Chu Weeks

NOTE: This post was for day 14, I think I forgot to publish it. 

Hello again~

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Wheee it's been two weeks since I have set foot in this foreign, polluted, yet strangely beautiful and lively island.

I wonder if this would be similar to what it would of felt like if I had gone on my Japan foreign exchange. Like I feel like I'm going accustomed to Taiwanese life.

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So today had breakfast, and then went to my auntie and uncle's 'yuen shi dian' class. It's like a sort of pressure point massage therapy that they claim to have stellar effects, cure headache symptoms, help your physical body etc. To be honest, I was quite skeptical, and I really don't like painful massages. I'd prefer to live with stiff shoulders than die of pain.

I didn't really notice any effects after my sister or my cousin tried the method on me. Like I swear I only have bruises from their little sessions, and my shoulders and back don't feel any different. I'm still waiting for a 'breakthrough' that everyone claims this sort of pressure massage does.

I guess I'll test it out on people back home and see if it works. >D If not, it shall be entertaining. Hohoho. =D

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Then afterwards I had lunch with my mom and her really good friend from Yilan. I had dessert and  taro thing for dinner last night, which I don't think was enough (it seemed fine at the time!). (I woke up at 3am and was really hungry, but I drank water and went back to sleep). Then for breakfast, I had some bread, but man, I was so hungry for lunch. Finished most of the food for my mom and the auntie >DD. And then I had 3 mini dinners. And I've had quite a bit of food, but I'm still hungry everytime I think of the 3am this morning. T_T. I think it might be all the exercise, or the mountain climbing that's like..super charging my hunger. Ahhh.

But yeah. Dancing a lot more these coming weeks to use up the thingos. I'll bluetooth and add photos tomorrow maybe.

Night~

Shi san

Top of the mountain =D

Hi~

Today...nearly killed my self stair/mountain climbing. xD It was so tiring fuak. But worth it I guess. But I don't think I've cardio-ed that hard since cross country season. Lolol at my uncle. "Oh we're almost there". Another block of stairs. "Just the turn and we're there!" Another two blocks of stairs.

Spot the meditating uncle

Sigh he's so fit. Jelly. Us two were the faster ones, so we waited about 20 minutes for the rest of the group. I enjoyed the scenery whilst he meditated. Then when the others came up, we chatted and had food. Lolol my auntie and her student are really scared of caterpillars, so they were really tense the whole time; incase one would fall on them or something.

Mountain top bread and fruit feast

Then afterwards, went with the Opto sis and learned from her little brother about how to determine a person's like...degree of eyesight. He used a lot of chinese words for smart things that I didn't understand, but I got the gist. Hmph, and he was criticising that I looked unconfident with my usage of his really expensive and potentially fragile spectrometers or whatever. Bumface. I'd like to see you rough handle someone else's expensive equipment. xD

Oh we had lunch at their place...well, we bought lunch and brought it over to their place. 3.5 dollars back at home. Onmonomnom.

Rice in egg, meat, and ginger

Then afterwards we went to one of the cafe's that the brother recommended. He's one of those...who likes to travel far and eat nice things, and he really like atmospheric food consumption areas. =D So I went with my mom to one near my auntie's house. It was really nice. I had a matcha latte, and my mom had a house coffee that had some sort of rum-ish flavor. And we also had a blueberry cheesecake. This would be an awesome date spot...I had a kinda of dnm with my mom about just stuff in general. Was nice. =D

Muzza

Blueberry cheesecake

Matcha latte

Then afterwards we went around the underground metro mall and I bought a new pair of shoes (I tried to haggle! but it's so much pressure, and there's definitely an art to it. ._.), and I also bought a singlet to wear because I was out of clean clothes. >D

Ahh I need to do more dance classes. They're going to expire. T_T. Shoulda taken my dad's advice and bought 8.

Oh well.

Gday.

Dozen

Camera ran out of battery, and I was cocky so I didn't bring my charger. I have a few photos on my phone...but I've got an early morning so if I do post photos, I'll post them when I'm bored later on in the week.

Sign-ons were today! Taiwan internet ftw...got into the website 2 mins before anyone. Hohoho. 9am earliest start and Fridays off.

Yoga, went down to chutung, came back, ate kinda, shopped.

I reckon one of the best things in life are: new socks and underwear.

So soft.

So fluffy. :33

Hot sesame grass jelly soup

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I can't wait to get back to civilisation in a sense, talk to people. But I also want to achieve more this year. Less gaming. Daaance. =D. Mat and mirror in the living room maybe. :)

I think I don't mind going alone. Hey if I can go alone in Taiwan, then I actually kinda know people from dance, thus it won't seem that bad.

I think going to Taiwan has kind of become my reflective and appreciate time of the year. Like I'm not glued to LoL and texting and technology and I actually have to consider my family relationships, courtesies, and money management, and what I want to achieve.

And then when I head back home, I have new goals or just things I miss that I want to have again. =D. I think it's a lot easier to live for you ambitions, than for other people. Like your ambitions and dreams will always be there. I guess that's where the problems come in when people have problems with balancing their career.

Oh well. Mirai ni!

Day 11

Hi!

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Life of a shy person Isn't it weird if you say hi to randoms....? And like, you can't express yourself properly until you know the person well, but you can't know the person well without expressing yourself properly. Like I'd love to get to know some of these people I see, but there just isnt' a scenario for me that I can create.

Alas...I am envious of extroverts. =D

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Anyway, so today I got my hair cut, went to dance class, and had dinner/dessert with my mom's senpai.

Haircut:

After

Before

For the haircut, she pretty much layer my hair so it was a lot lighter, and gave me a slightly offsided fringe. It was pretty pricey for what I got I reckon, but oh well. I dunno if I'd go back to them, but she seemed to do alright. Maybe it was because she was so pro that it seemed like she didn't really do much. The guy spent a lot of time massaging my brains out and shampooing my hair tho.

Oh yeah, and my cousin made bread for her boyfriend to congratulate him for graduating from his masters degree. Man. My cousin's boyfriend is a lucky guy, for all the stuff that she does and makes for him:

(the bread was epically delicious btw, like from a breadstore in Taiwan)

My cousin made breads

 Oh, and I had ramen by myself after haircut because there was no one to come with me. I was pretty hungry cause it was around 3pm, but doing stuff and eating food tastes better with someone. >D And I didn't really know where to go, so I decided to go somewhere familiar. I wonder if it's association, or I just felt like ramen.

Santouka ramen

 Then dance class. I SWEAR THIS IS A VERY TOMBOYSIHLY ATTRACTIVE CHICK. Like all the girls in the class were fangirling over her. I can see why. But she's so like...cool. And dances like a baoss. Observe below:

I think I'm going to buy a foldable mirror when I get back and install it in my living room so I can practice some of the stuff I learned. Maybe a minor ambition of mine would be maybe to backup dance one day; that would be so much fun.

Brief post, cbs, and I need to shower and sleep cuz there's yoga class tomorrow morning.

Oh, and my mom and I are heading down to my dad's grandparents tomorrow as well. (parents are divorced btw) I hope everything goes smoothly because my mom plans on returning money that my grandma gives, and it usually ends up with my grandma crying or something, and it's rather uncomfortable. T_T. Sometimes I feel like I'm splitting loyalties. I love both sides.

Sometimes when I'm doing something with one parent, I get like nostalgic moments of when I had both at once. Also, I like, talk about stuff I do with the other one openly to the other, I don't know if I should do that. Like it seems kinda rude and unwanted; like I'm sure if you broke up on bad terms with someone, you wouldn't want someone to keep mentioning their name and stuff you do with them; but if I am to share what I do in a day, or like experiences that involve them...then....

Iono. Someone should write a book about courtesies in life regarding all sorts of relationships. And strangers. Kthx.

I'll tell you how it goes. Till next time~

Day 10~

Night time snack =D

Ahh I'm starting to loose track of time. And I think I'm starting to experience the not seeing people for a long time effect. Like, 'out of sight, out of mind', sorta thing.

I think I like Taipei the best. I can like..achieve things, like dancing and yoga. In yanmei or chutung...it's all eating, tv, or sleeping. No motivation.

Ahh dancing is so fun. I wish I could buy a mirror and install it in my garage or something.

Yoga mats

But yes today. Morning was yoga class. My auntie had one of the people substitute in her place. I think my auntie is definitely more experienced in teaching, but it was interesting how the other person's style revolved more around powerful stances, rather than gentle flexibility. Her main teaching aspect was the salutation to the sun, which really depends on your own body strength. Make me think of how weak the human race has become in terms of reliance on things outside of our own body.

So I woke up really early, was kinda grumpy, did the class, then went back to sleep till like noon. Then I went out with my mom for her to get her haircut, bought a really crappy pair of sweatpants, and then went to danshui. (tamshui).

Danshui is another really big tourist destination. There were a lot of roasted and fried squids, and a lot of souvenir shops. I went with mom around, looked at the scenery, shopped, and ate. We had this thing called an 'A geh', which is like, fried tofu stuffed with clear glass rice noodle and topped off with the same stuff that those fish balls are made of.

Mixed sausage stick

A ge

We also stopped by some dutch museum thing, and took a few photos. I was kinda bored but my mom likes that sort of thing so meh.

Excuse me. 

Onmonnom

The best matcha ice cream of my life

We walked around and bought stuff from this franchise milk tea store. They don't usually sell ice cream, so I saw it, and was like...mooom. =D 

DUDE IT WAS SO GOOD. 

Imagine a maccas soft serve, but with a really tender and aromatic matcha green tea base, not as sweet, and perfect texture. It would definitely make the top 3 foods I've eaten here so far. 

Then I had to rush off to dance class. I barely made it (took the wrong exit out of the MRT) I still managed to get a few shots of the sunset at danshui (it's really well known). It was really pity, but pity mom couldn't enjoy it longer because well...we were pretty late. I was pretty grumpy and kinda stressed about being late because they don't let you in if you're too late, and it's really bad because it's a time orientated class. 

Pretty sunset

Well I made it. The hip hop teacher is pretty good, but wholy crap there were a lot of people because winter vacation for all the local Taiwaneseses has started. So I had like...two feet to dance in. But besides that it was pretty cool. I think this hip hop teacher specialises in sort of robotic dancing, so he incorporated some of that.

Then I took the MRT by myself back and dad picked me up. We had dumplings, and the pineapple cake is dedicated to my only follower. >D

Dumplings

Grape jelly

Pineapple cake!

Side thought of the day: No you may not have your ice cream. (I only recorded the last like...few seconds. I'm sure this went on for longer)

Days 8 and 9

Hey folks~

So went down to my grandparents place yesterday, and their computer had 5 minute typing lag...so I decided to skip the blogging. xD

So yesterday, left the house pretty early, got some antibiotic cream for my retarded thumb (apparently it's a temperature induced allergy), bought some groceries, and had lunch at the awesome sushi train again. Ahhh aburi salmon.

Classy sushi at it's best.

Mixed platter nigiri and Dad's beer

Then we bought some sashimi from the supermarket for grandpa and took an hour bus down to Chutung. Got there, chatted to the grandparents for a bit, tried to talk grandma out of giving me too much random stuff, showed grandpa my blog (I assumed he wouldn't be able to read it so) and then had Grandpa's bday dinner. Grandma had some sort of chicken soup, we had sashimi, veggies, and sausage and other random little bits of food. Afterwards I shopped at the shoe store next door, and then we had cake. The cake was some taro pudding cake...the cake was really light, however it was pretty dry too. I think the cream overwhelmed it, but it was alright. My grandma has a big sweet tooth so I think she was looking forward to it a lot.

Black chicken soup

Sashimi from the grocery

Grandpa~ 82!

Grandpa is such a poser. 

Taro pudding cake

Taro pudding cake inside

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Then today we went to this place called Neihu. I think it's a really big tourist attraction spot or something; there were a lot of little trinket shops and sausage stores. Man. I really wanted a Taiwanese sausage, but my grandma wanted to eat at a proper restaurant place, and if I eat anything beforehand I'll regret it. I'm scared of her; she's the type who will pressure you into doing something you don't want to...like eating a lot. T_T.

Grandma, 'You gave me the bottle and not the cups, what to you expect me to do?' to Grandpa when he gave her the sugarcane drink bottle

But yeah, the food we had was traditional Hakka food, so stirfried rice noodles, sour plant soup, chicken, and eggplant. The eggplant was really nice. Although this restaurant was probably one of the more homey ones; the food doesn't look as pretty, but it was still nice, and significantly cheaper.

Crystal chicken

Stir fried tofu and squid

Stir fried rice noodle

Then went back to Taipei, shopped at the computer department store, had some food, then I'm back at my Auntie's house for yoga tomorrow morning. For food, we had some stir fried noodles, soup, and this Taiwanese dish called a 'Ba wan'. I think it's a chewy rice noodle outside with meat, bamboo, and mushroom on the inside; soaked in oil or something. It's quite dense and filling; kinda reminds me of a savoury mochi.

Taiwanese 'Ba wan'

But yeah, that's pretty much it for today. Either I'm tired today and just cbs, but this entry is dominated by photos if you haven't noticed. Motivation to blog tonight is pretty low.

Oh, and my mom wants me to go to some pressure point massage class on friday. zzz. 

Anyway, till next time. 

Side notes:

This is what we call and cake bread. No, it's not a cake that tastes like bread, nor is it a bread that tastes like cake. It's a loaf of bread baked inside a cake. Why? I don't know. Dad likes it...so...good for him. xD

Dad's 'cake bread'

I thought this was a pretty cool bag that was hanging from my grandparent's ceiling.

Ishyuukan

Yay it's been a whole week~

In terms of withdrawal symptoms, I think I'm okay. Going over to a new country makes you want to try new things and have a new lifestyle. Like I feel so much more motivated to exercise or go shop and go out and do things because there's a lot of different things available here.

Although I've been trying to be smart about my shopping. xD Like I'm not buying something unless I'm sure I want it, or it's a decent price and quality; whereas before I used to just buy things because it was so much cheaper than back home.

So today was a lazy-ish food filled day that reminds me why I'm doing dance classes and stuff whilst here. xD Breakfast I went nostagic and had some peanut butter and jam and milk. :3 

My go to food. Mmmm.

 I...may have woken up slightly late? So pretty soon aferwards we went to go have ramen at my dad's favorite spot. We had miso ramen~ the noodles were a bit softer than your normal Japanese ramen (i.e. hakataya), but the soup was really nice and not too salty. It had a nice miso flavor on top of a really full and sweet tonkatsu soup base. Although I let dad finish the rest of mine because I was still kinda full from brekkie.

Miso Ramen

Omnomnon

 Then afterwards we decided to go to the hot springs at Beitou. We took the MRT and my dad pointed out this pretty cool effect with the handles. (I didn't notice it..because well. I couldn't see it. T_T) But yes! It was cool.



Sanjaoxings

Hot springs sign

The hot springs were mixed and it was really full of people. The weird thing was that there were so many rules in the hot spring, and there were like 3 guard people with whistles to keep harrassing people. I guess it keeps people in check, but pretty much the big rules were: you can't only soak your feet (full body or none), you can't have your towel in the water (mine fell off my head and I got whistled T_T), and you can't stand up in the hot springs.

There were a fair number of tourists as well. We went to a nearby hot springs museum of history thing aftwards. Man, skin felt so nice after the hot springs~ I bet if you went every week, you'd have awesome skin.

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Then afterwards we went to Shilin night market. My dad is like..food orientated. xD So we had some squid soup, oyster pancake thing, and smelly tofu. Oh we had some peanut bubble ice cream thing as well, but it looked really unattractive so I didn't take a picture of it. But it was really nice. 

 

Oyster pancake



Smelly Tofu

 I also go a milk tea~ 30 Taiwan dollars. So cheap.

Milk tea

 Then I shopped around and finally bought something (after shopping for like a few days for clothes). I didn't haggle because I'm a wimp. My dad was like, 'Oh, tell me next time when you're checking out'. Sigh. xD Then I saw candied things on sticks which is my sister's favorite. But sucker for her she wasn't there so I had one...it was so nice and juicy. Although they're kinda sticky and I think I almost squirted someone in front with tomato juice. Oops. I'm pretty sure I'm one of those awkward kluts people. ^^''


Candied fruits. Yes tomato is a fruit hmph.



Candied cherry tomatoes with dried plum

 Then we went home and had some fruit. This is one of the nice fruits that I've only had in Taiwan. It's like an apple but not sweet, smaller, and super crunchy. I'm trying to eat more fruit and veggies to improve my eyes!

I dunno what it's called <3

Till next time..aka probs tomorrow~