Wonderings of Little Bear

Hong Kong

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:41:00 -0500

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears,

Happy New Year! It is the year of the snake, which is very auspicious for those of us born in 1989, or every 12 years before or after that. Now off to the real blog post…

Sitting on a bench listening to a mix of Bob Dylan and Mumford and Sons looking out over Victoria Harbour to Kowloon, it is easy to capture the magnitude and chaotic order that is Hong Kong. Historic Star Ferries come and go carrying people to and from Kowloon and the surrounding islands amidst cruise ships and freighters.

Hong Kong has a very interesting mix of its colonial history and its booming present as the center of East Asian finance. One can slip from streets filled with New Years celebrants to the quiet solitude of Hong Kong park in a matter of seconds to look at a surprising large collection of birds in their aviary. Sitting on the steps of one of the many Gucci or Rolex stores on the weekends are dozens of Filipino women who are enjoying their day off from house cleaning because they live in their employers homes. Sitting behind a Chinese-theme village and on top of a souvenir shop is the Big Buddha on Lantao Island. It is a city that seems to be at odds, but works. The one thing that I noticed was that there was very little Asian or Chinese about it, other than the mass of people.

I am not terribly religious person at this juncture in my life, but visiting the Big Buddha and having the sensory overload of massive amounts of incense burning both eyes and nose, the monks chanting their sutras was a very spiritual experience. Having all of your sense bombarded really allows you to empty your head and be present in the moment and contemplate your place in the world.

Overall, it was a very good but tiring due the jet lag. One of the interesting was a very early morning walk and subsequent losing of myself at 4:30 in the morning of my first night there. I could not sleep and so I decided to get out and see how the city starts up in the morning and see the sunrise on Mt. Victoria. I got lost and could not find the mountain, but I did get to see a very unique Hong Kong that was mostly absent of people.

Travelling, and consequently walking everywhere, has made me realize two major things. First, I am sorely out of shape. This will be remedied by having a training partner for a half marathon the Great Wall in May. Second, wearing new shoes for the first time while walking around 10-15 miles a day leads to many blisters. Don’t do it.

To quote the ever-quotable Darjeeling Limited, “I want us to be completely open and say yes to everything, even if its shocking and painful. Can we agree to that?”

Peace, Love, and the American Way,

The Little Bear

Beginning of a New Journey

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:05:21 -0500

To the Senate and People of Rome,

This post marks the beginning of a new and exciting adventure for me into the Middle Kingdom. One could say this is Middle Kingdom Adventure Mark 2.5 (does Taiwan count???)

Sitting here in the airport waiting to board the Boeing 747 (I have never been on one before!) is a whole bag of things but mostly just hot. They seem to not have noticed the heat wave outside Chicago at 32 degrees. Wooh, I am melting.

For those curious, I will be flying to Hong Kong where I will stay until Monday morning. During my stay, I hope to experience some of the festivities of the Spring Festival which officially kicks off on Saturday night (Friday for you folks back in the U S of A). Following Hong Kong I will make my way over to Shanghai and meet up with my Hoosier buddies Liz and Brian. I am sure they will make an appearance or two on this very blog as the months unravel. After Shanghai, I will be going to Nanjing which will be my home for the next 5 or so months.

I will try and update this at least once a week, but check back often so you don’t miss anything ;). I’ll post my plans as I make them.

Until next time, Peace, Love, and the American Way.

P.S

I like posting pictures of food on here, not because they are particularly splendid photos, but because they provide a glimpse of how the common man (or woman) eats. Also, because I really like food. So here we are, meal numero uno.

I wish I could do this!

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 10:39:11 -0400

I wish I could do this!

justemptyingmyheadon: I have a new found respect for Matt...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:30:23 -0400

justemptyingmyheadon:

I have a new found respect for Matt Damon.

Agreed

Sun Moon Lake and Probably the Last Real English Entry I will Make for Taiwan...For Now

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 07:15:11 -0400

Hey friends, it has been a good summer of this one-way communication, but alas, it must be coming to an end. This entry will track my experience last weekend at Sun Moon Lake (thank you Aunt Ellen for suggesting it!).

Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan’s biggest body of water, happens to be located in the only land-locked county in Taiwan (irony???). It also happens to be located in a rather difficult location to get to without a car, so I was very fortunate to find out that one of my co-workers was going down to a town that was a short bus ride away. When we got to their stop in Puli, my co-workers fiancee showed me around his family’s mushroom farm and store. I ate some delicious fried mushrooms and drank some interesting mushroom based beverages. It was a neat experience. Following that, I took short ride to the lake.

Once at the lake, I walked a few steps to the Shuishe Visitor Center to rent one of their bikes. They all happened to be Giant Bikes which are pretty cool. The prices for renting varied greatly, but one could spend almost $100 to rent one of the top of the line bikes for the day! I opted for the cheapest version which still set me back about $30. It was well worth it. So with a little map, some tips from the very cool bike rental people, some water and a bike, I set off to cycle around the lake.

The ride started off weaving in and out of the slower moving cars and trying to break through to get to clearer streets. Once out of the town a little bit, the road immediately started climbing which I was not really prepared for mentally. It was about 12 AM and very hot, but I persisted and made it to the first stop, the Wenwu Temple. It was a neat little stop dedicated to some people from the famous Chinese epic, popularly known in America as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. They had a stair case with 366 steps to represent the days in a leap year leading up to the temple from the lake. It was time to move on!

After that there was some very much needed, although all-too-short downhill relaxation on the bike with some spectacular views of the lake. There is nothing like riding down some pretty steep hills on winding roads going about 40km/hour. Safety aside, it was really cool! But, like I said, it was short lived, as the climbing began again and a few switchbacks were added in for fun.

Quick break:

Going up switchbacks=Really hard work

Going down switchbacks=A lot of fun

Going up switchbacks in the rain=Misery

Going down switchbacks in the rain=Danger

OK back to the action. After the climbing, I was thoroughly exhausted and out of water, so I stopped at the very conveniently placed drink stand where the owner was all to eager to hand me a delicious beverage, for a small fee. Taking my drink and camera, I went up to the next temple which was all white (even the courtyard had white rocks). Even better, they had an awesome bell, which I definitely rang! After checking out the awesome view of the lake and getting my picture taken, it was time to move on as the clouds were moving in (the rest of Taiwan, however, was beautiful with clear skies I am told).

After going down the best hills of the ride, I stopped into a little town and rode around and looked at the crafts and goods, but quickly rode on since my bike had no kickstand (I found that very strange). Logically, after going down some awesome hills, there were some terrible hills to climb up afterward. By now it was getting pretty dark and there was thunder in the background. I went off the road, and started up the bike path of death (pictures will be posted). After getting through the bike path, I realized that it took be back to a place I had already been too, and seeing as it was starting to pour, I did not feel like doubling back that whole way. Back up the diabolically slick bike path of doom. Back on the road, feeling rather wet and miserable, my bike chain came off, which was probably the low point of the ride. I was soaked, greasy, and frustrated.

After cycling through the rain with the wheel spraying water into my unprotected eyes and thinking I was not going the right way, I finally found some people that I had run into at various points throughout the ride. They reaffirmed me that I was indeed going in the right direction. We rode together for a bit and took our picture together until we got back to the main town, concluding the 33km circuit around the lake. It was an amazing experience and I would definitely do it again!

As an added bonus, the people at the bike shop gave me a Coke and certificate saying I did it for free! I thought that was a nice touch. After relaxing in my soaking clothes and looking at the lake as the weather finally cleared up, it was time to go home.

This was the last real travel experience of the trip, so this will be the last blog its kind until the next adventure. I will have a summary one and one in Chinese for my Chinese only speaking friends from the office as a sort of farewell message. After that I will post on things I find interesting back at home. Keep reading though, it has been a pleasure!

To steal from the lovely Kristen Broyles, this trip is over, closing the door on another adventure, but opening the door to so many more possibilities!

Here are long overdue pictures from Tainan, Kaoshiung, and...

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:08:35 -0400

Adorable couple stature behind me

Temple performance

Fort Zeelander

The trees that can't be cut down

The tree house

Growing on top/through the bldg.

Snake meat soup

Beautiful coastline

Me in front of a cliff posing

Here are long overdue pictures from Tainan, Kaoshiung, and Kenting, enjoy!

Part Tres

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:18:11 -0400

As promised, here we gooooooooooooooooo!!! In this episode we will see the little bear in his familiar environs of Taibei and Hsinchu County.

This Saturday, after an evening of gorging myself (not really gorging, just indulging) on many a delicious lamb dish and a trip to Costco onn Friday, I found myself with little to do so I decided to go up to Taibei to see some of the things I missed before. I decided to make two stops, one at Danshui, which the river that flows through Taibei and into the Pacific and then out to the suburb/former tea village at Maokong. The Danshui stop on the MRT is the final one on the red line and the Maokong stop is the last one on the Brown line. They are pretty much opposite sides of the city and the trip between the two took almost an hour and a half.

Danshui was really pretty, but it was extremely hot and fairly crowded. They had some neat little cafes and a pretty old church built by Puritans or some similar sect a long time ago. It is mostly a scenic spot to go see, so after looking around and eating some pretty delicious mint chocolate chip ice cream, I left to go see my next destination. I was kind of disappointed though, because I saw some really cool Buddhist wall hanging things that I wanted for my room next year, but they were fairly expensive (I didn’t bring my card and I needed to make sure I had enough cash to get back home) so I did not purchase one. I thought I could get one in Hsinchu, but all of my co-workers have no idea where to find them.

In order to get up to Maokong, one can either take a car up the winding mountain roads, or one can opt for the very cool, but very hot, gondola ride up to the village. It was about a 20 minute ride that offered views of the whole of Taibei city as well as the gorgeous mountains. At the time I went up, it was in between the first group of day trippers heading down but before the night crowd headed up, so it wasn’t too crowded at first. My first stop was to get some winter melon tea (truly one of the things that I will miss upon my return home) in order to cool off. Taipei in a strange turn of events was hotter than Hsinchu and well over 100 degrees with very little cloud cover. I walked around for a while and looked at some of the tea farms and tea houses and decided since I was in a fairly famous tea growing area, I should go ahead and purchase some tea.

I stepped into an unassuming store room that happened to have huge bags of tea on the ground. It looked good to me so I stayed around while the young man helped the customers in front of me. One was a foreigner, while his companion was a speaker of Chinese. They were deciding how much they should give (prices were flexible) and what exchange rate to use (the man was paying in USD for some reason). It was an amusing conversation between the worker and the companion and they were surprised to hear I could understand them. So I sat down on the bench and waited for them to finish up. The worker (who was probably no more than 15) poured me some various types of tea (I could pick whichever ones I wanted to try), and we chatted in about 50% Chinese/50% English (he wanted to speak English) about tea and language. I found out that his father was in China and happened to be a master tea roaster and that this was their wholesale business. Soon after that, his father came in and served me some more tea. After a while it was time to purchase some tea, and since they said it was really cool that I could speak Chinese, they gave me a discount.

The sun had set and so I found a cliff side cafe and ordered a delicious, but expensive, glass of cranberry-apple juice (by now I was very much full of tea) and relaxed with a beautiful view of Taipei’s skyline. After my beverage it was time to return to Taipei. On the Gondola down, I sat with a mother and her 2 young daughters, her baby, and a couple sat across from me. The two girls were cute, but every time we passed a support column and the car rumbled, they said earthquake, earthquake, earthquake. The couple and I laughed, but I felt kind of bad for them because I am sure they were hoping for a romantic ride down with the beautiful view in front of them. As if that wasn’t enough, the mother decided to start breast-feeding her baby in our very cramped gondola card. I am all for public breast-feeding as it is about the most natural thing in the world, but in a very cramped space, it was a little odd. Upon arrival I waited at McDonald’s and read some of Gandhi’s An Autobiography or My Experiments with Truth as I waited for my friends who were returning from the east to pick me up and give a me a ride home. The book is fantastic and unbeknown to me, it provides some background history for the struggles that I read about in Nelson Mandela’s autobiography. Go Freedom Struggles!

On Sunday, I went to a small mountainous village/tourist area outside of Zhubei to take in the scenery with some of my coworkers and to go to a hot spring after. The village was home to one of Taiwan’s minority groups, although I forget which one. They were really big into lavender and had many a lavender smelling product to sell. We walked around and took in some of the fantastic mountain vistas along with the gorgeous valleys as well. I truly can’t underestimate how awesome it was. As it was also really hot, we got some ice cream and chilled out for a bit. I choose blueberry milk ice cream and lemongrass ice cream, but instead got the blueberry and mint chocolate instead. The blueberry was delicious and the mint was pretty average. It was all handmade though, which was cool. I picked up some more tea (this time peppermint-jasmine I believe).

After the village, we took a short drive to the hot spring. I was the only one to participate, since the others were to hot to want to. It was an expensive, but totally worth it experience. I choose indoor, since the outdoor one was basically just a pool. My room was very simple, but nice, with tile floors, wood walls and ceiling and a tub. The windows were wood slides that needed to be slid into position to allow for a fairly cool view of the mountains and some much needed airflow. The hot spring was delightful and very relaxing. The water was super hot, so one could only stay in for about 10-15 minutes before needing to sit out for a couple to cool off. I was a little disappointed when they switched my girl T-Swift out for some soft Eastern Classical music. I actually really enjoyed the musical selections and I pondered the meaning of life for my hour in the room. Very much enjoyable and I will try to go to one once more before I leave for home. Oh, the water at this particular type of hot spring is supposed to make your skin more beautiful.

That pretty much covers me up until today. Thanks for the patience and keep checking back! This weekend I am planning doing at least one of three things: biking the 18km scenic shoreline in Hsinchu, going to Yilan, and finally going to Nantou county and biking around the famous Sun Moon Lake. It would be about 20 miles with lots of things to see. I am thinking that is what I will do on Saturday. My bucket list is quickly being checked off, although I am not sure I will be able to do everything due to time constraints. Peace and love from across the world!

The North, the South...Part 2

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 10:08:10 -0400

Hey guys, it’s been a few days, but I have been busy and putting this off since it is going to be a long one, but here we go for part 2! This post will update you to this weekend’s activities, and will take me to the South and back up to Hsinchu County and Taipei.

Last weekend, with the prospects of yet another typhoon, I took a took a trip with my boss/friend down to the south to see where she grew up and some of the sights down there. Our first stop on that Saturday was to Tainan, via the Taiwan High-speed Rail. A quick aside about the THR; it is a hugely convenient form of transportation that allows one to get from Taipei to Kaoshiung (the northernmost major city, to the southernmost major city) in about 3 hours (stops included) for about $10. For all those against high-speed rails, you have not used them. They are great. Back to the story. Tainan has a long history of Dutch influence, and so we set off to visit the former Dutch fort that was still intact. But alas, we are getting ahead of ourselves. On the way to said fort, we came to one of the many temples in Tainan that had on that day welcomed some visiting performers from Taipei to come and worship or something of that nature. It was very loud with firecrackers and music. It was a very colorful ceremony (as in bright colors).

Fort Zeelander (as the fort was known) was pretty interesting as it had remained intact for the most part for over 400 years…they just don’t make ‘em like they used to. The gardens and trees that have grown there are really beautiful. In Taiwan, and I assume China to some extant, will reroute a road to circumvent a certain tree that grows to be very large as it is considered to be unlucky. I will post a picture to show you what I am talking about. After the fort we went to a tree house. I was expecting a house up in the trees, but I quickly realized that the house was being taken over by the tree, or rather, many trees. It was an old tea warehouse that the British had used, but been overrun with trees. Again, pictures will be up soon. After that we ended up going to a Confucian temple, where we saw some odd slow jazz 80’s type band playing. It was a little out of place I thought. We then got poured on as we waited for a taxi.

That night, we took the train to Kaoshiung where my friend Jessy’s parents lived and where we would stay the next two nights. Her parents were absolutely delightful and they provided me excessive amounts of mangos and watermelon during my stay. The next morning we (Jessy, her father, and I) took a trip to Kenting, as it was going to be the only day that would allow for snorkeling due to the weather. It was about a 2 hour drive to Kenting, which is as south as you can go on the island. It was raining fairly hard, but it was still packed when we got there. We ate a lot of seafood then went to the ocean to get suited up for snorkeling. It was a miserable day outside, but it was really cool to go snorkeling none the less. I thought it would be peaceful and quite beneath the surface, but it was actually really loud. It was a truly awesome experience to see all of the colorful fishies in their natural environment.

After snorkeling we drove around the coast for a bit and stopped at a national park to look at the cliffs and coast. Our timing was very fortunate as the skies cleared up enough to stop raining and even turn a little blue while we were out. Not only was it not raining, but we were alone for about 10-15 minutes before groups of people came and joined us. We left soon afterward and it began to rain yet again.

The next day we went to see a very large Buddhist temple for a very large sect. The leader of which, I am told could easily win the presidency of Taiwan had she any political inclinations. We visited a few more locations and then had to head home to Hsinchu.

I know I said I would fully catch you up on my travels, but I am tired and its been a long day so I promise that I will finish up tomorrow!

The North, the South, and Everything in Between (on the West Coast That Is)

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:14:10 -0400

Hey friends, it’s been many a (busy) day since I have last updated so this will probably be rather lengthy, but bear with me, k? We will get started with 2 weekends past. I regret to announce the passing of my headphones…it was a good, but altogether too short a run my friends.

Two weekends ago I made a trip up north (I believe one of the most northern points in Taiwan…certainly close to the tip of it) to an old coal mining town called Pingxi with WNC’s photography club. It was a gorgeous 2-ish hour ride into the mountains of Taiwan. Truly one of the most awesomely pretty drives I have ever been on with very green mountains surrounding us on all sides. Once we got there we proceeded to take a walk through the town while taking many, many, many a picture. Only one person lorded over me and my non-DSLR camera once. The town has kept some of its old-time flavor, although it is completely a tourist destination now.

After that, we went to a big train station/really, really small town. It is affectionately known as the cat village due to its numerous cats that are not really afraid of humans. They are really not all that clean, but that did not seem to stop people from touching, looking, and generally mingling with them. It certainly didn’t stop my group from spending an 1.5 hours taking pictures of them in a place that I walked around completely in 10 minutes.

Following the cat village, we stopped at Keelung (home of Taiwan’s biggest port) to get some delicious food at their night market. All I had were some dumplings with some hot sauce. We didn’t stay that long because it started to rain.

The next day (Sunday), a co-worker and her husband took me to Keelung where they were attending a wedding and I was to get a bus to go to JiuFen, a former-gold-mining village-turned-tourist destination/relaxation dreamland. JiuFen is named so because originally the town only had 9 (Jiu) households for tax-collection purposes. It literally means 9 parts. It was a gorgeous day, and the crowd was really not too bad because it just rained before arrival.

After wondering around the picturesque (in the old Chinese style alley sense of the word) alleys and purchasing a few things here and there, I stopped into the village’s oldest tea shop (1860’s I believe) to stop in for a little relaxation outside with a great view of the ocean. Oh, I forgot to mention that this town blew the previous one out of the water…it was one of the prettiest destinations I have been to. Really. The tea was really expensive, and I think it was meant to be shared. It was well worth it because it allowed me to check something off the bucket list and I learned how to properly steep and prepare tea. It was also really nice relaxation.

Before taking off back to Keelung, I had some kumquat juice. It was pretty good, but really acidic after a while. Back in Keelung, we went to the same night market, but ate tempura (not the shrimp kind) instead and had some pretty awesome fresh kiwi ice cream.

It’s been a long one, so we’ll continue tomorrow. Keep reading!

These works of art make me wish I studied architecture. Mostly...

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 08:10:10 -0400

Built around a tree in Brazil

Canary Islands

Mont-Treblanc, Canada

Cape Town, South Africa

Toronto, Canada

17th centrury home with glass, Lithuania

These works of art make me wish I studied architecture. Mostly taken from www.thecoolhunter.com

My Taiwan Bucket List

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 10:37:00 -0400

Hey friends! At just past the halfway mark in my journey in Taiwan, I thought I would come up with a bucket list of things to do before I leave. I will elaborate here:

1. Watch dolphins (and hopefully see some whales too) swim - Yilan

2. Taroko Gorge - Hualien

2a. Late night deep sea squid fishing - Hualien

~~3. Hot Spring of any kind~~ - Yilan, Hualien, Kaoshiung, Hsinchu County…

~~4. Snorkeling - Kenting, Hualien~~

~~5. Kaoshiung/Tainan ( Haven’t decided…maybe both) (Both)~~

~~6. Tea Ceremony/Experience - not sure where~~

~~7. Snake Alley - Taipei~~ No Snake Alley, but snake none-the-less

~~8. General tropical island leisure and relaxation - Kenting~~

~~9. Foot massage - Hsinchu~~

That’s it for now, and if I think of anything else I will add it. I only have four weeks left, so I need to get on it! Any suggestions or comments, email me at mabwhite@indiana.edu.

Keep in Touch!

Getting in Shape

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 10:29:21 -0400

Hey friends,

Part of my goal for this summer was to get in shape, and god willing, lose some wait. This post is in part for publicly stating what I have done (in the hope of gaining encouragement from family and friends as well as making me more accountable to actually do more of it), as well as to encourage other people to join me in my efforts across the sea…father *ahem*. No excuses.

As a progress report, in about 13-ish days (I have not been the most faithful in keeping records this past week and a half) of running, I have accumulated roughly 30 miles for an average of 2.3 miles per run. My high has been 3.7 in 28 minutes (7:34 minutes a mile) and my shortest on record is 1.3 in 10 minutes. My average mile time is 8:16.

I have also started doing sit-ups and basic upper body lifts, although I am not sure on the weights as they do not mention them on the dumbbells. All I know is I started out on 5 and I am now on 8.

All this has been intermingled with various days of exercise bike riding, along with my bike rides to and from work and dinner. When no working out happens on the weekend, I am typically out busy walking or biking around the city.

This weekend if I don’t take a trip down south, I am planning on going on an 18+ km excursion along the coast.

I am not sure if I have lost any weight yet because there are no scales to check, but I do feel like I am getting in shape and my brother John and I will have a little bit of race.

Keep in touch and let me know if you have similar ambitions/goals!

ianbrooks: Strange Frog by Alejo Giraldo Print available...

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 09:19:01 -0400

ianbrooks:

Strange Frog by Alejo Giraldo

Print available at society6.

purty neat

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary...

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 06:44:01 -0400

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…” - Declaration of Independence.

Powerful document that leaves us with something to continue to strive and hope for. Powerful music performed by one of the greatest reflecting the turmoil in America and abroad at the time. Let us not forget that we must keep striving to become better and to not be afraid to question (with thoughtful arguments of course) the norms of society and government. It is our duty to America and the world.

Happy 4th everyone!

Grapes of Wrath, Taipei 101 and the Changing of the Guard

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 11:01:00 -0400

Hey friends! Again, it has been awhile since we last had a decidedly one-way conversation, and indeed I have missed it so. Today we shall be discussing a range of topics from books, tourism, and business among others.

This week was rather literary on my part as I finished John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (ending a long and interesting journey that the book and I had together) as well as the French novel The Stranger. Both were very good, but very different. (For those who have read these, bear with me for a bit) The Grapes of Wrath, on one hand depicts the Great Depression and the migration of farmers to California as a whole while also depicting one family’s struggle to survive and the ultimate good that is humanity. Very good book and I was not expecting the ending, but I thought it was very fitting. As other commentary has stated, and I tend to agree with, it is a very American novel. I is interesting to realize how much various characters or themes from the novel appear throughout pop culture. The Stranger ton the other hand, is almost the complete opposite. The rather short novel follows Meursalt as he goes through life exploring the meaning of it after he kills a man(reviews have said this is not only an existential work, but also has hints of nihilism, naturalism, determinism…a whole lot of isms). Both were very good books, and if you were looking for a quick, thoughtful read, I would go with The Stranger, by Albert Camus.

This weekend started out with WNC’s generous renting out of the movie theater for screenings of Transformers 3 3D. While it was certainly not the best movie I have ever seen, it most certainly was not the worst and better than the 2nd. It also doesn’t hurt that the movie and popcorn and a drink only cost a whopping $1 USD. The 3D was good at parts, but again when the action picks ups it gets very choppy. If you want a lot of explosions, loud noises, Victoria’s Secret models and a few decent laughs, then this might be a good choice, just don’t expect much of a story or to know who is on whose side. On a side note it clears up a lot of questions of history that I was a wee bit confused about before, like our mission to the moon as well as the accident at Chernobyl. They certainly make it more believable and interesting than any history lesson from Sarah Palin.

Saturday saw me off to Taipei to hang out with some friends and see some more sights, as well as sweat out my total body weight twice. The first stop I made on my trip was to the Chang Kai-Shek (forgive me for the spelling it is difficult to keep the name right because it is not pronounced anything like that) Memorial. The compound is pretty big, encompassing the national theater, another music hall, and the memorial itself. I am convinced that I will not be able to see the respective first president/chairman of either the PRC or the ROC because Mao’s was closed because I went to late in the evening and Chang’s was closed for renovations. Frustration. The memorial itself had an interesting museum dedicated mostly to him, although there was some about the founding of the ROC in general. Let me tell you, the man had many, many an honorary medal from various nations.

The frustration was short-lived as the next stop was the Sun Yat-Sen’s Memorial a short couple of metro stops away. While I did not explore the whole memorial as I had a throbbing headache :(, I was fortunate enough to see the Changing of the Guard. It was much louder, both on the part of the guard, and on the part of the audience, than the American counterpart at Arlington National Cemetery. Another minor difference was that this guard was not for unknown soldiers, but for Mr. Sun himself. It is the same procedure at Chang’s memorial which was also closed. I found out later that I did not really miss much because the statues and procedure at both memorials are very similar.

After that and dropping my stuff off at my friend’s apartment I’d be staying at for the evening, we met up with some friends at one of the biggest night markets in Taipei. This was following some serious directional mis-communications (none on my part I might add), we finally made it. They told us to go to the 7-11 and then to the Adidas store. Well in Taiwan, there are about 15,000,000,000 7-11’s and 30,000 Adidas stores. Moreover on one street we went down, there were two 7-11’s exactly opposite from each other. The night market was absolutely massive with a very large number of people present. It was mostly hot (94 at 9:00PM) with a lot of stores and sweaty people. We even found a head shop which was an interesting experience and they mostly had counter-culture and replica items at the shop. Again, really great food for really great prices. Following that, my friend and I were really beat from walking around and all we really wanted to do was go back and relax for a bit. We grabbed a few beverages from the OK Mart and went back to watch Inglorious Bastards. If you haven’t seen it, you must. We decided that we were perfectly content just staying in and relaxing.

Today I went to a dim-sum restaurant for lunch and ate a lot of food (unfortunately no pictures since my phone and camera ran out of juice). We stayed there for about 3 hours and just hung out for a bit. After that it was time to part ways for the day; my friends to go play bike polo or study, and me to go to Taipei 101 and return to Hsinchu. Taipai 101 is absolutely massive (the second tallest operational building in the world). The mall at the base is filled with some of the most ridiculously expensive stores I have seen (DeBeer’s, Mont Blanc, Tiffany’s, Gieves & Hawkes, Prada, etc.). Really beautiful building though, both inside and outside. They say it is modeled after a bamboo stalk and it does somewhat resemble one. The ticket to go up to the top public floors was kind of expensive at about $13 USD. The view was pretty spectacular and you could see all of Taipei with the 360 degree view. I was able to go up to the outdoor observatory before the storms came in although the view was pretty obstructed from the metal gates/wind breakers. Part of the path was to see the building’s dampener (the biggest in the world, really it was MASSIVE), which helps to mitigate the high winds, earthquakes, etc. There were also some touristy stores and oddly enough coral gemstone stores. They had on display some pretty amazing sculptures made out of the coral. This apparently was not the endangered coral reef coral, but some other variety apparently.

After that it was time to part ways with Taipei and take me with my very uncomfortable leg situation home to Hsinchu where the most wonderful and needed shower awaited.

P.S. One of mi best buddies Sandra from across the world made my day this past week. I would like to publicly send some love express to her. Thanks for bein awesome!

Just some flowers and foliage from around town. Enjoy!

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:15:06 -0400

Just some flowers and foliage from around town. Enjoy!

Some pictures from the weekend, enjoy!

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 08:18:00 -0400

There's a storm abrewin

Korean BBQ (Steak)

Sweet potato with honey and sesame seeds

Glass tower at the glass museum

Japanese officer's quarters

East gate of the old city

Just thought this was a funny ad/product

Night market

Dim-sum (Hong Kong)

Fried meatball and wasabi (Japanese)

Some pictures from the weekend, enjoy!

Typhoon Rd. 2, Korean BBQ, and Glass...and Earthquake

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 10:11:00 -0400

Hey folks, how’s it going? My blogging kung-fu has been terribly weak as of late, but I’ve spent this weekend at the blogging dojo.

This weekend brought with it the pleasure of a typhoon (more specifically a tropical storm, but typhoon sounds more intense). While it missed passing over Taiwan directly, there was plenty of rain on Friday with pretty strong rain on Saturday morning. It also prevented me from going to Taipei this weekend (the weather said thunderstorms so what fun is it walking around in that?). Turns out the weather was really not that bad Saturday, but that is neither here nor there.

Friday night, a few of the women from the office took my to a great all-you-can-eat Korean-style barbeque restaurant where you pick what you want and grill it on a circular pan-grill-thing (picture will be posted). Point is, it was very tasty.

Saturday after making a judgment call to not go to Taibei, I ventured out into the rain anyway on my bike to see some of the sights around town that I had not been to yet. The first stop after getting thoroughly soaked was the Hsinchu Glass Museum. It was an interesting little museum that showcased Hsinchu’s long history as a center for the glass-making industry in Taiwan and China. There were some really interesting pieces, although I could not take any pictures.

After that, the day finally cleared up and I dried off just a little bit and took a tour of the nearby Japanese officer’s quarters that were left intact from the time of their stay in Taiwan. They were very cool looking. Next to that I took a stroll through a not-quite-bustling flower market. It had some really cool flowers and if I were staying here longer, I would definitely take up my long anticipated hobby of bonzai tree growing.

Following those fun I activities I hopped on my bike and headed to in the direction of the Hsinchu Image Museum, but Magellan decided to take a different route and happened onto the city’s only remaining gate from way back in the day when cities in Taiwan still had gates. While it was not nearly the most impressive gate in world, it was situated in a nice circle (think Arc de Triumph). I then rode around for a bit looking for the Image Museum, happened upon Hsinchu’s old school train station from the 1930’s which had an oddly Western look to it. It was busy and the traffic was bad so I only glanced at it from a distance but I plan on seeing it more in depth if I need to actually use the train.

While aimlessly wandering the streets for a while, I somehow happened upon the Image Museum. It was really kind of anti climactic because they were playing some indie documentary about a European artist that was about half-way through when I walked in. After sitting in the air conditioning and listening to old people snore in front of me, I decided that I had no context for the movie and left to go see the actual museum bit where I had a lovely conversation about how her grandson was studying for his masters at the University of Chicago.

After my meandering through the city, I thought my day over but then my friend Amber called up and wanted to know if I wanted to go to the city’s sole night market. It was pretty decent sized, mostly consisting of food and beverage stalls and somewhat shady carnival style rides (as well as games) for kids. I am pretty sure they would not pass the United States safety requirements.

Sunday has been pretty lazy although I did do a little exploring in the late afternoon and went grocery shopping for oatmeal products at the only certified organic retailer in the city. I am fairly pleased with the purchases, and I think I will be back in the future. It is reminiscent of Bloomingfoods for all the folks familiar with the Bloomington grocery shopping scene.

On a work related note, I have a meeting on Wednesday to report on my findings of my research for the past week. I think I am going to be more prepared this time and make a fancy-schmancy presentation.

Until next time friends, I hope all goes smoothly for you all.

Keep in touch!

Oh, and on a side-note, there was another small earthquake at the time of writing.

"Only the curious have something to find"

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 13:19:00 -0400

“Only the curious have something to find”

- Nickel Creek

Here are some pictures from the weekend. There may be more in...

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:35:00 -0400

Hotpot

Olympics pre-activity

Coolest. Grill. Ever.

Pillow throwing contest

Human foosball

Me hanging out at the Palace Museum

Main building of Palace Museum

Cool street art

I think my favorite piece, but creepy

Really good green chicken curry

Here are some pictures from the weekend. There may be more in later posts. Keep checking back!