Pictures of my place and what's up

Well, I was originally planning on taking pictures last weekend of my place. Fortunately, I didn't, because last night I was struck with the desire to rearrange my room. I moved an old computer out that came with the room (it's in the den right now just waiting for me to turn it into a media center) and moved some of the shelves I had...well, I could just talk about it or I could show you!



Here's my desk. Behind it was formerly some random shelves to put random stuff, but currently acts as my nightstand. On the floor is blue and green mats that interlock together. One of the main reasons I rearranged my room was to get some more space on the floor to do exercises. Now I can do a push up without bumping my arm into something!



On the left is the two nightstands that came with this room, which I stacked to make some shelving. The big metal thing is my standing wardrobe. It works out pretty well.

Since I was taking pictures of my room, I moved onto the rest of my apartment!



Here's our kitchen. Two gas stoves, stainless steel sink, ample counter space. Works well for me.



On the other side of the kitchen is our shelving, which holds not only all our dry goods but also our toaster oven, microwave, rice cooker, toaster, and blender. Unfortunately there's only 2'4" between the counters and the shelving, so it's tough to walk by people working in the kitchen, much less work in the kitchen at the same time as someone else.



Here's our laundry room. In this room we have our backup fridge, a washer, and a dryer. Note all the clothes hanging in the back; since the weather in Taiwan is always pretty nice we usually don't use the dryer and just hang dry all our clothes. The pile of clothes on the dryer there is mine, which will be hung up right after I write this post (I promise, roomies!)



Our bathroom sink. The bathroom's to the right. The color scheme is too girly, if you ask me. I had to position my self specially so I wouldn't be seen in the reflection of the mirror.



Here's a different perspective of the living room without a bunch of partygoers in it. It's changed since the party, because if you look on the left there is an...



AQUARIUM! My roommates got a bunch of fish last week and are learning the way of raising them. They've only killed two fish so far, which I think is pretty admirable. John thinks that the big yellow one in the tank is probably gonna go soon, because all it does is swim full speed laps around the aquarium and doesn't eat. It's definitely fun to look at.

This past weekend I had a fun time. Not quite on par with Halloween in Madison, but fun nonetheless. On Saturday I spent the day with May, a girl I met at a club a few weeks ago. We hung out at a coffee shop then went to Shilin Night Market. It's the biggest night market in Taiwan, and from what I've seen, the most fun. We ate all sorts of things and played a few carnival games (she's really good at basketball shooting!). After that I went to one of my kickboxing friend's (Amy's) place, where we had a rooftop party. Of course it wasn't quite the view that would be offered by a 34th floor balcony (*cough cough*) but it was a good time. I also randomly met some people who used to go to school at UW Madison, which was quite the coincidence (since it's Halloween in Madison this weekend). I ended up hanging out until 5:30, at which time I caught the 6:00 AM MRT back to my place. I love public transportation.

So, that's what's up. I'm starting to get in a really good groove with things. If things keep staying consistently good I've got some fun little things about Taiwan I can write about, so don't worry, the posts will keep coming! Thanks for stopping by!

WOO PARTY!

Well, I survived the party. The apartment is still standing and no one got arrested or fell off the balcony. I think everyone who came had a great time, including myself. I greatly enjoyed hanging out with my kickboxing classmates outside of kickboxing.

I didn't update right away because I only took one picture with my cellphone camera (since it was dark out and my camera doesn't have flash). However, one of my classmates took a bunch of pictures, which I then took from him (thanks Michal!).

We started out meeting at Chaing Kai Shek Memorial Hall, which is where we meet for kickboxing. We thought it'd be a good central location so everyone knew where it was. By the time we got on the train there were about 20 people. By the time I got back to my place (after picking up a few people who wanted to meet us at the Xindian station) we were about 25.



We started out eating a few things. Tom (gray shirt sitting on couch to the left) brought some Domino's pizzas. I didn't get to try any since I was too busy running around making sure everything was ready. I prepared two veggie plates, a fruit plate, some baguette slices, and dumplings for other foods.



That's some of the liquor I had for the party. The "Hunting Lodge" brand is the cheap brand (NT$200-300 = US$6-9 per bottle) which I got for mixers. I also had some Chopin vodka and Jack Daniels for those who threw in extra money.



Since our roof has a great view, I moved part of the party up there. It was cool and a little windy, but it was a pretty nice atmosphere up there. That's me at the bottom right talking to Janine. A couple more pics:







Funny story about the preceding pic: After we decided to head out to Club Wax, we all jumped on the elevators and began the trek back to the MRT. About 1/3 the way there, one of the guys, Nick, told me that Club Wax doesn't allow sandals. I'd been wearing sandals all night and meant to change into my shoes but I totally forgot! So I ran back to the apartment, grabbed shoes, and ran back to the MRT, where everyone was waiting for me. Thanks to them killing time with this photo, I didn't get separated from them. (Good idea!)



After we got off the MRT, waiting for people in the bathroom. I don't remember gesturing so enthusiastically.



Club Wax, like many of the clubs in Taipei, is all you can drink. For a typical Taiwanese, this means two or three drinks (since their bodies process alcohol differently). For Westerners, like Anders, our Danish kickboxing coach (in foreground), this usually means more than two or three drinks. Don't worry, family, I was responsible in my drinking!

I hitched a cab with one of my classmates who also lives in Xindian. I woke up the next morning quite sore; not from a hangover, but actually from dancing - it hurt to walk around the apartment. The apartment was quite the war zone, as one would expect after 25 people partied. Other than an iPod which was spilled on and one guy who got sick, there wasn't any major disasters. I finally finished cleaning up today and the apartment looks pretty neat. Since it's clean right now, I'll take some pictures soon, since people have been wanting to see my place. Anyways, I'm off to do some homework. Have a good one!

The best random encounter EVER

I was going to write something last night about what I've been up to, but I didn't get around to it (thank a water heater problem getting in the way of me taking a shower). Anyways, something that happened today pretty much trumped whatever I could have wrote about yesterday.

So I just got done with class and I was walking down Shida Road to grab some lunch. While walking down the sidewalk, I see Cheng Laoshi, my Chinese professor from Madison. I stop and say hi and we chat a bit. He asks me what I'm up to. He's off to get some lunch, so I join him.

We go to a vegetarian buffet place. He points out some traditionally Taiwanese foods to me and has little stories about all the vegetables around there. He pays (he insisted, since I'm a student and "don't have any money") and we sit outside. Apparently they invited him to Shida to teach a seminar in International Sinology. They liked the way he taught Classical Chinese in the US (and how much quicker students picked it up), so he's showing grad students here how it's done. He's here by himself living in a university apartment. His wife is back in the US in New Jersey with their son and his grandson. After lunch we exchanged phone numbers (he said, "now if I have a computer problem I don't have to call my niece"), so I'll probably see him again.

That's really awesome.

Other than that, life's going swimmingly. Class is going pretty well, I think I'm messing up less and less (although my teacher said that I should be beaten for writing so many characters incorrectly haha).

My roommates bought a fish tank. It's pretty big; I think it's 90 liters. When the folks came to install it (a guy, his wife and his son who spoke some English), I had to help translate some stuff for everyone. They don't have any fish yet, but they'll be able to get some by Sunday. As long as they don't ask me to chip in on it (it's a pretty large investment but they didn't talk it over with me beforehand), I won't mind.

I'm still liking kickboxing quite a bit. We recently switched to two different classes: beginners (people who just recently started coming) and intermediate (people who have previous experience or who have been coming for a while). I'm in the second group. The workouts have been a bit harder; I'm getting quite sore after workouts again (I was at the start, but after a while it wasn't as bad). This weekend we're having a party, which I'm hosting. (Typing that reminded me to refill the ice tray.) It says it's going to rain tomorrow, but only in the early afternoon. Hopefully it doesn't rain at all so we can go to the balcony on the roof. I'll be preparing some snacks as well. I hope a good time will be had by all.

Finally, I'll leave you with a couple of pictures I had to take:



(a la Marty McFly) Nobody calls Ted Glomski yellow.



The older man in the center of the picture is wearing a Colorado Rockies hat. How do you say "bandwagon" in Chinese?

Anyways, I'll talk to you later, hopefully with some party pics!

A glimpse into my daily life

I've been promising to do this for a while: a description of my daily life accompanied by pictures. Well, today I was conscious enough in the morning to start taking pictures. I didn't take very many, but I think it'll be a good idea of what I'm up to these days.



I had cereal to kick the day off. The cereal I had was a chocolatey cereal made by Nestle. I haven't had cereal very often here, simply for financial reasons. Cereal prices are comparable to US prices (about $100-150 NT = $3-4 US for a large box), but milk is much more expensive ($100-150 = $3-4 US for a half gallon). Usually I've resorted to eating oatmeal or recently bread with Nutella.



This statue is in the main courtyard of the apartment complex. It's a big stone guy delivering a T'ai Chi kick. I like the statue quite a bit. I think the artist who designed it is pretty well known around the island for his sculptures. It's nice being able to walk by one of his works every day.



Here is the Bitan River (I think?). I walk by it every day on the way to the subway station. It looks a lot nicer when the weather isn't cloudy, I assure you. From my apartment door to my classroom is about 40 minutes. I left 45 minutes early, so I was in a little rush getting to class.



Here is the MRT (stands for Metro Rapid Transit, so basically "subway) stop I use every day. Since I'm the last stop I always get a seat, but I usually yield it half way through the journey to someone not as young and strapping as myself.



Here's how crowded the train car gets by the time I get off. Late morning isn't really a peak time.



This is Shida Rd, the street I walk up every day to get to class. Note how narrow the sidewalks are (which is quite annoying). At night this street is a pretty lively night market.



Here's a picture of my classroom while on break. I sit at the unoccupied spot in the foreground with the water bottle. The girl at the far left and the guy at the far right are Korean while the three girls in the middle (along with one other girl not present) are Japanese. There is another student who recently transferred from Indonesia. I sucked in class today. I went 1 for 5 on fill-in-the-blank sentences using grammar patterns. (My one good one was darn good, though.)

I didn't take any pictures of the afternoon. I went wandering around the Shida area and found a pretty good Korean restaurant. They have a dish that I used to eat all the time in Tianjin (a bowl of rice and all sorts of vegetables with a fried egg on top), but I didn't notice it on the menu until after I ordered Chow Mein. I then went back to the school to try to get some homework done, but I was lacking motivation, so I returned to my apartment.

My afternoon at the apartment was pretty typical: chatted online for a bit, did some household chores (laundry today), made some food, relaxed. Back in America this time would usually be occupied by a part-time job. I'm working on finding an activity to cram in here.



In the evening I went to kickboxing class. It has exploded in popularity; today there were almost 30 people there. After our workout, we did a little light sparring, which this is a picture of. We also talked about our big party, which will be the weekend after next. We may be having the party at my place (pending roommate approval and finding a cheap local restaurant).



After a trip on the MRT and a stop at McDonald's, I got back to my apartment around midnight (which is especially late since I stayed late at kickboxing). On the way back to the apartment I saw this (not so) little guy climbing up a pole. That's something you don't see too often in Minnesota.

Right now it's about 1:30 AM, which may seem late. However, tomorrow is ROC National Day, so there isn't any class. There's a parade and fireworks tomorrow; I'm going to try to go see both. Since I don't have a very clear idea of where either are, I'm not sure the trips will be very fruitful.

Other than National Day and the aforementioned kickboxing party, the only other event I have coming up on the agenda is Monica's birthday get-together on this coming Sunday. For the most part, though, things are pretty smooth sailing. Keep checking back to stay up to date with my exploits.