Friday was Halloween and it was crazy!!! After putting the finishing touches to my costume, Guo Qing Er Lou (second story) went out to terrorize the campus of NTU! There was about 20 or 30 of us dressed up in our crazy costumes. People in Taiwan do acknowledge Halloween but don't really celebrate it or make such a big deal out of it. So people were pretty darn surprised and startled when they saw us walking down the street, giving out candy to random strangers. Some would straight up get up and run away, others would reluctantly accept the candy, and others would stop to take pictures with us. We raided a car with candy and I almost got run over because it tried to drive away really fast. It's mostly an age thing; the younger the people are, the more willing they are to embrace the amazingness that was our Guo Qing Halloween run.
My Pacman cape and helmet.
Cris is a birthday present, and yes he's wearing boxers underneath that box. I am waka waka om-ing him up.
(Almost) the whole group of crazy Guo Qing Halloweeners! Thanks to Angie for this picture (also, happy belated birthday, Angie!!!)
Terrorizing the streets of Tai Da.
We went into Xiao Xiao Fu and started surprising people studying and meeting up. Cris starting running up and down the aisles with his box on. We also terrorized the cafeteria, the club building (and got kicked out), and the front of the library, which is notoriously known for being the place where all the couples hang out. Yeah, we scared them there alright.
We went to Gong Guan and started passing out candy to people at the MRT station. They seemed very surprised but very friendly; several stopped to take pictures with us.
Tsay and Xander show their true colors.
After the Halloween run was the Guo Qing Halloween party. I have give massive, massive props to Chow De Kai for setting this whole thing up. It was his idea and he ran with it to the end, and the party was amazing! The food, the games, the decorations, everything was done really well and I'm pretty darn impressed with what he accomplished. Well done Chow De Kai.The party died down around 1 or 2, which is when Chow De Kai busted out the alcohol and started playing bartender for everyone still sticking around. We played Chow De Kai's favorite game, King's Card (or something like that) until 4 in the morning. It was a fun, eventful and awesome Halloween in Taiwan. Actually it's probably the most eventful Halloween I've had in my life, which is ironic, because it happened in a place that doesn't actually celebrate Halloween. Oh well, go figure!
Saturday I woke up at around 1:40pm. I am glad I took the time to sleep in that day because I haven't been getting much sleep this past week. Anyway, it already being pretty much 2, Jenn and I decided to try going to the National Palace Museum. The only problem was a) we had no idea how to get there and b) we had no idea how large it was. We remembered seeing a sign for the National Palace Museum (heretofore known as the NPM) on our way to the Botanical Gardens, so we took the MRT to that same stop. Turns out, NPM is about 35 stops away from the Botanical Gardens. By that time, the sun already looked like it was on its way back down to the horizon, so we decided to go to Yuan Shan to check out some temples.
The first temple we checked out was a Confucious temple (kong miao!). Jenn is basically an encyclopaedia of Chinese history so she was busy telling me about all the ins and outs of the temple, how the temples are painted more colorful than normal Buddhist temples, how the layout is planned, what all the different animals meant, etc. It was a pretty cool experience and I wish I had taken my camera with me as it was quite beautiful and colorful!
The second temple we checked out was a normal Buddhist temple. It was pretty large and also very cool; at the back is a five story building which you have to climb up in order to get to the last praying spot. It's always somewhat confusing to go to these Buddhist temples because, unlike the Shi Lai Si temple back at home, you have to take 10 incense sticks and go around the temple in an utterly confusing pattern, praying to each god in a certain order. We had to consult the map several times to get it right.
After a quick bite of to-go sushi, I met up with Cris, Jun, David and Tsay at Xi Men to watch the gloriousness that is "Tropic Thunder." Usually movies here come out pretty close to the normal American release dates but "Tropic Thunder" opened on Halloween here. What exactly took them so long to release it here I'm not entirely sure but seeing it here on the big screen was better than not seeing it here at all. Safe to say, "Tropic Thunder" was even more amazing the second time around; I could understand more of the Chinese they used in the movie, and could even read some of the Chinese subtitles in the movie and laugh at the way they decided to translate a few things. Progress, y'all!
It was Erica Lao's birthday at midnight, so we all decided to go clubbing. Luxy was having a half-price deal for people who were dressed up, and I thought I was pretty dressed up in my bad-ass Pacman helmet but they said it wasn't awesome enough (apparently you need to change clothes in order to get in, but someone got in by only wearing fairy wings, which makes me kind of upset!), so I had to pay full price. This was unfortunate because the first shot of alcohol I took that night didn't sit well with the McDonald's I had eaten earlier, and I ended up spending most of my hour at Luxy in the bathroom with a really upset stomach. We got there at 12 and I ended up leaving at 1:30am... talk about a total waste of money! But during my time there, I did get to see two guys and two girls dressed up in robot costumes pole dance. I also got to dance a little. But all in all, in my opinion, Luxy is overpriced and the music isn't so great. Room 18 or Plush are way better.
I had made additions to my Pacman helmet before we went clubbing; I taped about 10 glo sticks to the inside of the helmet, effectively making it and me glow while in the dark club, like I was inside some sort of futuristic suit. Can you imagine a huge Pacman bouncing around the top of a dancing crowd? Now can you imagine a GLOWING Pacman bouncing around teh top of a dancing crowd? It was pretty much the coolest thing in the world. But I left the Pacman head along with Glady's costume on my way to the bathroom, and told Chow De Kai to bring it back home for me. He failed, as did everyone else at the club. And Gladys said someone probably spilled beer on it or something, because it was wet when she saw it last. Given it was made of foam, probably wouldn't want a beer-soaked, smoke-smelling Pacman head anyway. It lived an honorable life. RIP, Pacman head.
Sunday, Jenn and I made a second attempt at the National Palace Museum. To get to this place, you take the MRT Red Line to the Shilin station. From here you take the 304 or the Red 30 bus to the NPM. The NPM is HUGE and will definitely take you at least two visits to see the whole thing. In fact, when you buy the ticket for the place, you are actually only buying admission to half of it. The NPM is split up into two halves; Jenn and I were moving at a pretty breakneck speed through the exhibits but we only made it to 3 out of the 4 stories in one of the buildings. We also checked out 1 out of 2 of the gardens before the sun set. Again, Jenn was acting as my own personal tour guide/Chinese culture lexicon throughout the whole museum, and made it infinitely more interesting and lively than I'm sure it would have been if I had gone by my lonesome. She also taught me some calligraphy later that day which was also very awesome. Thanks, Jenn!
Front gate to the National Palace Museum.
Behind us is only one of two buildings that make up the National Palace Museum (not including the Silk building, which I suppose is it's own, third building).
Pictures were strictly forbidden in the museum but I had to take a picture of the paintings. They were my favorite part of the museum besides the awesome calligraphy exhibit they had there, and they're exquisite!!!
One of two gardens in the National Palace Museum. They are huge and absolutely beautiful!
After a few wrong turns and train changes, we made it back to Guo Qing just in time for Erica's birthday dinner. We headed back to, you guessed it, Xi Men Ding because there is a TGIF there. I thought that I wasn't missing American food at all given the bevy of awesome Taiwanese food I'm faced with every day but, I'm telling you, that rack of ribs that I ate at TGIF really made me miss American food. Thankfully, the TGIF in Xi Men wasn't influenced by any sort of Asian texture or flavor that other American restaurants here are tainted with; no, the food at TGIF was exactly the same as TGIF's back home, and I am so, so thankful for that.
Also the same as TGIF's back home were the prices. 25 bucks for a full rack of ribs isn't that much in America but here in Taiwan, where an average meal costs about 3$ US, it suddenly became a pretty big deal. It only made me realize the culture shock that awaits me when I go back to the states!
And so that was my weekend. After the clear skies and sunny, hot weekend, we were greeted on Monday by, first, the sounds of construction right outside my window at 8 in the morning, and then the sounds of a torrential downpour an hour later. Since then it's been cloudy and cold; today it was pretty sunny but rain was still coming in from somewhere. Yesterday I went out for some good crepes at the Shi Da night market. The Shi Da night market is the first one I went to when I came here, and the first one I blogged about. Going back to it, I realized how small and, well, pitiful it is compared to the other ones I've experienced since then. Poor Shi Da! Today was simply TV watching, figuring out Thankgiving plans, looking at hotels, and choosing classes for winter quarter back in San Diego. It was a reminder than more than half of my time in Taiwan has already passed, and that reality is coming soon.
I wish I could stay longer.
Until next time, zai jian!
-Justin
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