in the past 2 days, i have run into SEVERAL of the native ginormous monster spiders in my house. called Lai-Ya, these are GIGANTIC spiders that are hairy, grey, and scary as hell. they are bigger than my hands, and they run faster than cockroaches. Someone said.. why don’t you just sweep it away with a broom? Au Contraire, my friends. I’ve tried. They just run around the broom and end up on your feet or legs. Apparently they’re harmless, but i don’t care. Last night, our internet went down again but I never managed to reset it, because when i walked to the modem, a ridiculous Lai-ya as big as my outstretched hand was there, poised on top of the modem. There he was, daring me to reach over him and reset it. But of course, i turned around and ran.
i am SO thirsty right now, but there is yet another gigantic monster spider guarding the doorway to the kitchen. blast.
recently, i’ve also been unable to sleep because someone decided to get a rooster and it wakes me almost every day at 4:00am. Sharp. And if the rooster doesn’t wake me up, the toads outside my window do. Gah!
soo CNN recently reported news of a prison in the Philippines, which forces its former gang-member male prisoners to dance at least 5 hours a day to current and past pop hits!
according to CNN,
Amid the tropical heat of a Philippine prison, convicted murderers, rapists and drug dealers on Saturday paid tribute to Michael Jackson with a reprise of their YouTube dance hit, “Thriller.” Dancing was introduced at the prison in 2007, as a means of rehabilitating prisoners at a facility once notorious for its gang problem. Video Watch more about the prison tribute »
Every able-bodied prisoner must dance. If they refuse, they lose privileges, mostly conjugal visits. According to Garcia, the dancing occupies up to five hours a day. However he rejected claims he’s abusing the prisoners’ rights by forcing them to dance so many hours a day.
He said it gives them a renewed sense of worth and confidence, breaking them of their violent ways. He is convinced his prison is a model for prison authorities everywhere, an example of how to crack the plague of violent prison gangs.
do the hustle! clearly, some of these guys are really enjoying themselves.
and of course, thriller! love the guy who plays the woman.
it has been a weekend full of winnie’s. winnie tang came to visit me in taipei! we celebrated our birthdays together by eating ourselves silly and sweating it all out in taipei’s night markets and mountains.
first stop, the Shilin Night Market. 士林夜市. we had stinky tofu. fried, fermented tofu. smells horrendous, but is ohh so good.
sweating it out at the night market with winnie and mark. notice the creeepy goth/cosplay guy in the bottom left corner. scary scary.
of course, the 毫大雞排 (super huge chicken cutlet) is a must. a giant tenderized chicken breast, breaded and deep fried to fatty goodness, with chili powder.
next was Jiufen 九份， a small town nestled in the seaside mountains, which was the partial inspiration for Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. these stairs are TIRING. i have no idea how these old people manage to climb up and down these stairs. i guess a good indication of how unfit i am.
Jiufen street cat!
The fattest chihuahua i have ever seen… i had to take a picture of his fat booty.
The weekend ended in Chiayi 嘉義, visiting Winnie Wu Penn reunion! um i’m not sure why but this is the only picture i have of the 3 of us. hm. but nonetheless, here we are at Fen Chi Hu, halfway up Alishan. Almost threw up on the way up the mountain, but it was a nice place
there are two window washers scrubbing the windows right now outside our office, except it is POURING outside. hm. not quite sure what good that’s doing. not to mention…. there is tons of lightning and thunder, and they are washing windows in the pouring rain with 10ft long metal rods in their hands. i was really tempted to take a picture but i’m sure they would not have appreciated that.
according to Micki (pictured below), it is completely acceptable to put your head down and sleep during meetings. i haven’t quite gotten the guts to do that yet but boy oh boy i sure was tempted today. it is apparently also quite acceptable to talk to your neighbor during presentations. by talk i don’t mean whisper, i mean talk at an audible volume. other companies i’ve worked for in taiwan haven’t been this way, but i quite like it like this
trend. statistically significant. data analysis. dichotomous. multivariate strata. chinese words i never thought i’d use so often in my life. haha.
this morning, my cousin completely laughed at me for how much my english has deteriorated.
this morning i realized my co-worker has two large bottles of 高梁酒 (high proof liquor) on his desk. one of them is mostly empty. makes me wonder what happens around here after i leave.
i am going crazy. ALL day today, someone has been NONSTOP calling my phone and it hangs up after 3 rings. by nonstop, i literally mean, every 20 seconds. i don’t know what to do because no one can call me, because my phone is constantly ringing!! seriously, not funny.
1. i secretly wish i was a fob. yup, that’s right chris hwang! i am admitting it to the world.
2. i hate that no matter how hard i try, i still have a slight american accent. i guess it’s hard to get rid of after living in america for so long.
3. it’s now the tropical rainy season. i HATE that my pants are soaked all the time, and they NEVER dry. it is SO uncomfortable. I hate even more when my socks/feet are wet and they never dry. i hate hate hate even more wearing sandals in the rain and having yucky dirty sandy water between my toes. so um… looks like it’s a lose-lose-lose for me.
4. today, someone asked me if i was out of high school yet. yay.
5. i am deeply afraid of thinking about the fact that my grandma won’t live forever.
6. i am working a LOT of hours, both for work work and for grad school. but somehow, i don’t really mind. Usually i’m kicking and screaming, but maybe i’m just becoming more of a workaholic.
7. winnie tang is coming to see me in taipei
8 . i miss the american dunkin donuts. sweet, sugary, and fatty. here they are not sugary enough.
9. sometimes i get lonely after work. despite taipei’s never-ending number of choices, nothing is ever as fun by yourself.
10. can someone tell me why subway tastes different here?? it’s the same ingredients… but just tastes different.
it was sweltering today. you know its going to be bad when it’s already 30 celsius outside at 8:00am!! good lord. almost fainted today after work.
i feel my english deteriorating every day. i am horrified by the amount of grammar errors in my writing now.
Haven’t had much time to take pictures lately but i have to give a shoutout to my awesome friend/coworker. yay for cool people! it’s almost scary how alike we are. also… for those who requested a picture of the hair… there it is. chopped short.
ok. i had to put up this picture. it is benetton’s new “my hashi” series (my chopsticks in japanese)… comes in a ton of colors, and is the most awesome packaging for 環保筷 (portable chopsticks) i have ever seen. it’s even cooler because it’s united colors of benetton. it’s a test tube!!!! the stopper comes out and has a groove on one side, so it doubles as a chopstick rest. genius. even more amazing because it’s in a test tube!!! i am so excited.
soo what did i do for my birthday? not much… actually. most of the day was actually spent doing work… lots and lots of reading. too much reading. ugh. but i did manage to have a bit of fun towards the end of the day
had dinner on friday with my lovely lovely co-worker Mei Hsuan, who is super nice and super funny! We went to Grandma Nitti’s Kitchen in the Shida 夜市 area, on 師大路，93 巷。 It’s supposed to be a contemporary American restaurant, sporting american fads such as the “brunch/breakfast all day” thing… with choices ranging from omelets and waffles, to other sandwich regulars like smoked turkey, chicken club, etc. I had the “grandma’s signature” omelet… cheese, mushrooms, onions, and peppers. I must say I wasn’t impressed, but it wasn’t because of the taste, it was just because it wasn’t the usual american omelet. it tasted quite yummy but it was more of a taiwan omelet. the hashbrown was nice and crispy though.
on saturday, most of my day was spent doing work, but Mark did show up with a nice red-wine fruit tart for me. yum! thanks mark!! Later, on a walk through a traditional market with my cousin, we saw this little guy sleeping among the veggies.
We ended the night with a stroll through the 101 area. While walking past the A4 Shinkong Mitsukoshi, my cousin realized that there is actually CORN STALKS among the pretty plants!! Someone purposely planted corn as a part of the decor! I have walked through here SO many times and never noticed it there. We also noticed some corn growing on the stalks… so… we made sure no cops were around, jumped into the garden and stole corn. HAHA. we actually stole corn off of these government planted cornstalks outside of A4! Of course we were cracking up the entire time… and we ended the night with ears of corn stuffed into my purse. Look at these beauties!! Naturally grown corn, with no fertilizer. All the more beautiful when it’s conveniently ‘borrowed’.
We steamed and ate them. REALLY good. sweet, juicy, plump, and fresh! So.. next time anyone is walking by A4… you’ll see the corn stalks. But sorry… all the corn left isn’t ripe yet. My cousin and I stole all the ripe ones…
so… who’s had this before? i ate this in Tainan last weekend… in chinese it’s 棺材板. what does that mean? that means, literally, “coffin”.
so why the heck is it called a coffin? who the heck knows, but it is freaking good. It’s basically a piece of texas toast, where they cut the middle out and fill it with something similar to chicken pot pie filling, except it’s better. A better explanation would be that it’s similar to thickened sweet corn soup, but also has chicken in it. The toast is first buttered, then deep-fried in lard, so every bite is crunchy and full of fatty goodness. It looked small, but after one of these i was so full i couldn’t eat anything else. Probably because it has about a million calories from being fried in lard. yum.
the past week has been a blur … we had a national holiday 4-day weekend! but in return, we have to make up a day of work this saturday. boo. hiss.
weekend was spent with winnie wu in 台南 (yayyy)
was also able to see my cousins on my dad’s side that i haven’t seen in a while… but wow… we are CLEARLY related because we have the exact same nose… the liu cousins.
the 信義誠品eslite cafe in the afternoon from yesterday… love these chairs.
ok will write more later when i’m not about to get tendonitis in my wrist.
Penn reunion! um i’m not sure why but this is the only picture i have of the 3 of us. hm. but nonetheless, here we are at Fen Chi Hu, halfway up Alishan. Almost threw up on the way up the mountain, but it was a nice place 
