Monthly Archives: May 2009

Dragon Boat Festival Weekend

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Four day weekends are the way to live. What’s wrong with having a three-day work week? I bet lots of people would be down with that. Despite the fact that we have to make up Friday’s day off this Saturday.

Wednesday Night: Watched Terminator Salvation. Action was great, Christian Bale was manly, not enough plot. I give it a B-.

Thursday: Jen, Michael, and I went to my grandmother’s house and watched my aunts make zhonzi, which are rice triangles wrapped in bamboo leaves.

We ate a giant lunch and played lots of Blokus and Big 2. Finally, we headed back to our place for a group nap, then ordered pizza and mahjong-ed the night away.

Friday: We got brunch at The Diner, which is the best thing since sliced bread. Seriously, they took it and made toast, added bacon, eggs, and a yogurt fruit cup.


They serve breakfast all day and, man, is it really good breakfast foods among other delicious entrees.

Then, we went to see the Dragon Boat Races under the DaZhi Bridge. I think next year, I will sign up to do the race. It looked like it was lots of fun! And I miss being on a team.

Later, we had dinner at Chili’s (Mmm.. it was an all American food day.) and watched Night at the Museum 2, which I give a B for its funny parts and ridiculous cheesiness.

Saturday: Jen & I decided that we were going to go to the zoo to see the pandas, so we take the MRT all the way out there only to find out that the panda tickets were all given out. Since we’ve already been to the zoo, we decided there was no point in paying for admission, so we turned around and went walking around Zhongxiao Fushing instead. Then, dinner with Michael’s grandparents, then night out on the town to meet up with some of Michael’s friends at Champagne 2 and Room 18. Champagne 2 was a really nice lounge bar, and we sat around chatting and ended up playing teams of Blow Cow. Room 18 was so crowded to the point that it hurt to breathe.

Sunday: We went to Jioufen 九份 , and on the way, Michael took us to this beautiful overlook on top of the mountain.

Jioufen was high up in the mountains, and so we climbed about 3000 flights of stairs today. Legs are now toned for the rest of summer.


Jioufen was beautiful, filled with tea shops and was very touristy, and definitely had some good eats. Apparently, all the good places had lines so of course I had to stand in them to find out what the big deal was. These fried shrimp balls were totally worth the wait!

Before we left, we stopped and had tea at this cute little tea house with an amazing view.

Poker Face

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I went and played in a poker tournament tonight. I did so well that I got 18th place! (Out of 20 people, but that’s a minor detail.)

My boss started this poker thing.
They set up tournaments at this bar, Tone 56, and you can play for free. The goal is to rack up points to win the ultimate grand prize in the end. So instead of a gold bracelet and millions of US dollars as a prize, you get something just as cool like plane tickets or something. Then again, it’s free so you don’t have to throw in thousands of your own money just to participate.

Even though it’s, I repeat, for free, there are still some really hardcore players out there. Poker is poker, regardless there’s money involved or not. One dude was even taking notes, then again he did pretty well so I guess it helped. Maybe next time, I should bring a notebook and do some doodling while I play.

My Chinese Is No Good

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At the major intersections in the highest foot traffic areas, there are always people asking for donations, selling things, or trying to get people to do surveys. Most of the time, if you just look at them and shake your head with a smile, they’ll leave you alone. But sometimes, some of them can be relentless. They’ll pester you and try to convince you that you might as well since you’re waiting for the light to change anyway. And if it’s a big intersection, there really is a lot of time to wait.

So why don’t I just fill out their freakin’ survey already?

Because it’s IN CHINESE.

In high school, after 13 years of Saturday Chinese School, I reached about a sixth grade level. And then most of it went out the window after college. So yes, I can read Chinese. A good 60% of it probably, but I still have trouble with reading the newspapers and magazines, etc. I mean, I know enough to understand the overall content of articles and maybe catch a few key details, but the finer ones as well as certain phrasings of words and idioms escape me. Anyways, the point is if I take their survey, chances are that I’ll understand most of it, but maybe I won’t even be able to understand half of it. And if there are any questions where I have to write anything, let’s not even talk about how embarrassing my lack of writing skills/handwriting is. So that’s why I scare away those survey people by saying a firm, and in English, “Sorry, but no!”

I know, I know. Rule #76: No excuses, Play like a champion. So I’ve decided that after this 4-day weekend due to the Dragon Boat Festival, I will go buy some Chinese books and start to do some catching up.

Culture Shock

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It’s bad enough that I have to maneuver through umbrellas while hoisting my own on rainy days, but it’s even more annoying to have to deal with them on cloudy/sunny days too. These Taiwanese women and their umbrellas astound me. It seems like they’ve all forgotten that they live on a tropical island – an island of mangoes, pineapples, papayas, palm trees, and the ocean all around. But every single girl here is pale as pale can be. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think you were visiting an island of quarantined invalids since it looks like no one has seen the sun in the past 20 years.

A lot of people tell me that I look like an ABC. (I’ve come to terms with that, even though technically I’m not an American Born Chinese. I was born in Taipei. I don’t think I can be any more Taiwanese than that.) Anyways, apparently I look like an ABC because of the “healthy glow to my skin” also known as a tan. If everyone realizes that getting some sun makes you healthy-looking, then why does everyone insist on being white? Because it’s hot to look sick? Or maybe they’re just say I’m healthy-looking because that’s the nicest way to put it without saying that, in the hierarchy of beauty, they really look down upon “me and my dark skin because they perceive me as being poor.”

Then again, beauty is more than skin deep. I’m glad I exude ABC-ness because of the way (or so I’m told) I dress, the way I style my hair, my makeup, the way I hold myself in public. Random people walk up to me and will seriously ask me if I’m an ABC and then proceed to ask questions about my life. (Even though the rest of them still insist on asking me for directions.)

I am Taiwanese-American. Not fully both, but stuck in between. And I’m proud of it.