kumquat tea

Well, some things have happened this weekend, they weren't all that exciting, I mean the highlights of Saturday were 'o.k.' I'm getting the feeling that due to my prolonged absence readership has dropped significantly, & I suppose the only way to rectify that is by fresh content & pictures. And posting a lot of comments and tags on other people's blogs. That or not caring and making it one big note to self. I'm surprised there were no "blog-nazi" style comments of "post you infidel post, or I'll tear your eyes out." But whatever.

Yesterday

Well, as I said, the highlights were so-so, but the dumb parts weren't too bad either. We all met inside Shandao Temple MRT, then went one station over to Main Station and walked to the Main Train Station (conveniently proximitous). This was the first time I'd been on a train in Taiwan--and I have only ridden a few in North America & Europe--so I took this unprecedented experience & used it to write more postcards. We all got seats on the way there on these benches. The train ride seemed to be about an hour.

Upon arriving in wherever the hell it was, we rode in cars to the pottery place. There was apparently some sort of event there later, but we just roamed around looking at some pottery. There was this really expensive yet crappy thing that was being sold for like $8,000 CDN (rounding up, actual price NT $192,000). I didn't buy anything, because pottery is big and breakable.

A.A., Ivonne, Kyle, some girl & I all decided to go on a mission to Old Ceramics Street randomly because we were bored & had a lot of time to kill. So we all talked and compared notes about experiences / studying, how people's Chinese was improving, and who would speak well or not be able to by the end of the year. That was kind of fun & I had this fruit juice/'tea' made of lemon & kumquat.

There was a ceremony, complete with junior high school band and parade with drummers, and fighting dragon-costume things. And Rtn. Vino was MCing, just randomly. There might have been important people there, like the mayor of Taipei County, & the Minister of Culture, but I only heard those things in Chinese so I could be totally wrong. We were staring right into the sun and the mic was too loud, even though the sound techie was standing RIGHT NEXT TO the mixing board he didn't fix it. There was this unveiling of a large wall painting, which I also have 3 minutes of video about; in the video, which you all can see in like 8 months, some guy throws what appears to be a smouldering/flaming wad of toilet tissue from the roof down at one of the politicians.

Afterwards we went inside and had free food. It was good. Some people were doing pottery but we mostly sat and laughed at a few people who just massacred their clay and could not form anything resembling other than a misshapen, non-pot lump. Got back on the train but with no seats & returned to Taipei. At the train station before we left we saw breakdancers though:

In the evening there was, as Ivonne put it, "A party for unmarried, pathetic women. I'm so excited!" Claire & I hung out, & I had to get Ivonne & Scott from the subway at different times, and take Scott back, which involved some walking. During the event, Scott & I played this baseball game where he owned me severely, while Claire watched in amusement.

Partway through we (me & Scott) had to re-arrange my little brother's room which involved disassembling and moving his bed to a different configuration to create the illusion of more space. I tried to ask "why" but Scott just said, "No, Kevin. There's no reason except they want it that way." Much hilarity ensued from a joke that Scott made which I riffed on which was made all the funnier because Ivonne didn't get it at all for the longest time. [Incidentally: how do you symbolize sex with your fingers?]

Closing Notes

I would talk about today, but I am going to bed now... let me sum it up by saying, we saw Super Size Me, while eating McDonald's food (you can bring stuff into the theatre & your ticket has a reserved seat). Then a lot of karaoke (some bad, some ok) in a smokey smelling room at Holiday KTV. I did Kravitz-version "American Woman" & a weird Asian chick's cover of "Drops of Jupiter." Solved the mic over-reverb problem by just singing really loud with no amplification at all. Dinner was at some Italian-ish place, pasta woohoo.

Also, for those of you who want to send me stuff, here is my mailing address. I translated it myself with my mom checking at the end, but it should be ok. This way, you can surprise me by not asking for it:
No. 12, Alley 20, Lane 383, JingHsin Street, Zhong He City, 235 Taiwan
I can also make it available in Chinese if you are feeling adventurous or if you have a label maker/envelope print function and Asian language support.