Tebow Time in the NFL

Paper Hawk

WOWOW! One of the cooler things I've seen lately on the internet! Paper Hawk!


Download and fold your own here!

A Sky Ablaze

Ok... gonna try something new. A post! In Chinese!!!

我上上上上個禮拜去平溪看天燈. 好好看!

The end. ^^

A-bloomin' in Tainan! pt II

After picking up Yi-ching, and getting a bit lost... we grabbed a quick, but ridiculously good, duck lunch at a place famous for their duck. I'm normally not a duck kinda guy, but t'wain't no duck I've ever had!


No, this duck was succulent and savory like... like... a god among ducks... My only regret is not stuffing myself silly with it! However, pleasantly filled and satisfied with our meal, we were back on the road to the Taiwan International Orchid Show (TIOS). Ever since I got to Taiwan, I've been on the prowl for events to see, do, and photograph around the island. A couple of months ago I found out about the orchid show, and knowing how much my dad loves orchids, and how a trip to see my uncle was long overdue, I decided to hit up Tainan.


The place was PACKED, like some sort of amusement park. There was even a shuttle to take us from the massive dirt parking lot to the set of warehouses where the show was taking place! Flanking both sides of the gate, were a pair of Miss Tainans, but frankly, I think my own female escorts had them beat :/


The show itself offered a huge variety of orchids in gorgeous arrangements. Some arrangements were the size of small rooms, with small waterfalls, and statues, while others were small enough to sit in the palm of your hand. Some were simple, yet sophisticated, while others were a little messy and overdone for my taste.






While I'm no expert on orchids, I have seen my fair share of them. Unfortunately... they just all look the same to me! There are different shapes and colors, and I can appreciate that, but anything more in depth than that, and it's lost on me... I just feel like I've seen all of them before!




On our way out of the orchid show, something very peculiar happened. The four of us were just laughing away, minding our own business, when a guy in a funny tie, walking in the opposite direction, kept smiling, nodding, and waving at us. I couldn't help but think to myself, "who the heck IS this guy?!" So I just ignored him. A few moments later, Yi-ching turned to us, face frozen in shock, and asked us if we knew who that was. Naturally... I didn't. As it turns out, he was the Tainan County Commissioner! So I had to get a picture with him!


Finally, with only a few minutes to spare, we made it to the final event of the day, the one I had officially come down for... My dad's college reunion dinner. My uncle treated us to a hotpot dinner with a bunch of my dad's college classmates and their families!




And THAT, my friends, concludes the first day of my second trip down south... What's next? The next couple of days in Kenting? The rest of my 10 day Chinese New Year vacation? Something else?! Stay tuned to find out!

A-bloomin' in Tainan!

Last week, I took another trip down to Southern Taiwan to finally visit my dad's classmate, and also my new friends, Anita and Jacky (Jay?), in Tainan. As usual, I left Taoyuan at around midnight and got to my destination ridiculously early. I didn't want to wake my uncle or Anita, so I decided to wander around the train station on my own and take some pictures


It didn't take long before I found Tainan Park, which, incidentally, was also celebrating their own bloom festival (I went to the bloom festival on Yangming Mountain in Taipei the week before). I haven't (and at this rate may very well never) posted about that bloom, but in my own humble opinion, the one in Tainan was infinitely nicer. There was a much wider variety of flowers and they were all over!





Not to mention, the park was pretty magnificent in itself!





Around 7am, Anita and Jay found me hanging in a tree and brought me to eat a breakfast of famous fried Tainan 蝦捲 (xia juan, shrimp rolls), which were WAAY better than the ones I had in Danshui, and a thick, clear, slimy 魚羹(yu geng, fish soup).



With the last bits of shrimp and soup down the shoot, we headed off to our first big destination, 安平樹屋 (anping shu wu, Anping Tree House)! It was originally constructed in the late 1800's as a salt warehouse for Tait & Co, a Japanese salt company, during Japanese occupation over Taiwan. It was abandoned over 50 years ago and has since been abandoned and totally reclaimed by nature, hence it's name! It was restored in 2004 by the Tainan government and reopened to the public as the National Anping Harbor Historic Park!




By the time we finished looking around, it was already almost noon and about time to go meet up with Yi-Ching, who was also coming down to visit Anita that day, but we couldn't very well leave Anping without getting a taste of their famous 黑豆花 (hei dou hua, black bean curd!)



Stay tuned for part dos of day one of my second amazing trip down south!

Happy Tiger Year!! pt I

Brace yourselves, dear readers, because we're going for a ride. Every time I come back to Taiwan, I make an effort to visit all of my relatives at least once or twice. This year is my first, and likely ONLY, time in Taiwan during Chinese New Year. That being the case, I feel like I have to cram everyone... into the span of a week.


Now, tradition dictates that you visit the father's side of the family for 年夜飯 (nian ye fan, New Year's Eve feast). However, because both of the sons (my uncle and my dad) of my dad's side are in the US, my grandparents decided to spend New Year's Eve with their eldest daughter (my aunt), who would be leaving the next day to go to Japan, and THUS wouldn't be able to 回娘家 (hui niang jia), which is the second day of the new year, when you visit the mom's side. ANYWAY! Long story short, I would be doing things backwards.

Aaand... my first stop would be Hsinchu. But not everything would be as it seemed! One of my dad's friends from his college days wanted me to meet Anita, one of his grad students. He had asked her to take me out around the town, and because she would be out for most of the holiday, meeting on New Year's Eve was really the only option.


Then, the rain began to fall, so after a quick lunch we took a stroll under cover of overhangs downtown. When we realized that the rain wouldn't let up, Anita took me on a driving tour around Hsinchu county. My sense of direction is really horrible, so I couldn't tell you exactly where we went. She was really cool and a GREAT conversationalist, which is awesome, because I suck at initiating small talk.

I did eventually get to my grandma's place a few hours later. It certainly didn't feel any different from other visits aside from a GIANT round table in the middle of... well, the house. Dinner at my grandma's was satisfying, as always.


Of course, for the New Year's Eve feast, we had bamboo which represents 節節高升 (jie jie gao sheng, step by step promotion), fish symbolizing 年年有餘 (nian nian you yu, having excess year after year), oranges meaning 大吉大利 (da ji da li great luck and profit), and 蘿蔔糕 (luo bo gao, turnip cake) or 菜頭糕 (cai tou gao) in Taiwanese, which stands for 彩頭 (cai tou, good omen).

Before bed, one of my cousin's friends came over with some 檳榔 (bin lang, betelnut) which is something that is really only found in Taiwan. Some foreigners come to Taiwan and ask why everyone is spitting up blood. And the truth is, they're not spitting up blood, they're chewing betelnut, which is a little bit like chewing tobacco. Although the stuff is pretty symbolic of low class, I still really wanted to try some, and finally got the chance! After chewing for a little while, your tongue and the rest of your mouth get tingly and numb and the rest of your body gets burning hot. Will I do it again? Probably not, because, well frankly, it's pretty disgusting!




Be sure to stay tuned for the upcoming installments of this wild adventure!

The small things...

You might already know this, but Chinese people are not traditionally outwardly affectionate. It's kind of uncommon to find Chinese parents saying things like "I love you" or showering their children with hugs and kisses. This is especially true for the older generations.

Ever since I moved out of my grandparents' house in Taoyuan, I've been visiting them every Wednesday after class to eat and just keep them company. Generally, few words are spoken and I am, more or less... ignored. One thing I almost always do at their house while waiting for dinner, though, is clip and file my nails. I never bothered to buy my own clipper because I figured I could just do them once a week at my grandparents house.

Today, though, when I went for the nail clippers, I found a second one in the pile. a brand new one! As it turns out, my grandpa had taken notice of my weekly trim and bought me my own clipper! It's times like these when I know that, while they may not always show it, my grandparents DO actually love me. I couldn't help thinking about the famous Chinese poem, 背影 (bei ying) by 朱自清 (Zhu Ziqing).

Actions speak louder than words and it's the small things that count.

In Search of Adventure in Kaohsiung pt II

I woke up from my deep and blissful slumber bright and early (around 10:30am) Sunday morning to the smell of some good ol' traditional (un-photographed) Taiwanese breakfast. After the meal and just as Perry and I were discussing our plan of action for the day, he got a phone call from one of his rock climbing buddies. A mere 5 minutes later, we were out the door, gear in hand.

We took a ride on the scooter through some familiar roads, back up 壽山 (shou shan), except this time, we stopped at couple of badminton courts that we passed about halfway up the mountain the day before. As I would soon find out, our ACTUAL destination was in the woods BEHIND the courts, what looked like a small canyon blasted through the mountain, with a giant slab of concrete suspended between the rock faces.


I've done a little bit of rock climbing here and there at Lake Wauberg, Gator Nights, and the Gainesville rock gym. While it was still a blast to climb at those locations, they were all artificial routes. It didn't feel real enough! So, when I saw that we'd be climbing actual natural rock, I was super excited. Upon closer inspection, though, I noticed something a little off...


This wasn't rock! It was CORAL! As you might imagine, it wreaked some crazy havoc on soft, delicate hands. It was absolutely no problem for most of the more experienced climbers like "Equator" or the guy wearing the Rescue team shirt. Regardless, razor sharp rocks or not, I was determined to see if I had what it takes to climb my way out of a small gorge. Mostly, the answer is no, BUT if I play my cards right and choose the right path, I suppose I wouldn't necessarily fall to my death.


A few hours, swollen forearms, and chafed fingers later, Perry and I were ready to call it a day. Of rock climbing, anyway. Before I could end my first trip back to the south in... I don't know how long... I had to take a trip back out to my dad's hometown. 旗津 (qijin), the poor little island off the coast of 高雄 (gaoxiong aka Kaohsiung) was practically my home away from home during my childhood visits to Taiwan. And how do we get to that island? By ferry! Which, looked MUCH nicer since the last time I took it.


Everything came rushing back to me as I stepped off the ferry. Left. I remembered living off to the left of the ferry station. So we headed off in that direction. Doop de doo we went, only moments later, we arrived at place vaguely familiar... yet... SOMETHING wasn't quite right... I called up my grandfather to confirm the location, and, sure as the sun sets in the west, we were there. Only, the 4 story house filled with countless memories had been reduced to nothing more than a shanty house!


With nothing much else to see in this part of town, we decided to trot towards the other side of the island, which has had a makeover of its own! The rocky beaches of old had been replaced by imported black, volcanic sand. Also, some nice fountains and pavilions where people can hide from the blistering summer sun probably play a pretty large role in the boom of tourism on the island. Actually, all of this had already been added by the last time I was there, but, the people really weren't.


There's hardly any argument that the tourists are there now, and where there are people, there's good food! Finally, there was something in Taiwan that Perry hadn't tried, so we had to grab a bag of spicy little snails! I got to try something new, too! I've seen them around, but I never had a chance to eat bird eggs. It's ambiguous what kind of birds the eggs are from, but they're small, and GOOOOD.


With food in hand, we were ready to take a walk. We picked a direction and went with it. That's just the way we roll. Before long, we saw a couple of signs pointing at an old fort and lighthouse, so we headed on up. By the time we got up to the fort, the sun had already set, and the fort wasn't particularly well lit. To add insult to injury, the lighthouse was closed off to tourists! We DID, however, get a spectacular view of the island from top of the hill.


Alas, it was just about time to get back home, but not before I grabbed another culinary first. These, I actually only recently saw on the Travel & Living channel on TV. Tiny, bite-sized soft shell crabs, battered up, deep fried, salted, and garnished with basil and garlic. Mmmmmm...


Then, back on the "mainland," Perry introduced me to a third first! I've had 剉冰 (cuabing, shaved ice) before, and I've also had 雪花冰 (xuehua bing) a smoother type of shaved ice made from milk, but this shop was famous for their flavored ice. Since it was strawberry season, I only thought it logical to get me some strawberry ice! Basically, it's a frozen block of strawberry milk with layers upon layers shaved off and then topped with sweet strawberries, melon, and 芭樂 (bala, guava). SOOOO good!


We finally capped off the night with a couple of the attending nurses who work at the hospital that Perry lives in. Nini and Anas (sp? on both counts...) brought us out to a little Indonesian grocery-store-turned-night-karaoke-club, where we got some awesome tempeh to bring back to the hospital to munch on.


After a relaxing chat and midnight snack of tempeh, and then later some spicy-ass fish, made by Perry and Nini, we were about ready to turn in. After all, Perry and the nurses had to work the next day. As for me, I would sleep in, grab lunch with Perry, finish packing, and be on my way back to Taoyuan on the Aloha busline mentioned in the previous post!

For more pictures, here's another slideshow for your enjoyment!