Dragon Boat Festival - Day 37 & Day 38 - June 11 & 12, 2010

June 11, 2010



I actually didn't do much this day. I had my usual routine, wake up, go to work, eat lunch, and rest a bit. I did take a picture from the sixth floor bathroom while waiting for Theresa to get ready to work out. I didn't work out that day since I still have my cold and it was raining. Not a good combo. The building here is the NTNU extension. It was where I stayed last year when I participated in the study abroad program. They usually have visitors and professors staying there temporary. The NTNU also has a separate Mandarin Summer Camp.

I was craving for some piggy for lunch! 85NT=$2.64


I went to Danshui but left early since all the shops were closing. I was really excited for my dinner, but it didn't taste the same like last week. The chicken was undercooked =( It wasn't as crispy and my meat was pretty pink =(

50NT=$1.55 meal




It was also a rainy day by the way. After that, headed onto Shilin Night Market since the night was still young. The picture shows a partial crowd. It's really crowded at the Shilin Night Market. It takes forever to get through sometimes if you can't find an opening and try to pass those slow walkers. Surprisingly I only bought one top at Shilin =)

150NT=$4.66


June 12, 2010



Today was one of the celebrations of the Dragon Boat Festival. This took place at the Riverside Park. It starts pretty early too, I think it started around 9AM or something but I didn't get there until 11AM. There were still races going on. What is the Dragon Boat Festival? Well from what I know, the official holiday is actually this coming Wednesday and a lot of people are off from work that day



There are groups of people who will form a team to represent their school, company, group, and etc. to participate in the dragon boat races. As you can see in the pictures, it's this long boat where each person has to work together to stroke at the same time. There are different races. There are men's, women's, and mixed team races.



Around the area are tents for each team. There are also other tents where people are trying to sell products. I saw two tents were giving away free stuff. If I lived in Taipei, I would be all over that. But I didn't stand in line for anything because I wouldn't take it back to the states. Well I did stand in line for this one tent where you had to play a game to win something, but they closed off the line. Theresa and I stood behind this sign (that said end of line or something in Chinese) and we had no clue until the man holding the sign said something to us a couple of times. But other than that, the best part are the food tents of course since I love to eat =D



I did try one thing while I was there. It was a potato/radish cake. They have this at Dim Sum (also known as lo bok go) but Dim Sum tasted so much better. This radish cake thing is fried. They put some sauces on it that made it a little sogy. I like mine crispy =) But it was alright tasting! It filled me up =)

35NT=$1.09


SOGO Mall



There are a bunch of SOGO Malls throughout Taipei. The one I went to was close by Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT Station. I went with Theresa so she can find some discontinued MAC eye shadows. I didn't take pictures of the inside since I already did before. But got a picture of one of the buildings of SOGO and another building shot of something random. The MAC at this SOGO sucked! They didn't have many eye shadows at all. In fact, they had duplicates of the same shade, some of them went up to three. The workers there also didn't really know much about makeup or what they're doing because they'll say, "Oh all of them will look good." That's not very specific.

Later On...

I got back to my hostel around 2PM or so. What did I do? Stay online for a bit and took a nap after! It felt good. I think I only napped for about an hour though. Started the evening at Wufenpu and found myself a business jacket! I've been looking everywhere for one.



I also bought a mochi =) Yum yum, it's a desert that's made out of a sweet flower with grounded sugar/peanuts in the inside (mochi varies) and more grounded peanuts on the outside. I can't eat many of these, they fill you up like no other.

5NT=$0.16

I feel like an old lady - Day 7 - May 12, 2010

I feel like an old lady now and days. I get really tired by 10PM. Sometimes 8PM if I'm walking around the night markets and stores. I have no idea why! I get about 8 hours of sleep each day. Maybe it's because all I do during my internship is sit for 4 hours. But that should be changing in June hopefully!

New Cake

I went out to lunch today with Theresa and Xiao Wang. We walked to the area behind Shida for lunch. She treated us to the Asian pizza/pancake that I can't remember what it's called. Cong something haha. But she also took us to this dumpling place and let us try a piece of cake.

The texture was thicker than the Chinese cakes I had. I really like the red bean paste because it wasn't too sweet.


After work, headed to the bakery in Shida Night Market. A lot of owners here are getting strict with taking pictures of their store. But I managed to get some shots mwuahahaha!



I bought this cake =) I forgot how much it was, I think it was 38NT which is $1.22


Let's try Vietnamese Food
Decided to try the Vietnamese restaurant from a hungry girl in Taipei Blog because the Banh Mi in the picture she took looked really good. But I didn't get a Banh Mi because it was pretty expensive, it was 120NT = $3.83. One banh mi wouldn't get me full. Their food overall was kind of pricey for Taiwanese daily life. Especially for me since I'm not getting paid for the internship haha.



Passed the Taipei Arena along the way to the restaurant. This is where Jay Chou is suppose to perform in June for a concert. So sad =( I saw that tickets were sold out (of course). Just when I'm in Taiwan and get a chance to see a live concert, I won't be able to because tickets are sold out =( It's okay food made me happy.

Here is the storefront, inside the restaurant, and menu!



They showcased the sirarcha bottles haha.


What I got =) It's a Pork Rice dish with half an eggroll, egg, and vegetables. 140NT = $4.47


The pork was decently good, not the greatest. The eggroll had a weird taste at first but tasted good later. The egg thing was okay.


But the fish sauce tasted really good!


Sogo Department Store

With a full tummy, I started heading back to the MRT to go home. I had to switch from the brown line to the blue line to get back. One of the signs said SOGO Department Store. I been wanting to go there because people said it was good. I thought there was doing to be some cheap stores but they're mostly expensive brands =( Had some fun exploring the balling grocery store though.

Here are some shots of the levels of SOGO.


There was even a Din Tai Fung there! Haven't eaten there yet but I heard good stuff about it. I will soon!


The baller grocery store. Everything is pretty much overpriced.


Look they have this at Meijer haha.




Fail #10
To get home by the MRT, I have to get off at the Taipei Main Station. This station connects you to all the colored lines. I had to get on the green line to get back to my hostel. Well I completely forgot that one of the stations has two different routes. Once I saw an MRT approach, I quickly got on with Theresa.

Theresa and I both looked at these two girls in high heels who didn't get on the MRT. We thought wow, it's not too bad standing. We thought they wanted seats and we started laughing at them for some reason. Well turns out we got on the yellow line instead of the green line. The yellow and green line meets at one station where we could have got off at (Guting) but we would have to switch to another green line to get to Taipower Building stop.

So FAIL we had to get off the yellow line and get on the green line. Then we realized that the girls waiting for another MRT were probably waiting for the green line. Jokes on us. FAIL.

The Grand Finale

Remember the grocery store inside SOGO? Well I found a pair of flip flops there. These flip flops cost 6600NT = $210.66! It doesn't look really special right? The sparkling stuff on the thong are embedded with crystals. No wonder it's in a glass case. CRAZY!