Almost Going Home

Quick update: We just had the Dragon Boat Festival, which to a foreigner means 3 days off (Thursday, Friday and Saturday). It also means that we have to work on Sunday to "make up" for the day off that we got on Friday. Yes, China's government holidays make you work for your holiday. Thursday was really the only holiday we got, Saturday is the (my) usual day off and so because I got Friday off (to make it a straight 3 days) I have to work on Sunday. They just shift my "weekend" around. And now I am about to embark on a fabulous 6 day work week. Great plan right? Oh PRC, the things you think of to tickle my ABC bones.

Mark your calendars. Thursday, July 16 11:30am. China Eastern from PVG (Shanghai Pudong) --> LAX (Los Angeles). I will set foot back onto American soil, take a deep breath of American air and smile. It will be good to be back.

Leehom -- almost (again)

I meant to blog about this event a few days ago but got a little busy (... with life and with general procrastination), so here I am to make up for lost time.

If you recall from a previous post, March 22, 2009 I posted about a missed opportunity at a Leehom event. Well guess what? Make that now TWO missed opportunities! Yes, dear reader that is correct. Twice I have missed out at a Leehom event. Obviously many things in my life are out of my hands, but I still have to admit there is a certain pang of disappointment when I discovered this.

Again, here are the facts of his China visit ... please notice how everything was so ... convenient.

Leehom was in Shanghai (again...) in the month of April. (so was I)

Leehom was in the XuHui District in the month of April. (I live in the XuHui District)

Leehom was at the Metro City shopping mall doing a promotion. (I wasn’t, but I could have been because it is only a max 30 minutes walk from my apartment)

This was a Saturday event. (the significance being that Saturday is my day off from work)

However, it happened to be on the exact day that I was to leave Shanghai for Taiwan. How ironic is that? Leehom was in China doing a promotional event when I was wondering whether I would have the opportunity to be a fan_girl at one of his promotional events in Taiwan.

You know what’s the best part? My roommate, Sina, was actually at the Metro City shopping mall on the day of the event. She was making a quick stop over there to find some “Shanghai” souvenirs to bring with her to Taiwan for my family. She bought the souvenirs and she says that she remembered seeing a large crowd at the entrance of the mall. But she didn’t think anything of it and went along her merry way to meet me at the metro station to go to the airport. Sina is also a huge Leehom fan.

We found out about the Shanghai Metro City Leehom event a week later, when we had returned to Shanghai from Taiwan.

C’est la vie. :)

H1N1

So.... I guess the swine flu finally made it into Mainland China. Mainland China has just confirmed its first case of H1N1 (Swine flu). With a country with such a large population, I guess it was only a matter of a few days before the first case was confirmed. The infected person had traveled from St. Louis to Tokyo to Beijing and then to Chengdu.

I guess I will have to cancel my ideas of visiting Chengdu during the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival. Call me paranoid, but this is the same girl who wore a face mask all through Taiwan to Hong Kong to Shanghai. From the Hello Kitty boarding gate in Taipei to the Pudong Quarantine and Inspection area. I am also thinking that all this H1N1 talk is proof that I should probably be staying home that holiday weekend so that I can take inventory of my life and organize for leaving China.

Here is a link if you’re interested:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8043189.stm

Video Nostalgia

I just randomly found some videos on my laptop that were made a few years back. These videos were shot when we were hanging out or playing some game or whatever. Seemed like such a simple thing to make back then, but who knew they could trigger such memories. I recalled events, I recalled people. I could hear your voices. I could see your smiles. The feelings that can be evoked by just seeing images is beyond description and one of the most beautiful things about life and about being human.

I only wish that we had recorded more of our times together.

I really miss people. Everyone.

我愛台灣 Wo Ai Taiwan I Love Taiwan

** More photos to be uploaded onto facebook

[no, I did not go to Alishan. It's not the only place to visit in Taiwan by the way]

The recent trip I took to Taiwan (Formosa - beautiful) with Daniella and Sina was fantastic. We only had a week but we somehow managed to visit both the southern and northern sides of Taiwan. It was a jam packed week that left us exhausted, but a good kind of exhausted. The kind where you knew that you accomplished a lot and would leave with priceless memories. Most of the places we went to were places that I had already been to, but it was fun to go again to experience it with Daniella and Sina. We basically spent an entire week seeing beautiful sights, eating delicious food non-stop, and laughing everyday.

We flew from Shanghai to Hong Kong to Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Kaohsiung is a port city that is located on the south western coast of the island of Taiwan. This is where my mother is from and so I have the majority of her side of the family still in Kaohsiung. My 2nd Uncle picked us up at the airport Saturday night. After visiting the neighborhood night market, we settled in and went to sleep ASAP because the next day was a trip down to Kenting, located on the southern tip of Taiwan.

On Sunday: The Kenting National Park area is a beach area that is tropical, sunny, beachy and scenic. Unfortunately, the day that we went, it was windy -- windy beyond description. Our hair was flying all over the place and we felt a little chilly. Nevertheless, we managed to have a grand old time taking pictures all over the place. My cousin Annie recommended that we visit the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium, which we later figured out was probably due to her really wanting to see the penguins again. We also visited some scenic sights such as Maobitou (貓鼻頭) and the rock that is supposed to look like Nixon’s head. Then, a day in Taiwan would not be completed without the visit to a night market. This time we went to Liouhe Night Market in Kaohsiung, which is a tourist night market. We ate some stinky tofu and fried ice cream.

National Museum of Marine Biology & AquariumMaobitou (貓鼻頭)

Liouhe Night Market @ Kaohsiung

On Monday, we did some exploring closer to home. My grandparents took us to Cijin Beach located on Cijin Island. We took the subway and then the ferry. This is only a short (very short, haha) ferry ride from the main island. Here, Daniella and Sina grabbed some tea drinks. By far the most amazing was probably Daniella’s drink which was black tea with boba pearls and vanilla ice cream ... in a large cup. Which she finished drinking really quickly. And then was too full for practically the rest of the day. At Cijin, we walked along the beach and down some of the streets, just taking in the local life. We took the ferry back and then a bus to Lotus Lake. It is a lake that has many temples and pagodas around the lake. We climbed to the top of the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas and took in the fabulous view. We walked over to the Spring and Autumn Pavilion and took a lot of photos as well.

@ Cijin

Dragon and Tiger Pagodas @ Lotus Lake

On Tuesday, we made plans to leave Kaohsiung in the afternoon to head up to YingGe (a suburb in the Taipei area) where my 4th aunt lives. My 2nd uncle’s wife (my aunt) drove us into Kaohsiung city on her way to work and dropped us off at Kaohsiung’s central park. We walked around a bit and took the subway back home. Along the way, we stopped at the “Dome of Light” which was a colorful photo op. We got on the Aloha bus that would take us straight up to the Taipei area where my 4th aunt would pick us up. The bus seats were basically over stuffed lazy boy recliners with mini-TVs attached to them. Roughing it in Taiwan.

Kaohsiung Central Park
Dome of Light in Kaohsiung subway -- the most colorful subway experience you will ever have

On Wednesday, we went into Taipei City to visit the Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall, the National Palace Museum, Taipei 101 and Shilin Night Market. The day was certainly as busy and packed as it sounds like. It was great to wander around the city on their subway system. Oh! And unlike the Shanghai subway system, the people in Taiwan actually line up to take the escalators! The right side is for standing and the left side is for through traffic ... something that the Shanghainese can’t seem to get right. In Taiwan, they will actually line up to be on the right side and kindly leave the left side for people who are walking through. And they line up to get onto the subway cars and wait for people to get off before they get on. In Shanghai, everyone just pushes as one giant crowd so that nothing really gets resolved. I love Taiwan’s subway system! At Taipei 101, we arrived in the late afternoon and stayed for the sunset. We were able to walk up to the outdoor observatory deck as well! It was super windy and it was amazing to be at the top of the tallest building (in operation) in the world.

Quote of the day from Wednesday:
[Sina sees that the security guard is tall]
Sina: He’s the perfect height for me. He’s not bad looking either.
Daniella: He just walked away smiling. I think he understood you.
Amy: I’m pretty sure he knows English. He pointed at my backpack and told me in English that I couldn’t bring it up the 101.
Sina: AHHH!!! He knows English! And he knows what I just said about him!!
Daniella: That’s why he was smiling.

Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall

National Palace Museum
Taipei 101
Taipei @ night

On Thursday, my 4th aunt and uncle drove us out to Yehliu Geopark. Here we saw natural rock formations in the shape of mushrooms, ginger, tofu and the most famous one -- the Queen’s Head. The geopark is located right next to the ocean and is an impressive area that shows you the power and beauty of nature. We got dropped off at Danshui on the way home (my relatives went home first). No problems with the public transportation around Taiwan; we knew exactly how to get ourselves home from the city (subway, train, walk about a block). We wandered around Danshui, which is sort of a like a calm water front area, and went to Ximending to meet up with Gladys, a friend of mine from UCLA who is studying abroad in Taiwan for a year. Ximending is a pedestrian shopping and hanging out area where a lot of young people like to go to. It is also common to spot celebrities (though we didn’t when we were there). There are either a lot of good looking young people in Taiwan or we have been way too deprived for too long in Shanghai.

Yehliou Geopark
@ Danshui

@Ximending with Gladys

*** Great amazing crazy story from Thursday night. On our way home, we had to run to catch the train that was leaving Taipei on its way to YingGe. We are running up the escalators and we can hear the warning bell ringing. Sina and I jump in, turn around and see the doors close on Daniella. The cell phone my aunt had given me to carry had a dying battery. We pressed the emergency button but it didn’t seem to do anything. The train that Sina and I were on was pulling away from the platform. Daniella can barely speak Mandarin. She did not know my aunt’s contact info. And the train we were on was possibly the last train out of Taipei to YingGe. The last thing I see Daniella motioning was that she would stay at the train station. Sina and I had to go into crisis_mode quickly to decide what we should do. We asked someone about the train schedule (Taiwanese people are so nice and helpful!) and found out there were a few more trains leaving that night. We get off at the next stop and our plan was that Sina would get on the next train to Ying Ge in case Daniella had decided to grab the next train. She took down my aunt’s contact info and address and I made her repeat the correct train stop to me a few times in Mandarin so that I could make sure that she wouldn’t accidently get off at the incorrect stop. I would go back to the Taipei station to try to find her and bring her with me. We had to ask some people for information on how to take the train back to Taipei. When I got back to the Taipei station, I found her sitting on one of the chairs. We now had to somehow figure out which train would take us back to YingGe and someone was nice enough to let us use her cell phone so that I could call my aunt and let her know about the situation and that we would be late. For a few moments, all 3 of us were separated in Taiwan.

On Friday, we first did a mini-hike through Yangmingshan (Yang Ming Hill). We walked on paths and found a waterfall. Photo op! Then we went to the Jiufeng area to pick up my cousin Tony from his school and also to see the Jiufeng Old Street/Town area. This area is located on the top of a hill overlooking the ocean. It is an old gold mining town that has since been converted into a tourist area. The views from the top are simply beautiful. Unfortunately, since it was a holiday weekend, the place was overcrowded with tourists (many from the Mainland). My uncle used the excuse that we were there to pick up my cousin (which is the truth) so that we could bypass all the car stops and drive directly up to the top and drop us off at the entrance. From there, the 3 of us were left to walk around ourselves while they went ahead to pick up Tony. We explored a bit and then got picked up. We headed back to Taipei because we had reservations to eat at Modern Toilet. It is a restaurant that has a toilet and bathroom theme. The decor is all toilets and the food is served in small toilet sets. My relatives had a blast with the novelty of the place as well. We all laughed so hard when our desserts came because they were way larger than what we thought it would be. One of them could have fed all of us, but we had unknowingly ordered 3. It was all in great fun though.

@ Yangming Shan

@ JiuFeng

@ Modern Toilet

On Saturday, Sina left Taiwan to go back to Shanghai to work. Daniella and I spent our last day of Taiwan by first taking a walk through Ying Ge’s ceramic district with my cousin Peter. We then headed into the city again to walk around Shilin market and Ximending. That night, we went to the Ying Ge night market and then called it a night.

On Sunday, we flew back to Shanghai. And to make it the perfect ending of a fun fun trip, our boarding gate in Taipei had a Hello Kitty theme. And there was the swine flu (H1N1) to worry about at each airport. Face masks! And that was the end of my fabulous Taiwan trip. whew, this post was way too long. But as I mentioned in the previous post, the Taiwan trip was “beyond description.” This post could have been way longer.

@ Taipei Airport in the Hello Kitty gate during the H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak. It looks like we're the only ones wearing face masks but these were like the only people who were NOT wearing masks. Just about everybody else had a mask on.

我愛台灣 Wo Ai Taiwan I Love Taiwan

Return from Taiwan

This recent trip to Taiwan was, for a lack of better words, ..... "beyond description"