Monday, August 06, 2007

Taichung

So it was off to Taichung this weekend for a bit of relaxin, chillaxin and a whole lot of sleep. For the most part, I did sleep, a lot, but I'm still tired. I am beginning to think this tiredness is never going to leave me.

We arrived on Friday around 6pm. After walking a while we discovered that we weren't going to get a hotel in the area we wanted to without paying a crap load of money so we decided to go back to the tried and true hotel we always go to near the train station (Fuh Chun Hotel if anyone is interested) Not the most extravagant hotel in the world but it is clean and cheap. It also has air conditioning and tv, which is really what I needed. We had a quite evening on Friday. We went out and got pizza and then just hung around, I went to bed around 10:30. Can you believe that??

On Saturday we decided we wanted to go and see the Golden Buddha and since it was a nice day and we had nothing else to do, we figured we could walk it. But then we hit this....





I'm not sure if you can really tell from those pictures, but it was absolutely pissing down with rain, and it started really fast. We were lucky enough to be passing a large building with a large eves at the time so we didn't get too wet, however we were stuck there for over an hour before we decided that the nice thunder storm we were stuck in just wasn't going to stop, so we went to the movie instead. The movie that I fell asleep in. Yes, I fell asleep in Die Hard 4.0. I don't think I missed too much because I still saw quite a bit of it, either that or it's a ridiculously long movie. What I saw of it was pretty good though.

So back to the hotel we went, and another nap for me. Yes, I slept again. This time for a really long time and I had huge problems waking up. We went out to meet people after that and it was fun and really a typical night out. But remember, if in Taichung, don't try and tell people street names, just reference everything from Sogo, it just makes life so much easier.

Our friend tried to tell us the street the restaurant was on, which was fine, but it got lost in translation somehow and after the taxi dropped us off in some random place, we called and said friend said, go to Sogo and turn right. Um, well all the taxi's know Sogo so surely that should have just been the starting point rather than the street names. I mean, really.

After staying up way too late and everyone being rather hungover (I have to admit, I wasn't too bad since I didn't really drink a lot, I was just still really tired) we decided Sunday was the day for the Golden Buddha. I have never experienced a hotter day to do something in. Well, this would be a lie since I was out in Taipei in the hottest day since 1920 or something stupid like that, but it was hot on Sunday. Even though we only stayed long enough to take pictures, the Buddha was definitely worth it.









It is the largest smiling (or laughing, I'm not sure what they call in) Buddha in Taiwan.

After that we got on the Ho-Hsin and came home...still tired. But hey, it was a weekend away, well worth it.

Friday, June 29, 2007

green island adventure #2

So with everything going on, I just realized I didn't share pictures of my latest trip. A couple of weeks ago it was Dragon Boat festival here in Taiwan. Since it landed on a Tuesday, the government was nice enough to let everyone have Monday off as well, of course, provided you make it up the following Saturday. So since I had a four day weekend, I went to Green Island. By I, I mean, me and 11 other people. I trucked off on my own little adventure without T&J or even C for that matter and went on my own with people from Keelung. It's not like I don't hang out with any of them, but they are more weekend people since we live in different towns.

The trip over was so much better than the last one. While we only had trains for part of the journey, we caught the fast train so most people were without seats for only 2 hours while others just sat in what was available. Then the boat ride. You might remember on my first trip to Green Island, this was a trip not worth repeating, and yes, I was dreading it.** It was totally different though, the sea was much calmer and I totally just fell asleep. Piper got a bit ill, but more nausea rather than right out throwing up. So chalk one up to that being a much better experience.

Once we got on the Island, we got our scooters and went to the place we were staying. The rooms were clean, and quite nice and frankly, it had air conditioning....it was great! We traveled the island that evening to get a feel for what was around (well for everyone else to anyway. Johnny and I have both been there before.) and we stopped at a great little Taiwanese restaurant where they had great sashimi. After we went back to the hotel, some people went to the natural salt water hot springs while others stayed behind. I stayed behind with everyone and after playing cards with Gerdus and Piper was finally harassed enough by those outside to join them. It was decided that Claire needed to learn how to play mah jong so Piper had a big lesson. It was great because I've never played before and I got to learn too! So now I can say I know how to play! Or at least I can pretend. It's pretty easy once you figure out what you are doing and remember the symbols for the Chinese numbers. I totally know them but being under pressure like that makes you easily forget.

The next day we went to the beach for some snorkeling. It was absolutely amazing at the first beach but the second beach I didn't get in because I kept getting knocked over by the waves and my arms and legs got ravaged by the coral so I said screw it and went back to the beach. I'm not really sure if that was a good idea or not because by the end I came out with a sunburn that went from the top of my head to the top of my feet. Seriously, it was bad. I did use sunscreen but I don't think I put it on early enough and that tropical sun is strong.

We left the next day after bbq, more sashimi goodness and going up the ancient trail. It was so much more relaxing than I would have thought it could be and as much as I was really dreading going, I did enjoy it. I'm really glad I went back, if anyone ever comes to Taiwan, it is highly recommended you go there, even with the crazy boat ride.

** I thought I had posted about Green Island before, I believe it was a group email instead...sorry, needless to say the last time we went over, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE on the boat had massive seasickness and were throwing up all around me....it was horrible.



Some pictures for you to enjoy...



sleeping beauty and pekingese dog


green island with the dawn/dusk setting on my camera





the ancient trail



My driver for the weekend

Sunday, May 27, 2007

out and about...or is it oot and aboot

No, I don't really say oot and aboot.

The one thing I love about Taiwan is how something is always happening, whether I know it or not. Yesterday proves this point. We had nothing to do so we went for coffee to come up with ideas for something interesting. We sat there longer than was necessary (mostly because it took so long to get our coffee and food) and we finally decided to go to the multicultural centre to look at the pictures they had on display. The cultural centre never really shows a lot, but the exhibits are always changing. One of the first things we noticed was this...




It is indeed a statue of Chang Kai Shek, which is totally rare right now because the government is in the process of moving all the statues of him onto some remote mountain.

The second was this..
One of the pictures on exhibit. It was on one of the silk banners that they do a lot of the Chinese art on...it was really freaking cool. This isn't the greatest picture because the panel was behind glass.

As we were leaving, this was going on...(notice the sitar...in a band. Click on the picture for a larger image)




So we wandered over to take a look. Of course being the only foreigners, we stood out and the MC's started talking to us and actually translating what was going on into English (we think they were university students and putting this event on was some sort of final project...we think) anyway, they actually came over and thanked us for coming, so of course, we stayed. I mean, they went out of their way to give us all the programs and everything and they all just kept staring at us and smiling. We stayed 3 hours (of course, drinking beer, we needed something to keep sane in the hot weather of Keelung) and listened to all the different bands. Some songs were in English, some in Mandarin, but it was a great time. Some bands were better than others, but it proved to us that that the Taiwan music scene is really growing and is getting pretty decent. It was a great day...until some weird guy sat beside Jacqui and started rubbing her arm. Then, we left.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

another friday night

From these pictures you can probably gather what sort of a weekend I had. Friday was great, Saturday...well, not so much. Hurray for nice weather and being able to go to the roof-top bar again. Officially the cheapest place to get beer in Keelung, which is probably not actually a good discovery.



The elections for Keelung Mayor were on Saturday. We went "campaigning" for #2 because he loves Keelung...and he saluted T&J from his truck during a parade. I don't think he benefited from our drunken wanderings through Keelung at 4am with his cut-out. He lost to #3 (the thumbs down from the first picture)

This is my new friend, found in the lucky star!



These are my other friends..they don't look nearly as exciting as my new friend. Too bad.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

random photos

I was looking through the photos of my computer today and found some shots that I haven't posted on here. I have been using Flickr a lot lately (so much so that I'm even considering paying to go "pro" for better organization of my pictures) and even joined a random group to try and make me experiment with photography more. I just figured it would give me something cool to do and actually try and get better and more creative with taking pictures. This is one I found...



It's the corner of either the National Theatre or the National Concert hall. I'm not sure which side I was on (apparently I have posted this on my flickr and it is the Concert Hall). I am going to miss all the cool buildings that I can take pictures of here.

On a side note, yay for random days off! We don't have to teach kindy today because it's Labour Day. Since not many of the kids are going to be at school, we didn't have to go in, and since I only have kindy on Tuesdays, I have the whole day off (because you know, the whole 2 1/2 hours I work on Tuesdays is just so stressful ^_^) Of course I have completely and totally wasted it, but whatever...it was a day off!

Monday, April 30, 2007

sunday meanderings...

It was Jacqui's birthday yesterday and since we were all fairly hungover from the night before (we doing birthday parties right here in Taiwan) we went to Taipei for a movie and some food. We found a new restaurant that specialized in British food and Tom and Jacqui were in heaven with Bangers and mash and chicken pies. I was in heaven with the salmon eggs benedict that I found. Yeah, that's right, they had eggs benedict.

On our walk from the restaurant to Taipei 101, we went down the side street and found the furniture shops in Taipei. It was the most amazing stuff I have seen in this country. It was at least 4 blocks of stores dedicated strictly to furniture of all sorts. There was some of the most beautiful wood furniture I have ever seen and if I was going to live in Taiwan forever, I would have bought it all. But I'm not, so I didn't. I think I have a thing for furniture though. If only it wouldn't be a bloody fortune to ship it back to Canada.

We went to see Wild Hogs. I had never seen any previews for this and I didn't even know who was in it. Imagine how excited I was when I found out John Travolta was in it. Yeah, I was bloody excited. Jacqui made Tom sit beside me though. Apparently she doesn't like it when I laugh at stupid things in the movie no one else laughs at. (yes, Jacqui I know you are going to read this :) ) For a silly movie, it was actually pretty good. I enjoyed it, but then it had John Travolta in it and I love anything that he's in and I always have. Because you know, he's a god.

Monday, April 16, 2007

welcome to punk

I shouldn't have gone out on Saturday night. We ended up going for breakfast when we were done. Darn water in my ears anyway! Went to see NOFX last night with Consider the Meek. I went for the support band (Consider the Meek) I had actually never heard of NOFX before. My friends couldn't believe it, but the most punk I got into was Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Yeah, NOFX was great, now I'm all into punk music. It was a really good show and even though it was on a Sunday and I'm really, really tired now, I'm really glad I went.

Monday, April 09, 2007

spring scream

I just had the most fantastic weekend. It was Tomb sweeping day here in Taiwan, nicely coinsiding with Easter I must say. Nothing worse than everyone having a long weekend off at home and I have to work, for some reason, I hate that. I did however totally forget about Good Friday and ate meat (oops) Not that there was much fish around, it was really a burger sort of weekend since I went to a music festival in Kenting.

We only found out about Spring Scream last week and even though I was hesitant about going, I'm so glad I did. It was seriously one of the best weekends I've had in a really, really long time, and no, that's not because I was drunk through a lot of it...mostly it was because I was listening to amazing music, meeting amazing musicians and having a great time. The festival was great because it really allowed for access to the bands and getting to talk to them and it was a great way to find out more about the Taiwan music scene.

If you want to see pictures go here to my flickr account...I have too many to chose which ones to put here...

I finally got to see Consider the Meek, a band that found me somehow here on myspace soooo long ago. I met them in Fulong last year but I had never seen them. When I found out they were playing this weekend that was the only band we made the date for seeing...the only appointment we had and they were worth it. They were really good and now I have my friends hooked and we are going to see them again on Sunday when they play with NOFX.

Some other bands of interest that I found this weekend....

Charlie Taylor (and the Axis of Evil)
***check him out...incredibly funny and well worth it
Rabbit Is Rich
Mosquilephant
Swui

These three are all Taiwanese, but all have a really, really great sound and go check out the pictures at Flickr...if you view as a slide show, you can click on any picture to pause it and find out who the band is...assuming of course I was able to remember who they were ^_~

Thursday, March 29, 2007

addicted

I've been discovering a lot of new addictions lately. Mostly having to do with Heroes or Ugly Betty, but it's this song. I just can't get it out of my head. It's being played everywhere. It's always on my TV, which makes sense as it's being billed as the Asian Anthem. I'm not really sure if that's true, but it's even made it on some tv commercial from Hong Kong. Anyway, the band is rivermaya and they are from the Philippines.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

oh well

I should really check the class before I complain about subbing. It was actually one of my old classes that I loved so it wasn't so bad. I still have to stop saying "yes" to everything though.

oh, and I went back to the original look. The other was a little too froo froo for me...I missed this one.

a little annoyed

I have to sub a class tonight and for some reason I'm really annoyed about it. One of my teachers is at training and normally we don't have to cover classes for trainings, but apparently we do now. Of course, being head teacher means that this has fallen to me, or so they figured Friday night at 9:00pm as I was heading out the door with not enough time to actually think about saying no. Not that I would have, because you know, I have that perpetual problem of not being able to say no, but it would have been nice if the thought could have crossed my mind before I was outside in the cold reality of what I just did. I gave up my last night of getting off work at four forever. Damn them.

I don't know how I have been the type of person to give everything to my job. I love my job, I really do, but the worst thing I hate about it is that I will give up everything I am doing to go in and help them do things or teach a class, even when I have other plans. I have always done this with any job that I've been in. Why? Why, why, why, why, why???!!!! I mean, I have no problems being helpful, it sounds awful, but it goes a long way in a country where guan-shi is a huge part of their culture. It isn't really all that hard where I work though, the people are amazing, however I just don't like the last minute, "we forgot to tell you this, can you do it?" They know I will say yes. They know I will say "yes" so much that my manager actually had to tell someone "no" for me, because she knew I couldn't do it. Yeah, I'm that pathetic.

If I could learn anything in the time I have left here, it would be to say no. I've been trying, but it's just so hard. Too hard for me to be able to do it I think, but maybe it will be a good skill to put to use when I get home.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

with wine, doors watch out

Last Saturday was suppose to be a quiet night. T&J and I were going to head to Taipei for something to eat but the box o' wine got in the way. This is not the first time this has happened. We had just enough that we decided to invent our own drink when the box became empty...uh, never, ever mix brandy and vodka.

We decided we wanted to go dancing but J's clothes (and yes, her hair straightener too...okay, so sometimes we like to be girly, It just doesn't happen very often and dancing requires girly-ness) were in their closet, which just happened to have locked itself from the inside. I didn't ask how this could have happened, but regardless the door was locked.

It was decided then that locks don't matter, hinges do. Take it off the hinges, I said. Yes, I said it, it was my idea. It was my idea for them to take the hinges out and then pry their door out with a screwdriver and put big dents in their door frame. It worked though, I am a genius, but all I could think of was why didn't I think of that when I was locked in my bathroom.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

changes still make it boring

I've changed the look of my blog, did you notice? I've been lacking in posting lately, I know I have....it's because I really don't have much to talk about. I mean really, I posted about how much I love Costco. I'm on glue (but it's better than being on crack right?)

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

it treats me well, who am I to argue with fate

How much do I love Costco? It's sad really...it's probably my favourite store in Taiwan. I have many theories as to why this is, but still. Why Costco?

1. The food. It's totally like food at home that I know how to cook. It is the only place to get decently cheap and good cheese. Taiwan is not a very big cheese eating culture. If you go to the Welcome in Chidu it's all processed cheese, you can even get chocolate processed cheese. So yeah, Costco is better by far.

2. It reminds me of home. Not that I ever went to Costco at home. I can really only remember being there one time before in Canada. My parents have a Costco card but I guess I was never with them when they went because the time I remember going, I wasn't with them. I do remember them coming home from a big Costco excursion with giant poppyseed muffins (which, you can't get here, by the way) It reminds me of home because it is just like any other supermarket/superstore that you can find at home.

3. You don't run into things in the meat section like pigs feet and frogs that jump at you.

3. I don't really have another theory, I just thought 4 looked better than 3.


Today we went on a field trip with the kids. We went to Costco. Can I tell you how excited I was? I was very excited. Mostly because my fridge was empty and it meant a free trip in the school bus. Score!! I didn't actually buy that much stuff, but I did get the gigantic jar of pickles because it would be so much easier to take them home and now that I don't have house guests, they will last a lot longer. Well, maybe. The kids were especially excited when they saw the six pound bad of pretzels that I did not buy but all the kids had their pictures taken with it. It was almost as big as two of my kids. I mean, Taiwanese kids aren't all that big!

The surprising thing. None of our HRT's have ever been to Costco. The reason why we got in? We used my card. How cool am I?

Thursday, March 08, 2007

it's about time

After two years of waiting, my pool has finally opened. There is a park down the street from my house in Bai Fu (like a block, seriously close) In this park they have been building a pool only now I've found out, it's not just a pool. It's got a gym (small, but a gym) you can do yoga, there is a spa where you can get massages (you have to pay extra for that though) an indoor pool and and outdoor pool.

I joined up.

I have decided that swimming in Taiwan is a great thing for these reasons.

1. so many people here can't actually swim. That's right, even though they live on an island, many Taiwanese people don't swim. Thus, the majority of the time they only use the pool facilities for the hot tubs, sauna and steam rooms (but that may just be because it's been raining the last few days. When the rain stops I'll see if that's still true.)

2. the place is so damn expensive that not many people are probably going to join up.

Okay, yeah, it's pricey if you go for one visit at a time...250NT which is almost $9CAD. They let us join for only six months since we aren't going to be here for the whole year (really, I'm not) so it is much more beneficial. It is a little more expensive than the pool at home (but only like $15 more) but the pool at home doesn't have a gym in it...nor do the gym's at home have a pool in them. Plus it's only a block away from my house and there is no snow so I don't really have any excuses not to go.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

a night well spent

I'm tired. Why am I tired? Well you see, I stayed up too late last night. I stayed up too late playing video games with Travis on his computer. I stayed up too late last night playing Barbie's Vacation Adventure. seriously.

Monday, March 05, 2007

chinese new year trip part 3

Alright where were we. Sun Moon Lake, right. This is one picture that I forgot to post last time. The coolest thing by far that I saw. They had these trees all over the place and being that they are by far my favourite fruit, I was quite excited. Can you see the bananas?



After we got back we were pretty tired, so we went for dinner at a place called Frogs and sat under this....



Now can you see the coconut that was threatening to fall on us? Luckily, I wasn't sitting directly underneath it, however it did raise comments through out the evening.

So with Taichung finished we had to head to meet up with some more friends in Tainan. We got a train which took about 2 hours. When we got there we didn't have much time to relax and we were off to a fort. Now, being that Tainan is not actually anywhere near the ocean, it is more inland, we were confused as to how it actually protected Taiwan. It had a moat around it, so I guess it was just protecting itself from people trying to get over the moat. I'm not exactly sure. I was confused about it, especially when we saw all the big cannons.




After this, we discovered that the next thing on the agenda was another fort. I'm all for history, trust me...but it was really hot, I was really tired, and not really interested, so when we couldn't get over the bridge to the next fort, we took it as a hint and went back to the hotel to sleep (I know, but this is what happens when you are old and you hang out with people that like to party) So we got back to the hotel and yes, we had been there to drop off our stuff, but this particular feature was still making us laugh...



That's right, that's a mirror all right. On.The.Ceiling. Pretty swank huh.

So the next part of this story is Kenting. I'll tell you right now, that it wasn't very good and might not even get a spot in this story. The best thing about it was that Kenting actually has decent food at their night market....but that's a whole other story.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Chinese New Year Trip part 2

I was suppose to put this part earlier than tonight, sorry. This week has been crazy and I can only prove that by saying it is Friday night and I am ready to go to bed at 10pm. This NEVER happens. Something must be up. I take solace in the fact that I'm not the only one. It was a general consensus that no one was doing anything tonight.

Okay, so the second part of the trip. On our second day in Taichung we decided to go to Sun Moon Lake. So we spent the morning on what seemed like the longest bus trip ever (unknown to us, this would be hugely surpassed by the trip to Kenting, but I digress) Sun Moon Lake was really cool. No swimming though, since some of my students had told me that if you swim in Sun Moon Lake you would die. I'm pretty sure that is not true, but none the less they had signs saying you couldn't swim in the area we were anyway. We wandered around the lake for a bit and then took a boat tour around the lake. Not your regular ride a boat tour. It had the typical Taiwanese slant of stopping at everything it could, which included some fish thing (I'm not really sure what that was all about, but we got to feed fish and see catfish) and a temple. The weather was absolutely great, which was good because we had heard it was raining in Keelung (home). Here are some pictures of Sun Moon Lake.
Not quite as nice as the Shuswap, but nothing ever will be.

(these pictures are in a random order...for some reason blogger changes the order that I upload them in...I haven't figured out why yet.)

A view of the sun on the lake while we were on the boat.



The view from one of the walking paths.



If you look closely maybe you can see that these are catfish. Definitely the strangest fish I've ever come across.



This was the island in the middle of the lake. It's a little small but the boat actually stopped here for people to see it. Of course, you can't actually go on the island...you can only go on the man-made "raft" of green stuff that surrounds it so people can look at the island.



One of the tour boats coming in. Unfortunately, our boat did not look like this, ours was boring and white. We were very disappointed to be sitting on it when we saw this one dock.



So those are the pictures. Next time, the trip part 3.

Monday, February 26, 2007

chinese new year trip part 1

To cover almost an entire week of trip in just one post is going to be too difficult I think, so you get it in stages. I will start at the beginning.

We couldn't make it on the fast train. Even with everyone telling us not to go on it and that many people in Taiwan wouldn't, it seems the lure of an 80 minute trip of the entire length of the island was too tempting to pass up since all the trains seemed to be booked. That was okay though since we have discovered the greatness of the aloha bus. The trip started out great, we got to Taipei after a bit of a crazy taxi ride and when we got to the bus terminal, we only had to wait 10 minutes for a bus to leave. Pretty decent for Chinese New Years Eve.

So we were off to Taichung, where I swore I would never go again for fear of ending up in a gutter again. Yeah, I don't have much luck with Taichung. Things always seem to go wrong there. This time didn't seem too much better either since after we got our hotel room, we decided to walk downtown to see what was going on. So two hours of walking later, we finally made it to the area we were headed in (little Europe, no less) to discover nothing open. And I mean nothing, other than 7-11's and family marts. So we had a drink outside 7-11 to decide our fate. I almost thought were going to have to plant ourselves outside of that 7-11 for the evening, and it wasn't even 7pm yet.

Finally, we decided to give up, catch a cab and go back to the hotel to drown our sorrows in 7-11 food and beer. Just as we had made this decision, we found a restaurant. Amazingly enough, we found a restaurant and with this discovery, we sat. For a really, really long time, we sat.

So that was day one. I was going to do day two today too, however, I'm too tired and lazy to post all my pictures, so you'll just have to wait for the Sun Moon Lake story. I will say, however, that it was by far the highlight of the trip, so that's at least something to look forward to.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

music....and some lyrics too

I went to Taipei today to watch a movie. I wanted to see Dreamgirls but since no one else in the world apparently wants to see it (by world I mean my world...as in none of my friends is into musicals I guess) we discovered Music & Lyrics is on. Oh man, I have never laughed so hard in my life. I love Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore so I was pretty well going in with the intent to love it however, I have never laughed so hard, and if you know me, then you know how much I laugh at movies and TV. Seriously, I couldn't stop laughing in some parts. If you haven't seen it, go, really. Here is a little taste to show you how great it is...

Friday, February 16, 2007

chinese new year

Chinese New Year...those are the greatest words I think ever invented. Why? Because it automatically means holiday. My need for a vacation has been very apparent over the last two days, my poor kids and friends. It's probably been a good thing I haven't seen much of many people this week. See, this is my first real holiday in a year. The last time I had a vacation was last February when I went home for the month. Sure, we had 5 days off in October and we went to Green Island, but this is 9 whole days of not seeing any kids, not doing any work, of just pure relaxation. I have discovered this week that a year is a long time to go without a real quality holiday.

We are still trying to make our plans for the holiday. Unfortunately most everything is going to be booked or closed and of course, we are not ones for planning ahead. My friends and I abide by spur of the moment. We are last minute sort of people. We were going to try and go on the High Speed Rail however I think our last minuteness has sort of screwed us out of that. I'm sure we will get on it eventually though. I mean, 90 minutes to Kaohsiung means we could just go for the weekend...if we wanted to. It is do-able.

So this Chinese New Year, whatever we do, I'm sure it will be full of traveling and doing nothing and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to that. So "Xin nian kuai le" everyone, Happy New Year.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

it's the anniversary

So yes, as my sister said, it was my 3rd anniversary of arriving in Taiwan on February 14th. (for most of you reading this, it is still Feb 14th, however, it is almost 1am here on the 15th, so technically the anniversary was yesterday). This is actually the first time I have "celebrated" or even mentioned the fact that it was my anniversary. Last year I was in Canada, the year before...my parents were here and I was as sick as a dog, since it was February after all and I have been cursed to be sick every February I've been in Taiwan.

I have been thinking about my time in Taiwan all day, starting with the day I arrived. I remember phoning my sister in Vancouver crying, wondering what the hell I was doing (yes, I am an emotional person) Arriving in Taiwan to a driver with my name on a sign and the school I was employed by. That was pretty cool, and it will probably never happen again. It is hard to believe that 3 years have gone by. I can see it all so clearly, sometimes it seems I can almost account for every minute, but I don't know how it's gone so fast. Every moment of Taiwan has affected my life, whether it has been a good experience or a bad one. They all turn out to be good in the long run, even if they don't seem to at first. I know, this entry is all over the place. My mind is running over all my experiences since being here and it is hard to write about them all in the same place. The kids I've taught, the friends I have met, the things I have done, it has been life changing. Some days I didn't think I could make it past six months and here it's been three years. It seriously baffles my mind sometimes.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

my valentine...

Every year (or something like that) my mom has a sister weekend (with her sisters no-less) For some reason while they were out, they found something that made them think of me. I am not exactly sure why they all thought it was so funny that it should be sent to me. Am I really the only single person in our family? And if I am, so what? What did they think was so funny, you ask? I got sent this in the mail....




Yeah, was I excited or what about that. Really thrilled.

So in honour of Valentines day, I decided to let the little dude grow to his full 600% of original size self. Here is the progress of my new man...







So that's my Valentines date. Although apparently if I take him out of the water, he'll shrink again so I guess it's going to be a nice quiet evening in.

(and tomorrow's a special day for me too, (and no, NOT because of Valentines day) if anyone can remember you get bonus points...although for what, I'm not exactly sure. Maybe I'll send you my boyfriend for next year...I'll let you know what sort of date he turns out to be)

Saturday, February 03, 2007

the flack of it all

now i'm starting to catch flack for my drunken posting...Cherly Beynon was invoved and she liked every minute if it as well as several people of the thailand Phuket group. But all in all it was a grand experience...If you read this blog...fucing find something you like...the vicarious thing is overdone...

sincerely,
Tweekville

guest posting gone wrong

I have company staying at my house. Cheryl and Travis have come back from Thailand on their way to Korea and I am horribly happy about it, even though apparently I'm very appathetic to the whole thing. I REALLY AM HAPPY TRAVIS. That being said, I am giving up the reigns for tonight to Obi Wan...so for your enjoyment here is my first guest post....


Well, I don't really know what to say...but i'm here at tobi's house(mind you i don't do the capital thing). if you please excuse the next few lines...this is purely for the reader list...ok tobi just told me that the parents read this so for the next few lines mom and please ignore the next few lines... sex drugs and rock and roll

so that was probably a let down i have lots more words but apparently tobi's dictionary doewsn't take cunt and fucking bitch as propper words. So I'm the guest and I don't really want to seperate from the normal expectations of the "tobi fan club" but there is some wierd shit to see such as if you go to thailad what's up wiht the lady boys...t's really fucked up. A quick story, new years i was in phuket in thailand and i decided to take somee acid with a very strange mexican that i met. well things porgress from there...ad tobi is calling everyone a jack ass for no apparent reason...we would up watching fire works form a place in Kata...then to Bagla, now if you have gone to thailand, Bangla is the center of..hmmmmmmm...well if you know the storey of sodom and gemora then you know the gist of it...and it mwas the essence of evil(mind you this is commingform a home schooled kid) So you walk into this world of fornication and debauchery. but the impressive thing was the lady boys. So they walk around picking hte drunk straight boys. The image was this..you're walking by seeing a "woman" wallking up to you then she shispers something in your ear and in sounds sometihing like ...blue jeb... mbut being as drunk as you are or as they are if you are in another country "blowjob" and these guys go ahead ad walk or scurry as it were away with these boy girls only to tell a storey later of how they had slept with a thai girl that wasn't really. So that wasn't really a quick story but if you like it enjoy. now here is the ultimate question...in you know how to strangle someone really really well what art could you say hou have mastered? If you want the answer e-mail tweekville@yahoo.com and mid you i'm really drunk right now but it is a funny answer. Any way i've been drinking for a while and i'm sure the future guests of tobi will be mch better.

Sincerely,
Travis James

Friday, February 02, 2007

my eggs suck

Fair warning, if you are any part of my parental unit, you may not want to read this. I wasn’t going to blog about my family because they now read this…but that’s too bad. Love ya mom and dad!

Growing up, we had fairly normal meals. Meat, potatoes or rice and a vegetable, beans, peas and corn were usually the trend. I love my mom, but she is not the most inventive cook in the world. Now, I’m not saying she’s a bad good, just boring. Yes, I said it, boring. And when she found something we liked, well she stuck with it, over and over… again (I can’t eat baby shrimp AT ALL thanks to the noodles and cream sauce with baby shrimp in it we had every week for years.)

My dad on the other hand, was a little over the top in his inventiveness. I can’t eat mint or anything with mint flavour because of all the mint he would put in our peas. I’ve only just been able to eat curry again (probably because I’m now actually eating REAL curry) and I will never, ever eat goat, rabbit or duck again! (Well, okay I’ve eaten duck since, but really I don’t go out of my way to eat it.)

One thing though that my mom rocks at, is making eggs. When my sisters and I were little I remember always having eggs. It was one of the nice things about having a chicken coop in the backyard. She would make us egg in a nest (put a hole in a piece of bread and cook an egg in the hole) egg in a cup (soft boiled egg with bread fingers…we even had special cups for this dish) and my favourite, egg in a bowl, soft boiled egg mixed with cut up pieces of bread. Every boxing day my dad makes eggs benedict for the family, but really he just makes the sauce, mom makes the eggs.

Whenever I was sick, my mom would make egg in a bowl for me. When I had my wisdom teeth out, she made egg in a bowl for me because it was so soft. When she came to visit me in Taiwan two years ago and I was really sick, she made me egg in a bowl. They are my comfort food. It's what makes me feel better when I’m feeling crappy.

I made egg in a bowl today. I thought of my mom the whole time. While I would like to say it was just as good, it wasn’t. I guess I don’t have the bit of “mom” that you need for it.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

bbrrrr

Have you heard? It's bloody cold in Taiwan right now. No central heating sucks. I miss my radiators. Granted it was colder the other day, outside, in the wind. But today, I'm sitting in my house and my hands are almost frozen. I need to go find my mittens and put on my heater. Or just leave my house and find somewhere warmer to go.

I probably don't need to complain about the cold because whoever is reading this, I'm sure it's colder wherever you are. Think of me when you are sitting in your nice toasty warm houses or in front of your fires. What I wouldn't give to be sitting in front of my parent's gas fireplaces that I gave them so much shit about for buying. Turned up high, the way my mother likes it, but I can't stand. So much so, that one room in the house is warm and the rest of the house is like a freezer. Oh to be in that one room right now.

On the voice front, it's not back, in any way, shape or form. I am however, on a whole lot (six in fact) of cool drugs in an effort to make it better and I had my throat frozen and some weird yellow crap put down it that tasted horrible, but so far, nothing. I don't know exactly how I'm going to teach tomorrow, I might be in a little bit of trouble.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

oops

ok, so apparently I'm sicker than I thought. After my performance night for Treehouse on Friday (finally, I am finished!) I had a major coughing fit and woke up Saturday morning with no voice. Completely. Totally. Inexplicably. Gone. Oh dear. I tried to go to the doctor but when I got there it was closed, and I was there before 9am. Pretty good for a Saturday morning. I went back 30 minutes later and it was still closed so I will have to go tomorrow.

It is still not back today. I can barely do more than a whisper and when I do, it is not entirely comfortable so I've been either not talking or whispering. Very difficult when you go out for dinner and you try to order things from people whose first language isn't English in the first place. I kept having to get Tom and Jacqui to translate for me.

Hopefully it will be back by Wednesday when I have to teach again. I'll go to the doctor and see what they say tomorrow.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

oh those crazy brits

Sitting in the coffee shop yesterday discussing the cheesecake we were eating we came upon the subject of crusts. (I was with Tom and Jacqui)

me: this crust isn't really sweet enough. I prefer it with graham crackers.

T: I don't know what graham crackers are.

me: you know, the crackers used to make s'mores

(blank look)

T: I don't know what s'mores are.

And so I had to launch into what s'mores were and I got laughed at for mentioning it was a big campfire thing...Sometimes hanging out with Brits really does my head in.

Friday, January 26, 2007

the best of the street

I have this cd at work that I used to listen with my older kids all the time. Since my young'uns respond better to the stuff they know,(you know, the crap CD's that we have to listen to everyday that my company puts out) I haven't been playing it in my class and have lent it to the new big class. They love it, but of course they do. Who could not love anything Sesame.

Today though it was a question of which song is the best. I was told to choose wisely and I knew that I would be judged* totally by my choice of one children's song. So I picked. It was actually an easy decision because I have always said it was my favourite song of the CD and I was confident in my decision. I picked Monster in the Mirror. Jacqui picked Lambada. Have a listen here and see which one you like between them. We even played them for Tom, but he wouldn't make a decent decision about which one he like, so we are left fighting it out between us for greatest song.

I think it all comes down to childhood favourites. Jacqui said the Count was her favourite, and who sings Lambada? Yeah, the count is cool in a spooky and odd sort of counting way, but for me it was always Grover. Isn't he the friendliest monster ever? And really, who can compete with Super Grover.

*ok, yes judged, but I'm sure probably not in a bad way. Really.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

being busy

my computer is doing the all Chinese screen again. I don't know why.

Amazingly enough, this post is not about food. I know, everyone is so disappointed. Things have been crazy here this past weeks so not much has been happening. I have my Treehouse Parent's night tomorrow and it is stressful as always. We've been making props and practicing like mad. I can only hope that my kids actually remember all their lines, because they certainly didn't yesterday. I know, I know, it's always like this, they always suck a couple of days before and do a great job in the performance. I don't know why I am worried. But I am. A lot.

The sememester finishes tomorrow and we are trying to convince our manager that we need a kindy break. Just one week and then back for two and then it's Chinese New Year. I have been sick so doing all the finishing touches on everything has been hard, and I've lost my voice. I'm suppose to start a conversation class tonight, that should be interesting considering the fact that I can't really talk right now. I've been trying to avoid going to the doctor because it's just a cold and I'm trying to convince my body that I don't need any other drugs than what I can buy at the druggist. However, now with my voice gone, I think I might have to suck it up and go to the doctor. Oh how they'll hate me when I get back to Canada and go to the doctor at the first sign of a cold. They won't like me very much, I think. I feel guilty not going though because I've been sick for two weeks and everytime I cough someone asks me if I've been to the doctor. I keep telling them that in Canada we don't go to the doctor for a simple cold. I don't think anyone believes me.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

shabu shabu in Yilan

Went for shabu shabu on Thursday night with some people from work. When I asked where we were going they said Yilan, I thought they were kidding because it's so far away, they weren't. Yilan is about two hours away on the East coast of the Island. Luckily, they have put in a new freeway that cuts the trip down to 50 minutes. Included in this trip is the longest tunnel in Taiwan. It is 12.9 km and luckily I'm not clausterphobic because it was a little freaky.

We didn't get to Yilan until 8pm but after eating, it was definately worth it. It was the perfect shabu shabu. Buffet style, so you get to choose what you want, with your own individual pot. Every other shabu shabu I've been to it's either, get your own pot and order a set meal, or buffet and you get one pot for the entire table. I don't like the one pot for the entire table idea because for one thing, you lose your food, and for another, Taiwanese people eat weird things that I wouldn't want to take the chance of getting mixed with what I want to eat haha. Remember the duck blood? Exactly.

Here is Elaine enjoying her shabu shabu


This was my second plate of food. Cabbage is great in shabu-shabu and admittedly, I went a little nuts with the lamb...it was so damn good. For some reason, I am addicted to lamb right now.


This is Sammi's pot. One great thing about this shabu-shabu is you get to choose your own soup. Usually the regular soup is fish broth. Sammi got one that has weird nuts and plant things for vegetarians.


This was what I got. It was the "Thailand" choice. It is coconut milk, and while at the beginning I wondered what the hell I did choosing that because I'm not usually a fan of coconut, it was so amazingly good and made my food taste great, I will definately get it next time too.


This is all the Shrimp Anna got to put in hers. I didn't end up getting shrimp. I love it, but I hate the fact that I have to peel it all. It's sort of a pain although, I have gotten pretty good at it now. I used to end up losing all the good parts. Peeling shrimp is a fine art.


When I was choosing my food, I went for some seafood. I love my squid. When I picked up these, Sammi said they were baby octopus. I figured it was cut up and would be really good, until these babies came out of my pot....



Now, I have tried a lot in Taiwan. I have eaten squid when it still has the head on it and shrimp and fish with the eyes..but I just couldn't bring myself to eat these. They were too freaky.

Monday, January 15, 2007

13

We went to The Wall this weekend. I've been there before, but no one else has. The great thing about The Wall is that they have live bands. The greater thing is that they are rock bands, no hip-hop or R&B. I am so sick of hip-hop and R&B. I don't like it in the first place and I don't like going places where that is all they play. I find it boring. I don't really know why I've never suggested going to The Wall before because the last time I was there (right after I arrived in Taiwan actually) I really enjoyed it. Alas, I haven't been back.

It was a great night. A great band. Mind you, I have no idea what they were singing about because it was all in Chinese, but then I'm not a lyrical person. I'm much more about the music quality. If I like the music sound then I like the band, and I liked this one. They have a new video out and yes, it was very pop-rock. I mean, I guess you have to do songs like that in Taiwan if you want to make it big. This country loves its pop-rock. The rest of the CD is not like that. Yes, I bought the cd...and look...I got it signed too.









If you want to check them out, their website is here but the website is all in Chinese. If you keep hitting random links you will eventually find their music.

But then on second thought....here is their music page and here, you can see their video So go and enjoy.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

on great food

I've been meaning to do this for a while but just never got around to it. This is the food that I am most addicted to. I have to stop myself from eating it too often, but mostly because the fear that the shop owners will think I'm weird if I go too often. However, at other stands, it doesn't seem to make a difference and when I go two weeks without my dried noodles, they ask where I've been. This is the thing with living in a small town. I should be used to that, but when you are one of 3 foreign people that live there, well you get the idea.

So let me introduce to you the wonder of teppanyaki....






Now, this is just the food for takeout. Imagine eating in the actual shop having your food cooked right in front of you and then eating it right off the grill and it never goes cold. Perfect right? It sure is. This is what made me eat meat again. It's that damn good.

Monday, January 08, 2007

oh the horror of the ducks

Last night we went for Duck Hot Pot. Not being a fan of duck since all I can ever see when I see it is the farm and them sitting on the counter waiting for them to be plucked with the tweezers...by me, I don't often eat it (if ever). I have to say though, it was really good. But I ate a heart.

It is quite a milestone for me since I rarely try weird food here in Taiwan. (By weird I mean: chicken feet, pig's intestines, duck blood, pig's blood, I think you get the picture) While I have had stinky tofu that's the last strange "Taiwanese" thing I have eaten, and for good reason (think dog poo). So back to the heart.

While it didn't really have any distinctly odd taste, all I could think of was Sunday school. They used to always tell us that Jesus lived in our hearts and when I was little I took this quite literally. All I could think about while I was eating the heart was that I was eating some poor little duck's Jesus. It was disturbing to say the least and I stopped at one.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

so much for that

well, so much for the resolutions. I didn't start packing (well, I really do have some time, don't I?) Last night came and went in a mass of awakening and no sleeping. Breakfast this morning was egg pancakes (dzwa bing) and ga mien (dry noodles and it's pronounced me en not mane...by the way) So the fried food, out the window since they bake then fried these Keelung famous little things and the drinking. Well, it was Saturday night!

We went bowling last night. For some reason, my friends are addicted to the game. Unfortunately, I'm not that good. Luckily for me, they aren't that good either.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

oh January

well, Monday was spent in my pj's for most of the day. My motivation came to get dressed when my landlord knocked on my door. (like what??!! Who comes over on New Years Day!?!?) Of course, it was too late by that time to do anything about it so in he came with me still in my pj's and hangover hair and when he was gone, then I decided to actually get "up". You know, just in case some other person randomly comes knocking on my door.

I was thinking that I should make resolutions this year. I never make resolutions because I am not one for commitment and, well, truth be told it's probably more because I have no willpower either. Unless it's lent, I rock in lent. This year might be different. So far my giving up alcohol seems to be working, however it works after every weekend until the next one comes along. Healthy eating? well I still contend that it's impossible to do in Taiwan, espcecially when one works stupid hours and eats out all the time (it is seriously cheaper, I'm not lying) But I can resolve to get at least non-fried food. So it means no dumplings (boohoo) but I haven't actually been eating them lately anyway.

I think my biggest resolution is going to have to be to start packing. Can that be a resolution? I have to get a move on it if I am really leaving here in September. I can't imagine how I am going to get everything home. I am trying to convince myself that I'm not sending much of it back, but then I still have to find something to do with what I don't take. Hmmm...maybe it's not going to be such a great resolution after all. I might have to rethink this whole resolution thing and just forget about it like I do every other year. That actually sounds like the best resolution of all.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New...year

I was going to do a post regailing about the things I did this year. (it's not that exciting I'm sure.) However, I am far too hungover to do that right now, it will have to wait until tomorrow.

For this year, 2007, if all goes according to plan, it is going to be a great year. That's how I'm going to look at it anyway. (but I do have some very incredible plans that allow me to back that statement up, even if one of them is leaving my job and that scares the shit out of me somedays.) But I may as well go in with optimism, yeah?

I hope that everyone reading this goes into this year with optimism and dreams and hopes and that you have a great and amazing 2007.