to find. But it is worth it.

The Villa Herbs was as cool the second time as it was the first time. The design and layout of the place is out of this world! You walk in and there's smoke and a bridge going over water with fishies in them and... well just look for yourself:

The exterior. Very sweet from the outside. Even sweeter on the inside.

You walk in to this very cool bridge/water set up with smoke machines or something. I took these last two pictures from my seat!

I've never seen a restaurant set up the way this restaurant was. It was half restaurant half cigar club; in another half of the restaurant (separated by another bridge on the second floor) you can lounge and chat with homies in dark and moody rooms, sitting on thrones of chairs with a cigar. Very cool but I didn't get to take pictures in there... the people chillin' there sucking on their cigars looked really hard core and I didn't want to displease them.

The food at Villa Herbs was likewise out of this world! I had a huuge stomach ache that night, but Jenn was ok, so maybe it was something I had earlier in the day. Regardless, the food was still freakin' delicious and really something special.

Now, this garlic bread will haunt me forever. You have to buy each piece of garlic bread (2$ for two) but they are seriously the best garlic bread I've ever had in my life.

Marinated baby pike with raspberry and onions. Jenn and I didn't know what the heck a pike was when we ordered this and quit e frankly, we still don't. But it was freakin' delicious. Pretty sour though, so watch out.

The only thing Jenn didn't try during the meal was this, my lamb chops, and I got huge stomach aches that night and she didn't. Thus one can conclude my stomach aches were probably due to this but you know what, if it was, totally worth it. These lamb chops were freaking awesome.

I only had a small bite of Jenn's pork but judging by the speed at which she ate it, I'd say it was pretty good.

Afterwards we found our way out and decided to check out the 24 hr Eslite mall on Dunhua. Eslite is like the Sogo I mentioned earlier; a big multistory mall with everything you can imagine, from food to books to stationary to music to clothes etc. Vicki, Peter, I found your present from Taiwan here, I think you guys will like it! However, only the bookstore of Eslite was open 24 hr, and books bore me and Jenn, so after some "that cone is so dan-gerous" ice cream, we left at 10:30 and headed back to Guo Qing.

Entrance to the 24 hr Eslite. The feathers are fake.

Today a large, large group of us went to Mr. J. Mr. J, if you recall, is Jay Chou's restaurant. There are two of them in Taipei, so we decided to go to the other one this time. It's pretty amazing how different this one was compared to the first one we went to. The first one, it was hard to tell you were in a Jay Chou restaurant, it was so unassuming and blank of Jay Chou references. This one is completely different. It's located in the Taipei medical school, and it is HUGE. It is its own building in itself, and when you walk in you're bombarded with pictures of Jay Chou on the walls, memorabilia from his "Secret" movie (including the piano he used in the movie), and Jay Chou music blasting from the speaker system.

The food was the same: surprisingly good and reasonably priced. It was weird sitting in a completely Jay Chou-themed restaurant... when's the last time you sat in a restaurant themed after a single living pop sensation? Remember how in the first Mr. J I talked about how I was surprised they hadn't named dishes after his songs? Sure enough, there was a meal in the "Bu Neng Shuo de Mi Mi" menu called the "Dao Xiang" meal. Oh Jay, you are too clever.

And that, in short, along with a lot of shivering and studying, was the past two days. It is supposed to warm up this weekend, and a lot of people are heading all the way down to southern Taiwan to Ken Ding beach. We'll see where I end up. Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin

Yang Mi Shan (Zhen De!) and Other Exploits.

The rain finally let up on Saturday. I woke up and immediately decided I wanted to climb Yang Mi Shan. Yang Mi Shan is the mountain me and the guys went to on Man Day but failed to climb because we got there too late. It's also where we met that random old dude at that random old temple. Remember?

So Romin, Ayumi, Tony, Nancy, Jenn and I made our way up to Yang Mi Shan. I had learned from the mistakes made on Man Day so we did not get lost this time. If you want to climb Yang Mi Shan, you simply take the 109(?) bus from Gong Guan all the way to the last stop, which is Yang Mi Shan. It's about a 45 minute bus ride but it takes you straight to the base of the long, long stairs up to the tallest peak in Yang Mi Shan park, which is Mt. Cising. Yang Mi Shan is the name of the surrounding park, not the mountain itself, and Mt. Cising is the tallest mountain in Taipei county.

The climb was long and very, very tiring. I think it took us about 2 hours to the top, but we took several breaks because though the first half is pretty straight forward, the second half is steep, narrow and twisty. Definitely wear shoes; if you wear sandals for this climb, you'll deeply regret it. And prepare to be sore for at least a few days. Still, the view up there is TOTALLY WORTH IT, and absolutely amazing. Just be warned that it tends to be very cloudy, and cold, up there, so bring a jacket because you'll be sweaty when you get to the top, and it'll be very cold and windy up there.

Up the steps we go. There are a lot of them.

You are rewarded with this view. Pretty freakin' spectacular.

Yang Mi Shan is next to Xinbeitou, which is famous for their hot springs. So we decided after our arduous and tiring climb up to the top of the mountain, we should go hot springing to relax! The 619 or Xiao 9 bus from Yang Mi Shan takes you straight to the Xinbeitou MRT station, and about 5 minutes away from the MRT station is a public hot spring. Public = you don't have to be naked. It's kind of gross sharing hot springs with literally a hundred other old people but a hot spring is a hot spring and it was still ridiculously comfortable.

I would have snapped a picture of how the hot springs look inside but who wants to see a bunch of half naked old people lounging around?

This hot spring had four levels of hotness. Yours truly only made it to the second hottest hot spring. I tried going into the hottest one; when I stepped in, it was so hot it actually felt cold for the first few seconds. I went in up to my thigh, at which point I really couldn't stand it, and then I jumped out. My legs were red and burning up to my thigh for an entire day. I've been in hot springs in Taiwan, China and Japan, but this is the hottest one I have ever experienced. Only old veteran hot springers were in there, and they all came out red as beets, no joke.

We got back just in time to get ready for Tiff's birthday clubbing outing. I know what you're thinking: climbing a mountain, not the smartest thing to do before clubbing, right? Fortunately, legs dont' really get sore from climbing a mountain until the day after, so clubbing was ok. Plus, clubbing was free! Luxy was better this time around but that probably has something to do with the fact that my stomach wasn't acting up this time around too.

Sunday, Nancy, Casey, Jenn and I went back up to Jiufen (the first mountain we climbed, and the place with ridiculously good food vendors) for the sole purpose of eating food. Unfortunately when we got up there, it was raining. Casey has never been to Jiufen so Nancy took him around, while Jenn and I made a beeline for the tea place. Jiufen was PACKED, it was seriously like sardines in that alleyway! You couldn't move at all, it felt like the mosh pit of a rock concert or something. Fortunately we got to the tea place in due time, and it was SO NICE! The atmosphere was awesome; the seats were those high booths with mats you sit on. Inside the tea place there was a stream with fish in it, and bridges going over the stream. It was a sweet place and unfortunately I didn't bring my camera on that rainy day, but we will be going again.

Our time there was short because we had to make it back to Taipei for Tiffany's birthday dinner. The line for the bus back to Taipei stretched around street corner, so we lined up, but we saw a Taipei bus pass by with no people. We realized that the line was for not only the Taipei bus, but ALL the buses, and that Taiwanese people were simply too nice to cut in front of people not using the bus that arrived. However, we are not Taiwanese people, so we cut in front of the line and waved goodbye to Jiufen.

Tiff's dinner was at the Taipei film museum, which is a Euro-style house renovated and turned into a museum. Everything in there is modern and cool looking, and quirky. The restaurant has cool seats and a movie playing in the background. The pathway to the bathroom features a ceiling that gets progressively lower and lower; you can't walk through it straight without hitting your head. The atmosphere was awesome, and the place was beautiful, but the food was meh, and the service was definitely pretty bad (which is to say, it was about American restaurant quality). Still, made for some nice pictures:

Everyone outside the front entrance of the house. It's been a while since we got so many people out together, the unfortunate side effect of clique-ing.

I was decidedly sick after coming back from Tiff's birthday dinner: it was cold at the top of the mountain, and it was cold after clubbing. Winter has definitely come in Taipei, and my only bringing summer clothes to Taiwan is really kicking me in the balls right about now. Monday, I decided I definitely, definitely needed some winter clothes. Buying clothes in Taiwan isn't as cheap as I remember it being, which is why I haven't bought anything clothes here yet. I was expecting to come back with a new suitcase full of clothes but stuff here is America priced, so why shop here when I can go to H&M? However, yesterday for some odd, inspired reason, EVERYTHING was on sale. Every store I walked into had some sort of crazy 40-50% sale. I spent 100$ US on Monday, but that bought me a new pair of pants, a button up shirt, an argyle sweater, and a SWEET jacket. The jacket was especially made of win: it was originally 70 dollars with a 40% discount, but the people took 60% off on accident so I ended up paying 30 bucks for it. Win!

Sales here come with a catch, which is that all the stores are oddly reminiscent of Black Friday. Especially the Sogo's in Taiwan, which are like American malls on crack. People mulling about EVERYWHERE, pushing and making their way to sales. The food court where we had dinner was nuts; people fighting over chairs and stuff. Intense.

Today was chill day. I'm still sick and my 3rd class teacher made me go home because apparently I looked it. I stayed in and watched TV shows under my blanket. Me, Nancy and Brian went to this American diner place (called The Diner) which is the closest to home food as I have had in a while. It made me realize how much I miss home. Nancy had french toast, Brian had pancakes, I had an egg benedict, realized I still had a hankering for American food, and ordered another breakfast burrito. And they were actually really good; better than Denny's! If ever you're in Taiwan and you have a hankering for a good ol' American breakfast, or good ol' American food in general (this place also sells hamburgers and PASTRAMI!!!), then The Diner is the place to go.

I'll be dreaming about this french toast tonight, it was so freaking good.

Time to study! Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin