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

Fails - Day 32 - June 06, 2010

Fail #18



Today there were many fails. Well the only fails I remembered were two major ones (my memory sucks!) I met an American guy at 7-Eleven. He gave me two of the stickers to get a toy for free if you collect enough haha. But I don't think I'll be able to collect 11 or whatever the amount is (I'm at 4). He gave Theresa and I a flyer of events to go to. One being a vegetarian potluck at Daan Park this day from 2pm-8pm.



We didn't get there until 6pm of course and most of the food was gone. There were still activities going on such as music playing. It was basically a social event with some performances. There was also a comedian thing too. So I just took pictures of random stuff at the park. I really wanted food =( Sad haha.



So let me tell you a little about Daan Park. First of all, it's huge and I mean huge! A lot of people go there to do Tai chi. You can tell from the pictures there's a lot of art structure type of things (I don't know what you call them lol). People hold events there and such. Daan park also has a playground for children and an area for everyone to rollerblade/roller skate.



There is even an area where a path is structured a certain way. But basically it's different shapes of stones and rocks are set. The width between them start width then it gets narrow. You're suppose to walk on top of it barefoot. It's suppose to make you feel really good. I tried it last year, it just hurt me and my feet got dirty since I kept sliding off =( I didn't run into it this year though.



Fail #19



Theresa heard from our friend Dex that there is a night market near Yuchun that sells a lot of cheap stuff. But we couldn't find it haha. We thought it may have been Songde Market (saw it on the MRT map). I think we found that market but it mostly sold vegetables and fruits. My mom would have loved that area.

But luckily, we were close by to Wufenpu =) Decided to revisit there instead.

Fail #20

It's always good to try new food right? Well sometimes no... Theresa and I tried a new food stand for dinner and it wasn't all that great. We should have stuck to the usual food stand we go to because you get so much for just 50NT=$1.56.



The bowl of rice with fatty pork meat wasn't too bad. I mean it tasted okay, just not as good as the other rice bowl we get at Wufenpu. I was really disappointed and was still hungry after haha. But I mean, it was 30NT=$0.94, so I shouldn't have expected much.

These aren't fails!

550NT=$17.21


100NT=$3.13


200NT=$6.26


150NT=$4.69


150NT=$4.69


200NT=$6.26

Rice Burger & Shopping - Day 22 & 23 - May 27/28, 2010

Score! Exchange rate went from 31.89 to 32.04NT per dollar!

May 26, 2010: Carved Noodles



Have you ever seen carved noodles? The chef gets this big glob of dough and uses a flat sharp tool to carve the noodles. He then drops them into the boiling water to get cooked. I tried looking for a video but couldn't find it. It's pretty cool to see how fast he goes. But that's what I had for lunch today =) Stir fried carved noodles. The restaurant had a new addition to their restaurant, a new room.


I ordered Pork and Mushroom noodles, didn't see any mushrooms though... Maybe it's suppose to be mushroom sauce? But this had cabbage, pork, carrots, and whatever that black thing is. 90NT=$2.81


Kao Ya (Roast Duck)

I freaking love eating duck. It's so good. Each place I went to Taipei taste a little different and uses a difference sauce. This duck place near Shida Night Market tasted like the states. The thing that sucked though was there was a lot of bone and not much meat. But the side dishes were good!

80NT=$2.50 =) Side dishes include vegetables, skinny mushrooms, peppers with little fish, and this other mixture with carrots and celery.


May 27, 2010: Shopping Again at Wufenpu



Back to Wufenpu for shopping! You really do need a second day at least to shop (unless you shop for like 8 hours straight or something). I took two pictures at Wufenpu though. You can see there are a lot of stores. Those stores are pretty much like warehouses since they have so many clothes stored everywhere at their shop.

I didn't get too much this time. I was watching my spending this time =)

Each scarf was 100NT=$3.12


100NT=$3.12


MOS Burger



I was finally able to try a rice burger! I saw it a couple years ago and wondered how it tasted like. I was kind of disappointed though =( The bun is made out of rice of course. I thought the rice bun was going to be crispy or something. It just tasted like ordinary rice stuck together. A rice burger pretty much taste like when you eat rice with side dishes, but for lazy people.

The pork tasted good though =) This rice burger also had lettuce and onions.
Shogayaki Burger: 60NT=$1.87