Idol Meeting Xiao Gui 小鬼

Wednesday Aug. 21^st I didn’t have school because all the students that wouldn’t be returning in the fall needed to take an exit test to see how much we have all learned. But that same day a typhoon was supposed to hit Taipei so Taichung got the effects and had so much rain that some of the streets were flooded. Thursday Aug 22^nd since there was still the rain from the typhoon us Americans from the morning class decided that it would be best for our health and safety to not go to class so it was a day of relaxing and studying. Turns out that when I asked the office Friday if there was many people that showed up to class they said not many people showed up because of the typhoon weather. After class Friday Lana needed to go pick up her passport and get her ARC (alien resident card) but turns out needed another set of paperwork so we will be back next week. Since we already had to go to the government building we decided to try out a Gold Class movie because they were close to each other. Gold Class is where we sat in comfortable recliners and cover up with blankets and they brought us our meal. Having watched a movie in gold class it will be hard to go back to original movie seats.

The plan on Saturday Aug 24^th was to go to Lukang (鹿港) however Lana happened to stumble upon that one of the singers we like was going to be in Taichung having an album signing and singing some of his songs on the album. So plans changed for the better this album signing was different than the others I have been to as in when people bought this album and it had a special ticket inside people could take a picture with Huang Hong Sheng (黃鴻升) who I know better as Xiao Gui (小鬼) and of course we both wanted that opportunity. The first thing we had to do was go buy his album in the mall that was holding the event and see if we could get the ticket. We were both very happy that we each choose an album that had a ticket to take a picture with him. After we got our cd’s and tickets we noticed when we came in that there were people lining up outside to see him so we decided that we should also get in line even though it was 5 hours until the event. 

As we were standing outside it started to rain and we decided it was a good idea we didn’t go to Lukang because everything is all outside and we would instead go one day after school. When we were waiting for Xiao Gui the announcer spotted us Americans and asked us questions about Xiao Gui and after we were noticed 7 different people came up to us with camera’s and asked if they could take pictures with us. As it was about to start the announcer said that he was running late because he was at another even in Tainan but that was okay with us because we were excited to see him! When he arrived the announcer made sure to point out where people came from and there was people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and us 2 Americans. However, when he saw us it seemed as if he became really shy which is not how I pictured him to be since I have seen him in 100% Entertainment (娛樂百分百) which is a variety show in Taiwan. He was so shy which made him so cute because I was not expecting him to act that way. Then after the introduction he sang 3 songs then we got in line to have him sign our albums and take a picture with him. It was so fun to be able to get to take a picture with Xiao Gui!

Art and Baking

Wednesday Aug. 14^th after school we went to the Taichung City Government building to fill out an Alien Resident Visa, turns out to be a long process. After filling out paperwork we then were headed to the Art Museum which was close by. But it turned out that one sheet of paperwork that the school gave her was wrong so we had to come back on Thursday to turn in what should have been given to her in the first place. Since it was raining there was nothing to do so it was a day of homework and napping. Friday Aug. 16^th after school I had never been to a temple before and decided that since Puji Temple was one close by we were going to go and see it.

After we went to Puji Temple the next stop was Art Street  which all the reviews online say it is so beautiful and colorful however when reading those reviews it got my expectations for the street high. When I arrived at Art Street I was very surprised to see that it didn’t have any actual art as I was expecting like paintings or sculptures just tile designs in the road that consisted of different colors of grey tile. 

Then we went back because later that night we were taking the one of the landlords out to eat Din Tai Feng since they have never had it before and it is one of my favorite places to eat in Taichung. After we ate we knew we needed to buy ingredients because we were going to make cookies, brownies, and rice krispies with the other landlord on Sunday because they don’t bake sweets so they took us grocery shopping. We had to go to three different stores to get all we needed such as flour, sugar, and chocolate chips.
Then Lana got a call that we were going to go to a club because I never experience a club in Taiwan  before. The club we went to had live music and some even were English songs. Sunday was going to be a girl's day of baking, so we brought over all the ingredients we had and were going to teach how to make brownies and cookies. However when I took the brownies out of the oven all the edges were burnt because it turns out that the pan was too small for the recipe but the middle tasted fine. Same with the cookies the edges were burnt but the taste was there, turns out that instead of having the heat on the bottom of the oven it was on the top instead. It was a sweet end to the week!

Relaxing Week

This past week was pretty uneventful in that I didn’t go anywhere which was probably a good thing because I needed to catch up on much needed sleep. Aug. 7^th started ghost month in Taiwan so many people burn incense to keep the ghosts away but really it just smells. Then on the walk to school on Friday Aug. 9^th we have a dog from where we live follow us to school which is really strange and has never happened before. The dog would walk far in head of us then look back to see if we were following it which is really strange even followed us in 7-Eleven. He followed us all the way to school and when we went into our building the dog left I guess he just wanted to get its exercise in for the day.

Saturday the 11th was a resting in day as in I didn’t leave my room because it was too hot and humid out. Sunday we were at the 7-Eleven at 9:30 am to make sure we could get in line to buy Lee Seung Gi tickets, Korean actor and singer, because he is having a fan meeting/ mini concert. Once 11 am came we logged into the system and were in the first section right by the stage however we didn’t know before hand that we could choose seats so by the time we choose seats we wanted we were too slow because someone else bought them. The next time we tried we didn’t get in the first section but the second section and we decided to buy those tickets. Turns out that within the first 30 minutes the tickets were sold out so we were lucky getting the seats we did.

After we bought the tickets we were then on another mission to book plane tickets to Korea in September after school is over and before I go back to the states. Then we were also deciding if we were going to travel to another of Taiwan’s islands since there would still be time to travel before I left. We decided to go to Penghu (澎湖群島) with another of our Taiwanese friends because none of us has ever been there and have all wanted to go. I am really looking forward to both trips!

That night we had plans to go to the Fengjia (逢甲夜市) night market with my buddy Gloria from school to look around. We didn’t spend much time there as we were going to KTV to sing karaoke with our landlord. Singing KTV was fun though we were both told that we were better at singing Chinese songs than English songs it was because the English songs were old some even dated back to Elvis.  We didn’t get back until 2 am and we had school that same day Monday, but it was still an eventful week. I also remembered to take a picture of one of the electrical poles that carry electricity, scary right!

Pingxi 平溪 and Jiufen 九份 Weekend

This past weekend another adventure, I spent the weekend in Taipei where we went to Pingxi (平溪) and Jiufen (九份). When we got to the hostel I knew something was wrong turns out there were no real beds instead we slept on the floor. After we got settled in the hostel we were going to go to Jiufen which is an older town located north of Taipei  in the mountains. We got to Jiufen and went to look around especially for traditional shops because it is what Jiufen is known for. Starting to look around a lot of the shops were starting to close but there was a traditional feeling when walking around the streets that I haven’t found in any other city. Once we bought gifts and looked around the town it was time to go back to Taipei and get ready for Saturday when we were going to go to Pingxi.

Saturday Aug 3^rd  after sleeping on the wood floor we were ready to go and see Pingxi. When buying the train ticket we made sure that we got the one where you could get off at different stops to see different things. Heading to Pingxi the first stop we got off at was Shifen (十分) that was known for having beautiful waterfall. When looking at a map it wasn’t clear how to get to so we took a taxi to get there but when we got there we walked through many bridges and climbed many stairs. But when we got to the Shifen Waterfall it was such a beautiful vivid color of green because of all the algae that I didn’t expect.

After we were done at the waterfall we found the same the taxi driver and he took us down the mountain and told us that the Shifen lanterns were better than the Pingxi lanterns. We were originally going to Pingxi to light a lantern but then decided that we would light a lantern in Shifen instead. Heading over to make a lantern we picked one with different colors and each color meant something different. Once we pick our lantern color that had 4 different meanings we decided that 2 sides we would write in Chinese and the other 2 sides would be in English. Once we were done writing on all sides a lantern worker came to light the lantern and take our picture. It was really fun to light a lantern and see it fly. After the lantern floated away we were back on the train to Pingxi which had the same feel as Shifen. So we looked around the shops and headed back to the train where we would have to switch trains or take a bus back to Taipei.

Sunday I wanted to go to the National  Palace Museum in Taipei but since it was summer it was really busy really but still fun to see. Since we were students studying in Taiwan we could go see the museum for free. My favorite pieces would have to be the scrolls and the paintings because all the detailed work would have taken time and patience to get the pictures to look life like.  It was incredible to see that many years of history preserved. After looking at all the antique pieces it was time to get on a bus to leave for Taichung because there would be school Monday however it was still an exciting weekend!