two more days until... H.O.M.E

I arrived back from Osaka, Japan today this afternoon.

I'm actually pretty exhausted right now so this will be a quickie post and off to sleep i go. i'll only be putting up scenic pictures today.

Frankie: sorry, the food pictures will have to wait. there's TONS of pictures to go through to photoshop. there are some pictures you're probably familar with. =D

Birdie: i can't wait to paint with you when i get home. i hope you're keeping coco company! Miss you guys lots and can't wait to see you soon.

oh?

so today, i searched high and low for painkillers. WHOA. i couldn't find anything. i've been having this headache ALL day.. ugggg. can you believe it? 7-11 sells cigarettes, toothbrushes, acne facewash, mascara, alcohol, meals, but no advil and that sort of thing. *tear* as most of you guys know, i have this bad habit of being dependent on my dearly loved pills.

it has been raining here almost everyday and so it's even more HUMID and HOT.

anywho...
i want congratulate my beautiful sister birdie.. for officially finishing college! yayay!

so.. this past week...

i got to eat at Shenkeng.. which is famous for their stinky tofu. =p
i must admit, the s. tofu was actually pretty good. 0.0

here's chiang daddy, 2nd mommy and my mom. =]


we had chicken, soup, bamboo, spicy stinky tofu, and reg. stinky tofu.


not only did i have stinky tofu, i had tofu ice cream for the first time!
there was brown sugar, milk, burnt, sesame, and some other tofu flower thing.

i thought this parking garage thing was awesome! i think if held like 200 something cars. it rotates or something until your car shows up. the parking guy was laughing at me since he thought i was crazy or something. =\

shenkeng street

the guava here was super sweeeet.

i don't remember what day this was....

I don't have any pictures of my 2nd aunt or sao sao up but the night before i had to head back to my aunt's house on my mom's side, we ate dinner at shilin's night market. Our dessert was shaved ice. my mom and i had the mango one while my aunt and sao sao had the green tea and red bean on the side.

Mango shaved ice that i had with my 2nd aunt on my mom's side.

it's so hot here we have a lot of icy stuff. =p
Frankie: i think you had this before!

On friday last week, i went hiking with my mom, my rent's old coworker and her husband.
i got bitten TWICE and today, (my monday) it's still frikkin' red and itchy. what theee..

so we took the train to go hiking... out of taipei we went...

a creepy spider that's similar to a daddy long leg but has a BIGGER and LONGER body. shivers* (for my spider fans.)

water buffalo!

an asian snail. =p

looking out of the train station, waiting by the side since it was raining.

So, my mommy's birthday was on thursday and so we had shabu shabu (aka hot pot)

it was also my sen sen's birthday on saturday.. so we had a lil celebration.

here's my sen sen and ching.

me and my 2nd aunt (aka my 2nd mom)
do we look alike or what? sorta? kinda?

frankie: you've been here!
the chiang kai-shek memorial/conservatory of music thingy

my aunt was laughing how i wanted to take a picture with this fish.
this is a fish food machine. i actually just wanted to sit for a while and his tail was a perfect spot.
birdie: i know what you're thinking... of course i would take a picture with this fish. =p

the chiang kai-shek memorial

Saturday....

for my sen sen's birthday, we went out to eat and this is what we had....
frankie: sen sen said you haven't eaten here yet! the noodles were awesome.

after lunch, my mom and i decided to do a quickie visit to shilin. so off we went, without and umbrella to go visit my eldest aunt on my dad's side and grams.
shoot. it started to rain right when we were walking up to the hospital where my grams was staying.. but the time we got out.. it was POURING. i had no choice but to spend $75 taiwan dollars to buy those funky plastic rain jackets. i had the 7-11 lady take a quick picture of us before we quickly walked to my 2nd aunt's house on my dad's side.

frankie: i got to try mister donut.
birdie: remember the time you went to asia you bought like 10 donuts but forgot to bring them back? haha.
totally different kind of donuts from what we have...

this headache kills..
hey pops: you know what the cure for headaches and tummyaches are over here.. not asian herbs.. but red bean soup and chocolate.. WHAT THE!!!!!?????

miss you guys sooooo much.

was listening to MB's Home. =]

i'll be off to japan in a couple days. whooa... does time flies....

<3

an update for the week.

hello there my beautiful people. 

i've been MIA on here for... goodness knows how long. 

you're probably what the heck have i been doing over here in taiwan...

well.. let me tell you....

i've been eating LOTS, catching up on sleep on every so couple of days, going out to night markets shopping (or trying to), more eating, hanging out with fambam, walking, feeling sticky from this hot humid weather, and all that fun sorta thing that you do on vacations. 

since it's 12:08 am for me right now.. tuesday, i have to say i visited my dad's hometown Hsinchu TWO days ago. i'm tempted to say one but a new day has begun. so... you guys are in for a BIG post since i've been super slow at updating this bloggy thing. =p 

First, i want to say i miss you guys sooo much! <3

miss me? huh huh?

*big deep breath*

so here it goes.....

so, i've been staying at my 2nd aunt's house on my mom's side. almost every night, we check out different night markets, eating stinky tofu, doraemon cake, drinking milk tea with pearls, all that cheapy goodness. 

a typical night market kind of looks like this.....

well, you can't really see but there are always TONS of people there. 

it's kind of crazy, you'd think people would go to sleep on weekdays.. i guess not. =\

Here's my mommy with my 2nd aunt. 

We get a kick out of having people believe my aunt is my mom.

Someone even said I looked more like my aunt than mom.. ?!?!

I just have my dad's nose..[ birdie.. i know you're snickering... =[ ] (my uncle hasn't gone to the market with us so my dad is a john doe.)

two days ago, my sunday, my mom and i decided to go visit my 3rd aunt, aka my dad's 3rd sister.

turns out, i got to hang out with some of my cousins, niece, nephew, and aunty. =D

my cousins turned out had a whole day trip planned out for my mom and me.

 

our first stop was at some garden place where some president's son was buried. 

this guard was standing outside in the front and i HAD to take a picture. 

these guys are required to stand there for an hour without moving. i was hoping to get a giggle or something but no. =[ hahah 

Birdie: dude, if we did this, HAHAHA. we wouldn't be able to. =p

 

i think the guards were staring at each other. 

here's the fambam...

from left: my 3rd aunt, mommy, me, cousin, and niece

the guys in white i think are from the army.. and the green.. navy? 

i'm not quite sure... or it could be the other way around.

the 2nd stop we made was to some chiang kai-shek memorial thingy.

there were TONS of this nice smiley looking gramps EVERYWHERE.

there was one that was just sitting there like santa.. i was tempted to go sit on his lap and get my picture taken..

but the temperature was so gosh darn hot, the metal probably would have burnt my butt. 

(in this picture below, i was pretending to have my arm rest on his arm =p)

i think there were peeps who scrapped off his butt pants. HAHAH

i wanted to take a foot or something but i didn't. =[

this is my other cousin. =]

yeah.. in this picture.. i can see myself that i have my dad's nose.. *siGH*. 

(BIRDIE....  >=|)

our third stop was a quickie. 

we drove up the mt. to some dam thing. ehhh. 

i only picked this picture since... yeah.. i don't have to explain.

two words for this place: totally asian.

birdie&franks: hoover dam.. remember? HAHAAHAHAAHAH

i was talking with our cousin (pronounced three-know how) about how we all drank too much water but our cousins wanted to see the dam and there was terrible traffic? =p

Fourth stop: Nanyuan.

this place was awesome! i didn't go on the tour since i couldn't really understand really what the guy was saying.

it's kind of like the japanese tea garden in SF just wayyy bigger, and chinese style. =]

and to all my bug fans out there.... ;)

these are the ones that make those buzzing noises when summer approaches.

my cousin's husband had them in his hand.. i guess he picked the up or something.. i totally RAN the opposite direction. no worries, they're just bug outer cores. isn't that gross? 

and if you were here in taiwan.. you'd say.. (how uhhhhhh) <-- hahahhaa (copied from my niece and nephew irene and jason who say it lots!)

a picture of the fambam (3rd aunt and one of my cousins not pictured)

Final destination: Hsinchu.

and here are some pictures for my pops... =]

remember this? 

HAHAA funny story. as you can see on the left, the post thing says.. NO TOBACCO PARK. 

oh. well guess what i saw... people SMOKING. excuse me?!?!?! i don't think the no tobacco thing is only written in english.. there's also TWO.. not one.. TWO universal pictures for NO SMOKING. 

guess what i saw? my own store! =]

my 3rd aunt decided to take me to my grams house.. which isn't occupied right now..

look what i found.. that wee little girl with the pigtails in the front.. is... =X

yeah, and half my face on the right is there too. my cousin and i tried pulling that other paper in front away but... i guess it really has weathered... =\

hsinchu is known for their .. uh... (ba-wan, aka dad bowl)

i totally forgot to take a picture of it. well.. it was suppose to be in the empty bowl in front. 

sorry frankie! =p yes... beer with dinner was WONDERFUL. 

frankie: it was awesome..  had it during lunch AND dinner. =p HAHAHAHA

we only had beer since while beginning dinner.. my 3d aunt goes to my cousin.. " i'm so THIRSTY! i need a beer," so, off my cousin goes to find some beer and TADA!

after dinner, we went to the night market there and there i actually played those games.. well.. two. 

hahah.. birdie.. remember the fish thing and darts? well.. i played those. 

RAWR. i didn't catch any fish since my rice paper kept breaking. *sIGH*. at least the guy there was nice enough to give us some. ahhaha. i actually had cotton candy again for the first time in oh so long. =p

my mom thought i went to go buy it.. but really! it was my 3rd aunt.. i swear.. i think both of us are really similar... 0.0 i wonder why.... =]

and now.. this last picture is esp. done for frankie....

this was lunch with cousin mong-rong yesterday. 

we had sushi.... the only thing not pictured is the tempura since i couldn't and didn't want to use too much brain power to add it in. we had our own private room and the chairs were nice and comfy.

ok.. now it's almost 1:00am. i really need to go sleep or something.

the milk tea is keeping me up!!!!

tomorrow, i'm heading back to my "other mommy's apartment"

<3