One year later

4 years later, and I’m still here. I was supposed to write about it being exactly 1 year since I graduated from university, and then I realized that April is also this blog’s “anniversary month.” I decided to move to WordPress last April 15, 2008 and I’ve never regretted it since. It’s been 4 years – I can’t believe that it’s been that long! Time really does fly by so fast.

Going back to the original reason for this post… I can’t believe that it’s been a year since I graduated. It seems like just yesterday, I was about to start university, and then I was just writing (and later on defending) my thesis with my partner, and then we were graduating, and now, a year has passed. Let me take this moment to look back and see how the past year has been.

Right after graduation, I started a job at this company (where I earned a good amount of money – money that was used to fund some of my other stuff like the documents for the scholarships and a camera, yay!) and stayed there for around 3 months. I made a lot of friends and memories there so it’s something I don’t regret doing. At the same time, I was waiting on scholarships from Spain and Taiwan. That was quite a stressful period of my life because I had to run a lot of errands, and I had to sacrifice a lot of “sleep time” but it was all worth it. I also accepted this translation job (that I did together with my thesis partner Jad). That was another experience too. We were also able to buy a house – something to finally call our own. We moved there a month before I left.

I got accepted to both scholarships (Spain and Taiwan), which meant more errands and more stress (but all worth it, yeah). I left the company and went to Spain on a one-month summer scholarship. It was so much fun! I was able to see Toledo, Córdoba, Granada, Barcelona, Segovia, Madrid, and a whole lot more places in Madrid. I had a lot of experiences and I met quite a handful of people (but I wasn’t able to bond with a whole lot of people because I kept on going to other places). It probably would have been better had I stayed there longer but I had to head to Taiwan for my other scholarship. I’m already happy with what I got and with the opportunity though. It’s something that I never thought I would get, and it’s something that I’ll forever cherish. I promise to go back someday! :)

After my scholarship to Spain, I went back to Manila for around 8 hours (after more than 16 hours of flying). I packed (well, it was more of I threw all that I could bring on the bed and mom packed it for me), slept, and then I was back on a plane headed for Taiwan. I’ve been for a little over 7 months now. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been to a lot of places in and out of Taiwan. Just 2 weeks ago, I was in China with my parents, visiting our relatives. I also went to Hong Kong with some high school friends – my first trip abroad of such sort. Siiiigh, it has truly been an awesome year. Of course there are times when I miss home and I miss my friends but I’m really thankful for everything that I have. I’m thankful for everything that happened over the past year, and for the things that are still going to happen over my next 2 years here.

Thank You, thank You, thank You!

This is all that I can think of writing for now. Looking back, it’s all still so overwhelming! :)

‘Til next time, Xiamen/China! :)

April 10, 2012

Andrea and I went to the port to see if the ship would leave for Kinmen. There were a lot of people there because the first 2 ships didn’t leave. We were just waiting there playing Tetris with each other. Finally, they told us that the ship would set sail at 12:30PM. The waves were strong so it was like we were on an amusement park ride. Other people were shouting, “wooooo!” every time we would “get hit” by a wave.

We got to Kinmen, boarded the bus to the airport, and then I waited to board my plane. Finally, I was back in Taipei! YAAAAY! :)

Alishan 阿里山

March 31-April 1, 2012

Alishan 阿里山 is famous for its sunrise, and when the bus company offered cheaper tickets, my cousins and I decided to go. We left Taipei at around 9PM and arrived in Alishan at 3AM. I watched the final installment of Harry Potter on the way there. I wasn’t able to sleep much, probably because my body clock is wired to fall asleep late. Upon arrival, we fell in line for the train tickets. The first trip was at 3:40AM. It takes 30 minutes from Alishan to the top of Chushan 祝山. It was so cold! Good thing there were food stalls! I ordered French toast and soup. Yum!

The sun was set to rise at 6:05AM so we still had time to kill. We just sat around talking/trying to sleep. Finally, when it was around 5AM, this “guide” started talking and saying random trivia about Alishan, the sunrise, etc. At 6:05AM, the sun rose! I never thought I would actually go somewhere to watch the sunrise. Cool experience!

After watching the sunrise, we walked around and then headed back down to Alishan. We then walked around the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area (around 4 hours), took lots of pictures (pretty sakura flowers and other flowers such as magnolias, dandelions, etc), and headed back to the bus and back to Taipei! It was a quick (and tiring) trip but I think it’s something worth doing! I’m glad I was able to experience it with my cousins!

Alishan collage :)

Shilin night market!

March 21-23, 2012

You can click on the photos (permalink) to enlarge them. You can zoom in!

I had 2 spontaneous Skype chats last March 21. The first one was with Martha and the second one was with Richelle. It was so much fun!

 

Clockwise from top: Japanese ramen, an afternoon snack of Swiss Miss hot cocoa topped with marshmallows and a slice of walnut raisin cake, Shilin night market with some friends from the Philippines who are in Taiwan for a short vacation, Hot Star chicken chop

 

Clockwise from top: Group picture 1 (Klyne, Auntie, Danelle, Aldrin, Therese), group picture 2 (-Aldrin +Enelyn), candy heaven!!!, angry birds game

 

Clockwise from top: cute donut-shaped mirrors, massage equipment (that really work), caramel java chip frap, oyster cake

Hualien 花蓮, Day 2!

March 18, 2012

For some reason, I woke up in time to see the sunrise. We ate breakfast at the hotel, and then we headed to Xiuguluan river 秀姑巒溪 for whitewater rafting! Yay, something to cross off my bucket list again! There weren’t a lot of rapids (? waves?) so for the most part, we just used the water dipper and our paddles to get each other wet. Haha! We also got tired of paddling so there were some instances wherein our rafts were pulled by motorboats. The whole thing lasted around 3-4 hours, I think. After rafting, we took baths, ate lunch, took pictures, and boarded the bus back to Taipei! It was a short trip and there’s definitely so much more to see and do in Hualian but I guess for now this will have to do. I’m so glad I joined this trip! ‘Til the next one! :)

Clockwise from left: sunrise, group G, rafting, group G getting ready to raft!

Basically just pictures I took after we went rafting. Bottom right picture taken by the tour guide!

Clockwise from left: A picture I took on one of our stopovers, big group picture, dumplings for dinner, picture with Goi and Amandine

Hualien 花蓮, Day 1!

March 17, 2012

I’ve been thinking of going to Hualien (Hualian in pinyin) for quite some time now but I didn’t want to go alone, so I joined this field trip organized by NCCU’s Student Ambassadors. None of my friends/acquaintances were going so I was a bit nervous about being with people I don’t know. That didn’t stop me from having fun and making friends though! :)

Clockwise from left: A picture I took on the way to Hualien (when I wasn't too dizzy), lunch picture, Taroko National Park, Dageli (Dajili) tribe restaurant

We passed through this narrow highway (yeah) with lots of twists and turns. Since I’ve always had motion sickness/vertigo, I slept the entire way. There was a time when I was so dizzy that I wanted to puke though. Tsk. We had lunch at this tribe restaurant, and then we went to Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園. The park is HUGE! There wasn’t enough time to explore the WHOLE area so we just explored Changchun Shrine 長春祠 and Swallow Grotto 燕子口. After that, we went to Qixingtan beach 七星潭. Swimming wasn’t allowed so we just sat there, looked out into the ocean, and felt the wind in our hairs. HAHA!

Clockwise from left: Tour guide, Changchun Shrine, picture with Linda, Changchun Shrine marker

Pictures of Swallow Grotto, Goi, Linda, and I, and Qixingtan beach

Pictures at Qixingtan beach and exploring Hualien at night

Checked in at Fortuna hotel, rested for a while, and headed out! We went to 2 different night markets, and we also bought some of the local delicacies to take with us back to Taipei. Yummy food!

Pictures of/at Hualien's night market

Pictures at Hualien's night market and of our hotel room

It’s always good to be surrounded by people who share the same interests/likes as you – and for this day particularly, those would have to be food, photography, and conversation! :)

Dazzling Café and 2012 Taipei Lantern Festival

We were finally able to eat Dazzling Café’s Honey Toast! Yay :) When we got to the 1st branch, we were told that we had to wait 1.5hrs to be seated, so we decided to go to the 2nd branch. We had to wait for 30min. but then since we would only have 90min. to stay inside the cafe, and because we wanted to order the pasta (which they would start serving at 6PM), we decided to go back to the 1st branch. Walked around Uniqlo to pass the time. Luckily, we got the call telling us that we already have a table at around 5PM.

We ordered a lot, and got so full afterwards! Their food are a bit expensive but it’s delicious! I was also with good company so all’s good. Went to the lantern festival in Sun Yat-sen Memorial after Dazzling Cafe. It was raining and it was cold (8deg!) but at least there weren’t a lot of people! We were even there in time for the fireworks (at 7PM!)

Cute door handles

On the table: banana chocolate honey toast 香蕉巧克力蜜糖吐司, strawberry lover honey toast 就愛草莓蜜糖吐司

Cute bears!

Hello 2012!

Chase your dreams, Dream (make dreams), Fulfill your dreams :)

Hihi

Brr!

It’s the year of the dragon!

Chinese culture

Rabbit Rabbit and i-baked

Since Shida night market might be closed in the near future, my cousins and I decided to go there for what could possibly be the last time (? I hope not!)

We had dinner at Rabbit Rabbit where I was finally able to eat Eggs Benedict. Dessert at i-baked where I was finally able to try their ice cream cookie sandwich. Yay to crossing things off my “food list.” Boo to being more and more… poor. xD

We also walked around the night market for a couple of hours (buying some stufff along the way, whoops!) before finally heading home.

All the photos are from Richelle’s phone, because we all forgot to bring cameras! :(

Thea and Patricia

My cup of coffee

Trying out Eggs Benedict for the first time

In support of Shida night market

Yummy homemade cookies

Thea, Roxane, Yang yang, Richelle at i-baked

2012 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival (平溪天燈節)

My classmates and I decided to attend the Sky Lantern Festival last Saturday. We met up at the Taipei Zoo at around 3:30PM and fell in line for around 30 minutes before we were able to board the bus. Because it was still early, we got off at Pingxi 平溪 and walked around the old street. Waited in line for 30 minutes again before we were able to buy these sausages that were famous there. Then, we walked back to the bus station and took the bus to Shifen 十分. There were a TON of people there!

Our Japanese classmate even went off by himself for a while so we kept looking for him. Ugh! I dislike that kind of person. If you go somewhere with a group of people, you have to make sure that you don’t wander off by yourself, especially not without telling the people you’re with. His phone wasn’t even ringing so we couldn’t contact him. UGH!!!

Anyway, we eventually found him so we walked around Shifen. We saw the simultaneous releases from afar and I took a lot of photos but what I really saw didn’t translate all that well in film. I wanted to go to the area where they released the hundreds of lanterns simultaneously but we weren’t able to make it there. Oh well!

Waited in line for 30 minutes before we got on the bus headed to Pingxi :)

Sunset

With my classmates and our lantern

Releasing our lantern

Look, it’s a heart! ♥ Another wave of lanterns :)

With the card indicating what each color means

Life will pass you by In the twinkling of an eye If you didn’t, now you know You can’t keep wasting time – Faith Evans

We also released our own lantern. I wasn’t able to write all that I wanted to write, but since my classmates wrote the stuff I also wanted to, I believe they would also be credited to my wishes. LOL!

At around 9PM, we started falling in line for the bus back to the zoo. There were A LOT of people! We had to wait in line for around an hour and a half before we were able to board the bus. I was nervous, thinking how I would get home if there weren’t any buses/MRT service once we got back to the zoo (because it was almost midnight). Luckily, I was able to ride the last bus home. Whew!

It was such a tiring day. Nonetheless, it was fun and surely memorable. I’ll be sure to enter the area next year!

PS I enhanced the photos on iPhoto.

Update: According to this news article I read, there were around 100, 000 people there that night. Wow! Plus, I was planning on going back Feb. 6th for the actual sky lantern festival, where they would be releasing 1000 lanterns simultaneously. Good thing I didn’t end up going because someone commented saying that he got there at 1PM (they were supposed to start letting people in at 12NN until the arena got full), and that it was already full by that time. It had already been full by morning. Yikes! There were a total of 120, 000+ people there that night, and over 420, 000 people dropped by for the duration of the day.

Hello 2012!

This is how we spent the first day of the new year! I really can’t believe that it’s 2012! I’ve probably said this a million times already but it seems just like yesterday that 2011 started, and I had a lot of wishes and dreams. Now, 2011 has ended, 2012 has begun, and I’ve accomplished a whole lot in between. I’m gonna post separate entries about this – one about the awesomeness of 2011, and the other about my plans for 2012!

Anyway, I helped my aunt make bread pudding.  Yay, I now know how to make one! It’s easy! For dinner, we went to Uncle J’s house in Linkou. The 3 families gathered there for New Year. We ate a looot! We all wanted to puke after. There was SO MUCH FOOD – lots of main courses and lots of desserts. Then, we played this Chinese card game after. It was a simple but fun mini-reunion.

Happy New Year!
¡Feliz Año Nuevo!
新年快樂！
Manigong Bagong Taon!
Bonne année!