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

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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!!! ^___^