I'm sick right now..

So I'll just post some pictures because I can't think of anything to say. I felt like I was dying yesterday.

I thought this was interesting, because I didn't know dogs wore shoes..


There was a store that displayed a bunch of different fabrics for you to choose to make your own "Chinese outfit".


That nice, Taiwan scenery.


Cool breeze in the mountain side, overlooking the ocean.


Stinky Tofu! I didn't actually order any this time around. The smell was really getting to me.


These meatwads were interesting. The outer layer is doey, and the inside has red meat and bamboo shoots.


This is the meatwad before it gets fried in oil.


And here we have the meatwad consumed by me. A really interesting and tasty treat.


By the shores of Taiwan, you'll find vendors that sell nothing but the freshest seafood at the lowest prices.


Some sea urchins for sale. I'm not ballsy enough to try this delicacy.


An odd looking fish. This things head was abnormally large.


Fresh!


I think this was a King Crab of some sort. It was still alive in the container.

This one is for you Susy

Taiwanese Wax Apples! Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

The ripened fruit varies in hue and can be light pink to a dark, almost purple, red. One of the most highly prized and sought after wax apples in Taiwan are "black pearls," which are purplish-red. If it is ripe enough, the fruit will puff outwards, with the middle of the underside of the "bell shape" dented in a touch. Healthy wax apples have a light sheen to them. Despite its rather plain name, a wax apple is anything but plain. A ripe wax apple only resembles an apple on the outside in color. It doesn't taste like an apple. It has neither the fragrance nor the density of an apple. The flavor is a bit like a snow pear. The liquid to flesh ratio of the wax apple is comparable to a watermelon. It's remarkably refreshing and juicy. Unlike either apple or watermelon, the wax apple's flesh has a very loose weave. The very middle holds a seed that's situated in a sort of cotton-candy-like mesh. The mesh is edible but flavorless. The color of its juice depends on the cultivar of the fruit. As well as in its native range, it is also cultivated in tropical regions such as Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. A number of cultivars with larger fruit have been selected. In general, the paler or darker the color is, the sweeter it is. In South East Asia, the black ones are nicknamed "Black Pearl" or "Black Diamond," while the very pale greenish white ones are called "Pearl." They are among the highest priced ones in fruit markets.

And yes, they are THAT delicious.

Lack of Updates

So, I haven't been updating recently because the furniture in the apartment has been taken away. Apparently, the previous tenant left her stuff here, which included stacks and stacks of books, the couches, our TV stand, the big table in my room, and even our living room lamp. Pretty much, she's a prude lady that just left her items in our apartment until she found space elsewhere to store her items. I say crap, because the couches were torn up already, and the padding barely existed. So, she got a moving company to collect her crap because she finally found somewhere to relocate her belongings. The landlord was pretty upset about the move, but he's taking care of things by purchasing new furniture for us.

I don't get motivated to use my laptop when I have to squat on the floor to use it.

Anyways, the past few days in Taipei have been hot and humid as hell. The temperature shot up to about 33-35º Celsius, which is equivalent to about 90-95º degrees Fahrenheit. The humidity just makes things worse. Like, really worse, and once again, the massive amounts of sweating begins. All I need to do is stand still for a few minutes and my chest starts dripping sweat. It's a gross feeling, but the upside to all this sweating is that I've been losing a lot of water weight. Considering the copious amounts of food that I've been consuming, I'm actually still losing weight. I came into Taiwan at around 153lbs, and now I'm about 148lbs. I don't work out, but I do walk around a lot. I'll walk a mile here and there just because I'll have nothing better to do. There's just so much to see in my area that I don't even realize how much I'm walking until my T-shirt gets soaked.

Now, for the juicy bits. There's already been a few crazy, belligerent and drunken stupors. Let's see..

Tuesday night, we went to an all you can drink spot right behind Club Luxy called Q Night.. or something. So, by 4am, my friends were outside getting some fresh air. Alvin, the roomie, was talking to some chick outside, trying to get to know her and probably trying to get her number. From what he told me, I just ran up to the girl and said, "HEY Guuurrrll! My name is BOBO! What's your number?!". I literally just side busted on their conversation. The girl chuckled and gave me her number while Alvin gives me a dirty look since he was doing all the hard work easing her in. I proceed to thank her, and run off into the darkness.

I only knew about this because I checked my call log and noticed a contact that I didn't recognize. So, after asking Alvin, he explained what happened. We all thought it was pretty funny. I actually called her yesterday night and she remembered who I was.

To be honest, I don't remember a slightest bit to what she looked like, so if I bumped into her on the street, I wouldn't even know it... but Alvin said she was cute, or else he wouldn't have been hollering at her.

On the way home from Q night, we were downstairs at the 7-11 next door. This story was probably the best idiotic story I've heard about me yet in Taipei. So, I stumble into 7-11 drunk as shit and I grab two cheese burgers and run out. On the way out, I crashed myself into the mechanically sliding doors because I was drunk and my timing was all off. I bounced back a little and proceeded to dart out when the doors fully opened. Another friend had to say sorry to the worker and paid for my two cheese burgers. I get upstairs, plopped down on a chair double-fisting two cheese burgers and passed out. My friend shook me and told me to hurry up and eat the cheese burgers I ran off with. I took a bite, and passed out with a cheese burger in my mouth.

So yea.. the lesson is: DON'T TAKE ME TO ALL YOU CAN DRINK PLACES. My other roomie Jason thinks I'm some sort of crazy comedian and asked me if I've ever been on TV before for doing balls out shit. He's watched JackAss before, so he thought I was affiliated with them (probably because I told him that I graduated in the film industry). I just told him, "this is how we roll in the City"! Now, he has the fear of losing me in the future while drunk because I might wreck havoc in Taipei.

I think he might be right.

Taiwan has been pretty epic thus far. Once again, the people are friendly, food is cheap, and English is praised upon! I didn't expect myself to wild out here this quickly, but I'm glad that I have people watching my back and taking care of me in these moments.

Well, let's move onto pictures! Everyone LOVES pictures. Right?

Here, you get to choose your choice of meats. You select, put it on a plate, and the guy will BBQ it for you. The prices were between $2usd to $3usd. Very very affordable!

This is the guy doing his thang! mMMmm Tasty!



This part of Taipei is called Xindian. There's a cable suspended bridge that sways on windy days. It's neat, and I plan on walking across it the next time I'm back. It's fairly short at about 1/4 mile I'd say.



This is on the bottom of the bridge in Xindian. Notice the bicycles and swan boats. You can rent them and just cruise around the area. If I remember correctly, it was about $4usd for an hour on the boat. I didn't get to check the prices on the bicycles, but I'm sure it's just as cheap for probably an even longer amount of time.



Here, you see a guy hustling at the Shilin night market. Shilin night market is considered one of the larger night markets in Taipei. Once again, the food was awesome! For the most part, everything is deep fried in oil.



After hanging out and Xindian, we went to a famous restaurant that we had to make reservations for about three days in advance. The area was around the MRT stop called Xiaobitan, off the green line to the yellow line. The pork, was probably some of the softest, most tender pork I've ever stuffed in my mouth. There were left overs, so I dumped it into a bowl of instant noodles, and wow, epic.



A picture from a MRT stop, showing how the train system flows across Taipei. They go above ground, and also underground.



Ahh, a good ol' home made dinner. Fresh fish from the market, fried chunks of chicken, a whole roasted chicken, veggies, and marinated ground pork. Everything was delish!



That plate of noodles? It's a popular staple food for workers and students on a budget. It's pronounced "Liang mein", and means "cool noodles". There isn't any meat, but the noodles are al dente, and the sauce is thick and pasty. Just mix it all together with the sliced cucumbers, and the simplicity just blows the mind away. I can't explain how good it is, but you just have to try it. I haven't been able to find this any where in the City, but I wouldn't mind bringing a great item like this to the Bay Area. This runs you about $2usd.



This dog is named Cash! She belongs to Emily, who is Dan's girlfriend. I know Dan back from San Francisco when I used to help out at his bar called 'Underdogs', also known as 'The Taco Shop @ Underdogs'. I'm sure most of you reading this know of it, or have been there before. Cash is a pretty awesome dog. She's super friendly and he has a weird stance because her rear feet are.. slanted.




At Emily's place on the 5th floor, you can literally see an amazing view of Taipei 101, once dubbed the worlds tallest building. It lost its title a couple years ago to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.



Meet Anastasia. I met her inside Club Luxy through Alvin. I had to question her on her choice of name because I've NEVER met anyone named Anastasia. She explained that her teacher gave her that name because she was a "princess". On weekends when we're free, I'll be practicing my Mandarin with her while I teach her how to write complete paragraphs. She says she wants more practice with grammar and punctuation, so I proposed the idea of exchanging some knowledge. She's a pretty friendly girl who is an accountant at the moment.

Most of the pictures were shot with my Blackberry 8900. I don't carry my DSLR around as much unless I know I'm going somewhere worth shooting. Actually, that's a bad statement because, for the most part, I wish I had my camera with me at all times. It's been raining recently, and my camera doesn't appreciate hanging out in humid conditions, and also it's been raining frogs out here.

That's about it! I'll be posting more often when I get a table, and some seats in my room!

Pitbull Concert

So last night, me and a few friends went out to a concert. Pitbull was performing, and man, was it a great show! I had a great time, and I met some new people, and somehow, got acquainted with some San Franciscans! How random is that?Anyways, Pitbull was actually good live. You know how you check out a live show, and they sound horrible compared to what they're putting out on a CD in a studio? Well, Pitbull delivered an awesome performance. Everyone was dancing their asses off! I haven't partied this hard in years! Good times.. good times. The best part was that we got in for free. Thank you room mate! He has ALL the hookups!

I'm going to keep this short. Check out this picture of the menu at Hooters! It says, "Please do not feed the employees"! I thought that was hilarious when I read it. I just had to take a picture. I mean, what are they? Animals in a cage?

The Job Hunt

So I've thrown HTC out the window due to the distance of travel associated with working for them. I wouldn't really consider it the distance, but more of the way I'd have to get to their office. It just  wouldn't be suitable for me. The job that I wanted with HTC is based in Taoyuan, which is right by the International Airport. Driving would take me about 45 minutes if there isn't any traffic, and switching trains would take me about over an hour. It's just not worth it for me at the moment, and let’s just say I'm not very comfortable with driving or riding any vehicles here yet. Not a single bit..

Everything is moving so fast for me right now. It's only been one week! I mean, originally, I was going to Taiwan just to teach English. Now, teaching English has been bumped down my list as a reserve option. I say that because I just applied for an international sales position with a company called 'WuLin'. They sell and manufacture computer parts, so I'd be the guy reaching out to clients from all around the world. If I land this job, the best part about it is the fact that it's only a two minute walk away. It's literally right downstairs from where I live! Talk about convenience! I literally generated a new resume from scratch. It took me a good hour or so, but it's looking pretty sharp to me. I've attached an image of what it looks like.

As for everything else, I've been spending my money way too quickly out here. I have this stigma I need to throw out of my head. That stigma is the US Dollar to NT ratio. Obviously, I'm not in the States any more; therefore, I won't be making as much money. BUT, if I land this new job, I'll be on the safe side of leisurely enjoying shopping and eating again. If I land this sales job, I'll be getting a starting salary of about $35k + bonuses a year. What that breaks down to is: estimated income of $38k X 31 = 1,178,000NT per year. Not too bad! Especially if some good pork chops only cost 60NT! I'll be able to eat everything forever here. My inner fatty is speaking again. Sorry.
What else is on my mind? Well lets see. I HATE MOSQUITOS. I WISH THEY WERE EXTINCT. YES THIS IS ALL IN CAPS BECAUSE I AM RAGING RIGHT NOW. I've been bit over 10 times in the past week here already. Two of them are really gnarly. They look more like bruises than anything, and they've swollen to a point where they're more painful than they are itchy.

Last night was an insane night as well... we went to club Luxy again, but this time around, one of the owners was hanging out with us. What does that result in? How about him double fisting full sized bottles of liquor, and endlessly pouring them down our throats. He kept on topping off my glass cup, which was already filled with liquor. All bad..

I wake up the next morning extremely groggy and disheveled. As I was brushing my teeth, I noticed something on my neck... 
It was a hickey. I looked in my phone, and I have a bunch of new numbers in there. Apparently, I was making out with a girl right in front of the main bar. This was probably around 4am, right before they were closing up, and when my memory started to fuzz out.

Man, things are getting out of control here!
Ahhh Taiwan. You're treating me so well, so soon already.
More to come in the future. Stay tuned guys!

Darlie, the toothpaste with the whitest teeth

Darlie is a brand of toothpaste sold in Taiwan that always makes me chuckle when I see it. I kind of think of the imagery as some sort of sick racist image from the early 1900's. If you follow the reference link, it takes you to a Wikipedia explanation of Darlie. Since I'm here in Taiwan, I'm going to brush my teeth exclusively with Darlie branded toothpaste. Why? Because I wake up everyday, chuckling to my stick of paste.

So I woke up again at 6am to nothingness. My stomach grumbled, and I was sure that there was nothing good to eat at this hour. Fortunately, I live right next door to a 7-11. The thing with 7-11 in Taiwan is that, they're as abundant as Starbucks is in San Francisco. Everywhere you go, you'll be sure to run into a 7-11, Family Mart, or Quicky Shop. I love the fact that I live right next to one. If I were to ever need anything, I'd just go downstairs in my flip flops with the quickness.

Anyways, I decided to go downstairs for a quick bite. Now let me explain something really fast before we move on forward. The 7-11's in Asia have real good food, at a really low price. I'm serious! I mean, you get a hot dog at 7-11 in America, and it's only decent because you're not hungry anymore. It's also a bunch of processed junk with high levels of preservatives. But the food in Asian 7-11's, at least when I look at it, appears to be freshly made or prepared by a person. So I went ahead and grabbed a lunch bowl for 60NT (a little under $2). This was considered one of the more expensive items to get. I mean, it was the lunch bowl, a sandwich for half the price, or a sushi rice ball.

Let me tell you something. This has been the best $2 dollars I've ever spent on food. This thing was perfect in terms of satisfying my hunger at this hour. It wasn't too heavy, and it didn't taste overly salted at all. Inside, there was a small egg, mixed vegetables, a piece of tofu cake, and a pork chop that measured half way across the bowl. The inner fatty in me was calling, so I went at it, and low and behold, the bowl disappeared in less than a few minutes. I wish I had a video to show you how fast I ate this thing, but I wouldn't want to shock any of you with an image of my savagery eating habits.

I'll also include two images of the block that I'm staying on (this one's for you Wayne!!). I live across the block from the "old SOGO". Why is this the old SOGO? Because "new SOGO" is a block away, and much larger as well. You can say that, I'm living in the heart of Taipei's most active area.

Old SOGO

A busy street with high activity late at night.

Jet Lag?

Fortunately, I had my jet lag issue resolved within the same day. How? Force yourself to stay awake for as long as possible. Take a nap here and there, but nothing too long (an hour or more, and you're going to end up sleeping). The next day, I started grabbing a few things for my room. I remember a saying online in the lines of, "No pic, no care". So, here are some pictures!

This is the largest room in the apartment complex I'm staying at. It's on the highest floor (7th in this instance), and it's a bit larger than my old room in San Francisco. I've just started off with buying some new bedsheets, a new pillow, and some other misc. things. So far, the weather has been cool. Wait, no. Let me take that back. It's still stuffy, hot, and humid. I'm sweating from just standing. That's pretty bad, because back home in SF, I'd have to jog a quarter mile before I even start sweating from my head and body.

I'm noticing a trend in which I'm playing magical shirts. I've been changing T-shirts every two hours because, quite frankly, they just get soaked up with my sweat. The sweat that I've been getting from standing, doing absolutely nothing. How invigorating.

And, from what everyone has been telling me, this is considered "cool". It's about 27ºC here. I'm expecting that to jump up to around 32ºC by summer time. When that time comes, I'll probably have a bunch of shirts with me everywhere I go. Who knows, maybe this is just a phase. Maybe I'll just sweat a bunch of excessive beer weight (you read that right, it's not water weight, it's residual beer weight in my instance), and this might go away. Oh, and on average, I've been taking two to three showers a day. I assumed that my skin would get dry, but.. no. I start sweating after drying myself up. Unbelievable.

I do notice one strange thing here now.. and that is: stores are not open until about 10am-12pm. I'm talking about, cell phone stores, food chains, and even small local shops. Things close really late though, so I guess that's the flip side. Maybe I never noticed this because during my prior trips, I'd always wake up late, and I'd sleep like, ten hours or something. It's just, when I wake up at 6am, I'm just itching to get out to do something. Now, I've just been sleeping for about four hours a day (five hours at most so far). I'm maximizing my time here. I can't, and don't want to pick up my old habit of sleeping for more than ten hours a day. So far, I've been doing pretty good with three to four hours of sleep per day, and no naps in between. Sure, I look pretty cracked out by the end of the night, but I'm living off a saying that I will never forget. As inside of a joke this is, I would love to share with the world, and I quote Chef Ivan in saying, "sleeping is for the weak"!

True story.

I also stopped by my Grandma and Grandpa's place. Fortunately, I remember all the bus routes to each of my relatives addresses. My relatives were actually surprised that I remembered how to get to their place. I mean, I didn't give them any heads up that I was visiting, and the last time I was here, it was over a year ago.

That's me with Grandma and Grandpa. As you can see, they are both doing well! They are also very active in outdoor activities which include: hiking, swimming, speed walking. I say speed walking because, honestly, when my Grandma walks on the street, she walks really fast. I often have to tell her to slow down because I'm sweating bullets.

So, if you know me well enough, you should know that I LOVE eating food. I haven't exactly had the chance to eat some funky stuff yet, but I did get a chance to have a French Brunch today. The Restaurant was called 'Paul's'. The food was pretty good! The interior was really nice, and the prices were a little above average for Taiwanese food. The ingredients, supposedly, are all imported from Europe.

I had the breakfast plate with ham. The ham was cured, and thinly sliced. There was a tasty hash brown right under covered in some black things. I'm not quite sure what they were, but the taste reminded me of caviar and olives combined. My friend picked me up and treated me out. Thanks David W.! Great recommendation!

Here goes a bonus pic for all my T-Mobile people. What we have here, is an HTC Legend. Not too shabby! For reference, I've put my T-Mobile MyTouch 3G slide as a comparison for size. Oh, opps, that picture of my phone isn't supposed to be online yet! I did sign a Non Disclosure Form before receiving the phone from my Vegas award ceremony... yea right, I'm not the first person to leak it, so it's considered old news to me.

And I would have NEVER expected to catch a Bentley just cruising the streets of Taipei.

Random Section
- Mosquito bite count to date: two. One on my right elbow. One on my right ear.
- Current exchange rate: $1 = 31.5NTD (New Taiwan Dollars).

That's it for now!

Taipei Traffic

So this is why I DON'T want to drive in Taiwan. This video was taken on the ride home from the Airport, just getting into the main parts of Taipei City. Pay attention to the scooters on the other side when we're just getting onto the bridge! These crazy guys are splitting lanes, and driving into oncoming traffic! No bueno!

Day One

I've arrived. The flight was shorter than expected! I arrived about 30 mins early, which resulted in a landing time at 5:30am, Taiwan time. I'm currently hanging out at a LAN center. The prices are insanely cheap here! I'm paying about 80cents for an hour of usage.

Once I settle down into my new place, I'll be uploading pictures, writing more, and possibly posting up some videos. Hopefully, I won't be jet lagged...