Fanime!!

Well the was definitely my first time to ever attend a Fanime, and though at this point I can't say if this will be my only trip to Fanime, or if there are more to come in the future. However, I can say this, Fanime is something and individual who enjoyed watching anime or are currently watching anime should attend at least once in his/her lifetime. I have to say, coming into this long weekend, I wasn't expecting a whole lot. I thought it would just be aimlessly walking around to random booths, and watching normally reserved people in life break out of their shells and dress up as their favorite character, whether its from an anime, game, or even the other gender. I wasn't wrong, but I wasn't completely right either.
Yes, it was aimlessly wandering around booths and watching random people dress up; but for no particular good reason, it was the fixture of my interest for the whole past two days. The the stuff offered in the booths were things you couldn't pick up just anywhere around town. The artist corner was a huge market for talented as well as upcoming artist to boast their art and put out their masterpiece. I was really impressed with what I saw, almost blown away, and actually most of money was blown in this area....I'll talk more about this later...kinda tired lol

One of the best Spring Breaks

So minus the strenuous Winter Quarter which can always take its toll on a college student. I have thoroughly enjoyed this years Spring Break. My Spring Break started off on Thursday afternoon when I got back and just got to chill the rest of the day. Friday was pretty much the same as well. On Saturday, I went to go visit my Chinese School, visited friends and past mentors, it was pretty cool. Then I headed over to the Great Mall afterwards, cause I accidently kicked my friends hacky sack onto the roof. So we went there where I got a video game, got a birthday present for my friend, and my friend got his hacky sack. Well we then chilled at my place until around 5:30pm. On Sunday, I went to the gym in the morning to go play ball with a friend, I was and still am pretty out of shape lol. So I got back and called up my friend to head over to Evergreen to chill with two of my other friends from college. The day wasn't really planned out so we were pretty flexible with the schedule. I picked up my two friends, and they showed around Evergreen High and we played a little ball. We then headed over to Downtown San Jose to eat Pizza Chicago. We hanged around Downtown San Jose for a little bit, then I took my two friends from college back to their place. Me and my other friend then went to In-n-Out for a quick grab and headed home as well. On Monday the only real thing I did was play basketball with a friend. On Tuesday, I went to go check out my house in Palo Alto, took my dad to the airport . On Wednesday, I went with a friend to go watch the Warriors game against the Grizzlies. My friend and I went to Palo Alto to meet up with two of my other friends, where we all carpooled over to Oracle Arena. I wanted to buy a Curry retro jersey but they didn't have any at the time :(. Luckily the Warriors won that game, so we got to leave on a happy note. So we decided to hit In-n-Out after the game, where we got chat and catch up. I haven't seen those two friends since senior year so it was really nice to see them again and catch up a little. Well that night I got back around 12pm, I was already pretty tired. On Thursday, I went with my mom in the afternoon to go check out the house again and pick up my brother. Then my friends from Palo Alto wanted to hang out with me, so I drove me and my friend back up to Palo Alto to meet up with my other friend. We went to the plaza across from Stanford, and had Korean BBQ while catching up. Later got a Jamba Juice, then took my friends up to see my house in Palo Alto, where we kept prank calling one of our friends from LA. We then headed over to Gunn, just to catch up with old times and afterwards headed back to my friends house. We watched a bit of TV, played a little hacky sack and chilled a little more before heading back to San Jose. On Friday, I had to accompany my mom to the house in the morning, I grew painfully tired since I had to wake up at 6:30 in the morning so I went ahead and took a 3 hr nap from 11:30 to 2:30. My brother and I then went to watch Alice in Wonderland 3-D, which was a brilliantly done movie, though I found out i couldn't reuse my 3-D glasses, so I got kinda mad and broke the other one and threw it into the 3-D glasses recycling bin. I went to buy a pair of shoes as well cause my converse has been staining my socks :P, got a pair of lacoste. So on Saturday, I woke up to get Mcdonalds, my mom wanted me to accompany her to Palo Alto, I then went to Chinese School to visit one more time before I go back to school. This time almost our whole groups of guys got to hang out. We went to great mall to get Chipotle, then met up with with another friend at the theatre. This time instead of buying the 3-D ticket for How to train your dragon which is 11.75, I just bought another ticket in the same gate for 8.75, brought the pair of 3-D glasses from yesterday and saved about 3 dollars haha. We then went to play ball for a little bit before it was cut short from my friend being late to a banquet. So yeah, there was my spring break in a nutshell, going back tomorrow, definitely not looking forward to that. But hey summer is just right around the corner :)

Highlights:

-Eating @: Subway, Mcdonalds, Korean BBQ, Pizza Chicago 2x, Chipotle, Little Caesar, In-n-Out 2x, Jamba Juice
-Watching: Alice in Wonderland(Brilliant!), How to train your dragon(now I want a dragon)
-Chilling with friends from: Morgan Hill, San Jose, Palo Alto, Evergreen, even technically LA lol
Shopping: Video games, shoes primarily
-Warrior's game
-Checking out downtown
-chances of getting a new car this summer that much more realized this spring break :)

Some downers:
-wished break was longer :P
-somedays had to wake up at 6:30 :( though not complaining
-not working out as much as I could

Looking forward to:

-NOT CHEM
-summer break
-chilling at the beach :)

Last Day in Taiwan

So my flight is tonight around 11:30pm I think, we have to leave early though at like 8:30? Cause there will be heavy traffic since everyone wants to go watch the fireworks at 101. Too bad we are gonna miss it :(, hopefully I can catch the fireworks from the sky if we fly over Taipei and if we time it correctly. So anyways this time of year always come around where its the last day of Taiwan and I really reminisce about the my stay for the past couple days. But as for today, I accompanied my parents to go shop for A LOT of food supplies, luckily my dad's friend was able to drive us in the morning. So we reached our destination, and we bought A LOT of food, it barely fit in my dads friend's lexus es trunk. So he drove us back and wanted to treat us to lunch but he was too busy so we said our goodbyes. We then began packing some more trying to fit the stuff we bought today into our remaining luggages. I think the food took up about 3-4 luggages :P and not just any luggage our biggest luggages. So we spent the morning on that, we then ate lunch at home, then set off to Q Square (shopping center/ bus station). We took the train to Zhongxiao Fuxing switched trains to Taipei Main Station, where we walked to Q Square. This first thing I did was look for the store that sold the shirt I wanted. Went in a circle on B2 until we go to that store, where I initially couldn't find the shirt, but the store person quickly located the shirt I wanted. Unfortunately it was only an L, so I tried it on and it barely fit on me. I decided to get it over another shirt, because one it was cheaper, and two becuase I thought it was better looking. So I got that, then we headed to the Nike store, cause my duffle bag I currently have is ripping, so we went to look for one, My dad and I were split on two different bags, I was sold on a Jordan bag, while my dad wanted to get a Nike bag. Basically it came down to this, the Jordan bag looked really nice, but it wasn't as practical since it only had three pockets to go along with its main cargo area. Where as the Nike bag was very practical had many pockets a cooler thing inside, but didn't look as great. Practicality or Looks?Well if you know me, I went with the Jordan bag haha. So my dad bought me that, we then went to explore the upper floors as we had not yet been up there, then explored the bottom floor cause me and my mom haven't been there. We then headed back toward ZhongXiao Fuxing where we went to Sogo, cause my mom wanted to get something for my grandma on the 8th floor. Don't really know what it is, its for my grandma's knee though. We then headed back and here we are now. *Sigh* It's always a pain to leave Taiwan cause I miss it so, but somehow somewhere deep inside me, it's telling me its time to go since I've already been here for quite some time. So I basically gonna highlight my experience and share some of the not so grand moments during this trip haha.

Highlights:

-Definitely arriving in Taiwan

-Seeing my relatives and family friends in Taiwan

-Taipei Metro - cause I love it so much

-My grandma's cooking: cause its that delicious

-My aunt coming up to take us to Yilan and Tai Ping Mountain: definitely one of the biggest highlights

-killing my bro at Foosball and basically in pool at the grand boss hotel

-First time watching a movie in a Taiwan movie theatre with my uncle and cousin: Bodyguard and Assassins

-Eslite, New York New York, Taipei 101, Shin Guan Mistuoki, Shin Guan San Yuer, night markets :)

-Going to the top of Taipei 101

-Wedding Dinner: it was extravagant

-all the buffets we went to :)

Not so Highlight:

-the plane ride over to Taiwan and probably to America :P

-mosquitos

-humidity sometimes

-waking up early

-jetlag

Things I will always remember:

-all the inside joke references: curry house

-when three buses were trying to cram into two lanes

-cooking eggs at Tai Ping Mountain

-corny 80's-90's chinese movies

-all the nice cars I've seen here: Ferrari, Porsche, Maserati, BMW, Mercedes, Audi etc and the car show at 101

Things I will look forward to for the next visit:

-Spending more time with extended family: feels like I barely spent any time with them :P

-Going to Neihu: cause apparently there is a porsche and ferrari dealership there

-Taking the High Speed Rail Train

Going back to the top of 101 since it was cloudy when we went

-Shopping :D

LAST FULL DAY IN TAIWAN

So today was my last full day in Taiwan, I got woken up at 7:30 even though I was hella sleepy and I had a hella good dream where I bought an Aston Martin and Ferrari *puuaahh* Well my dad bro and I went to go get breakfast at our usual spot and afterwards started to pack since we are leaving tomorrow, I still need to pack my carry ons but that won't take too much time hopefully haha. Well I decided to take a nap around 11:30 but got woken up again at 12:46ish. We then headed out to Eslite bookstore via taxi. We got dropped off at Eslite and my parents continued onwards to my great aunt's house. So my bro and I walked around Eslite, and we went immediately to the Ferrari Store, o yeah my dad gave me and my bro an extra 1000 NT to use for our last two days, its a new year miracle :). Well we go to the Ferrari Store and quickly found out that most of the stuff they have in their was too expensive. So we went to a neighboring stand and I bought a bunch of funny 'car stickers' for myself and friends haha. Well we continued around Eslite until my parents came by and one of my dad's friends called the cell phone I was holding. So they went and met up at the Starbucks on the first floor of Eslite, while my bro and I continued to look around Eslite until we found our way to Starbucks. I ordered a Toffee Nut Latte which was pretty good if I say so myself. Well my mom bro and I then set off afterwards to a European style mall called Bellavita, and that has got to be one of the most high classed places I have ever been to in my life. We then went across the street to Shin Guan San Yuer where it consisted of 5-7 building all connected by an air bridge, we didn't get to finish looking around there. So we met up again with my dad and dad's friend briefly and said goodbye to my dad's friend. We then went to Zhong Xiao Fuxing, where my bro and I got split up temporarily with my parents who got on the train before us :P it was actually pretty funny haha. So we met up again at Zhong Xiao Fuxing, then went to the Zhong Xiao Fuxing Guan which is the fancy Sogo. I have to say their top floor is AMAZING, half of it was a japanese house display, and the ceiling light up with the a starry sky and shooting star, and you can see the whole thing from three different floors. So that was really cool, we then decided to head back, where we met up with my uncle, we think he got possessed temporarily, I'm not gonna get into it cause its too long to explain, but let just say all fingers point to him being a medium. So he left not long after he came. So here I am now watching TV and what not, tomorrow I think I need to help my parents carry the Do Bao, but we're gonna meet up with my dad's friend tomorrow there too. I'm also gonna go to the Bus Station Mall behind Taipei Main Station because I want to get another Nippon Blue. Then we have to set off for the airport around 8:30 since our flight is at 11ish. Hopefully I'll have time to blog tomorrow and basically recap my stay at Taiwan.

Taipei 101

So today I kind of woke early, around 7:30? So this morning, my aunt took my grandma out shopping, while we went to Carrefour again to buy more snacks and what not. I just got more pringles lol. So we left Carrefour and took the Green 2 bus back to my grandma's house, where we caught up with my aunt whose was about to leave for Shinju to take my grandma back to her other place to get some supplies, and that was last that I saw of my aunt. I am really grateful to my aunt because everytime we come back she always takes time out of her busy schedule to take us out. I honestly can say that every time I go back to Taiwan, I always look forward to seeing her haha. So we headed off to eat lunch with two of my parents friends at a 5 star vegetarian restaurant, the stuff was really good :) So we left when the restaurant closed around 2:30. So we decided to head toward 101, since last year I wanted to go but my mom said to wait for my bro and dad to come back. So, we headed to 101, where it was 400 NT to get to the highest floor we could reach that day which was the 89th floor. The elevator was FAST...we reached the top in a matter of seconds, and my ear kept on popping due to the sudden rise in elevation. So we reached the top and to our dismay we could not see a whole lot because it was cloudy that day. We were still able to see Taipei though just not too much of it. So we walked around and took MANY pictures, we also got to see the 'weather damper' which was a huge ball in the middle of the 88th and 89th floor which helps level the 101 during extreme weather such as heavy wind so that its structure won't sway with it. So that was really cool and I bought souvenirs from the gift shop, the whole experience up there was surreal, but hopefully the next time I go it won't be cloudy haha. So we headed down where me and my bro continued to take a butt load of pictures during the maserati and ferrari car show in 101. We walked around 101 until it got dark, we had to go to a Nike store cause my dad need to change his shoes cause his old ones were really wearing out. We then HAD to head home cause grandma made dumplings (which I might add was superb) We didn't get a chance to go to Eslite, which is the biggest bookstore in Taiwan, so hopefully we'll go tomorrow or the day after, without interruption. I plan on going to the nippon blue store behind Taipei Main Station tomorrow, since I almost have enough money to buy another shirt haha.

O yeah I watched a corny kung fu movie called the 5 element ninjas last night, my bro and I laughed so hard watching it that I laughed myself to sleep haha.

Tai Ping Mountain

So today I woke up around 7...the clock was apparently 15 minutes early, so I got up early...not a smart decision -_-; as I will explain later. So I was playing around the room and found that our room's master control has a music button...I was curious so I pressed it, and the two speakers on the wall started playing music...and I thought to myself...wow this is fancy. Anyways we had breakfast were I just had bread with butter in it and an omelet. My bro and I then played a quick game of pool, where he won by default since we ran out of time, then we checked out. We dropped off our stuff on our aunt's car, then headed our tour of Tai Ping Mountain, which is one of the tallest, if not the tallest, mountain in Taiwan. We rode in a large van that could seat about 9-10 people. The bus driver is CRAZY...since we were in a time crunch, the driver literally drove in the rain, on the mountain, completely foggy(like crazy foggy) and accelerated on the turns. O_O I swear I surprised the van didn't tip or fall off the cliff, but we made it anyways. So we had to climb a bunch of stairs to get to their train, where we also got coffee, where it took us further into the mountain where there were several trails. I really wanted to see the waterfall, but it was about a 2-3 hr hike so we decided not to. Well we then headed back via the same train, and ate lunch at a neighboring restaurant. We then headed to a hot spring on the mountain, where my bro aunt and my dad went to use the hot spring, and I proceeded to boil eggs at another hot spring. I have to say it was pretty fun, putting the eggs in the basket to boil in the water, and all the steam surrounding me while I boiled the egg. I have to say too the egg was pretty good too, I had about three of them and the driver had one. Well I was pretty tired out by then, so I took a nap on the van, and we arrived at this little store where my aunt grandma mom and dad bought a butt load of stuff while me and my bro was staring at the dog sitting in the store. So then we finally got back to the hotel, where we went to an all you can eat buffet across the street, it was pretty good and pretty cheap at the same time. Too bad I was too full from the three eggs I had otherwise I would have ate more. After that, we finally headed back to Muzha but not before getting lost by the confusing Yilan signs. Well here I am now, finally back at Muzha, I'm not sure what tomorrow has in store for me, but we'll see how tomorrow goes, my aunt is going to leave tomorrow too :( so yep we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Yilan

So today was quite an eventful day, I woke up around 7:30, and was starting to pack cause we were heading toward Yilan with my aunt and grandma. We set off around 9:30, where we got some breakfast to go, and was on our way to Yilan. My cousin who came to visit us last night with my uncle, warned us about traffic especially on Sunday and that it could have held us back. A normally 40 min drive could easily turn into more than 2 hrs. So when we got there, a feeling of nostalgia overcame me since I came here last year. I was on a mission to buy a bead bracelet for myself and my friends since I lost mines last year. Well we first sat in on a show they currently had on when we arrived. The first was an impressive puppet show and the second was a story play. Too bad my bro and I couldn't understand Taiwanese, so I left with my bro and dad to go shopping. All the stores were quite unique and I always have a good time shopping there. I bought A LOT. Outside of my beads, I bought a room decoration, a carbon copy of a deity, stuff for my friends and yeah, I am basically broke right now haha, though I do plan on spending the rest of my money before my stay in Taiwan is over. So after shopping and eating lunch while getting starbucks, I decided to walk around the parts I didn't get to when I went last year. Basically went to a 1887 style house and toured around it, and walked around to the residential area and fed fishes. I then went to visit the exhibition center where they had some exquisite artifacts. So then we basically left, we headed to the hotel we were staying which is called the Grand Boss Hotel, and I have to say this is a REALLY nice hotel, we then headed out to the night market where I went window shopping LOL, then we ate a a food stand in the night market. O yeah, we got face mask cause the airplane smell makes me really nauseous, then we went to a place where they specialize in taro stuff, and they were surprisingly REALLY GOOD. We then headed back to the night market cause my aunt wanted to get something, but me, my bro and I went back first to check out their recreation area which was in the basement. My bro and I played a round of foosball, where I killed him 9-1. Then we played pool where I first beat my bro (he scratched the 8 ball), beat my dad(scratched the 8 ball), my bro beat me ( i scratched the 8 ball), and finally I beat my bro legitimately. Haha, well I'm at the hotel room right now, I'm about to take a bubble bath lol, and yea, tomorrow we're taking a tour bus to the top of a mountain where the scenery is suppose to be EPIC, so I'm looking forward to that :)