Mosquitoes in the winter and other curious things about Taiwan

I've given up on giving a complete update on what I've been doing in Taiwan. I'm shelving that project until I am sitting in the airport...then maybe I'll get enough time to write it all down.

Good news! I finally stopped being lazy and transferred my pictures to my computer! Bad news, I don't know if I will have time to post them because right now I'm sitting in Starbucks using their internet typing at 90wpm trying to get some words on the page before I run home. Why? Firstly because it's almost dinnertime but also because a mosquito just landed on my hand and I am terrified I will get bitten again.

AGAIN. That's right, it's the middle of winter and I have gotten numerous (well, actually counting, 13) mosquito bites. Aren't they supposed to, oh I don't know, die or something in the winter? Not that TW winter is actually cold, but aren't they seasonal or something? Dang. Last night I heard one buzzing around my head, so I buried my face under the covers, with only a tiny oxygen hole, and it managed to fly in and bite me on the forehead. Now there's a huge welt on my head, and whenever I scratch the bite I look like I'm thinking very hard.

I've also got a series of bites on my cheek that look like ugly pimples and a huge one one my neck (mosquitoes are such perverts). Apart from that, Taiwan is as wonderful as ever. Today I bought the world's most delicious cheesecake. It cost 480NT, and is probably the most expensive food item I've bought here but worth every kuai!

So the past few days have been busy again. The g-parents and I just flew back from Quemoy Tuesday night---it was an amazing trip, and Quemoy is hands-down the cleanest, quietest Asian urban place I have ever been to. The streets were mostly empty---something that doesn't happen anywhere in Asia! Of course it can't compare to the grasslands or deserts of China, but in terms of actually inhabited areas, Quemoy was incredibly spotless and peaceful.

Other curious things I've seen/done in the past few days:
Eaten teensy weensy baybay oysters. The size of my pinky nail. Though that comparison kinda seems gross. They were plump and cute and delicious.

Currently I am drinking a "Rose Fancy Tea Latte" at Starbucks. I got the smallest size and it is about the size of a venti in the US. Hence the fast typing and the occasional twitch. Though I'm not even sure this has caffeine in it. I guess the placebo effect does work.

Gotten water from a water pumping station, which looks like a gas station but cooler. The filling areas are painted to look like robots, and you put your jug down, put in 5NT, and use a pump to fill it up. You have to be quick and precise, though, because it only dispenses a set amount and if you are slow and clumsy like me, your jug does not get filled up all the way.

Buying a Hello Kitty sequin dress in Taipei...I will have to make a separate Taipei post because it was just ah-mazing.

Making New Year's Resolutions: lose the Taiwan weight, graduate college, and try to make one person's day better every day (it's going to be hard, but if you need me to cheer you up, I've heard I'm pretty good at doing that. Or at least I'm good at getting into such ridiculous situations that you'll end up laughing).

and now for some PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN:

This is the plane that we took to Quemoy. The flight was about an hour long, and I had the fortune/misfortune of sitting right near the wing. IT WAS SO LOUD, my ears kept on popping but it was so cool to see the propellers and pretend that I was a classy traveler from the 1960s. Even though the seats were thin and stiff and could not lean back and there were no window shades so it wasn't all that classy. They did give us a free baozi when we landed, though. 

This is a house in Quemoy. People actually live in there. Amazing. It's a historic home, in traditional Fuchien style. It was built for an official or rich person, as can be seen from the roof accents. The spiky things you see there? They're called "sparrow-tails". Ordinary people live in houses that have "horse back" roofs, which are rounded and not as decorated. Can you imagine getting off the school bus and being like "ho-hum, I'll just walk into my historic Chinese villa, ho hum"

KSH harbour, we took a four person bike up mountain of this tiny island. I was steering, so naturally we got into a few situations where we *almost* crashed (note: but didn't!) and Katie and Samantha yelled quite a lot. Check out the humongous bug bites on my cheek, but don't check them out too closely cause they're nasty.

<3 b

Part one on updates

I haven't had internet for almost a week now, though time's gone by and I've hardly noticed. Katie and Samantha and leaving the morning after tomorrow, on New Year's Day. Sad! I don't know if I can condense five days of stuff into one post, so I'll break it up in one-day or two-day segments. Part One, Dream Mall, glamour shots, and the most intense buffet experience of my life.

I'm so sorry for the lack of photos...it must be very boring. I can't even use my own computer right now because the Las Vegas-esque drive-in motel we're staying in only has two-pronged plugs. They even removed the third prong from the TV. For more on that, though, you will probably have to stay tuned for part three or four.

First things first though!

On Christmas Eve we woke up and had a light breakfast, then went out with friends to a Taiwan version of a barbeque restaurant. I can't wait to post pictures of that place. It was amazing. Thin strips of marbled beef and thick cuts of marinated meat self-cooked over hot coals. We spread a light marinade on the beef as it was cooking, the paper-thin pieces slightly shrinking and turning brown but still incredibly melt-in-your mouth tender and juicy. I wish I could right in breathless romance novel language about that meat. YUMMMMM.....I took pictures of my table spread, which included a hot pot on the side and some vegetables (totally ignored). Oh, they also had a chocolate fountain. Who does that?! Ah-mazing.


After lunch, we took a taxi to the Dream Mall, which is pretty far from the center of the city but in my mind, totally worth it. The stores are not much, though I did spend over an hour in the MUJI store picking out gifts and wishing my house was as minimalist and beautiful as their shop. Dream Mall gets its name because its gigantic size is supposedly the thing of dreams. I like it for its different levels and sections, each which has an entirely different feel. For example, the first two floors are very classy and cosmopolitan. As you go up the very confusing elevators the feel becomes much more...lively? Until the fifth and six floors are jam-packed and feel like China. Not good. My favorite floor was the Roof, where they have an ah-dorable amusement park with a HELLO KITTY FERRIS WHEEL. We bought our Hello Kitty tickets but wanted to wait until the sun was setting, in order to get the best pictures. We killed time (and burned some calories!) by riding the "Sky Bikes", a bike-riding roller coaster, where basically the engineers got a bit lazy and didn't want to figure how to put a fully automatic motor in, so you have to pedal periodically. It was super fun, and we kept on stopping along the tracks to take pictures of each other.

On the ferris wheel, we chose the My Melody cabin and enjoyed amazing views of the KSH night sky, as well as the proud 85 building. That night, we went back to the glamour shot house to try on outfits for hours, then had to go get these super-awkward undergarments in preparation for the next day...no more on that.

My sister has to check her email so I'll have to cut it short---though I've already rambled quite a bit so it's not short at all. Next time, updates on glamour shooting, buffets, and an amazing whirlwind trip to Taipei.


<3 b

The day of many Santas!

Today was very fun.

We woke up early to go to Shandimen, the aborigine tourism area (I don't know the P.C. term, but it's basically an area that showcases the culture of the twelve indigenous Taiwan tribes). I wore my new American flag sweater, even though it smelled kinda funny. Our main goal was to watch the song and dance performance, but we got there at an awkward time, right when the first performance was ending, with the second one not starting until 3pm. So we didn't get to see it. I suppose I don't have much luck in trying to catch this show, since we were planning to visit in 2007 when I was on a tour around Taiwan, but we got typhooned-out. And this time we got awkward timing-ed out. Oh well! We still had loads of fun taking pictures in the gorgeous mountains, posing with aboriginal statues, and admiring aboriginal art. I also learned the names of the twelve tribes of Taiwan (though you shouldn't ask me to repeat them...) and some of their history in fighting for their identity, recognition, and land. See? You can have fun AND learn something!

For lunch g-ma took us to eat barbeque pork rice, and then we stopped by Taiwan Lottery. WE ALL WON MONAYYYYYY! I got $500NT on my first try! What's UP! But g-ma was even more awesome and won $2200. You can call her Amy goldfinger Keng, and I will be goldfinger junior.

A friend also took us to eat Honey Toast, which is a recent Taiwanese food craze. Taiwanese people love food, just like American girls love their liquor and girly pop stars. While American girls are freaking out over Justin Beiber, Taiwanese girls are freaking out over some girly looking Asian pop stars BUT ALSO new food phenomena. Honey toast is basically a huge thick piece of toast filled with cream and more bread and ice cream and honey and fruits. It sounds delicious but the one we tried was a little fail---the bread was kinda stale. Oh well. It made for some pretty pictures.

After the snack we went to visit one of my grandma's friends, a lady who sells clocks and watches! At seven o'clock the clocks began to light up and sing, and the faces of the clocks even open up! It was pretty magical. Even MORE magical was when we walked outside to meet a Santa, and about TEN santas came out of the car! They surrounded us and gave us candies and began to clap and sing in Taiwanese. They then lined up in the streets and started dancing! So of course we had to join them, it was AMAZING! We all held hands and sang Silent Night in three languages, then they surrounded us and prayed for us. I couldn't understand much of what they said but it felt nice. They kept telling us "Jesus loves you!" which made me so happy but also miss my mom and dad back home. It was so amazing to see people so excited and jolly and who were using the season to spread some cheer and also the good news! Thank you surprise Santas! You guys are wonderful. :)

After dinner of sacha noodles, g-ma and her friend took us on a very romantic walk on the Love River. It was gorgeous but actually kind of windy. My new sweater isn't very good at keeping warm, seeing as how it's huge and billowy and the holes are too big. Again, oh well! I still had an incredibly happy day.

Good night! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, I'm so excited!! I will post pictures soon, too sleepy tonight.

<3 b

Yesterday!

WHEEEEE these have been a very interesting two days. I just have to type it up before I forget...pictures to come later, promise!
First off, an update on Yesterday:

Samantha woke me up at six cause she couldn't sleep. We spent two hours looking at Autocorrect fails and watching Pokemon. I was horrified when she had to ask me "who is Team Rocket?" How did she not know?!

We ate breakfast then went to a jewelry making class. The teacher sells her creations in museums and stuff, so it was a great honor to learn from her. She taught us two threading techniques, so that we can make bracelets! I'm wearing one now.

After jewelry making we headed over to Sanduo Commercial Circle, which is basically an intersection surrounded by huge department stores and photography studios. We ate soup dumplings (xiaolongbao) in the Sogo food court then grabbed some bubble tea and went to our first glamour shot appointment. What are glamour shots, you may ask? Well, for those of you unfamiliar with the "go back to the motherland and take glamour portraits" phenomenon, glamour shots are a big deal. You spend an entire day getting your makeup done (to the Asian ideal meaning paler than Edward sparkleface Cullen), your hair done, squeezing into expensive outfits, and posing cute Asian poses for a cameraman.

They then take your best pictures, photoshop the shiz outta them, and put them in a big, fancy album that (hopefully) your grandparents and parents will love and show to everybody. And since my grandpa is adorable, he really wanted all three of us to take glamour shots. It's just the Asian thing to do!
Our first appointment was only a consultation, where we decided on the packages we want (these things are crazy expensive!) and booked dates for dress fittings (tomorrow night at 7:30) and shooting (all day Christmas day, starting around 7am). I'm actually really really excited! Lots of girls wear different types of outfits, like casual, wedding dresses, ball gowns, sexy, etc. but we're basically only going to do glamour glamour shots. Which I love! Hopefully they don't paint me too white and I look okay and not like scary photoshop perfect with some star/heart designs in the corner special effects. But these people are true professionals. They even gave us lipglosses that come with a side mirror AND a LED light on the applicator.

Yesterday we also went karaoke-ing and at night went to RuiFeng night market, where they have basically every street food under the sun plus more, as well as loads of shopping. The place is so crowded you don't even have to walk, you just get pushed along. Grandma navigated the place like a pro, but I was kinda fail and kept on getting distracted (typical). We got lost three times. I bought two ridiculous sweaters: one that looks like the American flag (v. patriotic) and one with reindeer frolicking among Christmas trees and zigzags.

All we do is eat and sleep

We're in Taiwan!! It's around 60 degrees here in Kao-hsiung, really mild and nicely humid---good for the skin but it makes my hair go a little craycray. The three of us are staying in a very nice, clean hotel that has dubbed Disney channel and Cartoon Network but also a lot of porn channels. Weird.

It must be exhausting for those life-bloggers who write every single day. This is only my second post but part of me is already thinking "oh here I go again". I guess that's good news, meaning I'm not yet as narcissistic (from here on spell 'narci' because it literally took me 10+ tries to get it) to write about myself every day!

Here is an update of our travels:
We left very early in the morning. I looked like a zombie after pulling an all nighter and only sleeping 3 hours the night before. A picture at the airport of S, my dad, and zombieme:

We flew from Atlanta to Dallas, where we ate tex mex for breakfast and had to wait for them to fix our plane. We got to Tokyo with an hour to change flights, but had enough time for me to make a complete fool of myself bumping my head on the bottom of the staircase (Samantha: "That was the loudest noise EVER"). Grandpa and Grandma were waiting for us at Kao-hsiung airport. I have to best grandparents ever. Seriously. They had a full food spread waiting for us at the hotel, and they are just the most fun, sweet, funny, thoughtful, and plain awesome grandparents anyone could wish for.
G-pa and G-ma's way of saying WELCOME TO TAIWAN, WE ARE GONNA MAKE YOU VERY ROUND:

After having some issues with the shower (fancy new age shower + me being clumsy = water EVERYWHERE) I slept very well and woke up with an afro. We ate breakfast at the hotel buffet and then headed to these streets behind Kao-hsiung train station where they sell ah-mazing clothes. I got a poncho yayayay! Then we ate lunch:

We tried to exercise a little by taking the scenic route on the way back, and also stopping at Pasadena Bakery to buy pineapple bread and cakes. Afterwards we headed to grandparents' house to take a two hour nap. ZZZ...

Waking up, we went to the nightmarket and ate this:

The WORLD FAMOUS oyster omelette!! YUMMM. 

So now it's 11:30 and I'm sitting in the hotel room again, enjoying the A/C and free fast internet (another reason TW is better than the Mainland...facebook access what what). Here are some first notes on our trip:

1. Samantha is the queen of one-liners. Or should we say she is the King of Kengs? lololol

2. DFW is the cleanest US airport I have ever been in. 

3. The weather here is PERFECT in the winter! 

4. Taxi drivers are mostly very friendly. One guy we met today even had old pictures of Kao-hsiung to show my grandpa. They are also hilarious.

5. My grandparents are awesome. Have I mentioned that?

6. I may be more clumsy here than ever before!

7. Kao-Hsiung (from here on KHS) is a very green city. I love it!

8. I am prepared to be a glutton on this trip. I cannot resist.

Next up, going around the city in search of the best food, glamour shots, and dream mall.

Oh, and gratuitous Engrish picture:

you're welcome. 

<3 b

T-minus 6 hours!!

Time--- 1:39AM (Late or early? Trying to get rid of jet lag before it even starts!)
Only six more hours until we leave Atlanta to go to TAIWAN!!! Hellooo oyster omeletes, hellooo fish soup, hellooo fruit the size of my head! I can't wait to see my grandpa and grandma, who will be waiting for us in Kao-hsiung!

This is my first time travelling with just my sister and cousin. Since I'm the oldest and the one with the ideas, I will be taking care of things until we get to TW. I hope that I don't get us into any trouble *knock on wood*. Or forget something! *knock harder*

We will be stopping in Dallas, then flying into Tokyo-Narita. Supposedly there is a very yummy ice-cream place in Narita Airport! Since the three of us love food, I'm sure I can easily convince S and K to go on an ice cream hunt with me...

That's it for now! See you in Taiwan!!