Have you voted yet?

My mom had been very into gardening these days, and these are her work.

Yesterday was the day of the election for Taiwan president, and it was also the first election for me to be able to vote. I'm not a politic enthusiasm, nor do I have a candidate in my mind, so I was actually voting for my mom, who had an opposite opinion with the rest of my family. I know that as a citizen of Taiwan, I shouldn't be so apolitical, but I think that whoever had won the election, there would be people unsatisfied. For example, my grandfather, who hadn't talk since the result was out and had to take a pill to be able to fall asleep last night. Since it was my first time to vote, I really wasn't familiar with the procedure and had to follow my mom step by step. The last thing she reminded me before I stepped into the private booth was to be sure to press the ink on the blank square 'above' the candidate's number, not 'on' the number. I carefully press the ink and make sure it was printed clearly, but little did I remember that besides the vote for the president, there was another ballot for the referendum on the issue of joining or returning UN until I cast my ballot into the ballot box and found another blank ballot on my hand. Fortunately, I was allowed to walk back to the booth and cast my vote. That was pretty embarrassingXD

Taichung Lantern Festival

Despite sawing from the news that it was crowded like a sardine can, I still wanted to join the crowd to the Taichung Lantern Festival at Wen-Xin Forest Park to spend my last night in Taichung before school started. It was wise for us to take a cab there because the traffic nearby was pratically dead, and it was impossible to find a parking space. In fact, even by cab, the driver had to drop us across the street and asked us to walk to the park, so you can imagine how many people there were 'outside' the park, not to mention inside the park.
We actually had to wait in line to take a quick photo with Mickey's pet dog Pluto. Just so you know, it was not a lantern, only a cardboard. It was our first time to visit the park which was opened in 2006, and I was amazed by the hugh outdoor stadium that can store 4,000 people. The major lantern was placed at the center of the stadium, with water-dance show performed every half hour. The park is rather large, and beautiful, so if it were not for the distance from our house to it, I would definitely love to visit it again in the daytime.

Kenting Chateau Beach Resort

The weather these days are freezing cold, not a single sign of the sun reappearance, so I'm glad that we spent last weekend in Kenting where it was still warm and felt like a "normal" winter in Taiwan. My parents choosed Chateau Beach Resort to stay for one night. The last time we came here was in the summer and was perfect for activities in the water, and this time even though it was a little bit windy, it was still nice to have a walk on the beach or enjoy their outdoor Jacuzzi. A man in a diving suit, carrying a stick with a sharpened end on his back walked pass us on the beach, and his hand was actually holding a fish! I wondered whether it was his job or just a hobby, but either seemed far-fetched.
There were many cats around the outdoor swimming pool, and surprisingly they were not afraid of human at all. It was funny how we wanted to be close to them when they seemed to be scared and tried to run away, but when we could actually touch them, we were afraid of the germs or diseases we might get from them. At least that was the case for me, or maybe that was because I just had bacteriology class this semester.

Tainan Trip- day 2

An-Ping Fort, also a national grade 1 historical site, was our main tour site the second day in Tainan. Actually I was more interested in the famous cuisine and snacks selling nearby, and before we visited the fort I was already carrying a bag of shrimp crackers and a box of preserved fruit to take back to Taichung.

Eternal Golden Castle was built in 1874. The handwritting of General Shen inscribed on the brick gateway is the most well-known feature of this castle, so almost all senior high history textbooks in Taiwan have the photos of the characters "億載金城" and "萬流砥柱".

Tainan Trip in 2008- day1

Me and my friends hopped on the train to Tainan the first day of our winter vacation. We had been planning this trip as soon as the new semester started. Last winter vaction we had a wonderful time in Taipei, and this year we decided to head south. We actually had a small argument of whether this should be a cuisine-trip or a historic-monument-trip since we had only about two days in Tainan, and finally we came to a compromise that it would be half-half. Our original plan was to rent scooters in Tainan and travel around following the map, but Jing- Wen's father wasn't feeling secured to have us riding around in the bustling traffic, so he showed up at the train station in a huge SUV to pick us up and became our tour guide.

First stop: Chikan Tower. It was built in 1653 by the Dutch, and now it is the landmark of Tainan and its most famous historic site. It was a shame that none of us knew the historic details of this renowned building although we remembered it showing up in our junior high school's history textbook. According to Jing-Wen, the tower is particulary attractive at night when the light in the building and the garden are lighted up.


Nine stone tortoises carrying royal stele carved in both Chinese and Manchurian.
Second stop: Yan Ping Jun Mang Ci. When we arrived it was already closed, but we could still walk around outside the building.

Let us in!

Snake soup, which I never have the will to try before this trip, surprised me after Jing- Wen's father urged me to try some. It actually tasted quite good, and it was said to be good for both health and beauty (that encouraged me to take two more sip).
As for dinner, we had seafood with Jin- Wen's parents and her two little brothers in a restaurant they often go to. There again, I tasted food I never taste before, like duck's tongue, sea snail and chicken's kidney. As disgusting as they may sound, they were not as bad as I thought.
Jing- Wen's parents were kind enough to welcome us to stay overnight at the kindergarten they belonged, which we could sleep in a music classroom that was big enough to room the five of us. Staying in the kindergarten brought us all back to childhood again, and we stayed up till midnight playing those miniature instruments, sharing each others' kindergarten memories until we fell asleep.

Happy New Year 2008

The last day of 2007, my original plan was to do nothing special at home and turned on the TV for the countdown as I usually did every year, but since this is my first new year's eve not spending it with my family, I went to my friend's house with a group of people to spend the freezing night. We had hot pot for our dinner, then with hands full of snacks and drinks, we headed toward Lerler's house. After watching the movie "I Am Legend", we divided into two groups, one playing mahjong and the other playing UNO. I, of course, was in the latter group since I didn't know how to play mahjong.

We had a small firework after the countdown. It was short, but dazzling.

Kobe the brave lighting up the firework while the rest of us stayed as far as we could.

Merry Merry X' mas!!

Snow man!


The Christmas party held by the student union. I didn't get to join them from the beginning last year, so this year I had my wish fulfilled. The first activity is the making of sweet dumplings, and instead of making the traditional round ones, we made cubes, triangles, hearts and other different kinds of shapes.
Lerler, who showed up earlier in the puzzle contest, was the vocalist and the keyboard player of Tiger Band. Small Eyes was the guitarist. Louis, the second vocalist and the only girl in the band. This was the first time I heard her sing closely, and it was really great. Cripple was the drummer.
Old Dad (I couldn't think of a better translation of his nickname><) was the second guitarist and Small Fish (he hates this name, haha) was the bassist.

Encore!