Last Week of Class

...is also the third week of November. :-P

I think by this time, most of us were already anticipating the vacation so our minds are not into studying anymore. Wahahaha... 不好意思老師!

(Second to the last day of school with my favorite class in the whole world! Grabbed from 刁老師!)

On Thursday (Nov 19, 2009), Shida peeps met-up with the Chengda peeps; and we went out to have dinner at Chengda grounds. After dinner, some of us rode a bus that climbs up a mountain then goes down again (well, at least it felt like that) into Maokong, a tea plantation area in Taiwan. Previously, Maokong was a much-visited place because a cable car (or gondola as they call it) system was connected to it. I don't know what happened, but it's not functioning now, I heard. 真可惜! There are less visitors now because it's not very convenient and fun to go there anymore.

(Dinner feast with Chengda peeps. Grabbed from Jen.)

Anyhoo, we used the bus to get there and went to a teahouse that Wayne and Keryl had visited before. We were the only ones in there so it was fun! It was also very cold and drizzling a bit that time so drinking hot tea was perfect for that moment!

We talked and talked and talked. Wayne also showed us some of his magic tricks as "David Wayne". Hahaha!

(Fil-chi peeps in the house! Grabbed from Jen.)

My class also planned our last class activity for the last day of school. Initially, we were planning to go up a mountain to sight-see; but the weather was so unpredictable those past few days that we opted to be safe and decided on ice-skating 溜冰 then hotpot 火鍋 instead. :-D

Calling it fun is an understatement! Whoa!! FUN!!!! I fell down a lot of times, but then my classmates and friends were always there to the rescue me and help me up! ^__^

(刁老師 with all her students. Grabbed from 刁老師. )

(Hotpot fun! Grabbed from 刁老師.)

My next blog will probably be about my week-long vacation... Ahhh, the 輕鬆輕鬆 days!

A Month of Silence

Man, I suck at blogging!!! Hahaha... I haven't posted in a long while - about a month, I think. Raar!

What have I been up to these past silent days? On the earlier part of November, I was fairly busy at school. See, I do study! Early part of November, I was mostly taking Mandarin proficiency tests for my scholarship or for my class; then we also had to do our final project in class where we were forced (and we yielded quite happily) to take part in a fake student organization election campaign.

Basically, I was a candidate for a fictional organization and I had to make a speech about why they should vote for me. I was paired off to 惠京, my awesome Korean classmate, who was my campaign manager. It was a lot of fun. Hahaha!

We made a poster, and then our speeches were also video-recorded. Since my partner and I were both crazy people, we just did some crazy out-of-this world fictional speeches. We won second place! Yeah! :-D (And we were also team # 2!) Thanks to Jen, Heidi and Jamie for attending the event and supporting Michelle and me! :D

(惠京 and I doing our thizz face. Photo grabbed from Jen.)

I haven't been living healthily this November, as well. If you've read my previous posts, you'll see that we frequent the 師大 track oval. Well, they've started renovating the track so the only exercise I could get was when we would go to the gym; but I don't like going to the gym here because it a bit far from where I am - I'll need to take a bus or the 捷運 (MRT) and pay an hourly rate if I wanted exercise.

Anyway, I think I've been gaining weight ever since the renovation because I eat the same way minus the exercise. Hahahaha... Oh well, I heard it's gonna be finished this December or January so I'll just eat happily until then.

Because of all the activities in school, I also got sick with the flu. I think almost everyone got sick around that time. The weather has started to become cold around that time (think 18°C), and people were tired from all the school work and fun stuff. Yeah, aside from busy school stuff, we also did a lot of activities outside of school.

Before the election campaign event, we had a lunch activity at our class president 煌聰's place where he cooked Vietnamese Pho and the Koreans 惠京 and 京林 made bulgogi for us. Big hooray for authentic Vietnamese and Korean food! :D

(Bulgogi cooked by 惠京 and 京林!)

(Meat for 煌聰's Pho Noodle Soup.)

The fireworks festival also took place last November 7 so we braved the massive crowd (think Quiapo Black Nazarene Festival) to watch the 3o-minute firework show.

(The 30-minute firework show showcased a hundred or so flowers that would be displayed next year at Taiwan's first flora expo. My capture is just this jumbled mess of webs caused by my wobbly arms and low-tech camera. I quite like what I got, though. :-D)

Wayne and Keryl left to go back to the Philippines just last weekend, so we also organized a suprise party for them. They have been our guide here in Taiwan ever since we got here so we were all really thankful for all the help that they've given us. Jen did an awesome job on the suprise party thing! Kudos to a great party that made the hotpot lady cry from panic. Wahaha...

(The 27 peeps who made the hotpot lady cry from panic - Shida and Chengda peeps unite! Photo from Jen.)

Heidi's birthday also came up so we went to Luxy (Taipei's Embassy equivalent) and danced till like three in the morning. The following day, Jen and I used our remaining energy to chase after Wilber Pan 潘瑋柏, who had a mini concert and autograph signing in Xsimending 西門町. Hahaha, talk about dedication to live our life to the fullest here. :-P

(My Taiwan barkada @ Luxy.)

(Wilber Pan!!!! Grabbed from Jen.)

(We were like 5 people away from the front of the stage - really really close! Grabbed from Jen.)

I think I'm gonna stop right here. Take note that this is just for the first half of November! A lot more things happened during the second half because the last week of November was also our quartmester break. :-D Wahahaha!

I haven't forgotten about my Fulong entry, as well. Raar! So much to tell, so little time!!! :-O

我Marcos的文章

I'm just so happy to have written this... I wouldn't have been able to do this using my Chinese education in the Philippines. (mainly because I was a bad Chinese student back then.)

菲律賓人多少都喜歡自己國家的民主化。一般的人民覺得People Power革命成功的事情﹐就是菲律賓人厲害的證明。

對我來說﹐每個國家適合不一樣的領導﹐而且菲律賓不適合民主化。

Marcos當總統的時候讓菲律賓發展多﹐經濟比較好﹐國家很安定﹐而且總統的太太也把很多的方法﹐像交通﹐博物館﹐什麼的﹐好好地建設﹐聽說那時的人民也比較有禮貌。

Marcos總統任期快滿的時候﹐他覺得他還可以做更多對國家好的事情﹐所以他把總治的辦法改成Martial Law﹐一般的人民不同意這樣的改變﹐因為他們覺得Marcos只要讓他控制的力量更大更多。

人民覺得Marcos的情形很嚴重了﹐他們就革命不讓Marcos當總統了。人民不希望Marcos將來領導菲律賓。

對我來說﹐現在的菲律賓跟以前的菲律賓比起來﹐以前的菲律賓非常好。現在菲律賓發展那麼慢﹐交通很差﹐博物館沒進步﹐真可惜!


PS. I feel that I won't be able to understand my own essay a few months after I go back to the Philippines. Hahahaha! I fervently hope that it doesn't happen though... *wishing hard*

Sorry Haven't Posted For A While

Haven't posted for a while! Hahaha... having too much fun here! :-D

Ate a lot of new food, tried a lot of new things, visited new places, and met a lot of people these past few days...

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NEW FOOD:
- Evan's burger: beefiest burger I've tasted in Taiwan so far.
- Hongkong restaurants in Zhongxiao-Dunhua: tastes like Chinese food back home...yum!
- Pizza Hut: Japanese Teppanyaki Pizza is weird and sweet.
- Burger King or 漢堡王: Tried their buy one take one thingies with classmates. Cheap food!
- mini siopao's and misua from Shida night market 師大夜市.

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EVENTS:
- Visited "Filipino-town" here in Taipei and hoarded Filipino chips (piatos, tempura, oishi, etc).
- Michelle cooked Filipino food (sinigang, pancit, adobo) for us. I helped chop veggies!
- Gatecrashed Heidi's classmate's party... Culture shock! Didn't know what to do at this social setting. hahahaha!
- Went to the gym: it's cheap here!!! CHEAP!!!
- Went to 九份 (jiufen): awesome traditional Chinese/Japanese looking place! Want to have my prenup shots done here! :-D
- Helped Michelle move 搬家!
- New haircut - which sucks a bit. Jamie said he was stunned. Hahaha!
- Went to a Fahrenheit Concert (飛輪海的演唱會) and cried tears of joy. 很感動吧! :-P

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NEW PEOPLE:
- Met Heidi's classmates and friends. :-)
- Met my 阿姨 and 姨丈 from the States! Love them!
- Met Jen's friends (Joy and Mae), went with them to 九份.
- Met Heidi's family!
- Met a friend's "friend" - let's leave it at that. ;-D

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We're having our mock-TOP tests this week, and the workload is much much lighter. 所以可以輕輕鬆松一點。。。 :-D

Just this Monday, I had an oral examination... It was so much fun because the exam is computer-based, they have set questions that they ask the examinees and they record our answers and will check them on a later date. The result comes out on December 15, 2009. Good thing the score won't affect our grades! :-D

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WEIRD EXAM ANSWER

I also had a chapter exam last Monday, and I probably won't forget this composition I did. We basically need to use up the grammar points to answer some questions.

For one of the items, the question was "昨天我打電話給你時﹐你為什麼沒空跟我說話?你那個時候在忙什麼?" (roughly translates as: "I called you up yesterday and you didn't have time to talk, what were you busy with?").

My answer using the grammar points was "真的不好意思﹐你打電話的時候我正要去廁所﹐大便就快出來了﹐所以沒辦法跟你說些話。" (which translates to: "Very sorry, I was about to go to the bathroom when you called; My poop was about to go out, that's why I wasn't able to talk to you.")

Then I added a "對不起!不好的題目。" ("sorry! bad topic!) apology for my teacher. hahahaha! Got that item right though - no deductions for grossness! :-D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tomorrow, we will have our typing/composition exam. Then we have a listening exam on Thursday... Looking forward to the coming days!!!!! ^____^

Six Days of Food and Exercise

After Hamy left for Manila, my days have been filled with more eating and exercise. :-D


Last Thursday, Heidi was telling us how we should start exploring more eating options. We've become fond of the normal eating places here in Shida Night Market that we don't experiment and try others anymore. According to Heidi, we've only eaten at 24 different places in the month that we've been in Taiwan.

In order to diversify and add to the list, we decided to have lunch at a place that we've never had lunch before. We call it the "spicy place" because everything on the menu has the word 辣 or spicy in it. The thing is, you can order them non-spicy - like non-spicy spicy noodles. Hahaha... Anyway, it was a nice discovery because it was good and cheap food - just how the locals like 'em.

After eating, I felt sleepy so I left everyone to do their bit and went home to sleep the whole afternoon away. At around dinner time, Michelle, Heidz and Jamie came to my place to raid me! Hahahaha. They brought a mahjong set and some mantou rolls for dinner. We played bad mahjong then moved to 1-2-3-Pass (and write on loser's arms). Neung played with us for a few rounds then left. After she left, the game went wild! Jamie and Michelle are forever having these United States vs. England matches so when Michelle got to write her love for US in Jamie's arm, Jamie was so pissed. Jamie wasn't able to get his revenge because we didn't have enough time to play. Hahaha! It was good fun to watch them show their distaste for each other's countries (even though they actually really like the other's country).

Jamie's arm with "我愛美國,很好的地方" written on it (Taken by Michelle):


Friday was the day before our beach day so we spent most of the day planning for the beach trip. We ate at the hotpot place for lunch (with Michelle, Eli, Hanni, and Wayne), bought some swimming, volleyball, and tennis stuff; then headed for the Shida Tennis Courts to play my first tennis game in Taiwan. I still and will always suck at tennis, but i really do enjoy playing it for some reason. I was playing with Jamie for a bit before we got tired of picking up the balls (more than hitting them).

I did walling for a bit while the others played volleyball (I'm scared of being hit by volleyballs!). One other person was walling beside me, and he asked me if I wanted to play with him. Of course!!! 當然啊!!! So we played while the others were playing volleyball. I found out later that the guy's name is 生活 or something that sounds like that. I hope to play with him again next time - he's the only one who can catch and return by bad shots so far. :-D

Jamie, Michelle and I went to try a new place for dinner and ended up discovering Jamie's new favorite place which served Thai-Malaysian food. We had some coconut milk beef, sweet vinegar chicken and pineapple fried rice. We talked the night away, until the restaurant started closing the lights to shoo off the loitering customers.


Saturday is Fulong Beach day which I am gonna reserve for a different blog entry. Just because it was the most fun and unique experience in my stay here in Taiwan (so far). :-D


Sunday was spent for resting our aching bodies from all the sports and activities that we were doing. We still couldn't part from each other though; Heidz, Michelle, Jamie and I met up with each other to eat dinner together. We finally had Japanese thanks to Neung's help. :-D


Monday is another sleep day for me. We had a chapter test and an oral examination in class, then we (Jen, Mike, Michelle, and I) ate roast duck and asado for lunch. After that, I slept the whole afternoon away until Michelle called me up to meet everyone for dinner. We went back to Jamie's Thai-Malaysian place to introduce Jen and Heidz to the good food.


Today Tuesday, we ate the cheap 小龍包 place for lunch with a bunch of peeps from class and extended friends. Michelle went home to sleep, then Jen and I spent the early afternoon chatting and cleaning my room. The five of us (Michelle, Heidz, Jen, Jamie, me) met up at the oval for a run. The weather was so nice for running! I had a very nice and easy 10 laps. Jamie thought I was not tired enough though so he asked me to run another fast lap which I did in around 2 or 3 mins (400km). Not bad, I think. :-D

We met up with Michelle's friend, Dan. Then we ate at a place that served Mexican food. The food reminded me of "Hola!" burritos from the Philippines. :-D


Tomorrow is Wednesday and I might finally be able to try Evan's Burger (50% off on their burgers every Wednesday). :-D

Hamy-day and Other Days

So yeah, Hamy finally visited me here after more than a month of not seeing each other. I'm still gonna do my usual rundown of activities since I want to remember them in the future, so please bear with me. Hehehe...


Thursday was the day before Hamy arrives. The only thing I remembered was that it was the first time I was able to try sibut (chinese medicinal soup) and that it was my first full 10-lap run since I came here in Taiwan (due to Jamie's encouragement).


Hamy arrived on Friday and we were able to meet each other at around 4pm that day (I brought him fried dumplings which he absolutely loved). Jen waited with me just to be able to meet him, then she had to go home. We had dinner with Heidi, Jamie, and Michelle. Hamy was finally able to meet my Taiwan friends. Oh, and we ate at the Goon's chou fan place for dinner. Weirdly enough, he was also able to meet all my housemates that day. This isn't usual, I usually don't get to see all my housemates in one day!


Saturday was our foodie and lucky day (It was also Taiwan's Mid-Autumn Festival). I had breakfast with Hamy in the hotel, since he got two free breakfast stubs from his room. We wasted the rest of the morning doing my laundry and talking. For lunch, I took him to DinTaiFung to try the famous xiaolongbao. We had to wait for around 45-60 mins before we can get into the place so we went to a roast duck place nearby and shared a plate of mixed roasted meat (duck, pork, chicken). When we got back to DinTaiFung, we ordered two orders of xiaolongbao.

Me, waiting for our turn to come up in DinTaiFung! Things we do for good food...
Hamy's approval face after we finished off the first batch of xiaolongbao. This is the second batch.
Below is a sad me when one of my xiaolongbao's broke and the soup leaked out. So tragic!
After the food trip, we walked aimlessly and found ourselves in ChiangKaiShek Memorial. We explored the place a bit since the weather was so nice and windy for strolling. :-)

There's a mini forest trail behind the memorial hall.
And these are our individual photos since we didn't bother asking other people to take pictures of us.
After ChiangKaiShek, we went to Kenneth and Beth's place (Hamy's High School friends). They were very very very nice and treated us to fried chicken fillet and fried shrooms from 2Peck. We also watched Star Trek on their very large TV. :-D

After the movie, we rushed to meet Kenneth and Beth's FilChi friends. We had kao rou or BBQ at Zandy's place and played pwationgchu which I found out was not being played (and not even known) in Taiwan. I tried to explain the game to my teacher at school, but it ended up sounding like a gambling game. Hahahaha... Anyway, to cut the story short, I met a lot of very nice people (Special mention to Jo, since I instantly liked her. I think people named "Jo" always has a special place in my heart. Naks!). Hamy won chiongguan (NT1200), I won a 4GB Flash Drive among other things. :D

Photo below grabbed from Bernie. Thanks!!!


Sunday was shopping day, Hamy and I had lunch at sliced beef noodle place. Then we went to Guanghua to look for my laptop. I've already found my laptop (Acer Aspire 5738ZG) but I didn't buy it yet because Hamy won't let me use my credit card (because of the lousy exchange rate). Anyway, I'll get my laptop when I have proper liquid NT$. Aside from finding my laptop, we bought an i-river mp3 player (because I lost my player last week Tuesday) and a fuji instax camera. Love!!!
After Guanghua, we headed for Ikea (got a bit lost along the way) and ate at the Ikea restaurant/canteen. The sausage and the salmon were awesome! Next time I go back to Ikea, I'm gonna try their meatballs. :-D

After our dinner, Hamy made me wear his jacket and made me hide my hands in the pockets. When I slipped my hands into the pockets, I felt a weird box shaped thing inside it so I had to take the thing out. Lo and behold, I now have an engagement necklace. ^^ Thanks Hamy, it's awesome!!! ^____^

We shopped around in Ikea, I bought a pillow, a mirror, and a scented candle. Hamy bought pasalubong food. :-D


Monday was Hamy's last day in Taiwan. We ate our last breakfast together (yes, we don't say no to free hotel breakfast food.) then he was off to the airport. I had a normal school day after the Hamy-days. I think I've forgotten what I did this Monday... I think I ate biandang for lunch and hotpot for dinner. It was also a very rainy day - I bought my third umbrella after breaking my first umbrella last week and breaking my second umbrella during the weekend.


Tuesday was my relax day. The rain stopped and the weather was so cool and comfy. Michelle and I had medicinal soup and chao fan for lunch with Eli and Hanni (Japanese and Indonesian classmates). We had to call back-up because we can't finish the food (Eyes bigger than our stomach). Thanks for coming to the rescue Jamie! Hahaha! After lunch, I slept. Hahaha! The weather was too nice!!! For dinner, Jamie, Heidi, Michelle, and I had Viet food and then headed to Shida Road for shaved ice desserts.


Today Wednesday, we tried out a new xiaolongbao place. I think DinTaiFung has a strong competition with this one. I don't remember the name of the place, but I certainly remember how to go back there. Yuuum!!!

I ran 12 laps today, then ate like a pig during dinner at a Korean BBQ place with Wayne, Keryl, their 2 friends, Jen, Heidi, Michelle, and Jamie. Tomorrow is Keryl's birthday (Happy Birthday Keryl!!) so we got her a chocolate cake to celebrate her day. Tomorrow's another cool fall day here in Taipei. I love this weather! :-D

Teacher's Day and Happy Day

Last Monday (September 28, 2009) was teacher's day! To show our teacher how much we loved her (because we do love her), the whole class gave her a bouquet of flowers and treated her to a xiaolongbao lunch!

Here's Diao Lao Shi with her bouquet! Upper left to right: Michelle (US), Me, 茉莉 (Poland), 京林 (Korea), 煌聰 (Vietnam). Lower left to right: 惠理 (Japan), 家美 (Indonesia), 刁老師, 惠敬 (Korea).

Here's another one from behind our building. This was after we finished lunch. :D

After this, Michelle and I met up with Heidi and Jamie then we went to Taipei Main Station to check out the laptops. :-D Gonna buy one this coming weekend! I soo need a new one, the one I'm using now is too small!!

We headed back to Shida and ate dinner at the Goon's fried rice place; bumped into Paolo (my Brazilian roommate) so he had dinner with us. :-)

This was also the day when I was finally able to drop off my film in the cheap dev place recommended by flickr friends. I think I need to have my SLR serviced, its sticky shutter problem is happening more often now!


Tuesday was fairly uneventful save for the stipend's arrival. Yes! I am finally able to pay the last part of my fall semester tuition and pay my rent!

I also went running with Jamie and Heidi (ran 6 laps); then we ate together with Neung (my Thai housemate) at the Goon's fried rice place. Yes, two times in a row - we really like our fried rice! :-D

Remember the time when Jamie beat me twice in chess? Well, we had another manly competition. I was telling him how English people are useless when it comes to spicy food. So he challenged me to a chili sauce eating duel. Who won? The non-English person, of course! Jamie-2; Jac-1. He cried! Tsktsktsk...


Today Wednesday, We had a huge chapter exam and a huge oral exam. Ate at a Vietnamese place for lunch and at a sibut (si-boot) place for dinner. We loitered around the running track while Michelle did 10 laps. I wanna do 10 laps tomorrow too!! :-D

We miss you Jen! Hope you won't be too busy soon! ^__^

My Weekend

Picture below (c/o Jen) from the Hawaiian Party last Friday:


Last Saturday after my TOP mock exam, Heidi, Jen and I met up with Michelle and Jamie in Ximending to catch a movie (The Ugly Truth). We saw Michelle's friend Chris after the movie so he joined us for dinner and talked with us while we were walking around the place.

When I got home, I got a message from Hamy that there's a big storm in Manila and that there's no electricity and water there. I went online and saw a lot of freaky videos (especially of UERM where my mother currently works.) I sent text messages to my parents but did not receive anything so I got a bit worried. Called home, my dad answered and told me that they were all at home and that the flood didn't reach our area. *Whew*

Sunday, Heidi, Jamie and I met for lunch. He headed to Jamie's place to check if he has WiFi using Heidi's laptop. We tried to study there but it was not conducive to study groups. Hahaha! Met up with Jen after a bit, and we decided to study in my place instead.

After a couple of hours (or minutes) of slaving with the books, we decided too take a break and play 1-2-3-Pass. I had some water-based markers in my place, so we used it to draw stuff on the losers' arms. It was havoc!!! Jamie had too much fun writing on people's arms, and he draws and writes like a five year old (very big!). Anyway, he was able to learn to write some Chinese phrases like 我做了第二個-大家不好意思 (I pooped-sorry everyone), 注意-咬人 (warning-I bite), 色浪 (pervert), 你看什麼笨蛋 (what are you looking at stupid?), and 熊貓迷會 (panda fanclub). I'm sure this will be very useful for his Chinese education (yeah, right!).

We met up with Michelle after the game - she had her hair done (red highlights rock!); then we went out to eat dinner at a nearby Thai BBQ place. :-)

Beth called me Sunday night to invite Hamy and me to their dice game. So looking forward to winning anything!! :-D Looking forward to seeing Hamy this Friday!!! ^___^

Haven't Posted in a While

Haven't posted in a while, and that's for good reasons. I've been studying and having fun too much. :-)

Last week Sunday, after Liu Fu Chun, Michelle, Jamie and I met up and shopped around the Gongguan area. We were supposed to go running in the afternoon but then just decided to watch a movie - The Rebound. I was the only one, out of us three, that liked the movie. Jamie, on the other hand, kept complaining about his salty popcorn. Let's just not get into that. Hahaha...

The next day Monday, I brought Jen to Gongguan area again and we also met up with Heidi. Jen bought shoes and running clothes. :-D

Come Tuesday, we went running around the oval. I think I ran 5 rounds and walked a round. :D

Wednesday, I ate xiaolongbao with my classmates for lunch (YUM!!!); and we also went to Chinese singing class where we learned a song each from WangLeeHom and Mayday. We ran around the Shida oval again, then went for some roast duck and asado and lechon. It's so cheap at $85! We also ate some mango, strawberry, kiwi thingy at Ice Monster. :-D

Thursday is cheap day. We ate at the Biandang store for lunch and ate at the Shida dorm canteen for dinner. This was also the day where I lost TWICE (!!) in chess against Jamie.

You see, Jamie pronounces "pawn" in this posh British accent as "pawrn"; we asked him what "porn" sounds liked and he also said "pawrn". The chess bet was that whoever wins in chess will concede to the winner's pronunciation of "pawn". I'm now stuck with pronouncing "pawn" as "pawrn". What's annoying about this blinking rubbish of a guy is that he finds reasons for me to say "pawn".

So he'll be like, "Hey Jac, can you tell Wayne what that small piece in chess in called?"

And I'll say, "Pawrn!"

Oh, joy!

Thursday (or yesterday) was also the day they discovered that we can hang out at our place. My place is the closest to school and is the largest among the three places (Michelle's and Jamie's) near Shida. We spent the whole night playing cards and laughing at sneezing pandas.

Friday (today!) is international students party day! We dressed up in hawaiian or beach clothes (Thanks for lending me your beach dress jen!) and ate filling pica-pica for free. We went back to my place to play some cards. Heidi, Jen, and I forgot how to play 1-2-3-Pass and we wanted to play it because we remembered it to be so much fun. Anyway, I found out how to play it now (thanks Google!) so we can start playing it soon! :-D

I need to sleep soon. Jen, Heidi, and I will be meeting up tomorrow for a TOP mock exam. TOP is the mandarin proficiency exam being used in Taiwan, and we'll need to take the real one as part of the scholarship requirements. :-)

I'm super enjoying my stay here in Taiwan! *Thankful mood*

Costco Buffet and Liu Fu Chun

I'm back with my English blogs! Hahaha, I think it'll take a while before I do another Chinese one. Hahaha! I need to rest my brain. :-P


FRIDAY

Jen, Heidi, and I went to Guanghua Electronic Mall after class, and we met up with Jen's uncle. The place feels like V-Mall. Hehehe. I'm going to take Hamy there when he visits Taiwan. I also saw a Babolat tennis racket there (NT2300) which I wanted to buy. *DROOL*

After Guanghua, we went to Costco (Similar to S&R or Macro) and sampled the many free tastes in the place. Michelle told me that they call that the "Costco Buffet" in the States. Hahaha!

After that, we (Heidi, Jen, myself) met up with Michelle and Jamie and ate dinner at the Jamaican place. We went to a lounge nearby, after dinner. I had my first (and last) taste of Taiwan Beer. I found it better tasting that San Miguel Beer (or SanMig Premium even). We also got to meet one of Michelle's college friend, Chris.



SATURDAY at the Amusement Park

Last Saturday was a very eventful day for me. First, met up with Jamie at MTC so that we can ride the bus together going to Gongguan station. We missed the first bus because Jamie doesn't know how to hail a bus. When we finally got to Gongguan station, we found out that it was actually a walking distance from our place. Waste of time. Hahaha!

Met up with Michelle who was already waiting for a long time, then waited a bit for Jen and Heidi. When we were finally complete, we had some croissants (thanks Jen!) and headed to a random place for lunch. We were already seated on a random resto when we found out that it was a buffet one; everyone wasn't that hungry so we headed to a different Chinese resto nearby.

After lunch, we ambled over to the bus station for Liu Fu Chun. We almost missed the bus! I think if we were 5 seconds late or something, we would have needed to wait for the next bus (which will arrive an hour later).

Anyhoo, the bus ride was almost uneventful. ALMOST! We thought that we have arrived Liu Fu Chun so Jen got off the bus to get our tickets; meanwhile, we remained in our seats to wait for the bus to park. Apparently, the bus was not parking but was just passing through the parking lot of the WRONG place. We realized too late that Jen has been left behind!

We called Jen up to tell her not to buy tickets and to get on a cab to Liu Fu Chun. The bus driver wouldn't go back for our friend. :-P Good thing Jen's such a happy person. No bad moods; just a lot of laughs; and NT$150 less rich!

We got in for NT$399 per person, which was fairly cheap (I think). The we plotted out our trip to make sure that we are able to ride the most exciting rides in the place.

We also met up with Jen's classmate Nini, and Nini's brother and cousin (Abe and Paul, respectively). Nini was the one who originally planned the trip, so we owe the whole Saturday adventure to her. :-)

On our first line, we were also able to meet a very hospitable family. They were very friendly and helpful to us, and we kept on bumping into them in the rides that we took. I think the two daughters had crushes on Jamie, and the parents wanted to marry a daughter off to him. Hahaha!

Here's "帥哥" with his fan club:

The photo below made everyone crack up; little Mandou (from the Taiwanese family) was just staring at the camera, but she suddenly did a peace sign when she heard Jen count to three! Cute!

Here's Nini (left), Jen (right), and xiao didi (bottom):

And here's everyone; the Yeh family, Nini's family, and us! :-D

We hungrily rode the bus back to Taipei and ate at the first decent looking (packed) restaurant that we saw. Turned out to be a very expensive buffet, but we only found out the buffet price after we were already full and sane again. Heidi and Jen treated us to dinner for no reason, and I'm not going to say no to that. :-P

It was a great Saturday; thanks for thinking up this trip, Jen!


PS. Grabbed all the photo's from Jen. Thank you!! :-)

中文的部落格

大家好! 今天是一個有意思的天. 下課時候, 我和 Michelle 跟 Heidi, Jen 和 Jamie 有約. 我們一起去火鍋飯館. 這是我第三次了 - 還沒吃膩!

吃完了飯, 我們去圖書館做功課. (我現在還沒做完!!) 然後我們去師大跑道跑步.

好好笑時候, 我把 "Are you finished with your homework?" 這些話說了有英國口音. 我不知道為什麼! 大概是很多時間跟 Jamie 講話吧! 昨天我也看英國 IT Crowd 的電視節目. 我覺得 Jamie 很高興, 哈哈哈!


跑完,我們五個人跟 Wayne 和 Keryl 一起吃小龍飽 (不是鼎泰豐的可是我也知這飯館的名子). 我真的喜歡小龍飽!! 這家的小龍飽比鼎泰豐便宜, 而且跟鼎泰豐一樣好吃!

很難寫中文, 我受不了! 明天要用英文了!

對了, 如果有不對的地方, 請告訴我. 我知道我的中文不太好! :D

Still Alive

Just a quick shout to let everyone (especially my mom) know that I'm still alive and kicking. :-D

I went out to lunch with my whole class yesterday. We ate fried rice (among other things) at a "goons" (it seems like the restaurant is owned by an ex-mafia or something) restaurant. I came back for dinner with Neung (Thai housemate). Hahaha.

Today, I ate lunch (with Jen's classmates) at this vegetarian pientang place. I got too excited with the many choices and ended up eating a NT$158 meal. Hahaha, I'm never going back there!

Heidi and I went running today (while Jen and Jamie sat and talked). We also saw Keryl and Wayne around the oval.

For dinner, Keryl and Wayne brought Heidi and I to this Thai Chicken BBQ place. I loved it! :-D

After the meal, Heidi and I headed to Li-Yuan Hotel to check out their facilities. It's very near Shida and fairly cheap too, so our family and friends can stay here if they want to visit us. :-D

Miramar and Furniture Reshuffling

Saturday

Yesterday, I met up with the Filipino scholars (past and present) and visited Miramar for the first time. Nothing really much to see there. Miramar is just a mall with a ferris wheel. The ferris wheel was a fun ride but the price is a bit steep at NT$150 per round trip (Yes, you only get to the top once!). Hahaha...

I got really excited at first because Miramar has been used as settings for many Taiwan TV series, but I couldn't really remember where the exact places were (except for the ferris wheel, of course.)

It was a fun day because there were a lot of new people to meet, (I think there were 13 of us all in all.) and the conversation was non-stop until 12 in the midnight!


Sunday

I woke up today because of my ringing phone. Diet was calling me about a Fahrenheit show at Ximending! I called up Jen and Heidi to tell them about it, and plans were made to meet up at 1pm in Ximending. (photo from Fahrenheit official website.)

When the plans were made, I suddenly realized that I haven't done any of my homework yet. I decided not to join the Ximending party because my "homework conscience" was nagging me nonstop.

I had my lunch with Neung (my Thai housemate) at a Japanese restaurant nearby. My consolation for being a good student is salmon 泡飯 (pao fan). yumyum!

Neung ordered a big lunch which she was not able to finish. Hahaha! (She also didn't want to have her picture taken. Pfft!)

I spent the rest of the day studying, reshuffling the furniture in my room, and catching up on lost sleep. :-)

For dinner, Neung went with me to buy 雞排 (jipai) and chocolate milk tea. Last night, I found out from Wayne and Keryl that Shida has the same 雞排 store branch as the one in Shilin so I had to eat one today!

Anyhoo, I still have a bit of homework to do, and there's no better time to start than now. ;-)

Scholarship Orientation and DinTaiFung

Today was such an eventful day!

• 8:00 - 9:00 am: Scholarship Orientation for Shida students

I had to wake up really early to attend this! I woke up at around 5:30am with barely 4 hours of sleep. *yawn!* It's so hard to share one bathroom with other people.

The scholarship details were already informed to us before this, but they wanted to reinforce the scholarship rules so that no one can say that they weren't informed enough. I especially loved the part where the school staff was telling us things not to do in Taiwan - do not rob a convenience store with a machete! Apparently, someone really did that. Hahaha!

• 9:00 - 10:20 am: Lounging at the Student Lounge
  

After the orientation, Jen, Heidi, Michelle and I headed to the Student Lounge to get ready for class. How geeky is that? :-D

• 10:20 am -12:30 pm: Class (new chapter discussions and a quiz)

So I'm totally happy with my chapter test score which I got in class earlier; I just need to pass the oral exam part on Monday to ensure that I get my scholarship money next month. I was excused from class and allowed to leave earlier for me to attend the Scholarship Orientation. I ate a tuna sandwich to tide me through the rest of the day.

• 12:30 - 4:30 pm: More Scholarship Orientation for all Mandarin Students in Taipei

Loved the taekwondo performance and the free stuff (books and food)! Also got to meet everyone from the Philippines again.

Kim and I are planning to go to the Fahrenheit concert this coming October. I want to go to Wilber Pan, Wang Lee Hom, Jay Chou, and Tank Lu concerts too! Now just need to figure out how to buy tickets from the Chinese website. :-O

The Philippine scholars are also planning to meet up tomorrow at Miramar! (Giant ferris wheel, yeah!) Awesome, I'm gonna bring my cameras with me! :-D

• 4:30 - 7:00 pm: Helped move Michelle's stuff to her new place

She has a LOT of luggage! It took the three of us (Jamie, Michelle and myself) to move the stuff from her current hostel to her new place. Her place is really really nice so Jamie and I were trying to look for the bad things in her place to make us feel better. So far we have (1) too far from school, (2) not allowed to be noisy, (3) something weird with the elevator, and (4) nowhere to park her free (given to her by her landlady, hmph!) bike.

Honestly though, her place is really nice! I'm sure she'll enjoying living in her new place. The building even has a lobby and gym!

• 7:00 - 10:00 pm: Xiaolongbao and Starbucks

So Michelle treated us to dinner for helping her move her stuff - we ate at this place called DinTaiFung which I've never heard of. It looks to be very popular though because the place was packed! We had to wait more than an hour just to be seated.

They have this thing outside their place where you can see the dumplings being made inside their kitchen.



They had the BEST xiaolongbao that I have ever tasted! The first few minutes of our dinner was really quiet because we were enjoying the food so much. I just sat there eating and shaking my head in disbelief at how good it was. Definitely going back there with Hamy next time. ^_^

After dinner, Jamie got his dessert; and Michelle and I headed for Starbucks. They DON'T have White Chocolate Mocha (!?!?) so I tried their Cafe Mocha. White Chocolate Mocha is better, and I probably won't be visiting Starbucks in Taiwan again. :-P

Thanks for the awesome dinner treat Michelle! ^__^

Bopomofo and Running Rocks!

Got my quiz#2 results today and got an A+. Yaaay for Bopomofo! :D

So we went out to eat at a Jamaican place for lunch. I was initially going with Michelle, Jen, and Wayne; but ended up going with half of my class. We bumped into each other outside school and decided to eat together since we were all going to lunch anyway.

Wayne suggested this Jamaican resto that served yummy 宮保 (kungpao) chicken (or was that beef?). Since we were waiting for Jen to join us, I was able to take pictures of the people that I was with (Sorry Jen, I forgot to take your picture when you came! Raar!). :-D

First, here's a photo of my kungpao lunch (Pardon for the crappy phone cam shots, again!):

Here's 京林 (jinglin), one of my two Korean classmates. She's the craziest and "funnest" in class:

Here's 家美 (jiamei) from Indonesia; she's the youngest in class:

Here's 茉莉 (moli) from Poland; she's the only one in class who's not from Asia:

Here's Michelle; my non-Tagalog speaking Filipino-American friend:

Here's Wayne, the best source of Shida eating places in the world. Sorry I took such a bad photo!

So yeah, if anyone of you hated your photo so much, just tell me and I'll take it off. Hahaha! (Damage: NT$100)

Wayne told me that I am lucky with my class since everyone was speaking to everyone (in Chinese too)! So I'm able to practice my Mandarin with them while having a great time. He even wanted to switch to my class - too bad it's already full.

After lunch, Jen and I went to the library to study. We were meeting up with Heidi and Michelle at around 5:30 to go running around the Shida race tracks. Heidi met us earlier and joined us go to my place to change into running clothes.

When we got to our place, one of my housemates was in the common area and clutching his chest. He said that he was having a hard time breathing, we debated for a bit on whether he wanted to go to see a doctor or not; but he ended up just heading back to his room for a nap. Anyway, I was able to speak to him just now and he says he's fine.

We then met up with Michelle and went running. We ran for 4 rounds and walked one more round; We think (or hope) that it estimates to around 2km. Anyway, we'll be doing this regularly and will gradually be adding more laps into our run. The track was also AWESOME because it's soft! It's my first time to run in one, and I thoroughly enjoyed the low-impact running. :-D

While running around the track, I saw a couple of people playing in the tennis courts. Dang! I wish I brought my racket with me. >_<

For dinner, we met up with Michelle's friend Jamie; and all five of us (Michelle, Jamie, Jen, Heidi) headed for the beef sliced noodle house that 京林 (jinglin) introduced to us yesterday. (Damage: NT$60)

I'm now back at my place; and I'm supposed to be doing my homework. I think I'm going to do that now, have to wake up tomorrow for a scholarship orientation at 8am! :-D