Wow, 好久不見!
I've missed you guys and sorry that I haven't posted in a while. I've am usually so busy and this week and weekend have been no exception.
So first things first, I had the opportunity to go to the National Palace Museum, but unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures within, but I will you a few bits and pieces about some of the things that I saw. There were many pieces of different pieces of artwork, works written by Chinese emperors, and so much more. From these famous pieces of calligraphy to even more breathtaking paintings of mountains. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Chinese paintings of mountains are a particular favorite. The museum is massive and I spent a few hours there making sure that I got a good look at just about everything that I could. There inside the museum is this famous piece called the Jadeite Cabbage. It is a very famous excellent piece of jade work that had been on tour in Japan, but had returned a few days earlier, so I was fortunate enough to be able to see this wonderful piece of work.I would just like to give a thank you to my friend Larry answering a ridiculous amount of questions regarding much of what I saw.
Now for this weekend, my flat mates and I went to Wushi beach, which is a black sand beach. It was my first time going to such a beach and it was really nice. Unfortunately we went during the weekend do there were tons of people. You are probably wondering what was so special about a trip to the beach, well for me it was my first time attempting to surf. According to sources this is a great beach for beginning surfers and there were a ton of them out there including us. I am not sure if the purpose was learning how to surf or how to avoid other people. There was a lot of people falling off boards to avoid people, people running into people and over them as well. However the entire experience was extremely fun and worth the trip. I will certainly try to get back to catch a few more waves.
The food that I got to try while at the beach was awesome as well. I got to taste quite a few delicious dishes that I have no idea what exactly many of them were but they tatsted delicious and there were many things to choose from. The first seafood restaurant that we ate at served about 12 dishes, but in reverse order from usual, so dessert and main courses were served early and then sides and appetizers later. The second restaurant that we went to before leaving though got the order right, so more food was eaten.
Well today I have a typhoon day so that is why I have the time to be able to check back in with all of you. It s my first typhoon here in Taiwan and it thankfully doesn't seem to be too bad, but since classes are cancelled I can get a little rest today. Anyway I will put more of the pictures that I have taken up as well. Until next time be well everyone.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Guandu and Week Two
Okay everyone I know that it has been awhile and you all probably know how much I miss you all. Anyway, I have definitely slowed my happy whirlwind roller coaster adventure time down quite a bit now that classes have started and I find myself poring over books, flashcards and listening to recordings for hours leaves me with very little time for fun. However, I forgot to post this last event. My friend here Larry, invited me to go last Sunday to Guandu Temple. We were there for an entire day, so when I got back I didn't have the energy to do a post about it.
Anyway, the temple is amazing. Not only is it a very large, old and prestigious temple. It is very unique in that it houses many different deities, many of which I found very interesting. I mean there were people who came to pray to the deity of examinations and I can tell you that that one was very popular. The main deity was locate din the center of the temple and was a protector of fisherman and the seas. It made sense given that historically the area was a very important fishing area. Other deities that I encountered was the one for medicine, which I could very much understand given the many ailments that are about nowadays.
The most astounding thing to me about this temple was the architecture and design. I uploaded some pictures of the place, but I don't think that they will do justice. Everywhere throughout the temple were exquisite and complex handcrafted designs. When I say everywhere I mean everywhere. Every single wall, frame and pillar seemed to be adorned with master craftsmanship. i cannot even begin to imagine what it was like to handle that work or even how long it probably took. All I can say is that if you are coming to Taipei I highly recommend seeing this temple. It is a little out of the way and there wasn't much in the area besides the temple, but I can most assuredly say the place had quite a bit of character.
I also got the chance to do some real bike riding as well. Though I can't say that it was a good thing. For those of you that know me I am old and fat so it was tough. But my friend and I had the chance to ride along the river and admire the scenery.
My second week of classes went a lot better than the first week, but I can feel my Chinese skills improving. The first week I did feel confident enough to have full conversations in Chinese for fear of quickly getting out of me vocabulary depth, but now if its something I don't know then I ask and keep going. It has been a lot of fun here and it hardly feels like I have been here a month already. Time flies and I am just hoping that I can do a little bit more exploring while I am here.
Anyway, the temple is amazing. Not only is it a very large, old and prestigious temple. It is very unique in that it houses many different deities, many of which I found very interesting. I mean there were people who came to pray to the deity of examinations and I can tell you that that one was very popular. The main deity was locate din the center of the temple and was a protector of fisherman and the seas. It made sense given that historically the area was a very important fishing area. Other deities that I encountered was the one for medicine, which I could very much understand given the many ailments that are about nowadays.
The most astounding thing to me about this temple was the architecture and design. I uploaded some pictures of the place, but I don't think that they will do justice. Everywhere throughout the temple were exquisite and complex handcrafted designs. When I say everywhere I mean everywhere. Every single wall, frame and pillar seemed to be adorned with master craftsmanship. i cannot even begin to imagine what it was like to handle that work or even how long it probably took. All I can say is that if you are coming to Taipei I highly recommend seeing this temple. It is a little out of the way and there wasn't much in the area besides the temple, but I can most assuredly say the place had quite a bit of character.
I also got the chance to do some real bike riding as well. Though I can't say that it was a good thing. For those of you that know me I am old and fat so it was tough. But my friend and I had the chance to ride along the river and admire the scenery.
My second week of classes went a lot better than the first week, but I can feel my Chinese skills improving. The first week I did feel confident enough to have full conversations in Chinese for fear of quickly getting out of me vocabulary depth, but now if its something I don't know then I ask and keep going. It has been a lot of fun here and it hardly feels like I have been here a month already. Time flies and I am just hoping that I can do a little bit more exploring while I am here.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Latest Escapades and Classes Start
It's been awhile hasn't it. Well I have been a little busy actually doing real school work. You all should be proud of me. Well before I get to that there are a few more trips to talk about before we get into classes.
The trip to Dadaocheng was one of the toughest trips for me. I wasn't sure whether it was progressive fatigue or four hours of walking, but this was tough. It was a walking tour and I should have read that part of the description more carefully because walking isn't my specialty. Anyway through this tour we got to see many different kinds of architecture from European to Japanese in this area. Of course the area was littered with tons of little shops with odds and ends, but the the function of a main trade center had shifted away from this area. It could be clearly seen that it wasn't the busiest of areas, but the historical significance could not be understated with many styles and cultures being represented along a single street. We ended the tour at a famous temple known for creating creating many couples. All you had to do was go in and ask, being as specific as possible about what kind of partner that you wanted. Its safe to say I went into this temple.
After this long walking tour I had a chance to go back to the underground mall. It was a lot larger than I thought it was and spans three stations. An entire section was dedicated to books, books and more books. I thought I was in heaven. Of course you are probably thinking that he goes all the way to Taiwan to admire books. Well yes that's true. Just kidding. Anyway it was nice to see, but a lot more walking to make it to the food section of the mall.
The last ICLP trip was to the Shifen waterfall. The waterfall was very nice and very refreshing as the spray feel very cool against the Taiwan heat and humidity. There were paths leading up to a picnic area, but before then I ran into 18 immortal.s I am not familiar with them, but I do have a picture of each immortal for you to see. After visiting the waterfall we headed to the next part of the trip: sky lanterns. This was one of my favorite parts of all the trips. We were able to write all our wishes and so much more on the lantern before sending off into the night sky and watching them disappear among the clouds. Hopefully I can at least get one of my wishes on the lantern to come true. And if you are thinking that I put world peace on the lantern then you are sadly mistaken: 1st because I can't write that in Chinese and 2nd because I am extremely selfish. I mean why would I ask for world peace when I can ask for Yoon Eun-Hye as my girlfriend. I mean really, so its safe to say I let someone else wish for that. Maybe that will be one of their wishes that comes true.
Sorry that this post is so long, but I haven't been able to post in a while because I have been out making sure that I am busy all the time. Anyway I made a Taiwanese friend and this past weekend he took myself and another friend of his to the Lin Family Garden. Of course since my Chinese is so bad and his English is so good I didn't get to use my Chinese that much but it was a lot of fun. The Lin Family Garden was the playground of the rich and affluent and the display of the creative and imaginative.
So, yeah I have finally started classes and I have realised the drawbacks of appearing smarter than I actually am. Yeah, I can speak a little Chinese, but so often I speak the introductions of Chinese so well I feel like I get mistaken for an advanced speaker. Insomuch I am currently working like crazy to keep myself seeming smarter than I actually am. LOL. I still plan to have fun though I will only propably be posting on weekends from now on.
As always thank you guys for reading!
I haven't got any questions, but don't think that if you have something you want to ask that I will be too busy pretending to be smart to answer it. I will definitely pretend to know the answer to your question or actually find someone who does LOL :P
The trip to Dadaocheng was one of the toughest trips for me. I wasn't sure whether it was progressive fatigue or four hours of walking, but this was tough. It was a walking tour and I should have read that part of the description more carefully because walking isn't my specialty. Anyway through this tour we got to see many different kinds of architecture from European to Japanese in this area. Of course the area was littered with tons of little shops with odds and ends, but the the function of a main trade center had shifted away from this area. It could be clearly seen that it wasn't the busiest of areas, but the historical significance could not be understated with many styles and cultures being represented along a single street. We ended the tour at a famous temple known for creating creating many couples. All you had to do was go in and ask, being as specific as possible about what kind of partner that you wanted. Its safe to say I went into this temple.
After this long walking tour I had a chance to go back to the underground mall. It was a lot larger than I thought it was and spans three stations. An entire section was dedicated to books, books and more books. I thought I was in heaven. Of course you are probably thinking that he goes all the way to Taiwan to admire books. Well yes that's true. Just kidding. Anyway it was nice to see, but a lot more walking to make it to the food section of the mall.
The last ICLP trip was to the Shifen waterfall. The waterfall was very nice and very refreshing as the spray feel very cool against the Taiwan heat and humidity. There were paths leading up to a picnic area, but before then I ran into 18 immortal.s I am not familiar with them, but I do have a picture of each immortal for you to see. After visiting the waterfall we headed to the next part of the trip: sky lanterns. This was one of my favorite parts of all the trips. We were able to write all our wishes and so much more on the lantern before sending off into the night sky and watching them disappear among the clouds. Hopefully I can at least get one of my wishes on the lantern to come true. And if you are thinking that I put world peace on the lantern then you are sadly mistaken: 1st because I can't write that in Chinese and 2nd because I am extremely selfish. I mean why would I ask for world peace when I can ask for Yoon Eun-Hye as my girlfriend. I mean really, so its safe to say I let someone else wish for that. Maybe that will be one of their wishes that comes true.
Sorry that this post is so long, but I haven't been able to post in a while because I have been out making sure that I am busy all the time. Anyway I made a Taiwanese friend and this past weekend he took myself and another friend of his to the Lin Family Garden. Of course since my Chinese is so bad and his English is so good I didn't get to use my Chinese that much but it was a lot of fun. The Lin Family Garden was the playground of the rich and affluent and the display of the creative and imaginative.
So, yeah I have finally started classes and I have realised the drawbacks of appearing smarter than I actually am. Yeah, I can speak a little Chinese, but so often I speak the introductions of Chinese so well I feel like I get mistaken for an advanced speaker. Insomuch I am currently working like crazy to keep myself seeming smarter than I actually am. LOL. I still plan to have fun though I will only propably be posting on weekends from now on.
As always thank you guys for reading!
I haven't got any questions, but don't think that if you have something you want to ask that I will be too busy pretending to be smart to answer it. I will definitely pretend to know the answer to your question or actually find someone who does LOL :P
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Jiufen and Dansui
I'm Back! Did you guys miss me. Well I can say for sure that I haven't any of you for even a moment. I am so joking! Of course I miss all of my faithful readers.
Anyway I have two great experiences to share with all of you. The first is I had the opportunity to head up into some more mountains. I don't know if many of you know this, but there are mountain everywhere here so if you hear a lot about them, that is why. Anyway, up near the coast there is an old gold town and you know about the fates of those towns. Well this town has been made immortal by the Miyazaki Spirited Away. I took pictures from one of the main places in the movie and I wonder if any of my readers will recognize it.
The town is very quaint, I think that is the appropriate word. It has a very heavy Japanese influence with small winding streets and very neat style buildings. The setup is much like a night market, but mainly centered around one street. There are lots of interesting things though to be found off of the main street as well so it is has been a great idea to get off the main path here in Taiwan for discovery. The sight of the the shore from the area is really nice as well along with more mountain views. This combined for a wonderful experience.
The next place to visit was Danshui. This is a very historical place that experienced a decline as a port city after it silted up. However tourism and the determination by the local population has saved much of the history and tradition. We started off at the bottom of this area and took in some sights from the river. Next we moved on through the market to view old movie theaters and even a temple. I got lost will waiting for some squid to cook. They march us around like shoulders and I have to eat constantly if they are going to have me moving all the time. We visited a little white house which served as the customs house during the Qing reign over Taiwan. We capped off that part of the trip to the former British consulate on the island and the Fort of Santo Domingo established by the Spanish.
After that we were able to descend down to the river mouth where the Love bridge is located. It is a bridge that man couples supposedly cross over, but it has turned into a major tourist attraction full of families, tourists and stampeded of children. Dangerous to say the least. We had a short moment to take on the bridge and pier, but couldn't enjoy the sunset because of CLOUDS. It was sunny for most of the day too.
Don't forget that there are always new pictures being added. I will upload two albums for these trips so that you can enjoy all the images that I have gathered. I am still not sure what is going on with trying to upload videos, but it is still a struggle. But as always I am always working to figure it out for you!
Anyway I have two great experiences to share with all of you. The first is I had the opportunity to head up into some more mountains. I don't know if many of you know this, but there are mountain everywhere here so if you hear a lot about them, that is why. Anyway, up near the coast there is an old gold town and you know about the fates of those towns. Well this town has been made immortal by the Miyazaki Spirited Away. I took pictures from one of the main places in the movie and I wonder if any of my readers will recognize it.
The town is very quaint, I think that is the appropriate word. It has a very heavy Japanese influence with small winding streets and very neat style buildings. The setup is much like a night market, but mainly centered around one street. There are lots of interesting things though to be found off of the main street as well so it is has been a great idea to get off the main path here in Taiwan for discovery. The sight of the the shore from the area is really nice as well along with more mountain views. This combined for a wonderful experience.
The next place to visit was Danshui. This is a very historical place that experienced a decline as a port city after it silted up. However tourism and the determination by the local population has saved much of the history and tradition. We started off at the bottom of this area and took in some sights from the river. Next we moved on through the market to view old movie theaters and even a temple. I got lost will waiting for some squid to cook. They march us around like shoulders and I have to eat constantly if they are going to have me moving all the time. We visited a little white house which served as the customs house during the Qing reign over Taiwan. We capped off that part of the trip to the former British consulate on the island and the Fort of Santo Domingo established by the Spanish.
After that we were able to descend down to the river mouth where the Love bridge is located. It is a bridge that man couples supposedly cross over, but it has turned into a major tourist attraction full of families, tourists and stampeded of children. Dangerous to say the least. We had a short moment to take on the bridge and pier, but couldn't enjoy the sunset because of CLOUDS. It was sunny for most of the day too.
Don't forget that there are always new pictures being added. I will upload two albums for these trips so that you can enjoy all the images that I have gathered. I am still not sure what is going on with trying to upload videos, but it is still a struggle. But as always I am always working to figure it out for you!
Monday, June 16, 2014
So A Trip to the Zoo...FAIL
Hey there again,
I know many of you are wondering how I have time for all of this traveling around and having a good time when I am supposed to be studying hard in a language intensive program. Well the answer is that classes don't start until next week. I arrived here a week early thinking I would have a week break before going into classes, but now it seems like I will have a three week break before classes. AWESOME!
So yesterday a group of my new ICLP friends went to the zoo, but we only made it through a part of the zoo before it started raining and all the animals and people went scurrying for shelter. It was a nice zoo, but it would have been nice if we could have avoided the downpour and got to see more of the animals. I only was able to take a few pictures of some of the creatures before the torrents, so I didn't create a new album for them and instead put them in the main Taipei album.
We did however head to the underground mall which was pretty cool. It was completely underground and right next to the metro station. It is so convenient here to find places to spend money. It was pretty cool, not really a great mall for doing I guess real shopping, but more of a trinket and souvenir mall. It was nice though and of course I bought a few things to take back home with me. I am not very good at haggling, but I simply use a smile and somehow prices seem to go down. I was told I look like a movie star, and so I probably bought something I didn't need. These people are too much sometimes trying to make my head swell. I know they really don't mean it but still in the back of my mind...
Anyway, I know I mentioned trying to get a little bit of footage up, but unfortunately there is an issue with uploading video directly from my computer so I will have to circumnavigate the issue in order to get the videos up.
Until next time! Thanks for reading!
I know many of you are wondering how I have time for all of this traveling around and having a good time when I am supposed to be studying hard in a language intensive program. Well the answer is that classes don't start until next week. I arrived here a week early thinking I would have a week break before going into classes, but now it seems like I will have a three week break before classes. AWESOME!
So yesterday a group of my new ICLP friends went to the zoo, but we only made it through a part of the zoo before it started raining and all the animals and people went scurrying for shelter. It was a nice zoo, but it would have been nice if we could have avoided the downpour and got to see more of the animals. I only was able to take a few pictures of some of the creatures before the torrents, so I didn't create a new album for them and instead put them in the main Taipei album.
We did however head to the underground mall which was pretty cool. It was completely underground and right next to the metro station. It is so convenient here to find places to spend money. It was pretty cool, not really a great mall for doing I guess real shopping, but more of a trinket and souvenir mall. It was nice though and of course I bought a few things to take back home with me. I am not very good at haggling, but I simply use a smile and somehow prices seem to go down. I was told I look like a movie star, and so I probably bought something I didn't need. These people are too much sometimes trying to make my head swell. I know they really don't mean it but still in the back of my mind...
Anyway, I know I mentioned trying to get a little bit of footage up, but unfortunately there is an issue with uploading video directly from my computer so I will have to circumnavigate the issue in order to get the videos up.
Until next time! Thanks for reading!
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Lin Yutang House, Yangming Mountain Tour and Shilin Night Market
Hey guys,
Yesterday I had the first opportunity to get out with some fellow ICLP classmates and go on an adventure. Hmmm I guess adventure might be a bit of an exaggeration and more of a get to know people might be better. We did a lot of standing around during parts of the trip so it was good to get to know a lot of people by name.
Anyway the first place that we visited was the house of Lin Yutang. I mentioned him in the previous post as a famous character because one label doesn't quite fit him. He was a translator of Western works to Chinese, an ambassador to the Western world on educating in matters of Chinese culture, he was an inventor author and so much more. His house contained so much diversity from classical Chinese texts to the Caesar's Commentaries on the Gaul Campaign. Housed were pictures of his Chinese type writer, which is too complicated for me to explain. His house was small by most standards but still very nice. Lunch here consisted of a delicious curry chicken and rice.
Next we headed to the Yangming Mountain. This is a beautiful and very popular spot to come out and have picnics for many native Taiwanese people. A group of us hiked to the highest point on one of the mountains. I have video and pictures of this spot. Then we were headed to see the waterfall, but only made it about halfway. If you know me making it to the top of the mountain was a feat for me! Anyway I got a few pictures there as well. This was a really tough journey in which my group braved perils such as wild cattle, aggressive worms and sound wave attacks from cicadas or something, so I hope you appreciate the pictures.
Next I had the chance to visit another night market, the Shilin Night Market. This night market was much larger than the one that I had previously visited so that mean a lot more opportunities to spend money and eat. I got to try shaved ice for my first time here and I have to say it was extremely delicious. Needless to say there are also some very weird things here and I did see the stall for a procreative organ served as ice cream. Weird! Also in the middle of the market was a temple that I wasn't sure if it was a part of the market as decor or actually real. I found out soon enough that a temple is a temple no matter where it is located. So please enjoy the pictures and I plan to have so much more this coming week as well.
Yesterday I had the first opportunity to get out with some fellow ICLP classmates and go on an adventure. Hmmm I guess adventure might be a bit of an exaggeration and more of a get to know people might be better. We did a lot of standing around during parts of the trip so it was good to get to know a lot of people by name.
Anyway the first place that we visited was the house of Lin Yutang. I mentioned him in the previous post as a famous character because one label doesn't quite fit him. He was a translator of Western works to Chinese, an ambassador to the Western world on educating in matters of Chinese culture, he was an inventor author and so much more. His house contained so much diversity from classical Chinese texts to the Caesar's Commentaries on the Gaul Campaign. Housed were pictures of his Chinese type writer, which is too complicated for me to explain. His house was small by most standards but still very nice. Lunch here consisted of a delicious curry chicken and rice.
Next we headed to the Yangming Mountain. This is a beautiful and very popular spot to come out and have picnics for many native Taiwanese people. A group of us hiked to the highest point on one of the mountains. I have video and pictures of this spot. Then we were headed to see the waterfall, but only made it about halfway. If you know me making it to the top of the mountain was a feat for me! Anyway I got a few pictures there as well. This was a really tough journey in which my group braved perils such as wild cattle, aggressive worms and sound wave attacks from cicadas or something, so I hope you appreciate the pictures.
Next I had the chance to visit another night market, the Shilin Night Market. This night market was much larger than the one that I had previously visited so that mean a lot more opportunities to spend money and eat. I got to try shaved ice for my first time here and I have to say it was extremely delicious. Needless to say there are also some very weird things here and I did see the stall for a procreative organ served as ice cream. Weird! Also in the middle of the market was a temple that I wasn't sure if it was a part of the market as decor or actually real. I found out soon enough that a temple is a temple no matter where it is located. So please enjoy the pictures and I plan to have so much more this coming week as well.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Finally Hit by.... BAD FOOD!
Yeah everyone I'm not sure what did it but I think it was the spicy beef dish that I had the other day, but yesterday I was completely knocked out by whatever it was. I closed the blinds, put blankets under the door and a cool water by my bed and slept for most of the day. I guess I should have known that it was going to happen sooner or later, but it something that you really don't think about. However, I carry civilization around with me and after a day of taking some meds for my stomach I am alright.
Today was orientation and a campus tour. I got to meet many people that I will not likely see again according to the program instructor. As soon as classes start I will be going to class and then preparing for class with little time for anything else. Anyway I have a week before that happens and I will be going out to enjoy myself next week before dooms day.
Tomorrow I will be heading out to the mountains for some great scenery shots as well as a visit to the house of a famous multi-talented Chinese character. I will let you know all about it as well as provide you with pictures.
Until tomorrow my friends!
Today was orientation and a campus tour. I got to meet many people that I will not likely see again according to the program instructor. As soon as classes start I will be going to class and then preparing for class with little time for anything else. Anyway I have a week before that happens and I will be going out to enjoy myself next week before dooms day.
Tomorrow I will be heading out to the mountains for some great scenery shots as well as a visit to the house of a famous multi-talented Chinese character. I will let you know all about it as well as provide you with pictures.
Until tomorrow my friends!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)