Dragon slayer via Mugley

I

I’ve got issues with bureaucracies. In the past, a few years ago, it actually made me quite angry. I’m not like that anymore, but it just gets frustrating. Today, the plan was simple. Pick up my health check, get some documents from NTNU and go to the NIA office. This was what I was told to do. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned.

When I arrived at the hospital, I was informed that I didn’t have the measles antigen, so I would need to be vaccinated. $20 and half an hour later, it was done. The woman from whom I had to pick up the health check realized that a part of my health check wasn’t done. She wanted me to come back next week. I saw no deal. I came to the hospital on the 17th to get it done. I was only here for a pick up. Now she wanted me to wait even longer?

I argued and made a big foreigner mess. I didn’t shout, but I made it clear that it was her fault (or the hospital’s) and that she needed to resolve this. 20 minutes later, some doctor performed a cursory exam of my skin for Hansen’s disease and I was done.

I went to NTNU and met Ying Ying. She was nice and helped me out with some docs. It took 15 minutes. I left for the NIA office. I arrived quickly enough, with about 1 hour to spare until closing, but I learned that it was here that I had to apply for an ARC, not get the resident visa. I had to go to BOCA¹ to get the resident visa. It was too late. They renewed my Visitor’s visa and took some of my paperwork, which means that I’ll have to get another printout from NTNU on Monday. Then off to BOCA and back to the NIA office. I was told that it might take a few days to get the resident visa, a week or two. I just want to be done with it.

II

I’ve been back in Taiwan for about 5 months and I only did one Visa run back in July because I arrived with a landing visa, not a visitor’s visa. Getting a visitor’s visa in Canada is quite expensive if you don’t have a car. I was living in Quebec. The TECO office is in Ottawa, 5 hours away.

The last time I did this, I spent over $400. This included travel and the visa itself. Back in May, I also spent a hellish night/day in Ottawa. This was because you need to arrive before 10AM at the TECO office in order to get your visa the same day. There are no overnight buses or really early morning buses from Quebec to Ottawa. The latest leaves at 8PM and arrives in Ottawa at around 1AM.

Siberian huspy pups, red/white color combo

III

I’ve been a bit sad about the Siberian husky that I found in the park yesterday. He would have been a great dog to have, but it would have been too much. I hope that he found his master. I’ll get a Taiwanese friend to ask Temple Man what happened with him. Siberian huskies are very beautiful. This one had are brownish/reddish white fur and they tend to have clear blue eyes. This one was docile and very friendly.

The bad thing about adopting an unfixed adult dog is that you didn’t raise him, nor did you train him. Admittedly, since he was pretty friendly, this wouldn’t have been hard, though I didn’t like how he kept marking everything. Even in our courtyard and my patio, he just kept at it. It was quite annoying.

A working dog like that needs hours of exercise every day. Spike is very laid back. In total, he does get somewhere between 1-2 hours a day outside. With a that husky, I would have to take him along while running or biking (daily) in order to work him out. Technically, that’s not a bad thing. I’d probably have taken him out while running, though he’d have to learn to run behind him. From what I’ve seen with Chad’s dog Ash, that isn’t easy since huskies like to run fast out front.

Once we get back to North America, I’ll get myself a medium-sized dog. It will either be a Siberian husky or a border collie. Naturally, we still plan on being French bulldog fanciers. Frenchies are great companion dogs.

IV

So I think that I’m nearing the end of Dragon Age, even though it says that I have only completed 25% of the game. I think I’ll try to complete the side quests before I complete the main quest. It sounds like once you start the Landsmeet portion of the game, it sets the wheels in motion for the final part of the game. I completed the DLCs The Stone Prisoner and Warden’s Keep. The first one adds Shale, a golem, to your companion roster. The second one gives you access to a castle as a base of operations. There is a chest there where you can store all of your gear, cheap merchants, and you gain two new abilities. The mage abilities are called Power of Blood and are very close to blood magic, but so effective. Dark Sustenance sacrifices health for mana and Blood Grasp sends some of the caster’s tainted blood onto targets. Works even better on darkspawns.

* * * * *

[¹]: Bureau of Consular Affairs of Taiwan

music

I’ve been to this and it’s a great Friday wind down. The Reggae Lounge Night @ Nakhla Shisha (Xining S Rd. Lane 50 #3 2-3FL). Every Friday night from 8:30pm.

Get It! @ Light Lounge, Taichung (台中市華美西街一段85號). Saturday 28 November, from 10pm. Why are the flyers for gigs in Taiwan always so badly designed? This one is particularly awful. No matter, this event looks good anyway with some rare dubstep on offer. See Facebook for more.

I soooo want to go to this! Rock n Roll Circus: with Miss Cabaretta, Ed Woods, Minnesota Voodoo Men and The Deadly Vibes. @ 89K (Taichung), Friday 18 December, 10pm onwards. And again in Taipei at VU Livehouse, Saturday 19 December, from 10pm.

art

The Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival has begun. Head down to the Pier-2 Art District in the south harbour area of the city and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. I don’t really need an excuse to visit Kaohsiung but this will do.

Observations Of Home and other woodcuts by Jon Renzella. Now through to Sunday 31 December. @ Retro Café, 五權西路一段 116 / No. 116, Sec. 1, Wuchuan West Road, Taichung. Beautiful work that I can’t wait to see. See Facebook for more.

This retrospective on China-born artist Cai Guo-Qiang at the TFAM looks amazing! I think I might have to make a trip to Taipei soon. On from now until 21 February, 2010.

Check-mate?! The 8th Graduation Drama performance of English Department, Dayeh University. I’m biased because two of my friends are performing but this will be awesome! At the Yuanlin Performance Hall 彰化員林演藝廳 (Yuanlin Township, Taichung County). Saturday 12 December, from 6pm.

other

World underwater archeological history will be on display at the Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology in Bali, Taipei County, until 13 December.

Taichung Bike Week will be held 5-13 December. I think it’s more an industry thing than open to the public but there’s more info here.

opportunities

Fancy yourself a reviewer or features writer? Or even just a great party scout? Jar of Buttons is looking for people in Taiwan’s main and not so main centres to write articles and collect event information. Art, music, design, photography, and general culture. Please email jarofbuttons@gmail.com to express your interest.

Thank you for supporting Jar of Buttons.

Well, it’s Friday morning for me; Thanksgiving night if you’re reading back in my homeland. I’ve had a splendid morning – woke up early, talked to my family via the magic of Skype, and watched the Cowboys win. I hope your Thanksgivings were the stuff of legend, punctuated with an endless trail of gravy. But enough rambling. Here are some things I wanna tell you. Let’s do it quick-hit style.

Categories!!
If you’ll please cast your eyes over to the right side of this here blog (beyond Norm’s picture), you dear readers will notice that you now have a little list of categories from which to pick and choose stories. When I first started this little thing, I had no idea what I was going to be doing or writing about or any of that nonsense. Clearly, I still don’t, really. But last weekend I went through all of my past stories and rants and such, and filed each into a category. So there you have it. Wanna only read my self-important stories involving the deathcycle? Now you can! Or perhaps you only stop by for the Engrish – have at it. It’s a small thing, really. But I hope you like it. If I had a nickel for every time I’d said that…

Baby, it’s cold(ish) outside!
Initially, I was going to tell you that despite living in this tropical climate, it finally was kinda feeling like fall (or something resembling fall) here in Kaohsiung. But as I write this, it’s 11:15 am, and it’s currently 84 degrees outside. As my kids say when they’re disgusted, Aye-yuh! This is not fall. This is madness! Well, ok… it is cooler now than it ever was in July or August or September. We haven’t seen a high above 90 in maybe a month. So that’s all well and good. But last week, it was cold. Or again, cold-ish. The highs were still in the upper 70s or low 80s, but the nights were downright cool. Maybe even all the way down in the 60s! Ok ok, that’s not really cold at all, and as a lover of autumn and the like, it’s not much. But, let me tell you this: riding around on a scooter when it’s 50 or 60 can get pretty damn cold. Perhaps I should invest in a full-head helmet; or perhaps some riding gloves; earmuffs? Or maybe I’ll just figure out a way to bottle molten hot lava, stash it in my little under-seat compartment, and give myself a nice little ghetto seat-warmer.

A very Thai Christmas (and New Year (and (30th) birthday))
So as we all know by now, I will not be going back to the States for Christmas. It saddens me, but it’s true. However, as I mentioned in my last post, how often am I gonna be living in Southeast Asia? I need to be taking advantage of all the beauty around me that’s so close, and so cheaply available. And so I’m going to be in Thailand for Christmas and New Years. I’m meeting some friends in Bangkok on the 26th, but I’ll actually be in Thailand on my own for the 22nd-25th. So yeah, I’ll be alone for Christmas day, but I’m actually somewhat excited for that. I can do whatever I choose and go wherever I want. In all likelihood, it’ll involve Thai food, some sort of cocktail, and the beach. This is good.
And then, on the 28th, said friends and I will travel down to Koh Samui for some sort of epic New Year’s party that they have there every year. New Years Eve will also be my 30th birthday. I have no idea what to think about this. But the whole experience should be great, and I’m pretty damn excited. I’ll keep you posted. Also, if you have any ideas/suggestions of places for me to go while in Thailand, please do share them with me. Your support and generosity power my soul.

Taipei for the weekend
Speaking of going places, I’ll be in Taipei for the weekend with some teacher friends from school. I haven’t been there since my first five days in Taiwan. Now that I have a slightly better grasp on this country, I’m pretty excited for the getaway. I’m gonna try to hit up the National Palace Museum on Saturday, and some hot springs on Sunday. You will find out soon enough if I am successful in fulfilling these endeavors. It actually is going to be cold in Taipei. Like, real actual cold. Do they have lava for sale there?

I finally need another haircut…
…but I’m a bit apprehensive. You know why. Wish me luck tonight.

hahha.. i was damn lazy but decided to blog on Taiwan anyway.. Since i’m so free now! i collage the photos nicely as well! =)

Early in the morning! MacD Breakfast!! hehe.. and baby doing his last min ‘press press’ game before he had to leave it untouched for 1 week!

On the way to airport~~

See baby so happy! couldn’t wait to fly off.. haha

me… look! some ‘Calefares’ at the back! =/

checked in!

had something to eat at the airport before we went into departure hall! =)

Waiting to board the plane! so wish our plane was SQ! haha.. (purposely put pic big big!)

boarding the plane! i think the people behind us are very annoyed cos we kept taking pics.. haha =x

In the plane.. couldn’t stop taking pics! haha

Spot moonie! lol

Sky turning dark! spot Taiwan!!

Damn excited me!

We have reached Taiwan!!

so excited!! baby is impressed by the vending machines selling newspaper! haha

Waiting for our express bus to send us directly outside our hotel. =))

The bus company is call ‘Freego’, chinese: ‘fei gou’. Send u to almost every hotels in XiMenDing!

We bought the two way tickets and got 10% discount!

The bus was PINK!! haha.. with toilet facility! Our first glance of XiMenDing!

Reached hotel!!  A very decent room. PLUS Its just a street away from Ximending shopping area and MRT station. Super convenient! we simply shop around ximending every nights if we return to hotel early!

After freshen up, we went to scout around XiMenDing!

Those noodles were considered our first meal after reaching Taiwan.

Must snap a photo at XiMenDing!

AFterwhich, we went to their 24hr Carrefour which was  just a few streets away from our hotel to get some necessities.

It is damn huge! n there.. a super candid shot of me! haha

and yes, did i mention that the weather was freezing! we did not expect the weather to be so cold. almost everyone was in their thick winter coats (think of those super kawaii furry type) +boots! waa~ I’m so super tempted to get some winter coats too! but it turned out that the cold weather went off after the third day! hahaha

Female Siberian husky, exactly like the one I found today

I

Today was somewhat laid-back. I took my dog for a walk and suddenly, I came upon a beautiful Siberian husky with clear blue eyes. He was docile and playful, and his leash was still on him. He followed us around a bit and Spike quite liked him. I looked around for an owner, but none materialized. This dog was not fixed, but seemed to have been well taken care of. I couldn’t see any sores, scars, or marks on him. He was also extremely friendly.

I took his leash and not knowing exactly what to do, took him with me. I tried dropping him off at a friend’s place. They had four dogs before, two of them huskies, but now they have only 3. I thought that they could do something, but they weren’t home. Chad’s girlfriend Kate is Taiwanese and knows the area well, so she’d be able to phone people around to find out who his owner was.

Having struck out, I left the dog wander around and brought my own dog home. I left him outside. He wandered back to the dog park. I decided to get a Slurpee. I then went back to the park to check up on the dog. He was at the border of a park trying to make friends with another dog. The owner was leaving and our husky was left alone again. I took him home for real this time. He was very excited.

Yoda the kitten in July 2008. She was so tiny!

I gave him food and water. I had to leave him on the patio for two reasons. My cat Yoda¹ had never seen a big dog before and she obviously didn’t like him. She had her back all curled up and was emitting strange growling noises. I had never heard her do those noises before. They didn’t let up, even with the husky on the porch. The husky didn’t eat, but drank. After half an hour, he started yelping. I couldn’t have that. I took him back out to try and find his owners. I came upon a sort of temple right in front of our apartment. I’ve been told that these house temples are a sort of cover for local gangsters. Anyway, this older man with rotted out betel nut teeth knew exactly what was going on after I explained it a bit with gestures and my limited Mandarin. He brought me down the street to a place where old women were dancing. He gave the dog to the woman. I don’t think that she was the owner, since she didn’t greet him as much, but my guess is that she either knew the owner or would be able to find him a lot quicker than I would.

Spike in quarantine in Taipei 2007

II

It’s a bit sad though. I’ve wanted to get a bigger dog for a while, but I can’t. I don’t have the time nor the place in my apartment for a bigger dog. As I watched him, I knew I couldn’t keep him. He was a cutie, but another dog would have been too much for right now. I barely have enough time for Spike. It made me realize how little work Spike is. He needs two walks a day and some play time inside. He doesn’t bark, yelp, nor destroy stuff. He’s also well trained and fixed. I’m sure that I could have trained the Siberian husky, but it wasn’t meant to be. At least I rescued him from the park, that’s what’s important. He won’t become another of Taipei’s strays.

I wonder what Jo will say to all this. We are leaving Taiwan in about two years. Having two pets is already a burden. Shipping them to the US will be expensive. Luckily, they won’t be in quarantine.

* * * * *

[¹]: My cat Yoda is a rescue. I rescued her as a kitten in July 2008. She was between 7 and 10 days old. I had to bottle feed her milk every four hours. She’s a bit feral, but mellowed up quite a bit since then.

This outfit is OLD. I made the shirt while still in school, 2005. Running out of clothes I haven’t worn yet, and had to dig through the bag in the closet. Can’t wait to shop, I’m drooling over sweater dresses!

Monday, November 23rd

orange turtleneck – Rice Society

jacket with real Rabbit fur collar – Morgan <3

jeans – Aphrodite

I stuffed the shoulders around the arm hole with cotton from a nail salon that comes in a long strip.

I might say this is one of my least favorite outfits. Not feeling the orange like I used to!

Well, I’ve finally arrived here in Taipei, Taiwan.  As usual, the flight was a drag.  For those of you who have never gone through this, the flight over the Pacific ends up being a total of about 18 hours, spread out over 3 different flights.  If you’re starting in North Carolina like me, the first flight is typically to a major airport somewhere else in the US.  The most common ones are in Chicago and San Francisco.  From there, it’s a 12 to 14 hours flight across the ocean.  

After that is the flight from Japan to Taiwan.  This takes up only 4 hours, which is pretty insignificant when compared to the monster of a flight before.  So between waiting for connection flights to take off, the numerous delays due to maintenance or bad weather that always seem to occur when it comes to air travel, and the time spent on the flights themselves, we’re talking about a 24+ hour ordeal.

When I first arrived here in Taiwan, it was 12 AM.  By the time I got to the hotel via shuttle, I immediately fell asleep (being on the opposite side of the world really messes up your sleep cycle).  The next morning, as I got up to look for somewhere to eat breakfast, I finally got a chance to take in the surrounding.  At first, it was a bit of a culture shock for me.  All of the buildings seemed so cramped together, and it seemed like the majority of the shops were run by locals, as opposed to being chain stores.  Of course, after taking in these images, I immediately had a small mental breakdown (I mean, I had a cool, calm, collected moment of reflection) and started to second guess my entire trip over here to Asia.  After I had a closer look around, though, I realized that despite the differences between this place and my home, it is really quite nice.

Unfortunately, the weather has been rainy since I got here so I haven’t been able to get any good pictures of the the scenery, but I’ll hopefully have some on my next post pending some good weather.

Matt Hill

To be continued~

Only pictures are uploaded .. more description and captions will be added soon..

Longshan Temple Entry

November 11, 2009

My first trip to Taipei and high on my list of places to visit was the Longshan Temple. The Temple is Located in the Manka district of Taipei. It was founded in 1738 and dedicated to the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy (Kuan-in). The temple name came from the ancient Longshan temple established in the Chin-Chiang county of Fukien province in the seventh century.

Longshan Temple Inner Courtyard

The main hall of the temple houses the statue of the Kuan-in, which survived allied bombing on June 8th 1945. The statue was in main hall which burned down during the raid but somehow the statue was left untouched. The temple was rebuilt and assigned a grade 2 historic sight on August 19 1985.

Temple Dragons

I spent about an hour photographing the temple grounds and other than the grey sky I was quite happy with a few of these shots. These fours HDR shots were done with Photomatix Pro and made from five to seven exposures. I didn’t use any post production noise reduction but I recently purchased NIK noise reduction software and will see how that cleanse up these photos at a later date.

Longshan Waterfall

Saturday it’s a Saturday. Jamming out to new music all day from Marcus’s Birthday mixes (35 songs from 35 people) but only have the first 12 of 35 . So far, I’d have to say my favorite collections (after Marcus’s own picks) are Olivia’s and Liam’s. I’ll be posting my favs in another post sometime when I go through them. It takes time to listen to everything. What would your strategy be?

Saturday, November 21st

jacket – gift from Silly Sarah

t-shirt – MOB (Married to the MOB) bought @NEU

suspenders – punk store in Ximen, perhaps Chaos Theory?

skirt- Vintage, bought at the Buddhist second hand store on JianGuo and BaDe

tights – Wolford

shoes – Melissa (also bought @NEU)

In case you didn’t know.

Close up on the tights:

Drank 3 bottles of wine with Amanda Hug and Kiss while reading her cards and having a bonding sesh. What a great night! Then we went out on the town. Holy Moly.

We was wasted!

ahaha… not the most flattering picture – but it captured the moment!

We found some guys worse off than us outside Room 18:

Ya, shutup, I got my karma on Sunday.

I live for Friday. Saturday too. It’s just such a relief when Friday rolls around, you’re like YES! Freedom is mine! Shitty for you if you work on the weekend though!

Friday, November 20th

zebra jacket – 291295 = girl, Jungli nightmarket

t-shirt – Soul Petal, first worn Day 30

pants – bought at WuFanPu with Lesley ages ago (100 NT!!)

socks with Stella Luna shoes (bought at Stella Luna store in Siam Center BKK)

It just really sucks I have bad luck with escalators and the back of the stiletto heel

Another shot of the top:

Thursday, November 19th

t-shirt dress – Rice Society Batman fabric

jeans – Yakuza (first worn Day 30)

boots – Nino Bellini (bought at Breeze)

necklaces – one from a gift wrap, one from BKK Weekend Market

PS – This dress is for sale – 600 NT! (Well, not this one, but a new one in the same fabric)

[限時免費]Taipei Metro 台北捷運：說明文字裡是說11/21一日免費，不過到此時都還是免費呢～

itunes link

**所以無論如何就下載吧～
**下載前注意看一下調回原價了沒有喔！

This is my itenary below, due to the mrt service ending at 12am, we couldn’t go to shihlin night market in time because we would have no train back.

12 Nov Thursday Day 1

1310-1740       Singapore to Taipei via Eva Air

1800-1815       Get YTC, change money & Look for Transport

1830-1930       Get on the Freego Bus! (Before 7pm!)

2000-2030       Check in at Neijiang/ Bathe

2030-2200       XiMenDing Dinner and Walkabout

2200-2230       Buy EasyCard at Ximen MRT, Travel to Jiantan Stn

2230 – 0100 Shihlin Eat Shop Eat Shop!

0200- xoxo       Sleep

It was a thursday and D had to rush some work till the wee morning at 5am. He slept till 9am and then started packing for the trip. Our flight was at 1.40 or so.

Shaun sent me to his place and i sort of hurriedly printed our travel insurance which D had applied for.

Left home at 1130 and had lunch at the T1 staff canteen. Didn’t eat too much as i was saving some space for the airplane meal.

It was our first time taking Eva Air so i was pretty looking forward to it. Alot of male friends gave me incessant feedback about how “teh” the stewardesses can be. The men in Singapore would know since army guys who were sent to taiwan for training always travelled by Eva Air. I wanted to see (no,hear) for myself.

Here comes the pictures. Dad lent me his D90 for this trip. It’s wasted on us both photography noobs but quality is better

The stewardesses were indeed service oriented but a little too typical taiwanese.

I reminded myself that i made a good choice to pay a little more for inflight entertainment, service and comfort on a non budget airline.

There was a slight glitch though. We indicated our seats during the online booking but the counter staff had us waiting for 15 minutes before issuing us new seats while we checked in. Apparently because we were one of the last few to check in and there were 50 passengers in excess of the original amount or something so we had to reshuffle. We ended up right in front just behind the cockpit.

I managed to watch UP on the plane. what a cute show. It was surprisingly good. Daryl slept while Cape No 7 was playing on his personal screen.

We took an older plane. For some reason, our screens were detachable and looks old school. Check out the top right picture.

If i go to Taipei again, i’d definitely go Eva, despite the glitch which put us off a little.

Foodwise, it was typical. Not delicious but passable.

Made me miss the Finnair food, which included a small tub of hagen daazs

It was a rainy day when we got up the plane, back at SG

We arrived 4 hours plus later at Taipei and there it was already dark and also rainy.

The droplets were far smaller.

Temperature was 20 Degrees.

We dropped our luggages and headed to ximending, which was a few traffic lights away. Had Ah Chung Mee Sua for dinner, standing up. It was alright, i didn’t find it fantastic.

We also did not find the stores at XMD fantastic! Sounds odd but that is a fact. Seriously there was nothing much there.

Here I am in the Taipei International Airport, staring dazedly at a computer that projects only Mandarin characters, wondering how I’m going to rid my mouth of cottonwool and blink the dryness from my eyes. Such are the joys of crossing the International Date Line.

In the weeks that have intervened between my hopeful entry in Riga and this somewhat-bedraggled one in Taipei, I’ve learned several things. The first is that the fantasy of traveling far surpasses the reality of everyday life. Meeting people while you’re on vacation, free of the minute burdens that cloud the  slog of the real world, is exhilarating. You only see the best sides of people. Just before you start to get irritated by their idiosyncrasies or disappointed by the darker parts of their character (or vice versa!), you move on. The second thing I’ve learned is that experiencing the slog of everyday life – the pain or hardship of the real world – is necessary in order to truly appreciate the fantasy of travel. I’ve met many people on my travels who never exist in the ‘real world’ — a world where you work hard for something, where you invest emotionally or financially in a project or person, where you put faith in the long-term instead of the short-term. These people seem to float unappreciatively through the fantasy world of travel, unable to savor the beauty of new experiences or new people. They’ve become dull to the excitement of relinquishing responsibilities because they’ve never had any responsibilities. The third thing I’ve learned is that I’m at a place where I’m wondering which of these two options is preferable. I’m constantly disappointed by the people I encounter in my ‘real world’ – they are often hindered by their own insecurities, jealousies, neuroticisms, selfishness. I’m constantly uplifted by the people I meet on my travels — they appear happy, energized by new experiences, ready to share, open-minded, willing to help. However, I am wise enough to know that little separates these two groups of people except circumstance: the former group exists in a ‘real’ place where I have invested time and energy; the latter group exists in a fantasy world where I invest very little and have nothing to lose. I’ve always thought it “better” to invest time, energy, vulnerability in people because the returns far outweigh the investment. I wonder now if this true. Skimming the surface of a fantasy sounds much safer.

Related to this idea, being the voyeur instead of the participant has always appealed to me: watching others, remaining quiet, absorbing the atmosphere, reflecting on how it affects me. Whenever I visit Asia or Australia, I’m always struck by the time difference and how this affects my voyeurism. It’s now 9:41am on November 22nd Taipei, but it’s 8:40pm on November 21st in Rochester, NY. I never experienced November 21st. It disappeared somewhere into the abyss over the Pacific Ocean. And now, the people in Rochester will get to experience a Saturday night. It’s over here. It already happened. I like living in that tense. The tense of “that already happened.” I enjoy giong to sleep at night thinking, “I wonder how November 22 will be for the people I know in the United States. Mine was good.” I like being ahead of the game. The first one to experience Sunday. The first one to put my feelers out into November 22nd and shape it. Living in “that already happened” is more comforting to me than living in “that has yet to happen.” I wonder why.

When it gets cold, it’s good to dress in layers. I had three layers on today, so you get three shots. Also really digging on the navy + black combo.

Wednesday, November 18th

navy Pashmina – gift from a Kindie student

jacket – HuoFengHuang – bought in DongChu at a street vendor (the one in the lane by the Missofi outlet off FuXing)

jumpsuit – Rice Society (first worn on Halloween as Lady Gaga)

boots – Pura Bianca (just got them on the last day of the SOGO sale!)

mittens – TongHua nightmarket, SO warm!

sweater – Z something in Japanese, bought at PS Underground, first worn on day 35

necklace – made by Jeffery Yu

shirt/dress – Little Roman, bought in WuFanPu, first worn Day 23

Another kind of beef noodle soup in Taipei is called “mian xian.” The noodles are thin and soft, while the broth is thick, almost like gravy. It comes with chewy coils of beef intestine.

Air Canada has announced a new direct service linking Calgary with Tokyo. Beginning 27 March 2010, the airline will fly the route 3 times a week offering the only non-stop service between Alberta and Asia.

Flight AC 009 departs Calgary International Airport at 1220 hrs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, arriving at Tokyo (Narita) at 1400 hrs the next day. The return flight, AC 010, takes off from Tokyo at 1600 hrs and lands back in Calgary at 1045 hrs every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Air Canada has timed the flights to allow for convenient connections at both points of the route. Together with its Star Alliance partners (ANA, Asiana, Thai Airways and United Airlines), passengers can connect to other Asian destinations including Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Manila, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Taipei, as well as other cities across Japan. In Canada, passengers can connect with the flights to and from other destinations across Alberta and Western Canada.

The new Calgary-Tokyo service will complement Air Canada’s existing daily flights to Tokyo from Toronto and Vancouver. With the new flights, Air Canada will operate 17 flights a week from Canada to Tokyo Narita International Airport using its 211-seat Boeing 767-300ER and 349-seat Boeing 777-300ER aircraft offering Executive First and Economy Class.

For more information, visit www.aircanada.com.

The people of Taipei are unusually nice. A taxi driver spent 10 minutes poring over a map with a magnifying glass so he could find my hotel. (In Hong Kong, the first cabbie I tried at the airport unloaded my luggage when I gave him an address he didn’t recognize.) One Taiwanese woman who gave me the wrong directions chased me down, called her friend, and escorted me around until I found what I was looking for.

But is it safe to leave your umbrella by the entrance? I’m not sure if this testifies to Taiwanese honesty, or an unsentimentality for their umbrellas.

Tuesday, even though it was raining, I finally got off the sneakers and jeans phase. Onto red, which I think is a major color this season and for spring.

Tuesday, November 17th

jacket – Bossini, gift from Lisa

dress – previously owned by Priminister Thaksin’s daughter, bought at a charity sale in Bangkok

red skirt under – Dancing Dress

feather earrings – Rice Society

red wrap shirt – Mango, gift from Lori

Monday, Monday. Rain. Needed to be comfy and warm and dry.

Monday, November 16th

hoodie – Pirate Store

Mickey shirt – Justin’s old threadbare shirt

jeans – Cheap Monday (yes, I need new jeans, shut up, more than 3 weeks til I can shop again!)

necklace – chain from Rice Society