Below are the 11 most recent journal entries recorded in excaliburking's LiveJournal:

Saturday, February 11th, 2006
1:25 am	Hua-Lien Okay, I was just writing a journal entry for about 45 mins and the browser decided to close on me. I am way to aggrevated to write anything else at the moment. But just so you know, we safely arrived back in Taipei yesterday. The trip was fabulous. I got to do a dance with the natives of the country and get married to a girl during this show, we saw the most beautiful mountains made of pure marble, I got in the hot tub naked with chinese people staring at my winky, we went to an Ocean Park and got to see all sorts of aquatic animals, and our hotel room was extremely nice. That sums it up. I am leaving out about three pages of shit that just got deleted. I am going to take a shower, maybe i'll feel better, heh. Miss you guys! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 6th, 2006
11:08 pm	Zoo and Tepanyaki Tepanyaki=Japanese food that they cook in front of you at places like Miyabi/Kyoto etc. Im not sure if it's spelled right but oh friggin' well! Let's start in order though. Two days ago we did pretty much nothing. We went to Ma-LI's old apartment to do some clothes because the washer in her new apartment isn't working correctly at the moment. We thought we'd be there for a few hours, but a few hours turned into six so we decided to go catch a movie. We saw Big Momma's House. It was pretty funny, not as funny as Dick and Jane, but the funniest part was finding the theatre. It was inside of a shopping mall/department store, so you'd think it would be easy to find right? No... we had to ask for directions because the damn theatre was on the seventh floor. LOL We never would have found it, because even if we would have thought to go up, the directory said the movies were on the eighth floor. Thank God that most locals speak a little english. Anyways, it was a boring day, but yesterday was awesome! We started the day early so that we could head to the infamous Taipei Zoo. Ma-Li had one of her employees at MOP show us where the MRT (transportation vehicle) was. After a walk of only a few blocks, we were at the MRT paying our 30 NT a piece so that we could catch a ride to the zoo. It was a pretty cool experience. Rather than having a subway system that goes underground, they have an aboveground trolly type train that travels on a railway about 200 ft above the city ground. It's sweet because we can look around and see almost all of Taipei as we go. The city is so beautiful. One rarely sees trash, most of the buildings are older looking but clean, the newer buildings are beautiful and artistic, you can see Taipei 101 from almost everywhere in the city hovering above it like a protector, and while on the MRT we can see that past each individual main street there is a gorgeous mountainside. I can't wait to get out of the city because these mountains and tress look great. Okay, so it's a straight shot to Taipei Zoo. It dropped us off right at the zoo too so it wasn't confusing at all. And this zoo is quite a sight. We took two memory cards full of pictures, so I don't want to ruin any surprises. What I will say is that there are animals of every kind. We weren't too interested in seeing the birds, but we did get to see our favorite animals. Anna got to see her monkeys. There were probably twelve different species of monkeys. When we found the first kind of monkey, I think they were called pig-tailed monkeys, we hung out there for a while because we thought that they were probably the only monkeys the zoo had. Man were we wrong! The zoo is HUGE! So as we are walking through looking at the various animals (leopards, elephants, camels, giraffes, zebras, alligators, and even some koala bears) I only had one animal on my mind. And anyone who knows me knows what animal I am looking for. But on our way to see the king of the jungle, we saw lots and lots of monkeys. We even got up close to a gorilla. That's one thing that's really cool about this zoo. The animals are right up close to you. There was not even a protective glass or fence of anykind in between us and the monkeys or the alligator. Just a few metal wires below us seperate us from them. Anna thinks it must be an electrical wire, so the monkeys learned their lesson not to cross it. But the alligator could have crawled right over it. Maybe there was a sign at the front of the zoo that said "Enter at your own risk," heh, we wouldn't have been able to read it anyways! So anyways, we took lots of pictures and videos that you will all get to see. Oh .. you want to know if we found the lions... We sure did! And it was really cool. One male and one female. They were just chillin' too. I swear the male lion was looking right into my eyes for a while. Probably wanting to know what the fuck an American was doing in his zoo. It was sweet. We were there when it was time to put the lion in his cage, and he was ready to go because once they opened the door he headed right in there. All of the sudden we heard this roaring underneath us. There must be two males and they only let one out at a time (they don't get along with each other because one has to dominate the pride), because they started roaring at each other. I don't know if youv'e heard a lion roar, but it's a deep bass filled roar that can be heard for 10 miles. So anyways, we also got to see a beautiful tiger and many other animals, but I will let our pictures do the talking for them. We left the zoo completely satisfied and checked out their Zoo Mall for a little bit. It's right next door and they have tons of arcade games and little tricycle courses for the kids. They even have this one toy that you put change into and you can ride it through the outside mall. They are these fuzzy animal transportation thingies that kids ride on while the adults relax. They had giraffes, polar bears, and even a dog. They are pretty neat. Adults were riding on them too, and Anna I were going to hop on one but they were all taken up. After a short time looking around it was time to hop back on the MRT. It was an interesting ride because this dude was meditating while the MRT was moving. He would position his arms in awkward ways and balance himself as the MRT was moving by not touching any of his surroundings. It would be like not touching the handles while on the New York subway. It was interesting to watch, and no one else seemd to even notice him. You see, in other countries people are able to express themselves more freely then in America. In America people would have looked at him funny. But here people don't even give him a glance. The cultural difference can also be compared by how everyone dresses here. Everything is much trendier here. Anyways, you get the point! I then gave Anna a piggy back ride through the city until we reached a freshly squeezed orange juice stand. We bought a few drinks (Anna's off my back at this point) and headed to MOP to meet up with her mom. Ma-Li was still getting her hair done so we headed to another shopping mall. All of you shopping freaks would love this place. Shopping everywhere! After our shopping break and a drought beer at the bar it was off to eat the before mentioned Tepanyaki. Man was that food good! The restaurant was fancy shmancy, with wooden floors and very clean. They even have a pack of cigarettes with a lighter inside of each bathroom stall in case one wants to smoke while on the john. The food really was excellent though. Anna and I both got the chicken, but before the chicken came we all got about four courses. Octopuss, onions mixed with garlic, a salad with a dressing that tasted like orange sherbert, and some sort of fish on some sort of vegetable. The main course came with garlic that was cooked until it tasted like a small potato. It was a great meal. After eating we walked to another small table within the restaurant where we were given tea and a small dessert. It was a creamy cheese with a little honey on top garmished with some melon and kiwi. A great end to an awesome meal. And by the way, they don't put on a big show over here like they do in the states when making tepanyaki. They just cook it to perfection. There are no sauces to dip in, and trust me when I say that I didn't need any sauce for this food. Well that ends yesterday's adventure, now we are waiting on Ma-Li to take us shopping today. What a surprise! We'll be headed to the countryside tomorrow. Until next time... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 4th, 2006
11:16 pm	Been a few days Hey ya'll. It's been a few days so I have a lot to talk about. I hope it's not too random. Here goes.... A long time ago, in a place far far away (three nights ago) we went out drinking again. This time is was with Su Shing, Anna's cousin who had just arrived from visiting the US. Before we went out drinking though we met up with some of the rest of the family and ate Dim Sum. My favorite! You guys would really like it. It's cooked food (shrimp, veggies, chicken, meatballs, etc) that are wrapped in a noodle, similar to dumplings and wontons. Everyone shares these little portions of snacks that arrive in these little wooden steam baskets so it's pretty cool. One just uses their chopsticks and dips it in soy sauce (optional) and then chows down. I also tried a chicken foot. It's a very odd taste, but I guess it's good for the skin. Dim Sum has a much bigger variety but I can just tell everyone about it later. Just believe me when I say it's good shit. Next, with my full stomach, it was off to drink. We hopped in a cab and headed for this place called Cheers Nini. Anna asked what the Nini meant, and Su Shing replied that it means nothing, just a catchy thing to say. Anyways, we had to pass a bar called "Sex in the City" to get to Cheers Nini. The place is similar to a whore house! I guess men go in there and get fed grapes and play drinking games with these beautiful women. Then, if they want they get the option of paying for whatever they want. I mean, you can pay for a back rub or sex, or both. Pretty crazy. My kind of place. j/k. Cheers Nini was sweet. It was a mini Vegas-like club. Multi-colored water tanks blowing bubbles, and strobe lights etc with a DJ. We sat in a lounge area because the place was empty. Ting ting, Tein Tein, and Su Shing's brother Ian met us there for drinks. They are all under age but they can stay there until 12:00 and just hang with us. So here the drinking began. I wanted nothing to do with corona, or any type of beer for that matter. So I was drinking vodka redbulls with Su Shing and Anna was drinking Mai Tais. Well you can imagine that we started dancing and everything. We requested the DJ to play some hip-hop music so he played it all night because we were the life of the place. Dancing, taking shots, pictures, etc. It was a very fun place. But 12:00 came around so we had to leave. We had to say bye to the younger girls and Ian. It was funny as shit while we were saying goodbye, a conversation struck up about a dish called "Stinky Tofu." You can imagine, the shit stinks. Anyways, while Anna and I were saying we wanted nothing to do with it, the quiet girl, Tein Tein, out of no where says "It's fucking good" with the cutest foreign accent. I almost died laughing. Earlier in the night we were teaching them dirty words so I guess they are learning. Then we stopped by Saints and Sinners, but we only for a second. Next we hopped in a cab for MOP. The place was pretty busy. We wanted to stay there for a few drinks before we went to this place Brass Monkey, that stays open until five or so. MOP was great, I was playing drinking games, and Anna's aunt (whose name is Anna) was there with her boyfriend Kenny. Kenny likes me alot so he was buying my drinks. It was a good time, but at about two or so it was time to go to Brass Monkey. Brass Monkey is a typical bar. But this place is a meat market. It's mostly western guys and chinese women. It's known that the these chinese girls are the type that like western men. We didn't enjoy the place that much, but Su Shing was ramming shots and drinks down my throat so I had fun anyways. As I mentioned before, it is extremely rude not to accept a drink that is given to you over here. So don't start thinking that I am a binge drinker. I had to drink for Anna because she wasn't feeling so well. But I hung in there and we had a great time. One of the best times I've had so far. I could elaborate more but I have a lot to write. Next day, Ma-Li's ex boyfriend Ray came in town. He's a nice guy. He is a pilot for China Airlines and has been flying for over 40 years. When Anna and I got out of the bed we went shopping, again, with her mom. We saw some pretty cool zodiac cups and some other neat things. We were going to see this giant robot thing, but when we got there we found out it is for kids. Okay, I am definitely getting my nights confused. I'll leave the last part in there, but two days ago we just went shopping until we went out to eat with Ray. We went to this place called Kiki's. It's fancy looking and the chinese food was great. Ma-li ordered a whole fish dish, served with the head to the tail. We then headed to MOP's for a few drinks. I didn't feel like drinking but I had about four beers and Anna had some Irish Coffee (Yeah!) and a White Russian. I think we left there at about 12 or so. At this point Ray was drunk as shit, stumbling everywhere,(plus we believe he is permanently jet-lagged,) but I guess half the people at the bar were too. It's the first time I've seen MOP completely packed. That was great. Anyways, it was a laid back day with a little shopping and a little drinking. The next day was jam packed. Saturday, yesterday, we headed to (drum roll) the JADE MARKET. There is friggin' jade everywhere. It's not just jade, there are beads, stone carvings, trinkets of all sorts, food, and many more. Its sort of like a flea market, hundreds of vendors, row after row. But it's all under one roof which was nice because it was raining. By the way, our cab ride over was in a 2006 Camry fully loaded with a tv and navigation system. We are even starting to get picky over our choice of cabs now. Hmmmm... the 2006 or the 1998? Anyway, back to Jade, there was red, yellow, brown, blue, clear, and all shades of green jade. We thought it was going to be a little complicated but we really had no idea. The first table we stopped at had all varieties and Ma-Li starts asking me questions like the wrist sizes, and we were like "oh shit" because we didn't think about that. But it isn't the wrist size that is important, it's the capability of getting the thing over your hand to the wrist. Then she was telling us exactly what makes jade, good jade. It has to be transparent, a little green, with no blemishes, no cuts or scrapes etc etc. The darker the green, the more expensive. But there is so much fake stuff, that its so hard to tell the difference with the latest technology. Although some of it is pretty obvious, if you're familiar with jade but even the experts had their magnifying glasses at hand. So without Ma-Li, this very difficult trip would have been impossible! Every bracelet Anna thought was nice, the vendor would spit out a price in NT. Then we would figure it in our heads and realize that the bracelets we were asking about were about 5,000 US dollars! It took us like 45 minutes going up one row just to find one that was 2,000 US dollars. Im thinking now, oh shit, I don't think anyone is getting jade bracelets. Jade is gold over here. You can buy fake gold from the Indians or Mexicans in the stands in the mall, or you get the real stuff from a nice store for three times as much. So after getting the idea that the more green there is, the more expensive, we were able to narrow our search. The most desirable piece of jade is an "apple" green color with shades of transparency and strands of dark green. It's really cool how jade is formed too, but anyways. We bought all kinds of little trinkets for you guys..... and we may have found a jade bracelet or two. But I'm not telling. It was a grueling process, I think we were there for about four hours until we found a few vendors that offered good quality jade for a reasonable price. There is so much to consider when buying jade like price, size, trasnparency, how much green, types of blemishes, etc. Dark green jade is very rare and can only be found in very small pieces. You can buy the small polished pieces just as they are or already set in jewelry. We like the dark green color and the bracelets that had more of that color ran about 5,000+ dollars. I asked Ma-Li how much a pure green jade bracelet would cost and she says it probably doesn't exist, but anything close to fully green would be about a million. So, did Ma-Li's business skills help us in our mission to find you guys some jade bracelets...we'll have to wait and see. It was a stressful, educational, but fun experience. Next we headed up the street to the local night market for massages. The night market is great, but I will go into detail about it on a later date. It's basically an alley or narrow street filled with vendors and small shops that sells everything from noodles to shoes. We walked for a while, dodging mopeds and umbrellas, and headed into the massage parlor (a legit one.) Ma-Li had just figured out that the mattress we were sleeping on had been upside down the whole time we have been staying here! I thought the damn thing was too hard. We have had sore backs for a week! But its one of those tempur-pedic beds, and its much better now. Well, I was a little uncomfortable because when we walked in the place I noticed it was all guys giving massages. Damn-it. I'll have to stop any homophobia for 45 minutes. When we got upstairs to the massage tables, I got stuck with the hugest dude in the place. And Anna got a girl, no fair! Oh well, it felt great though. It was very relaxing and a little painful. At one point I looked over and saw this tom boy on top of Anna grinding her back. It was funny because every few minutes I would hear one of the girls scream in pain. I had to be a man and take it! Anyways, after the massages the girls got foot massages. I passed on it because I knew I wouldn't be able to take the pain. They really dig in to your feet over here. Anna had to keep telling the girl to lighten up. She has really sensitive feet. After we left the massage parlor we headed to an "all-you-can-eat" place to eat "hot pot." Hot Pot is pretty cool and similar to a fondue type meal. Everyone just goes and grabs whatever frozen foods they want (shrimp, fish sticks, corn, squash, turkey, etc.) and then throws them in a boiling pot in the middle of the table. The pot is split in two sections, one side is spicy and the other is mild. Its prefilled with chicken broth and then you create a dipping sauce to your liking for your cooked foods. After the meal, the broth has now become a delicious soup. I wasn't too crazy about it, there wasn't enough meat and a little too much work, but Anna was having a delicious childhood flashback. .... I just saw a Pizza Hut commercial with whole chickens, ribs, and soup available for delivery. lol Oh and another thing I have to mention is that the food found on the streets is awesome. The best pastries and sushi that I have ever tasted, is sold on the street for only a few bucks. Okay, back to hot pot. It wasn't a greatest experience for me. It was nice that we all get to eat at the same table and pick food out of the hot pot, but the dipping sauce I made myself was a little weird. I believe it takes a little practice and I will enjoy it more next time. It is just really new for me. Dim Sum and Sushi are soooo much better! We met up with almost all of the family to eat the hot pot and we had to split into two tables. It was pretty cool. Ma-Li had left for a while to walk back to the market to buy some fruit for the house, and returned with a new jacket and a bracelet for me! I told her that it was way too much and I didn't want to accept it. But she insisted. It is a really nice black sport coat type jacket. And the bracelet is a stainless steel gray linked bracelet. Very manly and cool. Ma-Li must have spent thousands on us already. I wish I was rich so I could pay her back. I don't think I ever will be if I never hear from the SS. Oh well, it has been a great last few days. We have eight more to go. I'm not sure what we are going to do today, but I have to stop writing because I am starting to get dizzy. Tuesday we are heading out to see the countryside. I can't wait. Love you guys! RyGuy. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 2nd, 2006
4:02 am	Club Luxy and Brown Sugar I know what your'e thinking, brown sugar, we must have gone to a black club right? Nope, it is a jazz club that happened to be playing salsa music last night. It was great! All these chinese people doing the salsa. And the whole band is playing and singing this mexican music. It's crazy to watch. These girls just get passed between different men, and some of the men are dressed crazy (gold disco shirts etc.). There was a professional team of dancers that were doing most of the dancing so it's a little intimidating for little old me to try and take Anna on the dance floor and dance to music I never have before, so I passed on that one. But Anna got up and danced once with her mom and once with another guy that was going to try and teach her how but it didn't work out. Ma-Li had bought him a drink to teach Anna how to dance, but Anna didn't really want to anyways. It was a real treat though, and Ma-LI payed for everything. We had VIP seats right next to the dance floor. The food was pretty good too. Well, we hung out there until about 12:30 and then it was time for Anna and I to meet up with our friend from MOP. We hopped in a cab and when we got there there was only a few people at the bar but the music was U2 so I was loving it. We stuck around until about 1:20 or so drinking absinth and then we (anna, me, and Jessica, the bartender) were on our way to Luxy. This place is friggin' huge. It's three stories and there must have been 10,000 chinese people in it. At one point in the night Anna told me that they definitely went over the fire hazard limit. We couldn't even dance because it was so packed when we got there. Every floor! But we pushed our way through the crowd and when we got to the dancefloor there was a damn dance team doing steps. It was crazy. The clubs in Taipei are so different. All the girls are dressed super sexy. Picture all of these girls dressed in short skirts and little bikini tops or bras. And you have an idea of what the girls looked like. Now picture all these ABC's (American Born Chinese) who are all trying their hardest to dress like American thugs (doo rags, hats backwards, big chains, etc.) and you have an idea of how ridiculously funny it was just to watch people last night. Anna and I were tripping out. Well, we finally found enough room to dance so we danced for a long time and talked amongst our friends (some more people showed up that we had hung out with on Chinese New Year). The bars all had a minimal choice of drinks, and the bartenders don't get paid with tips so buying a drink is aggrevating. But I drank corona's all night and my little pumpkin was drinking apple martini's and vodka cranberries. There was numereous times that we would catch each other just laughing because of how funny it was watching all of these people dancing and trying to sing along to all the american music. And that is ALL they play. American music and nothing else. In case you didn't know, most of the world doesn't think very much about Americans, but they love our music. I was pissed off at one point in the night because the bartender was getting drinks for everyone around me except me. I am sure it's because I am American looking so I was ready to slap an American flag on one of there foreheads and knock em' out but I kept my cool and just had Anna go to the bar the rest of the night. It's odd that some people are very biased while others aren't at all. Anyways, at about 4:00 am our friend Jessica was hanging out with us when all of the sudden these two chinese girls in short skirts and bikini tops jump up on the main stage and start dancing. They try their hardest to dance sexy but it looks terrible. They are all off beat so they just shake what their mama's gave them and have a good time. Jessica was laughing at them so we tried to get her to go on stage and there she went. Her and her friend hopped on stage and started dancing. It was funny as shit! Jessica can dance great but she was just making fun of the other girls and how they were dancing. It was like a little chinese dance off. So Jessica starts dancing on this pole like a stripper and then heads over to the big screen TV and is rubbing on it sexually. She was just joking around but it was so damn funny. She even started rubbing this random guy's bald head so him in his friend decided to sandwich her during one song. After her show she came back and had a few drinks with us. I was feeling pretty sick at this point. I think it was the mix between corona, bud, absinth, apple martini, and vocka cranberry. But Jessica was at the bar buying us another round and a shot a piece of jaggermeister. So we took the shot even though neither of us wanted to (if you don't its very disrespectful). And then I was feeling really sick. Anna had to block the view from the crowd as I blew little chunks on the floor and into some random cocktail glass. Yes, it was nasty, and the first time I have ever thrown up in public like that I might add. But no one really noticed and I had a few sips of corona to get rid of the taste. Anna had drank more alcohol than me last night but she wasn't feeling sick. I wasn't even that drunk, I think it was just a bad mixture. But anyways, it was 5:00 am at this point and the club was closing. Anna finished her martini like a trooper and then we headed to our cab ride home. It was a great night out. I will have stories to tell for years. And I have one last thing I have to mention. Fuck corona. Oh and if you want a demonstration on how the chinese girls here dance just ask Anna and she will be glad to show you :) I can't sing but I got soul - Bono, U2 (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 1st, 2006
12:07 am	Taipei 101 Here's an update on what I have been doing the past few days. We went to Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the world) and it was awesome. We didn't go to the top because the line was wrapped around the whole building, but we went inside. Inside is a huge mall. About five or six levels of food, clothes, electronics, etc. One of the funny things I noticed is that people just walk through the mall with their pets. We saw a few small dogs, a cat, and one little tiny chihuahua that was inside of a Louis Vatton purse. It seems like everyone carries a 1,000 dollar plus purse around. Anyways, we tried eating at the food court, so we went to the place with the longest line thinking it would be safe. We had no idea what we were about to eat. Now let me set something straight, we like calamari, but I dont know about a squid meatball. It was nasty as shit. So where did we go after that experience, McDonalds baby! It was goooodd too. I had a BigMac and Anna had some kind of rice shrimp burger. It's sad when chinese people make better McDonalds then we do. Anyways, we took pictures of our food so you can see it. We spent the rest of the day shopping at another department store. Anna got me a chinese looking tan jacket that goes with a black long-sleeve shirt. It looks sweet. I got Anna some clothes at Taipei 101. Then we went back to My Other Place (MOP)....(Anna's mom's place). MOP is cool. A small bar but it has great food. The next day, yesterday, we spent walking around everywhere. We walked to the park looking for a chinese temple that we couldn't find, but we ended up finding a great sushi bar. It had the conveyor belt that brings the food around a circular bar so that everyone can pick up what they want. The sushi was excellent. After that we headed back to the house. We had dinner reservations at eight so with our few hours to kill we decided to go see Dick and Jane at the movie theatre. We took a cab to the theatre and man it was an adventure after that. First we couldn't find the booth to buy the tickets, and it is really confusing because there are two seperate buldings that show the movies. Then when we found the booth, the lady didn't speak a lick of english. So we had to point at the picture that she had on the desk. She also had to show us how much it was buy using her fingers. It was 500 NT for both of us and that came with popcorn and two drinks. About 15 dollars. The theatre is awesome. You guys would love it. It's bigger, more comfortable, and the sound system is bad ass. Way better than any theatre in the states. It's crazy though, all of the movies that they show are in english with chinese subtitles. And all they show are US movies. Thats one reason that some kids look at me funny I guess, they probably think we are movie stars or something. Anyways, the movie was funny but short. After the movie we made it to the restaurant and had fondue. It was really good fondue too. We then headed back to MOP and had a few drinks. Anna got pretty drunk but we all had a great time. Whenever Ma-Li drinks too much we have learned to keep our distance because she doesn't make much sense! Now it's the morning and we are planning on getting massages at the parlor next door. Anna is making sure that I don't accept the "extra" they might offer, lol. After that we made plans last night to go out and check out the nightlife with one of the girls that works at MOP. I'll let you know tomorrow how it went....... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 29th, 2006
10:13 pm	Chinese New Year Hola! Chinese New Year was a blast! Ma-Li cooked most of the day and Anna helped her out alot. I just helped by peeling the heads off the shrimp (which we took pictures of). Her mom is an excellent Chef. I mean that food was awesome! We had roasted filet mignon, lobster salad with this ginger dressing that was very good, baked salmon, garlic mashed potatoes, salmon rice, barbeque ribs, and other things that I am forgetting. It was one of the best meals I ever had. And it was so colorful! There was just five of us eating too until her staff arrived later in the evening. Once they got here though, everyone starting drinking and having a great time. Here is a fact for you. Tawain drinks more scotch than any other country. More than china, us, and any other country ten times it's size and population. These people friggin' drink. They play these drinking games for hours and get tanked. Some of them could speak okay english, and they all seemed to enjoy having anna and me being there. After a few pijo's (beers) I switched to this drink that is illegal in the states called Absinth. This stuff is 70% by volume (140 proof). It tastes like black licorice so I know mom would like it. Anyways, its illegal in the us because it contains some kind of chemical that relaxes you. And it sure as hell works. It was a different buzz but it's a cool one. It glows green too which is sweet. So we are all drinking and I am playing one of my american cd's (which they love and want me to make a copy of) when Anna starts getting up and dancing. She was dancing her ass off, and all of the chinese girls were getting up and trying to learn her moves. It was awesome. She started dancing because of this game we were playing. I'll spare the major details but basically whenever your number is called on these dice than you have to drink and get up and dance. WHen mine was called I downed my drink and got up and started to strip. THen I walked away and said they had to pay for anymore. It awas funny as shit, when I walked back into the room they were all yelling "stripper." Anna thought it was funny. No, I didn't take off my clothes, but I had them all laughing. It's amazing how open everyone is. When everyone first arrived, it was kind of seperated between us and them. But after a little while, these people were so open and honest about everything until five in the morning. Anna and I were kissing and they all were screaming and taking pictures, egging us on. They would take tunrs dancing etc. And by the end of the night I have videos of Anna being a choreographer and teaching all of these chinese girls how to dance. Anna's mom even got up and danced for a while. It was a lot of fun. Somebody write me an e-mail and remind me that I have to make a copy of that cd for them. So we went to bed at about five in the morning. Anna slept almost the entire next day so I stayed in bed and watched movies, occassionally giving her a kiss on the forhead. But that was our sunday. Now it's monday and we are going to do some traveling in the city. We plan on going to Taipei 101, the zoo, the movie theatre, and a few other places. Well, love you guys. Talk to you soon, RyDizzle (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 27th, 2006
8:15 pm	Mopeds, food etc.... Okay, I need to stress the mopeds situation. There are literally millions of mopeds in this city. And they are friggin' crazy. Everytime we hop in a cab we almost get hit about three times each block by these crazy moped riders. And they are people of all ages too. Surprisingly, a lot of women ride them and sometimes even families of three or more will all be packed on the things. At each intersection, there is a starting line that is in the right hand lane just for the mopeds. And they race off weaving in between cars. They don't use lanes, they dont have blinkers, and they don't give a shit if you are walking in front of them. It's awesome. So after our crazy cab ride to Anna's moms two restaurants so she could get some paperwork done, we were on our way to Sogo (a huge department store). Anna says says that it is ten stories high and that Taipei has the BEST department stores. We have a picture for later. Each level has it's own item. Like one story is for cosmetics, one for shoes, three levels for women, and three levels for men, etc. We went downstairs to the supermarket. And because of the new year, this place was crazier than the day before christmas. I couldn't even walk through the aisles without someone bumping into me or moving my cart out of they way, which is normal over here. Just a radnom thought, I remember when I was a kid I used to dig through sand pits so that I could find my way to China. I wonder if that was ESP. Or if I was just an idiot. Okay, back to Sogo.. Everyone is greeting us saying Happy New Year, in Chinese, and the whole place was red! While I was guarding the cart and watching all the young boys and girls look at me like I was an alien, I saw Anna taking a picture of the millions of sushi displayed when she got yelled at in Chinese and turned around and looked at me with this funny face like oops. I asked Anna later why a lot of people just stare at us, some smiling, some not. She says it's because a lot of people are curious of us because of the American media (movies, music etc) because of how popular it is all over China. Some people stare because they aren't used to seeing us, and the old traditional women think that us "western" men are here to take advantage of the Chinese women (many Chinese women love western men). Some guys are intimidated because of that same belief. Some people dislike us because of their thoughts on typical Americans, which is common everywhere. For the most part, everyone is friendly and smiling. It was a great experience. We even tried one of their famous pastries which was pretty good. We had to wait in line for the glazed crispy pastry puff with a smooth custard filling. Another thing which is really interesting about shopping over here, is that the government does not provide plastic bags for people to use after they shop. We have to bring our own bags to fill up all the groceries. They are heavy plastic tote bags. And when we finally got through the long ass line, we had to bag our groceries fast as shit. It's like a grocery derby trying to get through there. Once we packed the bags, which were heavier than hell, and you know I had to carry it, I saw on my right a McDOnald's. Yup, the golden arches. It felt like home, except that a Big Mac was a #4 and everything else on the menu was fish or chicken. And if you don't want french fries you can get corn, veggies, or rice. So after Sogo we dropped the bags off at the house and then headed to Cosco. This place is 2 stories and friggin' huge. There was an endless amount of people going upstairs and coming down. The carts go upstairs on this magnetic escalator. Oh, and just so you know we are doing most of this shopping for Ma-Li's New Years party that she is hosting here tonight. Anyways, we filled the basket with more stuff than we could carry so the taxi driver loaded it into the trunk and we headed back to the house. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, Anna then wanted to take a nap, and then we woke up at 8am this morning. TaDaaaa. Im all caught up. I will probably get a little drunk tonight drinking Pijo (beer). Pronounced (Pee- Joe). It's a good way to remember it too. Lise, whenever you read this tell Joe I said hi. Well Im off to use the bathroom, sushi runs through me sometimes. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 26th, 2006
10:47 pm	A few things worth mentioning Okay, it's 11:30 am here in Taipei, and I am really tired. Our schedules are still really off. We stayed up until 6:30am because we took a five hour nap ealrier in the day. Hopefully by tomorrow it will be better. Well, two days ago Ma-Li gave Anna and I 20,000 yin a piece to spend here in Taipei. That is about six hundred dollars. The ratio is about 33 to 1. The denominations = coins 1,10,50 and bills 100,200,500,1000, and 10,0000. So it made it really fun while we made purchases at the stores. So i'm stoked! That was really nice of her. So we walked all around the city and bought various little gifts and even pastries at one shop. It's funny because we can't really communicate with anybody at all really, other than thank you etc. Anna understands a lot more than I do, but speaking with them is very difficult. It's cool because a lot of street signs have english written on them as well as chinese. We walked into Blockbuster to check it out and took a picture of the batman and latest star wars videos with Chinese written on the front of them. Pretty cool huh? One place we stopped at was a huge playground. They have these concrete slides which are a lot of fun. We have a picture of us sliding down it while all the parents are probably looking at us thinking "stupid americans." Another thing that boggles my mind about this city is that people just leave their belongings unattended all of the time. They don't seem peranoid of their things being stolen at all. Maybe it's a culture thing, or maybe it's because people get their hands chopped off for stealing. I'll get back to you on that one. Today we are going to go grocery shopping because Ma-Li is hosting a new year's party at her apartment tomorrow. She will be cooking all day. Chinese people are very serious when it comes to cooking. She is roasting a filet all day while she makes various other things. Another note, Christine would be very proud of us. We are sleeping on these temperpedic beds. Or, one bed rather, but Ma-Li has one as well. Our bed sits on the floor but can be pushed up into the wall if more space is needed. The bed is very hard but comfortable. A lot different from mom's waterbed, lol. We won't be able to go to the jade market for a while, but I have learning a lot about it already. Jade is cheaper over here, but still expensive. The cheapest real bracelet we can purchase will be about 100 us dollars. And I learned a really cool trick on telling whether or not jade is real. It's magic, but y'all will have to wait! Lisa, I know you wish you could see the market, but I will take lots of pictures so you can see. Love you and miss you all. _RyDizzle (2 Comments |Comment on this)
5:01 am	Austin to Taipei Where was I. That's right, we left the melting pot with the family, and one person I forgot to mention who is a friend of the family's, Richard. Richard's chinese name is too hard for me to pronounce so we all call him Richard. He's a cool guy and speaks pretty good english. We arrived at the house, which I already stated how beautiful it is, took our shoes off (which is mandatory and very disrespectful if not followed), and unloaded our stuff. That night I learned a few drinking games with Seu Shing, the older sister, and Richard. They taught anna and I how to play this one game called in english, turtle turtle jump (TTJ). TTJ is pretty cool and just involves guessing which finger the person you are playing with is going to point up at the same time as yours. If you guess correctly, then he/she has to drink. These people get smashed quick. The other game was very similar to TTJ. One thing about Seu Shing, which is hilarious, is that when she speaks using the english language, she has a British accent. No shit! It's funny as hell to watch a chinese person pronounce things with a strong british accent. She speaks like this because a lot of the foreigners who live in Taipei and speak english, are from england. So when she is bartending at Ma-Li's (Anna's mom's) restaurant, she is talking with the many english costomers and talking with a british accent. Pretty cool. Maybe Christine noticed the same thing when she was in Vietnam? Who knows, i'll have to ask her. So, anyways, Dai-lan and Terry were awesome hosts for the few days that we were in Texas. One day we went to San Antonio and saw the Alamo and the riverwalk, and the next we were at the outlets shopping with the cousins. They took us out to eat for all meals of the day and paid for everything. Dai-lan was even trying to get me to buy things at all the outlet malls so she could pay for them. I felt uncomfortable that they were treating us so kindly. They just enjoy spoiling the family I guess. I also felt bad because on our recent trip to NYC my aunts would not even offer to buy a cheeseburger when they took us out to eat or buy apple at the market after convincing us to get it. It was embarrassing, but anna understands. Oh well, my point is, that even after all the spoiling, they gave Anna and I both red envelopes. These red envelopes are a custom in the chinese tradition of new years that are given to the younger members of the family and contain money. Anna immediately got on her hands and knees and was saying thank you and other things in chinese. It was real cool, I think I am gonna buy some red envelopes at the store so she can beg from me sometimes, heh. The envelopes contained two hundred dollars a piece and now I am feeling even worse. It was extremely too much, but I can only hope that Anna's mom is as hospitibal. We really enjoyed Texas, but now it's time to take a flight to a country that I have never been to before. After a few lay overs in Houston, and LAX, we are on our way to Taipei. We took EVA airlines, which flies between the two countries all of the time. The flight attendants were all wearing green and were all attractive chinese women who spoke a little english. The plane was huge and I wasn't sure it would even get off the ground. And each individual seat had slippers for us to wear. We took pictures of that too! The fourteen hour flight actually wasn't that bad. I slept for about six hours and killed time by drinking a lot of water and reading this book "Without Fail" by Lee Child that Chris gave to me as a present a few years ago. It's really cool and happens to be about the Secret Service. So the food was great (chinese) and the flight was great (hot flight attendants), and other than anna snoring it was a perfect flight. I have to ask lisa if she ever flew in a 747 because those things are huge. Anyways, we landed in Taipei and after going through immigration and buying Ma-Li a bottle of scotch at the airport (which is custom), we were at baggage claim waiting. And we waited forever too. Damn chinese people take their time getting luggage, I can tell you that much! And it also was pretty confusing figuring out which line to get in for immigration or customs etc. But we figured it out. But here we are, in another country, walking through the airport in our matching long black coats and cheeesing because we are so excited that we are finally here. And then we met Ma-Li and we both gave her a big hug. She doesn't look like anna very much, but when she was anna's age they looked very similar. She is an attractive woman and speaks very good english. So then we followed her to an illegal cab service because we had so much luggage. The guy was a crazy driver, but we were in a mercedez which was cool. And while I am on the subject of cars. It is crazy the amount of cars there are in this city. All the cabs look brand new, and they all have leather interiors. Most of them are toyota's or honda's. Chris would probably like that cab ride. But the craziest thing about this city which I noticed real soon, is the amount of mopeds. Here we are in this huge city and we see thousands of crazy kamikaze chinese people driving these mopeds around like maniacs. We took some pictures of it because writing about it doesn't do it justice. The streets are literally lined with mopeds. And they drive wherever they want. So anyways, we got back to her apartment and it's amazing. It is very modern, and brand new like its right out of a catalogue. Every room has a flatscreen tv to conserve space, the trash cans open up automatically when you want to throw something in it, and there are no knobs on any of the doors. When we want to use the bathroom we say we are "going in the wall," because one literally pushes on the wall and here opens up a bathroom. Of coarse we are wearing slippers, as is custom, but she is a neat freak so I have to be especially careful. Anna told me today, which is thursday, I guess wednesday there, that I should try not to leave any fingerprints anywhere. She just started living here last week so everything is new. And we are the test dummies. But anyways, mom you wouldn't believe it. They have 7-11's in Taipei! South Carolina doesn't have them, but friggin' Taipei does. And they are everywhere. I was even tempted to try and use my blockbuster card here, lol. Some other chains are starbucks, outback, tgif, carnegie's, and more. Another thing worth mentioning, is that 7-11's dont have any colod fountain drinks because chinese people don't enjoy cold drinks. And rather then getting a nasty bbq sandwhich, they have big bites and fish sticks. That's about all so far. But we did go for a walk today and saw all of the food on the streets. People have all their stands set up right along the sides of the street and the food smells great. Hello Kitty is everywhere too. I don't know what the obsession is over a little white cat. But anna likes it so its all good. We also walked to the park, which is big and pretty cool. Its funny as shit to see all of these chinese people playing basketball. I guess Yao Ming has some serious influence over here. We slid down the slides and played in the kid park etc. It was great. Well I hope it's not too boring, but it is a journal, not a book ! Until next time... I miss you all! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 25th, 2006
7:49 pm	Austin, Texas Okay, so here goes. I am kind of tired so this entry will have to be short. Where to start, well first let me start by saying that the hospitality we received in Austin, Texas by Anna's Aunt Dylan and Uncle Terry was awesome. They are very nice people. And there house is beautiful. It is six bedrooms and probably four baths. It has a two door garage and they stock it with two really nice ones. A new Lexus SUV and a Nissan SUV which both have the navigation systems on it, which are pretty cool. It's so cool how it works, I know Chris would love it. I could go on and on about the house, but I took lots of pictures so I will show ya'll later. Terry met us at the airport in Austin, which is a very nice airport, and drove us out to eat. He is a heavy set guy, but has a real warm heart. He took us to a Melting Pot restaurant. There we met up with all of Anna's chinese cousins and her aunt Dylan, they call her Theresa in the US. It was funny because they were all introducing themselves with their American names, but Anna had told me about them with there Chinese names. A little confusing but I got through it. The three female cousins names are stereotypical.. You know that joke, how do chinese people name their kids? By throwing silverware down the basement steps and naming them by the sound the silverware makes as it drops down the staircase, ting ting tang tang etc. Well, one cousin is named Ting Ting, another Tang tang, and the third Seu Shing. That's not how the names are spelled, but it's how it sounds. They are all very nice and always smiling. It is their first visit to the US, and they take pictures of EVERYTHING. Okay, so we ate dinner, and it must have cost them eighty dollars a head after all of the food and wine. I offered to pay the tip but they weren't having it. The dinner was a culture shock though, half of the table was speaking english, the other half chinese. Anna's aunt, Dylan, is very pretty and looks a little like Anna. She was the translator for the girls on getting their orders for dinner. I call Dylan IE, which means aunt. I think she liked it that I was calling her IE, because they were so happy to meet me and were already calling me family. So anyways, I am not going to write about every meal, but this is worth saying, the food was excellent! And I am for sure going to take Anna to one when we go back to the states. And every meal that we all ate together, the girls always couldn't finish their meals because American meals are so big. They definitely should split meals. Well, that being said, it was off to the house and some much needed rest. And now that I'm talking about rest, I need to take a break because I am tired as shit and just figured out how to close the blinds in Anna's moms futuristic apartment. Until next time..... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
7:40 pm	Taipei Just a test. (6 Comments |Comment on this)