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!