And FINALLY, after over a month of not having a camera, I have one! Casio Exilim Z75! AND I am posting PICTURES! (I swear, this is all I do at work)
I would post pictures of Group Seven up first (my group from Orientation Week), but seeing as how I didn't have a camera to take pictures of them, I will stalk them each down one by one later and post pictures later. Instead, I will introduce the people I have met recently and have quickly become some of my best friends!!
The Beginning
Mr. Super-fobby (just look at that peace sign and transformers shirt!), Julius, is fellow Academia Sinica-er, and honorary Group Seven member. I met him through Yvonne, who stumbled upon this awesome person through her numerous connections (aka, the Vegetarian Table).
Yvonne and Me! As our resident vegan slash outgoing voice among the unheard and heard, she's just about the most awesome person ever, and although I'm older than she is, I often feel like she's the older one taking care of me. Haha. 真的有一點點好笑. Her Chinese is also like a gadzillion times better than mine.
Looking ever more attractive by the minute, Yvonne! O_o;;; Just as a quick explanation, these first few pictures are from the time we went to 長春, vegetarian restaurant. I ate an unbelievable amount that day. But it was amazing food, and none of it was as greasy as I thought it might be. Why can't American buffets copy Asian ones and cut down on the grease?
Slightly more normal?
Yay, we were happy about our food!
And since I had JUST gotten my new camera just days earlier, I whipped it out and started getting pictures. And of course Julius, dork that he is, had to whip his out too and start flailing it about. Haha. I am a camera whore. I know.
Here we are-- the person between Julius and Yvonne is Ben Wu, who goes to Hahvahd in BahStahn. He's an... interesting fellow, to say the least. Definitely amusing beyond belief. I thought he was a fob at first (it's the hair, man), but later it turns out that he isn't. Or so he says ,anyway.
FORMOZ2007 (or, at least, our attempt to get there)
After our teatime lunner (dinch? combination of lunch and dinner?) from 2:30 to 4:00pm that day, we went back to digest at Yvonne's. And then we headed back out to try and get into a concert. I didn't realize until later that what we were going to was FORMOZ2007. Here Julius and Yvonne are waiting for the MRT to come and whisk us away.
Walking there, this was what we saw. Lots of people. Lots of strangely dressed people. But hey, it's Taipei.
Formoz~2007! Underground and Indie Rock Groups performed all weekend and we only found out on SUNDAY. Grr. And Tickets were 1600NT, and that definitely would have been okay... if we hadn't arrived only a few hours before the end of the weekend concerts. Aish. What a shame.
Wandering around trying to find a way to sneak in, I spotted this awesome helmet. I want one like this! If I had a bike and if I had the space to stuff this in my luggage on the way home, I would totally get a helmet like this. Too bad I really just can't...
The weather was absolutely perfect.
Absolutely gorgeous.
Julius waiting. We ended up sitting on the grass staring at people go back and forth to the two different sites of the concert. Aish... It was killer, really, to see all these people enthusiastically go to the concerts that we only could hear echoes of from outside the stadium.
Not that there wasn't cool stuff happening outside. There was some sort of free dancing going on outside on a little stage with music blaring. People just made their way on and off the stage in their own various gyrations.
As the sun set, the lights from the concert started glowing brighter and brighter. This picture makes it seem as if the entire place was on fire. And, in a sense, it was. Ablaze with the excitement of all the attendees...
Subsequently, since we had no way of getting into the concert, we gave up and found a rollerblading park nearby where various older students were teaching younger ones how to skate. Yvonne managed to wrangle out two pairs of skates for us, and the two of us glided around. I felt oddly liberated on those skates. The breathlessness of going so fast just made us all giddy.
Afterwards, we took photos in the dark. We were all so happy (although I hate my glasses...)...
...that even the lights around us went crazy. (Actually, it was just my camera being weird. It's a cool effect though, right?)
Yay, it's aliens!
Afterwards, we stopped at Seven, which was having a promotion. 10元 Mango Smoothies (we NEED these in the states), which is what Julius and I got, while Yvonne bought her favorite (ha), TaiPi(台啤), also known as Taiwanese Beer.
Busting out the camera again.
I feel so artistic taking these photos. I just noticed that the guy in the background is using his cell phone too. This picture could be used in an ad or something. Haha~!
I don't know how this picture ended up being so cool, but I like how it came out-- it would have nicer if Yvonne had come out less blurred though.
...and now she's a carrot. Whee. I was trying the different filters in my camera. Whoops, sorry Yvonne-- you're brightly colored now...
And that was the end of that day's excursions. We went our separate ways after that. Yvonne back to Tainan (台南), and Julius back... to party somewhere? with
someone...? ^_~
Shopping and Dinner with DianaI never see this girl. The most elusive of the Taipei-dwellers, Diana works at the Palace Museum. I rarely see her, but it's always a pleasure to hang out with her. We said we would meet in the 台北地下街 to meet, and apparently we ended up going to a different one from the one she had originally indicated. Not that it mattered- we still had plenty of fun in the underground, eating curry, cream puffs, mochi, etc. Although how much shopping we actually got done was pretty low... Haha. It was fun regardless!
In the end, we took a bunch of pictures together.
She looks a little pouty in this one. Smile, Diana!
Nope, still being pouty... although I look like I'm staring elsewhere. Whee...
Haha, this picture is HAWT.
Is this one better?I feel like my head is double the size of Diana's. Maybe it is. I wouldn't be surprised.
Bus FriendsI need more pictures of my roommates and dormmates. These girls are people who crash on the bus with me every morning. Yeah BUS915! We are awesome. It's pretty funny, because there are two that we tend to split over-- the 7:30 and the 7:45, and we know who has missed what bus by seeing who is at which stop depending.
L->R: Alice, Sherin, Kelly, Julia, Jody, and Isabelle.
The Beauty that is the campus of Academia Sinica (中央研究院)
I see this every morning when i walk to work. Actually, it used to be a field of what I surmise must have been rice. But then someone harvested it last week, so it is currently a field of mud and straw (mud because the typhoon and downpour of rain this morning made it soggy).
There's a lily pond that I walk by every day. It's got the prettiest flowers, so I took a bunch of pictures one morning when I was relatively early. I love lily leaves. They're so big and fun to draw.
This pond is filled with bullfrogs who sound their mating calls every morning and evening.
Close up of a pink flower.
Rule of threes?
And a cute little cluster.
屏東阿公和舅公
We went South to visit my grandfather this past week. He's one of the most adorable little men I've ever met, and I am totally convinced that my father will be exactly like him in thirty years. That's him in the middle. We had my brother crouch because the man who was taking this picture couldn't see or something and kept cutting my brother's head out of the picture because Jon was too tall or something... Hahaha~!
Homeward bound from 屏東/台南!
So I haven't told the full story of what happened on the way back from Tainan. A freak rainshower hit just as my brother and I arrived and looked at 客運 (intercity bus) ticket prices back to 台北 (Taipei). So at first I just figured I'd wait until Julius arrived-- since the buses were all booked, so we had to be on standby-- until I realized that, oops, I left my backpack in my brother's dorm. And it had my Academia Sinica ID. DANGIT. So I hopped on a taxi and rushed back. The taxi driver was nice and gave me his umbrella to use too. Yay. I love nice people.
Then Julius and I rode back to 和欣客運 together. Then I bid farewell to my brother, and we got ready for a FUN RIDE. Aka four hours of torture because I obviously can't stand this Julius fellow. Ugh.
Haha. Kidding. Kidding.
A picture of my money (yay, I can feel rich in Taiwan because 1000NT bills are so common) and my bus ticket. Woot. It was cheaper on the way back up to Taipei than it was coming down...
DORK! We actually played a lot of video games while on the bus, actually, because there wasn't much else to do besides play video games, watch music videos of what looked like prepubescent girls, and then chat. We did much of the last option for most of the ride back. 我超愛跟Julius聊天~!!
... oh, and another thing to help pass the time? Pictures! Many many pictures! Here's one shot...
...and another!
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WHEW. I'm done posting for now. I definitely took over an hour to do all this. Yay, I am being productive at work! ¦3
原價: NT$1880
