i’m baaaack!
so glad to be home.. really! i’ve been away for a week, but it felt like months. anyhoots, enough of the drama. below are the things i love (and hate) about taipei. in a nutshell.
1. the weather. it’s pretty cold there. more like baguio, but a little colder, especially during the night. since it’s spring in taipei, some days are very sunny. i don’t mind the sun though, i could stay under the sun for a whole morning and still feel cool. one setback: too much sun means more freckles for me. ahuhu.
2. the sights. i love. waaah! very nice. it’s a good thing the maps were dotted with little stars indicating tourist spots, so that’s a plus. here are some of the photos. (note: full album to be posted soon.. still have to organize my folder)
3. the food. i hate. so much. as you all know (or for those people who have witnessed my weird-bordering-on-crazy food preference), i’m veeeerrrrry picky when it comes to food. so you can imagine my pathetic dietary state in taipei. HUHUHU. everywhere, it smelled like noodles. i swore not to eat in chowking until my dying day. again, HUHUHU.
below is a photo of one of the dish served during the luncheon at the hotel. imagine my disgust. everything i hate mixed in one dish: beef with coconut milk and red curry. WTF?! needless to say, i skipped lunch that day.
4. the language. mandarin chinese. goodness. remember how we used to do imitations of chinese-speaking? well, imagine a hundred people around you doing just the same (and they actually understood each other)… sigh. very difficult. sometimes i get by with just barok English. sometimes, not at all. i’m seriously considering taking up mandarin lessons.
5. the adventure. i love, love, love. here are the reasons why:
a. navigation - i was never really the "map person". i leave that task to imong, who usually does the navigating for us. unfortunately, he wasn’t there.. and i missed him SOO much especially while i was trying to figure out where were we in the map. cha (my taipei buddy) and i got lost a few times.. after that, i finally got it. whew. (note to self: practice navigating with imong next time)
b. great finds. yep. i went shopping there. apparently, taipei has a lot of night markets which stay open until the wee hours of the morning. we had a blast shopping. lots of stuff are on sale because they’re changing seasons, so it was one hell of a shopping experience. =)
c. F4 fever - yep, you heard me. as much as i want to bump into vic zhou or jerry yan, that didn’t happen. (yeah, dream on).. but what happened was, we were able to find the exact ice cream parlor where dao ming si took san chai (tama ba spelling?) out on a date. you know, the one with the mini coopers. sooo cool. they even had a wall with famous autographs - yep, including jerry’s.. huwaaah!
d. the people. well, actually, one person. we met this really, really nice taiwanese girl named denis (who looked like my college roommate, petite). she was actually the one who showed us where the ice cream parlor was.. AND even accompanied us there.. AND even paid for our milkshakes. *touched* i didn’t know taiwanese can be very nice. sigh. i miss her already.
SOOOOO, in a nutshell, my taipei trip was a blast. despite the information-overload workshop sessions at work, nostalgic moments (i missed the penguins terribly, and imong too), deprived dietary needs, huge language barrier, i managed to survive. WHEW!
photos coming soon.. i’m still figuring out how to sort them.
*blop* *blop*
