I'm in the Taipei airport now awaiting my flight to LA!
The airport is practically empty, security is so easy here, and my flight is pretty empty, so cool! And obviously free internet in the terminal.
Anyway, signing off for now from Taiwan!
Next stop, Los Angeles!!!

Bon Voyage Taiwan for a while!

Greeting folks! Today is the day that I fly back to the USA for my visit! Can't wait! I actually go back in time and get there the same day I leave here but earlier. HA!
I think I'm leaving Taiwan at a good time too because the weather has heated up a lot lately. Today is the hottest day so far. Actually, you kinda just get used to it- or numb from it, not sure on that one.
My last day of work before holiday was yesterday and on Saturday were end of semester performances for 2 of my classes. One class did awesome and better than rehearsal. The other class and younger class not so good. They couldn't even remember where to stand! Here is a picture of them during a rehearsal. These are costumes for he show and not their every day wear. Adorable costumes, though. LOL.



That's all from the update desk at this time. My next post will be from the States!

Sunday Whatever Day

So last night, James and I met up with my friend Wesley and his boyfriend for some beer and drinks at the Taiwan Beer Factory. We were there two weeks ago as I posted but by ourselves that time. It was fun. We also saw two other friends of our who were having a party there for their Dragon Boat team. So we ate and drank. We got two of those 3800 CC table kegs too. LOL. It figured out to be cheaper that way actually. Everything in bulk is, I guess. After being there a few hours, we hopped in a cab and went to Fresh, the gay bar. I was totally bored with the place as usual and the music was not good for dancing. It was really weird music. We didn't stay long there and hopped in a cab home. Had a really good night overall and yummy food at the beer factory. Always a good time at the beer factory. Today I'm sitting inside. Very, very hot out today. But I'm going to head down to a public pool soon, if I can find it that is. I figure some cool swimming would be... cool. :D
Ciao!

PS- Looking forward to seein' all you fools stateside in a few days! Wooohoooo!!!

No love when shopping for food

I thought I'd make dinner tonight being that I'm off today. So I scooter it down to the Carefour Chaos Center in between the rain drops. I go to the food section after browsing electronics and as usual, I don't know what to do when I'm in there with all the weird food and nothing very familiar short of canned corn. Then I see hot dogs. I think, hmm, beans and franks. Okay, cool. I pick up the hot dogs and proceed to look for buns. HAHAHAHAHA! After that fun of looking all over I ask someone, or moreso, point to the pretty picture of a hot dog bun on the package of hot dogs. He in turn says something I don't understand and asks another lady who happens to be manning a sample cart. She waves over in the distance behind her and he mimmics her to me. He's waving to the bread section. But they don't have hot dog buns. Most of the bread is not packaged in Taiwan, it's fresh. Why the fuck is a store selling hot dogs without having buns in the store? About to cry, not from the fact that I can't have hot dogs in buns, but because I'm just frustrated, I return the hot dog buns back to their cold home and head to the frozen food section where I buy some frozen pizza things and chicken nuggets and then to produce to buy some green apples. And a bottle of wine. Somehow the liquor areas are universal whereever you go and easy to navigate. I pay for everything and head down the escalator to find the rain has returned in buckets. I have never ridden my scooter in heavy rain so I wait and walk around inside looking at the pet shop and the pretty fish and ugly hamsters. I go back to the window and the rain has let up enough so I go to my scooter and don my cheap 7-11 yellow rain trash bag and scoot home. Here I am. So much for making a good dinner. I guess that's why most people just eat out here- at least the foreigners. It's so difficult!!!
If it wasn't for this heat right now and humidity, you'd think it was winter with the gloom. It changes so often here that you can never judge if you will be getting wet when you go out the front door.
Man, my blood sugar is really low right now and I'm feeling really bitchy. Luckily I just heard my frozen pizza announce that it's done in the oven.

Also, the photo of the day will turn into something more like photos of the week. I don't have the time to post one every day, or rather, take one every day. Plus, it's only one island I'm on. LOL.

Photo of the Day

On the river that seperates city from county.
-Taiwan

Hello

So this last Friday consisted of me going to the Taiwan Beer Factory with my friend. Finally some decent food, and of course good beer. I really do like the Taiwan brand of beer. It's quite good. Anyway, they had a band playing. They even played YMCA and everyone joined in. LOL. Fun times. And here we are at Monday again. Only 8 days til' I fly into LA. I can't wait!!!
Anyway, here are some pics of the beer factory.

I don't know who they are but I wanted to show the size
of he mini-keg you can order at your table. Lushes! LOL!
We just had a few bottles. Huge 22 ouncers for only 60 NT
or about $1.80 US. Not bad considering it's good beer.

The outside sign. Not sure what the 346 means but
those are all beer cases.

Photo of the Day

This is a fruit stand obviously. Fruit in Taiwan is great, better than their meat, anyway. So naturally there are lots of fruit stands much like you would find many carnecerias in East LA. :D

Yum!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm good food last night finally!!! I'll write about it later but it involved the Taiwan Beer Factory!

Photo of the Day

Photo of the Day

MRT arriving at the station.
Taiwan

Photo of the Day

Betel Nut booth.
Betel Nut is a chewing thing that acts as a mild stimulant. It comes from the seed of the Betel Palm and is usually wrapped in a leaf and mixed with lime and sometimes tobacco.
It is habit forming I believe. It also rots your teeth, turns them orange, and can also lead to oral cancers. It seems like a nasty habit to me but is popular here in Taiwan and other Asian countries.
You see these booths all over Taiwan and they are characterized by the green fluorescent tube lights as seen in this pic. Sometimes they have revolving lights to let you know they are selling it at a location. Back in the 90's, the person inside the booth would usually be a woman with very minimum clothing on. They are called Betel Beautys. The government cracked down on that. You still see pretty women in these booths- just more clothing now. This lady, as you can see through the glass, is not in that category. Sometimes you just see regular guys or even grandmas selling in the booths. Whoever it is, they just sit in there all day wrapping up the betel seeds in leaves and packaging it. If someone rolls up on a scooter, they will usually give curbside service to the purchaser and send them on their way without the person even having to get off their scooter. I've never tried it but it's all is pretty facinating to me.
More info here with this Wikipedia link.

Here's a video about it. More can be found by searching "betel nut" in you tube too.

Photo of the Day

Hey guys! What the fuck is up! Hope everyone is well who is reading this.
I've realized, that now, most of my friends are not in the flesh near me, but rather far away. Sometimes the only medium for communication is here on the net, or email, or phone calls. I miss all of you who are reading this.

And now on to the photo of the day.
I also add these to my gallery titled the same as this post at: davidphoto.smugmug.com


Bike Parking Efficiency, Taipei, Taiwan

Photo of the Day

Sunset in the City. Taipei, Taiwan

Quick Update

As of late, not much new. It's hotter than ever weather-wise and the food is still not good. LOL.
This weather really drains you though. Drinking water isn't enough. You need to also hydrate and recharge with a sports type drink. If you don't, you get really sluggish.
Anyway, I'm off to bed. L8r.

Photo of the Day

Entrance to an underground sidewalk for crossing the intersection
Photographed by Gonguan MRT station area, Taiwan

Photo of the Day

Urban Suburban. Baseball on a Sunday morning.
Photographed in Sijhih from the platform at the train station.

5th of July BBQ

Yesterday I went to Sijhih where some of my friends live to partake in a 4th of July BBQ on July 5th. Sijhih is in Taipei county but way out on the edge. The MRT and local train altogether only took 1 hour. We BBQed on the roof of her high-rise apartment building. It was pretty fun. However, once we were done cooking we stayed inside with the air con because it was so warm outside. LOL. Today it looks like I'll be hopping on the scooter and heading to a pool to keep cool. Below are some pics of yesterday. They are not in perfect order but you can figure it out.
Bye for now!



Ariving at Sijhih station.

Some very strange art at the station. Her eyes are clocks!


The small town of Sijhih. This town is on the edge of Taipei county.

This is the other side of the lady.




The view from my friend's balcony.


My friend working the grill on the roof where we were BBQing.

Photo of the Day

Not sure what this dude is doing. Either trying to sell something or get her to listen about something.
Photographed at the university by Gonguan Station.

Photo of the Day

The burning of 'Ghost Money'
The burning of "Ghost Money" is something that I see going on, I think, once a week. But I learned through research that July-August is Ghost Month and it is done more often. I didn't really think much of it when I first came to Taiwan. In fact, at first I thought they were burning garbage and there was no cultural significance to it. But apparently there is. The Taiwanese believe that burning paper money sends money to the ghosts, advances their wealth in the next life and helps in improving luck in business or family. Indeed, I see most of this happening in front of businesses as pictured here. As can be seen, food is also placed on a table as an offering to the Gods. After photographing this, I had to cross the street and walk by this burning can. The heat was intense and I thought I got singed almost! Not surprisingly, and tradition aside, this ritual is criticized for it's pollution factor. By the way, I believe it's a special kind of money made for burning and not money tendered for commodities. So I don't think they are actually burning real money.

Photo of the Day

Here is my first post for this new venture of my blog. I will post two in the same day for this first one to catch up and then one every day thereafter.

So on with it.


The bus stop signs in Taiwan are useless unless you read Chinese. The busses are run by independent companies- many I think, so there is no regulation. So I think these companies don't care about putting English on their signs or paper bus schedules, unlike the MRT Subway that is completely English friendly. So getting around by bus here is done by word of mouth about which bus you need to take. Most of the time though, once you are actually on the bus, the stops are read out in English through an automated voice as well as scrolled on a light marquee.

Happy 4th of July!

Hey guys! Happy 4th of July! They don't really celebrate it here so... Whatever. But I am going to a BBQ tomorrow with some other Americans to celebrate.

The weather has heated up here wayyyy too much and I am dying in this heat. As well as humidity some days. But life goes on. Almost 2 weeks til' my visit to the states! I can't wait! Dear California, please don't burn down before I get there. I've been hearing about fires all over the state and it's horrible again like last year. :(

Also, I'll be starting a photo of the day here so stay tuned!

That's all for now!