Monday, February 27, 2006

1st earthquake encounter

I had my 1st encounter with earthquake without knowing it.. Cos I was happily sleeping and actually tot the jolt to my bed was made by my roomie who was sleeping on the bottom deck.. Only remembered feeling a bit pissed and thinking what the heck is she doing to the bed? Then, I continued sleeping.. haha..

Anyway that was last Friday and don't worry I'm still alive and kicking in Taipei.. From what I know the culture here is that they don't really give a damn abt these little quakes cos it's really common.. Teachers will continue the lessons without even giving the quake a mention.. Hmmm.. And my fren said those that usually evacuate from the building when a quake happens are non-Taiwanese.. haha.. maybe I'll be one of those next time..

sights for the week...

it's been a pretty eventful weekend! great that weekends start on thursday nights.. but then by the time it's saturday we are shagged and hence will stay in to rest b4 going out to havoc again on sunday! haha.. here's the pictorial tour for the week..

since weekends start on thurdays night, we went for our first 夜唱 at Holiday KTV.. supposed to be the cheapest rate for singing ktv but we also end up paying close to NT$400.. tat's like 20 sing dollars.. think cos only 3 of us, if more ppl would be cheaper.. and the thing is we did not make reservations and almost could not get a room... well the almighty Adrian has his ways and hence we had our first k session in taipei!

after hearing so much abt 故宮博物院 in Taipei, we decided to do some cultural discovery.. all I can say is it's not as spectacular as I thought it would be.. maybe cos I went to Beijing's 故宮 before and it was a great feeling to be there.. anyway my roomie was telling me even if Taipei's 故宮 change their exhibits every year, we would still not be able to see all of them in our lifetime.. how much did they actually take from China?


saw this statue of 孔子 in 故宮... juz haf to take a photo wif Johnny.. hope his wisdom will rub off in me.. haha..

cute puppies at 士林夜市... there's apparently a doggie craze here and there's also stray dogs everwhere.. can't help but think what will happen to them when the craze is over and they get abandoned.. sigh..

棺 材板!n hanyu as my food model... yeah did not get to eat this the last time I was here, so I was determined to find it this time.. it's actually a piece of thick fried bread then they dig up the centre and put the filling inside.. the filling is some creamy campbell soup-like thing wif various ingredients like chicken or pineapple.. nice!

there's always these 簽唱會 in Taipei on Sundays.. well Hanyu loves Mayday and so off we went to 阿信's 簽書會。Man it's tiring to 追星.. but oh well I got to shake his hand... hehe..

eh.. the special guest of the 簽書會 is 曹格.. a bit off but oh well.. 師兄幫師弟吧

this is where the 簽書會is held.. it's somewhat like Funan Centre in Singapore, those tech places.. I think my brother will like it..

this pic if specially for my bro.. his gundam model in larger than life size! this whole shop is dedicated to gundam models and there's also a shop that sells all sorts of other anime models.. Bro u should come see for urself!

Saturday, February 25, 2006

the feeling of home...

  1. shopping at ikea
  2. train stations that reminds me of s'pore's MRT stations
  3. finding and reading The Straits Times at the school library
  4. having a hot cup of milo (tho it's strangely made in vietnam)
it's a wonder how the little things can give one such great comfort and relieves the feelings of homesickness.. it's a sense of familiarity that provides that comfort, knowing that it's actually not that different.. i nv thought that i would actually miss home since i've been away on my own many times and nv remembered really missing home while i'm away.. but then and again home is nv far away in terms of time and space... well, home is currently 20 weeks and 3248km away..

3rd week in taipei...

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

早期的鳥兒有美麗風景看!

i can't believe i actually woke up at 6 plus am today juz to go up the mountain behind my sch to have breakfast.. it's been so long since i've actually woken at this kinda hour.. but it's all worth it!

my nice roomie suggested we go up the mountain behind 政大 on her scooter and she asked her senior along so that hanyu could go too.. i think abt 80% of the uni students here own a scooter.. guys and gals alike.. and since i haven been on a scooter b4 and being on the mountain sounds cool i gamely agreed..

hence at 7 plus, after getting breakfast frm the breakfast shop juz outside the hostel (haf i mentioned they haf great breakfast here?), we 4 gals set off for the mountains on the scooters.. i'm not really sure of the place is called 貓空 but shld be somewhere near it lah..

so after a 20 mins ride, we reached where we wanted to be.. it's at a temple there and the view was great! like going to 山頂 in hong kong or mt faber in singapore and ther best thing is it's juz behind 政大... and we had breakfast with the beautiful Taipei City in front of us.. it's a pity there's heavy fog this morn.. if not would be able to see more of the city.. also heard the 夜景 is really beautiful here.. shall find a night and go up to watch the 夜景。

we stayed for abt 30mins, finished our breakfast and came down again on the scooter, and we were still early for our 930 lesson.. haha.. but then i was quite falling asleep during the lesson.. zzzz...

my roomie(middle) and her senior who brought us up on their scooters!

the foggy view of Taipei city from where we were from.. i think it'll feel more spectacular when you are really there..

Taipei 101 in the distance.. "floating" above all the fog..

Monday, February 20, 2006

阿邦...台北的陳偉聯


this is 阿邦... a busker at one of the undeground shopping malls in Taipei’s 東區。me and hanyu were happily shopping away until we heard his voice and decided to stop and listen and also rest our feet.. the area actually has lots of seats for shoppers to rest which is really cool..

anyway the pt is the moment i saw him and heard him sing, i'm reminded at our very own superstar 陳偉聯。but i must say 偉聯 sings much nicer then him.. and while 偉聯 will play his own guitar, 阿邦 sings from a synthesizer.. think the govt is promoting such activities for showcasing talents cos there seems to be a schedule as to who will be there on wat days and at wat times.. really organised..

the thing is during the period of abt 15 mins that we were there, at least 5 ppl donated money to him and also quite a couple were writing encouragement notes to him on the notebook he had on the table.. Taipei is really a more compassionate and friendly place than i tot it would be.. a more gracious society than i imagined.. there's still lots that Singapore can learn from Taipei.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

picture time!

ha cos i upload my photos to my com in batches so i'll post pictures from time to time..

ppl writing their wishes on the 天燈 before releasing them into the sky.. apparently 1 out of 10 will end up either burnt or simply can't go up which is bad luck.. luckily ours were launched successfully!

us and my roomie who brought us to 放天燈!

台北101 during Valentine's period.. the heart explains it i guess.. but the weather was exceptionally gloomy..

went to 泡湯 the other day.. we purposely chose a cold day to go.. haha.. this is an indiv pool.. the public pool is simply too embarassing to go too.. can't bare to face others in my bathing suit.. but there are a lot of daring obasans there.. happily chatting away and blowing their hair (naked).. din realised haf to bring own towel so had to buy from them at NT100.. the water had really strong smell of sulphur.. can't really take it..

in conjunction with 元宵節,中正紀念堂 has a 燈會.. it's really quite beautiful with all the lightings at night.. a very different feel from wat it's like in the day.. if not for the merciless wind and rain we would haf stayed longer.. taipei's weather is crazy these days.. bright and sunny one moment then rain the next..


taipei 101 is really their pride.. there are at least 5 exhibits that had replicas of taipei 101 and they can come in really wierd shapes and sizes.. i think this is one of the best..

Friday, February 17, 2006

在新加坡吃口香糖會被鞭嗎?

it's really interesting to know wat others impression of singapore is.. i remembered zixuan talking abt japanese's and hongkee's impression of singapore.. so i also seek to find out taiwan's impression of singapore..

and the above is quite the standard question a taiwanese student will ask once they knoe we are from singapore.. or 新加坡真的那麽嚴嗎?and when asked why they think that way, they'll always bring out the michael fay caning incident.. they haf the impression that all criminal offences will be dealt with by caning.. and apparently this incident is mentioned in their textbook somewhere.. see the importance of a fair and unbiased textbook.. how it can make or break a nation's impression of the other.. but then my roomie also said, 我覺得新加坡很有种。why? cos we dared to be firm on our stand and not give in to the US..

to the taiwanese students, singapore is a place with strict laws and a cannot-mess-around-with government.. our prof is actually trying to get ppl to consider coming to singapore for exchange and this gal said she's scared she'll get caught if she accidentally drops a piece of litter.. THAT is what singapore is about to them.. well my roomie also says that's cos yanzi once said sth like she feels restricted in singapore.. now talk abt star appeal..

but then, singapore is also a place of remarkable progress to them... and they do knoe who LKY is.. at least my roomie does.. and i was discussing the Lee dynasty wif her the other day.. well, i guess telling ppl abt singapore has made myself understand singapore better as well..

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

a rainy valentine's

happy belated valentine's.. well hope everyone had a good time.. celebrating or not.. and juz as i was commenting abt yesterday's sunny weather, it rained towards the afternoon.. it's the same for today as well.. oh well, the unpredictable weather.. but it's really getting warm.. can juz walk ard in t-shirt n not feel cold at all.. and i think the weather sort of contributed to hanyu n adrian falling sick today.. poor things.. guess i'm really lucky to stay well..

anywayz we were at taipei 101 yesterday thinking that they would haf sth spectacular for valentine's.. but to our disappointment it was pretty boring plus it was rainy.. act it's quite romantic to be raining on valentine's.. if onli it was the right person sharing umbrella wif me.. hmm.. so we gave up on taipei 101 area and went to 公館 (夜市)for dinner but was met wif really slow service.. not the best valentine's day spent i should say..

subject choosing is as frustrating here as in NTU.. they haf so many ways to get a subj but juz too many ppl wanna take the same subj.. 加簽、遞補、加退選.. sounds foreign.. can't match my subjs and it seems hard to get modules out of the comm sch.. hope to solve these prob soon then i can finally start sch proper.. i need to find back the momentum to actually start doing work.. haf been holidaying for too looong..

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

the sun is up! it's 26 degrees..

today is the sunniest of all the days i'm here.. makes me feel really sunny too.. haha.. it's really rare to actually feel warm.. and according to my yahoo widget weather report it's 26 degrees now.. wow! but i think the next 2 days will get colder..

had a seminar this morning wif masters students.. 跨文化傳播專題 in place of cs222.. and the teacher sounds a lot more fun than yesterday's.. and she allow us to write our term report in english! yeah~ happy happy.. and there's this student who used to work at some tv station (i think is tvbs-g) and he said he can arrange for us to go visit.. hehe..

going for radio production later.. by the same teacher who took us this morn.. haha so today is HER day..

Monday, February 13, 2006

finally it's the 3 of us!

Adrian has finally made his appearance in NCCU! haha.. kinda looking forward to his arrival and his reaction to everything here.. and the first thing we did after we met up wif him was to go eat 麻辣火鍋.. god it's really hot.. but it's fun eating and torturing myself.. haha.. my face totally turned red! but well am proud to say i've conquered 麻辣火鍋 for a 2nd time! it feels better to eat it in such cold weather rather than in summer i guess..

anyway yesterday was 元宵節, hope everyone has a great time watching fireworks and eating 湯圓。my mum actually asked me to go eat 湯圓 but i was too busy releasing 天燈 to remember haha.. yes the 天燈 that caused CKS airport to be closed and flights delayed cos some ppl haf to brains and decided to release them near the airport and caused a forest fire.. sigh.. it's a first time i heard of such an incident.. sounds really silly.. i think it also caused some traffic accident and it's like the 1st time in dunno how long.. juz really crappy.. hmm.. literally playing with fire..

well we had more brains so my nice roomie brought us to this place in 台北縣 called 平溪 where they haf this 天燈會 and tens of thousands of ppl go there to release these lanterns together.. suppose to write ur wishes on the lantern and if u successfully release it (ie it is not burnt!) the wishes will come true.. well it's really beautiful when there are like hundreds of these lanterns in the dark sky at the same time.. like fireflies dotting the skyline.. and the 3 of us succesfully "launched" a 天燈 into the sky!

after which we were really hungry and so we went to the 1st 夜市 since i came to taipei. 臨江街夜市. quite a lot of things to shop lah i also din find anything that especially catches my one.. jus that i'm quite amazed that i can actually find charles and keith shoes in the 夜市 and hanyu act bought a pair of charles and keith heels.. haha.. dunno why i act find that amusing.. charles and keith in Taiwan..

anyway today is first day of sch.. had one lesson.. being good students we arrived really early and waited for the teacher to come.. then when students come streaming into the classroom, we heard quite horrible things abt the teacher like how his hong kong accent is very strong and him being hard to understand.. some of them took his class last sem and felt they din learn much from him.. and true enough he was really pretty hard to comprehend.. but good thing is he's quite slack and he act wans us to read reference books in english and do a book review in english too! the next classroom also having the same mod but by another teacher and it was pretty full while attendance on this end was like 10 students.. plus next door seem to be having fun while i was falling asleep in the class listening to him talk abt his daughter, his wife, his books.. blah blah.. well boasting knows no boundaries.. and best thing is we already haf an assignment coming up.. attend a speech by guest speaker Prof Eddie Kuo (who is from NTU!!) next monday and write a report..

Saturday, February 11, 2006

picture time!

my room.. 7406.. can go buy 4D
tv area on my level.. think's it's 康永當家on tv.. my mum's fav prog.. haha
my roomie's stuff.. messy!

my bed on the upper deck..argh always scared i'll fall when climbing down in the morning..


my first dinner at this beef house place.. absolutely delicious and it was a treat from the prof!

ppl here wear masks when it's too cold.. haha how do i look in this chocolate mint combi? (it's act hanyu's mask.. haha)

decided to give ourselves a treat! dinner at starbucks.. it's juz across the road from the sch and near the hostel.. yum!

we wanted to go to taipei 101 but alighted at the wrong mrt station.. so ended up at where ding3 tai4 feng1 is.. haha xp, siok, liying => we were supposed to be eating here last july! the queue was really long manz...

the worst ramen i've ever eaten.. from the foodcourt at xi men ding.. the soup doesn't taste like miso at all.. tasted like some vege soup.. expensive food is not always good..

we went to xi men ding today specially to see wang li hong.. haha.. waiting for him to appear.. juz like the many others there..

he is totally swamped by the media ppl on the stage.. (can u even spot him?) and more than 50% of the time i'm seeing his butt cos he has to pose for the media and haf to be interviewed in that direction.. god knows why.. and in the end he only sang one song.. i was so sad.. once he started signing autographs we left to go shopping.. haha..

after a tiring shopping trip.. chilling at this restaurant in xi men ding where the seats are act swings.. so cute..

1st posting from Taipei!!

ok finally gotten my connection.. thanx to my nice roommate who lent me her account cos she has no com.. couldn;t set up our account cos need some weird password which we haf no idea wat it is n no one has helped us find it out.. but hanyu doesn't haf this privilege then.. since she still haf no roomies.. well which might not be tat bad a thing.. read on...

08 feb 2006

Day 1 in Taipei: Brr… Cold..


It was a really long day today… felt like I accomplished wat I usually do in 3 days in a day..

Anyway I was quite happy wif the inflight entertainment from China Airlines.. pretty good selection of movies and songs.. haha.. the lastest blockbusters like North Country and Walk the Line were there… contemplated watching either one of these but in the end settled for Just Like Heaven cos I tot I could do with a good laugh.. brain not ready for such serious material early in the day and wif lack of sleep.. anyway tot Just Like Heaven not bad too..

And wif no major mishap, we arrived at CKS Airport.

Tho first there was a little mistake at the airport.. saw this woman holding on to a sign saying Singapore Nanyang Technological Uni and went up to her but in the end she was act waiting for 4 ppl from 土木系.. I’m still wondering if that is civil engine.. was thinking I want to get to know these ppl.. haha.. it’s going to be how hard to study engine in Taiwan.. in the end we saw this fat guy holding on to a card with our names on it.. later we realized his students all call him 刘胖.. haha.. he’s a nice guy lah.. treated us to a nice dinner.. hehe..


Anyway the moment I stepped out of CKS airport.. cold air jus blew mercilessly at me.. the temp was abt 12 degreess C lah.. luckily I brought those clothes and wore 3 layers.. Thanx mum for her constant nagging to bring those thick clothes.. heard tml will drop to 10 degrees C.. anyways it was juz a whole lot of frenzy admin work to settle.. but all these could not be done w/o a dearie junior.. 1st yr student here.. she’s so small size and cute.. think maybe can qie prodi.. haha.. so we basically skipped lunch.. did our student ident, checked into hostel etc etc..

Now for the hostel.. it’s 4 ppl share one room.. could choose from hostel 7 and 8 and since I was in hall 7 I chose 7 loh.. :P was initially locked out of the room so moved my stuff to hanyu’s room. It was quite cram for 4 ppl lah.. but wat to do.. it’s free cannot complain.. then 小只 the junior who was bringing us ard was exclaiming at how everything is better than her hostel at hostel 1 cos hers is 6 to a room.. then suddenly we feel so blessed. But ah they finally found the code to my room so I also moved my stuff in.. that’s where the shock came.. I've nv seen a ladies’ room so messy before.. messy still nvm leh.. they are damn dirty also.. clothes everywhere.. on the floor on the bed in boxes.. wherever lah.. then worse is my table is infiltrated with thing from the other room mates.. totally sian diao.. so wanna unpack also dunno how to do it.. sigh.. hanyu’s room is like such a heaven compared to mine.. I din even haf enough space on the floor to open my luggage lah.. it’s tat bad.. and the floor is horribly strewn with all sorts of rubbish.. and then funny thing is the rubbish truck comes onli once a day and u haf to run all the way down to the first floor to throw the rubbish into the rubbish truck.. anyway was juz quite depressed abt the whole thing abt my messy room.. can’t stand my things being strewn all over the place.. and the other 3 rommies are from 民族系.. haf no idea wat kinda things they study lah.. haha juz sounds weird.. the thing I dun like is also that I haf to sleep on the upper deck of the double deck.. sigh.. who ask me to be the exchange student and the latest to move in.. sianz.. then I basically also dunno where to place my things in the mess. Sigh.. for now hanyu’s place is my shelter from the chaos.. hope her roomies are better and neater people..

Ok lah to be fair they are pretty nice ppl.. juz that I can’t stand the way they are messing up the place.. I miss my room in hall and my rommie so much now.. XP I miss u!!! so nice to haf someone u knoe and understand u ard.. had same thinking and juz can click loh.. I wan my roomie back!

Funny thing: got my student id no. today.. and the last 4 digits is 3050.. haha (think liang po po).. can help but laugh at this.. go buy 4D quick!!


09 feb 06

I need warmer comforter!!


It’s been so cold that I can’t get to sleep at night.. tho I was pretty tired at the end of the first day.. already wore 2 layers of clothes and had to wear 2 layers of pants b4 I can get to sleep.. think I should haf gotten a better comforter.. sth warmer.. really tot it won’t be that cold here but luckily mummy forced me to bring those thicker coat.. at least I dun freeze to death outside.. but still it was hard getting to sleep cos in s’pore I dun even on air con.. hope wif my new warm socks it would be better.. apparently for next few days also going to be quite cold and cloudy.. really gloomy weather.. can’t wait for the day where I can see the sun in Taipei for the first time..

The weather is really cold today and the wind was really strong... went to get scarf and mask in prep of the cold weather.. the idea of wearing a mask is so weird.. juz reminds me of SARS..

act I’m fine with the cold weather in the day but I hate it if it’s too cold even for me to fall asleep.. act a really warm blanket will solve the prob lah.. but knowing that the cold spell might pass soon and I will onli be here for 5 mths I'm reluctant to spend more money on another blanket.. wat do I do with it once I get back??

I haf too many no.s to rem.. student id, hostel phone no, handphone no. and my hostel mail add is so long.. such a chore to rem.. and it's in chinese... who will send things to me? *hint*



10 feb 06

Shopping at Wu Fen Pu

1st day of shopping on our own today!! haha tho i nv buy much lah.. cos wu fen pu is a stupid place where most of the clothes cannot try n comes in free size.. crap.. my policy is i dun buy clothes that i cannot try if it fits.. then those free size jackets i wan to buy always too small at the shoulder and too short.. sianz.. so end up onli getting a belt which i bet i can also find in s'pore.. sigh... determined to get more stuff! but hanyu had a great time shopping.. haha.. bought lotsa stuff.. at least she got good shou1 huo4.. not wasted trip..

it's not that cold in the day anymore which is a good thing.. but then dunno why now it's so cold.. i think my feet are cold intolerant.. wearing socks but still feel like ice.. think i should go get thicker socks..

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

count down: 1 last day (沒時間,我沒時間)

haha now my chinese input is permanently set to traditional chinese already.. in prep for all those 繁体 words i'm going to face in taiwan.. hope i won;t be too overwhelmed by it..

back not long ago from farewell dinner with the 36 ppl.. those crazy bunch of ppl nv fail to amuse me.. haha.. will definitely miss the craziness, rowdiness, noise and fun in 36.. miss my roomie (XP u knoe when i miss u the most? when i'm eating meiji yogurt and realise there's no one to share wif me.. haha) there's so many things to miss.. family, frens, lifestyle, maybe even weather.. it's weird how you will only cherish things when you are going away.. i used to not like going out wif my mum esp to her reunions wif sec sch frens/high sch frens/ex-colleagues.. but recently i haf attended countless of these reunions wif her..

but then also there's so much to look forward to.. it's a complicated feeling.. it's never simple..

juz one more day.. i really need to be done packing!!! my baggage is going to be overweight!

Saturday, February 04, 2006

count down: 4 days.. and still not packed!

yes i'm still not packed! things are still everywhere but at least i got my digicam today! hooray!!
but i'm $560 dollars poorer now.. boo hoo.. my dad keep insisting that i should bring the canon a95 my family now uses to taipei but it's so darn bulky.. 4 AA batteries leh.. if i bring there it'll juz be looked in my drawer 80% of the time man.. and i've always wanted my own camera anyway.. so i've got a Casio Exilim Z500 now! it's like my 21st bday present for myself!


it has a darn big display screen lah.. 2.7 inches.. and supposedly scratch proof.. but the resolution of the screen actually not that good.. was deciding btw a Lumix and this one and also considered Canon Ixus 55 but was persuaded by the salesperson that this Casio model produces the most natural colour.. ok i'm pretty easily persuaded so yah.. i got this one.. well so far so good lah and my bro was telling me abt wat's wrong wif the other cams that i did not choose which made me feel better.. haha.. my bro is my tech adviser so watever he says lah.. the only thing that is freaking me out is that the camera makes a loud sound when it is focusing before a shoot.. like there's some loose mechanism in there liddat.. a bit scary..

so i'll try to post more photos now then.. juz wait and see..

Thursday, February 02, 2006

a misdeed...

yeah! finally figured out how to change font and colour.. ok it's not like some fantastic change but at least i got it by myself :P

anyway i did a misdeed yesterday that i'm still very sorry over.. was at bugis going to the kwong im temple to pray wif my mum when i saw this caucasian looking lost and holding a map so i decided to go over and see if i can help him.. he was asking where was bras basah and for a while i also totally blanked out.. well i'm not exactly good wif directions but was trying my best to be a helpful singaporean.. but then my mum was walking so fast ahead so i wanted to catch up wif her and give him directions in a rush.. guess what? i made him go in the opposite direction.. OOPS!

i felt bad once i realised what i've done.. hope he did not walk too far in the wrong direction b4 some other helpful singaporean directed him the right way.. this proves that

1) i was not a girl guide and am bad with maps and directions
2) i should not navigate taiwan by myself

i should start making lotsa frens once i get to taiwan so that they can bring me around.. haha..

count down: 6 days

argh... 6 days to departure.. and i haven finish shopping and not started on packing.. wat haf i been doing the past month? no sch and yet i haf not done anything to prepare for my departure.. hmmm... and today i juz realised i need to buy travel insurance.. alamak.. blur me..

anywayz finally manged to change the dull looking top bar to this pic of clouds i took the last time i was on the plane. and that was last july on the way back from.. guess where.. TAIPEI! ok my mum said i shouldn't haf gone there since now i'm going there for a good 4 plus 5 months.. but how i knoe rite? i had a pretty good time the other time lah.. so hope this time will be better!! only managed to do it after like 5 tries cos those photo hosting websites keep resizing my pic and hence making it not fit into the space.. until i found photobucket..

but i still haven figured out how to change the font and colour of some of the words.. the script is totally making me dizzy.. but i'm determined to conquer it.. i must prove myself that i dun need to learn web design to do this.. haha..

ok back to looking that those codes...