Tuesday, May 8, 2012

day 32! zhongxiaoxinsheng, ximending


My first fully free day in Taipei, by which I mean just me alone. :) It is quite liberating to be by myself but of course it's also lonelier. No one to do things with, no one to share things with, delight in food with, all that jazz. Guess I am used to it from living on my own, and if I was really forced to weigh the two options, I would eventually begrudgingly say that I prefer it this way (cuz I'm a loner) but it does get ya down sometimes.

It was a bit sad, since I gradually sent all my family members back, seeing them off. And every time after the taxi/car/whatever pulled away, taking them away two by two, I would turn to whoever was left and say "...and then there were x". Well I didn't exactly get to see Michael off since I left first, but yesterday when I landed in Taipei and got back to my apartment....I did sit down and think to myself, "and then there was 1".

:(

Oh well, I will be back home and annoyed before I know it.

Anyway, the cold moved from my sinuses to my lungs, so it was slowly getting better. I did rest all morning/afternoon, but my cousin had invited me to go karaoke with her and her friends, and told me to head over to my grandmother's house at 5pm. Which I did...but...it was a trap!! Lol. Guess it was a family dinner or something, when I got to the apartment my aunt was there with the new baby, and my cousin was making some dinner. I ended up sitting around for two hours, wishing desperately that I could go to sleep since I wasn't making conversation or doing anything anyway. But it was nice to have a dinner with my family, since we hadn't seen them much so far, them being busy with the baby and all.

It was quite a spread! She made some pasta with tomatoes (they eat a ton of cherry tomatoes here).
Cabbage with tomatoes...
Cabbage and something...
and some other odds and ends.
Our chef!
Then we went off to karaoke. My cousin brought me on her scooter!!!!!!!!!! Damn those things are seriously fun. If I were staying in Taiwan for an extended period of time...I dunno. I think I'd want a scooter. :P The MRT is definitely convenient enough for you not to need one? But it's so fun! And yet slow enough for any accidents to probably not cause too much damage.

The karaoke place was in ximending. By the time we got there, they'd already been there for a couple of hours. It was odd, when we walked in, my cousin introduced me as "This is my cousin. She speaks Japanese and English!" which....unsurprisingly led many of them to believe that I was Japanese. And quite a few of them had studied Japanese and so kept trying to talk to me in Japanese. So I was bouncing between stuttering in Japanese to fumbling for words in Chinese when really what I wanted to do was yell "ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKERS!! DO YOU SPEAK IT?!?!?!" - pulp fiction

It was a fun time though. :) They were all pretty lively, and while not *super* friendly, very accepting of my presence there. The room had its own bathroom, which I thought was pretty cool. But the COOLEST PART.

Uhhh. A buffet of food??? You can't see it, but those piles of glistening treats under the lights are fries. :p
There was also actual like, cooked foods here. Like stews and vegetables and stuff.
Some desserts.
AND a crazy drinks bar!! What??!?!?
The most insane part is that when the bill was sent in, and split, it came to 300NT/person. That's about 10 dollars. For a private room with karaoke, your own bathroom, endless food/drinks...FOR FOUR HOURS. WTFFFFFFFFFffffffffffff I'm so mad we didn't find this sooner. O_O O_O O_O Taiwan truly is a magical place.....

A video of some of the guys singing some rap song. They were pretty funny. :)

I didn't really sing cuz I don't know any Chinese songs, but mainly cuz my voice was a little jacked up from the cold. Too bad, they probably woulda gotten a kick out of a Japanese girl singing a flawless Poker Face. :p

After karaoke ended, my cousin moped'ed me back to Guting and I went home for more sleep. :3 I am such a glutton for sleep..........

1 comment:

  1. puh-puh-puh-pokerface, puh-puh-pokerface- MUH MUH MUH MUUUUUUUUUUUUH~

    i am really beginning to believe that Taiwan is pretty close to what heaven would be like...

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