Real good friends for a life time.

So on March 03, 2011, I met the second set of honest to goodness life long friends. Their names Michelle and Jae. We went to a gallery of some famous artist. I recall that it was raining at night, and both Jae's and Michelles feet were soaked. But they were still in high spirits and happy mood. Well I'll let the pictures do the talking.

First the lovely couple Jae and Michelle.

jae being pimp

This was a peculiar setup, I'm not sure what it was suppose to mean/ be.

Top vantage point from the giant plant exhibit.

pretty cool looking cake exhibit.

This was a really weird contraption. The oars actually moved in sync.

Some clothing exhibit. Some of the dress's were actually elegant.

Many more pictures were hung on the walls. But due to bad lighting reflection I did not take pictures of them.

updating

It's been a while since I've posted I know. Since Feb 2011, Now I've finished my 2nd semester at NTU and have returned home to the states. But just so their won't be such a huge time gap since my last post (Feb) I'll continue updating month to month till the present.

Four months of Recap

Well it's been a while, actually it's been four months while.

So let's start with Halloween... was well Halloween and I did not anticipate it to be so widely adopted here in Taiwan.

Yeah the kids were cute. The quality of the costumes showed the natural competitive nature of the parents. They looked very expensive.

Fast forward to December er...was it November? Had a two day trip to Tainan and Taichung.

In Tainan we visited Cigu Lagoon, at the sea food restaurant we had a snack of clams and oysters.

I never knew oysters and clams would taste so good over coal. I like the clams most since they expelled the most juice. Honestly clam juice needs to be bottled and sold, it's that good.

This is the boat we used for the tour

These are all family/ individually owned fish cages, clam beds. Previously the area was a major exporter of fish, clams, and oysters but another site was built and has over taken this one. Now it's just for personal use.

This is what an oyster farm thingy looks like. An old oyster shell is tied to wire and hung on these racks. Then a new oyster would grow and be ready for harvest in four months. (at least that's what I understood in Chinese)

After wards went to Cigu Salt mountain and Salt museum.

Yeah...a huge salt mountain.

But to make up for the mountain the "horehound chocolate" ice cream was really good. I had two. It's poor chinese <=> english translation. It's suppose to be chocolate mint ice cream.

From there were took the bus sipping on what else??? But asparagus juice, it was actually really good, to Taichung.

In Taichung we visited the rice castle. This was actually a "Rice museum" showing the different farm equipment used to harvest the varieties of rice.

Ice cream was being sold made out of ..... what else but rice and it was good. I had two cone's, oh yummy.

From there we again drove over to Lugang, which is a very old city in Taichung.

This is the Longshang Temple and it's about 300 years old. It was originally at another site in the city but it was relocated to it's current location.

The temple is completely in tack and in daily use. The amount of work put into this temple was amazing.

This is the famous and biggest market in Lugang.

Another historical building from the 1600's. It was the house of the magistrate of the city or other. People actually still live in it on the second floor. You can barely see the stairs on the right side.

We also made some friends.

Then came finals and this is how my review in Grad level Classical Chinese Philosophy looks like. I got an A- in the class :(

Mind you this is just the first quarter of the three hour class. Their was lots more where this came from.

Then school had a new years party, it was pretty all out, all major school faculty attended including the president of the University. It's rather peculiar that he was seen more highly then any move actor or singer in Taiwan. Girls were flipping out and fainting no joke.

Now let's fast forward to February 2011, I went to Tainan (country side) to visit my foster family that my program matched me up with.

These are traditional Taiwanese homes out in the country.

Some more pic's of my walk around the area. Just to paint a proper picture of the isolation of this small village. I was stared at by the young and old... consistently and for long durations. One person actually asked me where I was from. The old spoke Japanese, the young spoke in Tai-yu and Chinese Mandarin while the adolescent only spoke pure Mandarin.

At the end of the walk I found this ostrich farm , the size of the eggs were as big as my head. Never seen so many ostrich's in my life in one place.

And then there is this guy. My new roommate (yeah moved out of my old place F it!!!) and a friend and I went out for dinner to a Cantonese restaurant. I was high on some Japanese energy drink. I swear it was spiked with some crap because I was acting the fool. I couldn't stop laughing because this server has a strong resemblance to well....

This guy!

LEEETS GET REEEDY TO RUMBLE!!! Pinoy Style.

-10/24/10-

The next day just before catching my flight, I went with friends to a cock fight. At first I was nervous and almost paranoid. I didn't want to accidentally make a wager and loose my life savings.

At the entrance, cock's were being ranked and matched up.

Before fights, there is a furry of bidding, hands franticly waving, and money being thrown at bid takers.

Here are two cock's measuring each other out before going at it.

Yeah, this is a bloody battle. The knives on the chickens are capable of cutting necks off and also cutting abdomens wide open (I've seen the latter happen, it was the official sign for me to go).

Given the intensity and "rawness" of these brawls, one needs to desensitize to actually take in the skill's these cocks demonstrate while fighting. Chicken's actually plan, setup, and execute fight moves. Defensive and offensive posturing occur so fast, it's not till seconds after and sometimes minutes when you notice and become mentally aware. Many times over some brawls have left me more then astonished and stunned.

Then it was time for me to go. Here is my flight after landing from Cebu to Manila. That's about 1 hour flight. Then I waited 2.5 hours for my flight to Taipei which landed at 12:00am.

After not sleeping for so long, and thinking back at the many things which have happened in one week and especially the prior day, I felt some what delusional. I wasn't sure if it ever happened, but then I popped some jelly beans in my mouth (gifts dispersed during the wedding reception) , a clear affirmation to me of what has just transpired.

Without further ado I will show random pictures I took during the trip (in no specific order).

This dump truck (down the hill from my hotel) lost brake's and turned over. From what I heard it crushed one taxi, and a motorcycle. Nobody was critically injured. Which was a surprise since the cab was caved in.

Common backyard made"bus". Many have parts from multiple vehicles, welded and bondo'd together on a flimsy steel frame. I'm surprised they are allowed to operate in the first place, much less charge people to get on.

Before the wedding I rushed to Ayala Mall in Cebu to exchange money. It had everything including a complete auto dealership (with cars).

Snap shot of Cebu city while crossing the bridge (I think).

Owner prepping his cock to fight.

The knife sleeve comes off, and the knives of both cock's are whipped to ensure it's not poisoned.

The aftermath of a match.

After a fight, the winner (if possible) is mended and the looser immediately get's made into a soup for the owner of the winning cock to eat. (it's suppose to bring honor to the looser. Go figure.)

Some political propaganda, elections for city mayor were only a week away when I was there.

The end.