Hey from Singapore!!

I'm on a computer at my hostel right now. My hostel is in the Arab Quarter of Singapore. Today it rained and right now it looks like it's going to rain. But enough about right now, let's talk about how the journey's been!

We grabbed our flight on Friday evening. We have a discount airline, so we can't eat on the airplane unless we buy the airplane's stuff. I brought along granola bars to eat, so we all just sat there hungry until we landed. After landing we got our luggage and bussed it near our hostel, then taxied closer and got to our hostel. It's a pretty nice hostel. I stayed in a dorm bed above a guy I didn't know, so I was always worried about moving around too much or making noise, but it worked out fine.

The next day we visited many of the temples around Singapore. A word of note: if you ever go to visit the temples in Singapore, wear sandals. I wore my hiking boots and it was a pain having to take them off every temple I went in. The temples were very interesting and beautiful, though. It's really warm in Singapore, so by 3:00 I was drained.

We went back to the hostel to recoup and get some dinner (at a really good Muslim restaurant) and that night we went to the Night Safari, which is a tram ride featuring all sorts of tropical animals, none of them in cages. It was amazing! The lions were cool, the tigers were mostly sleeping, the giraffes, elephants, and hippos were HUGE, and my favorite part was probably a bat house where you could see (rather large) fruit bats three feet away from you chowing on oranges.

Afterwards we looked for a bar but didn't find one in Little India until about 11:30. Alcohol is really expensive in Singapore, but we got a couple of beers to bring in my birthday. I'M 23 NOW WOO!! Afterwards we went to an electronic market to get an outlet converter then headed back to the hostel.

This morning we headed to a park and did a hike through a tropical rainforest park. On the hike we saw a lot of monkeys. It rained, however, and we got pretty wet. We were glad when we got back to the hostel.

So we're all freshly showered and on the Internet. We'll probably grab dinner at a place around here then head to catch our bus to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia at 10:30. We'll sleep on the bus and probably arrive around 7 AM. We'll do some hiking there, but it won't be as warm (since we'll be up in a mountain). I'll try to keep everyone updated!

I LIVE

I've been a naughty blog owner, neglecting it and all. I do have some fun news to share, though.

So, 36 hours from right now, I will be sitting on a plane on its way to Singapore. I will spend the weekend there, after which I will head to Malaysia and spend the rest of the week there. I return the following Sunday.

Pretty huge, huh?

Here's how it came about. Early in the month, I saw a post by one of my kickboxing classmates, Diana, that her and her friends were planning a trip to Singapore and Malaysia and wanted to know if anyone wanted to come along. I really want to see a lot of Asia while I'm over here, so I was interested, but decided not to since I didn't know them very well.

Fast forward to the following weekend. We have our monthly (or to be more accurate now, every-so-oftenly) kickboxing night out. We spend some time at an Irish pub, but decide it's too expensive so we head off to another smaller bar with live music and cheaper beer. While there, I chat with Diana and Janine, Diana's friend who's also going on the trip. Anyways, while chatting, Janine asks me if I want to go with her and her friends to Singapore and Malaysia. I say sure. (I'm a firm believer that the best decisions in your life are made on the spot [see: Why I Started Studying Chinese].)

So starting the next day, Diana starts organizing. (She's an accountant, so she loves organizing things, which works for me.) She drafts the itinerary, books the flights, and makes sure everything's good to go. I'd say as of right now I'm pretty set to go. Except for the entire packing thing; still gotta do that.

As for other things, class is going quite well. We're quickly finishing up this quarter. I'm pretty sure a lot of my classmates will be back with me, but I'm not sure about my teacher. That worries me a little bit, since I know Shida has many teachers, some of whom are not very experienced/good. Let's roll the dice again!

Kickboxing keeps getting more and more fun. I've been told that I've progressed a lot since I first got there. All I know for certain is that I have a great time going. We're starting to do light-contact sparring, which I enjoy greatly. Having experience sparring at my old martial arts school is a double-edged sword: while I have experience and quickness in sparring situations, I also have habits that while they may work well in my old system don't work as well in kickboxing. Better keep it up!

Also, I got my visa renewed. I'm legal in Taiwan until 3/10. I'll probably have to go back sometime in February to get a Resident Visa.

I usually post pictures with my updates so...here are a few! These are of the Xindian River which runs very close to my apartment. Every time I walk to or from the MRT station I walk right by it.



That's my apartment building on the right side there.



I took one of the pictured swan boats with May (yes, the girl I went to Danshui with last post). Here are some closeups of the river scenery:





To finish up, one more picture, from the "Is this ridiculous enough to be true?" department (taken in the bathroom at Shida, the school I'm attending):

Another packed weekend

I'm getting into a pretty good groove with having fun times on the weekend. And best of all, it doesn't always involve going out to the clubs!

Friday night I went to my first movie in Taiwan. Before the movie, we hung out in the nearby area (a pretty ritzy shopping district) and tried some fries that had corn on them (weird!). Me and May saw In the Valley of Elah. I enjoyed the movie, and it was nice that we could both enjoy it (it had Chinese subtitles). Afterwards we ran to catch the MRT but didn't get there in time and I took a cab home.

Saturday afternoon I had kickboxing class. We're starting with a fee so we could get equipment, and the equipment came in on Saturday. He got five kick bags (big bags that provide cushioning so you can kick/punch them), boxing gloves, "clappers" (targets used in kicking for accuracy) and some sparring gear. I think it's really going to bring the class to the next level. After class an amateur photographer came by and took some pictures. She said she'd send them to us. I saw a few and they looked pretty good. I'll show them as soon as I get them.

Also on Saturday my Australian roommate, Simone, moved out. She's leaving Taiwan at the end of November and she's going to spend the rest of the time staying at her friend's. It was a little sad, but we also got a new roommate. Her name is Chelsea, and she's Amanda's friend from Canada. We've met before, and since I already knew how cool she was, I was glad to hear she was moving in. Of course, if you get a new roommate, you've gotta go out and celebrate. And celebrate we did. We went to a club called Pasoul and met up with a few of Amanda and Chelsea's friends. After some dancing, a few drinks, and a late night convenience store trip, we cabbed it home.

In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have gone out Saturday night, because on Sunday I went and spent all day at Danshui with May. I wasn't too hung over but I definitely wasn't as energetic as a quiet night and a full sleep would have afforded me. After taking half an hour to find each other at an MRT station and eating lunch, we took the MRT up to Danshui!



After we got off the MRT we went down this street. It had all sorts of little Taiwanese snacks. I tried some egg snacks and some various candies that May said she'd eat all the time as a kid. She tried to trick me with an Atomic Warhead. Nice try!



We went to a Ripley's Believe it or Not! museum. Believe it or not, they're in Taiwan too. They had snakes, pickled animals with deformities, a mummy, and a bunch of weird animals. Would've been a good place to go on Halloween!



This is the 紅樓, or "red building". It was built in 1899 by Europeans when Danshui was controlled by the West as per the Treaty of Tianjin. We didn't hang out here long, since May said it looked cooler at night.



That's May, so you know who I'm talking about.



This parrot would say his name (something like "Baowei"), "Nin Hao", and "Hello". When we first came it seemed he was more interested in breaking his lock with his beak. After a minute he warmed up to us, though.



We took a ferry boat to two more of the tourist spots in Danshui: Fisherman's Wharf and Bali.



VROOOM! May didn't want to get splashed. We did.



Since May was cold (65 degrees F is cold? Whatever!), we stopped by a coffee shop and she got something warm to drink. While we sat there, there was a guy outside making balloon art. Here he is making Santa Claus (working on his hat). He also made Donald Duck and a swan. Not too shabby.



This bridge is called 情人橋, or "Lover's Bridge". According to legend, if two lovers cross the bridge they will break up. We crossed it. (May said she didn't believe the legend.)



Here's Bali. It wasn't quite as hoppin' as the other two places but there were a lot of people who'd walk their dogs. I didn't get a picture of any of them; May was too busy playing with them all.



At Bali a bunch of kids were riding these sorts of little toy animals. You had to pump them up and down to go. Wasn't a very effective mode of transportation.



We walked by a street artist who cut out silhouettes of people. He said I could get one for free if I posed so I could send his work overseas. He liked my nose.



Since it was getting dark, we returned to the Red Building in Danshui. On the third floor they have a cafe with an outdoor porch. We sat there, ate some french fries, drank some tea, and took pictures of the Danshui skyline. There were also some fireworks we could see in the distance. It was a nice way to end the day.



May took this of me. Turned out pretty well.

After fries we headed back to Taipei on the MRT. Quite the day! Luckily I didn't have any homework so I was able to have a relaxing evening. That was what I needed after such a full weekend. (Of course, it didn't end up to be very relaxing since my computer started acting up, which I didn't fix until this afternoon, but I got my rest in, don't worry!)

This week in class we're studying politics. It's not the most interesting subject in my opinion, but it'll be good to sound at least semi-informed. Other than that and kickboxing, I have another "normal" week coming up. There may be an update midway through the week to show you the fancy pictures that the girl at kickboxing took. Stay tuned, Tedketeers!

I'm out.

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.