To and From .......Taipei, Taiwan

I sit here now comfy in my chair..... waiting for my bannana nut bread to be done. I think back at Taiwan, and WOW what an adventure.

First I embarked on a mission. A lonely mission, that I only Elvira Gallegos accepted. Reason being, I had time off and everyone else didn't.

Everyone knows, i am totally afraid of water, BUT in order to save myself 100 US dollars, I bought a ticket from Naha to Taiwan on a ferry boat. Yes, a ferry boat. It looked like a mini cruise ship, though. Well, I was overwhelmed by it's beauty (even though it had dirty carpets!) and especially because I had my own room. Usually, one has to share with strangers, just like taking a night train. Well, the thing was there was a typhoon heading in between Japan and Taiwan. So, the waters were HELL!!!!!!!!! Can you say vomiting party? I was so sick i almost started crying for my mommy! How do you say " STOP THE BOAT" in Japanese? If i knew, I would of said it. So, thanks to some anti seasickness pills that only knocked you out, and didnt anti anything i slept for 20 hours. Yes, 20 hours. Just to save 100 bucks. All I knew was, I wasn't ever going back on that thing again!

LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!

Arrive Keelung, Taiwan 9:30pm. Sick, pale and no Taiwanese money. No worries, I got my handy dandy stamp on my passport and head out to find someone to exchange money for me. I found a nice lady to do so. After she cheated me, NO JUST PLAYING. After she exchanged the money I headed to the train station to head out to Taipei.
After a fun time trying to buy tickets and getting to the correct platform number 2 I finally made my way to the city.

Arrival at Taipei City. Lost at the main station. Look at my map, look at my directions to the hotel and realize i must take yet another train to find my hostel.

Arrive at the East end of Taipei, 11 pm, sick, pale but this time with money. Another 20 minutes to walk and find the hostel. Ring, Ring hmmm no answer. Ring Ring the doorbell went, no answer. There you have it. They took my deposit and never let me in! Yes, they knew a late arraival was comming. So midnight, no hotel, sick, pale, with Taiwanese money to spend.

Hotel 1 - booked- after skimming the streets of E. Taipei, no hotels.

12 pm Midnight. Sick, pale, no hotel, tired, thinking tonight will be my first night to sleep in a metro station, when suddenly I saw the light. Ok, 4 lights, 4 bright stars of a really nice hotel. There is a GOD! 4 lucky stars later, kissing my Taiwanese money to spend goodbye as I pay the hotel! Did I mention my hostel WOULD OF BEEN only 12 bucks a night?

As I wrote in my journal.........

ok, let me begin with the morning.

wake up at 8 am. go down stairs for weenies and egg breakfast but only eat the toast with coffee. go walking around bought a cute blouse for one of the girls, havnt decided which one yet and two cute wallets. bought some kickbut pens for 30 cents each. bought 2 pairs of shoes for 12 bucks, and really cute. came back to the hotel and booked a tour of 5 hours for only 30 bucks including lunch.

All you see in Taiwan are mopeds, or as as the tawainese call them "murdercycles." They are everywhere! Ok, to have a better idea the moped here is basically what the yellow taxi is to New York City. k.
So off we head to see some dead guys tomb. it was ok, Napoleon's tomb in Paris is better. I guess this bloke, the loved/ best dictator ever in Taipei. He helped with peoples rights.

Went to the natioal musuem, that was the best bathroom i have ever been in. ok....... so not really but it was quite interesting. There, i saw the famous "LECHUGA" or "cabagge." Its made of pure jade with only one piece, but passed from generation to generation to complete. They had to wait for discoloration and so forth.

I went to the WORLDS tallest building winning at 101 stories called 'Taipei 101. " The mall inside included LouisVuitton, Gucchi , Dior , Prada, everything rich people can only buy. At least I came out on a full stomach of ribs, potatoes and a new state of the art mp3 player. the death of my dell mp3 player gets a whole dedication later. That set me back 250 bucks. yes i know i know BUT>>>>>>>> lifetime warrenty, uh hummmmm.... and it just happens to be that Taipei is hosting one of the worlds biggest and best electronic conference thingy here. Its supposed to be the creme de la top when it comes to gadgets and gizmos. in the states this mp3 player wont come out until another 6 months. its the size of a thumb and only weighs about 75 cents on one hand. its cool!!!!!!

So to the final of the tour my cab ride home, since I left the tour to do some windowshopping. Ah yes, the cab ride . Well, ............. and all i heard was........ the taxi man suck something out his teeth!!!!!!!! yuk yuk yuk. i just thought what would cristy do ??? Hmmm. what would you do, sister?

ok, tomorrow another tale of the snake alley. yes you heard corectly. a night market part Mecca, part who knows what. sounds great!!!!!!!! ah
yes i found an american food store. so i stalked up on orangina,,, yes orangina prego and cereal to take back with me 2 okinawa.

another yet satisfying day, but not without the daily adventures i go through.

ok, so i wake up eat and head down to this famous temple with over 150 dieties to go around. i only spend about 2 minutes since the smell of incense is everywhere. ok where to? hmmm. ah yes lunch and early lunch since my toast with wierd jam was not enough.
i walk into some random place filled with people. you sit, there is a hole in the middle of the table, they bring you raw veggies and meat and start cooking! I cant speak Mandarin, so i pointed to the picture and showed her beef, or so what i thought was beef. she looked at me and said sum mumbo jumbo, and said "Dai jo bu" that means its "ok" but she dosnt understand me since,..... i was speaking Japanese. anyways she comes with some red beef stock. i ignore the color coes it smells great. the so called beef,. looks so pretty, the colors compliment each other. well i cook my veggies and start to eat, OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDddd well it turns out the RED STOCK, well i didnt notice the picture well enough. the hottest thing i ever had. it was a puree watered down with chicken broth but the puree was a puree of pure red peppers, the kind that get served in the Com pao shrimp at fu shing. i started to cry almost, everone was laughing. ah yes and the meat you ask???/// Deer meat. i had 5 bites, paid my 2 dollars and left to find a more comfort food, McDonalds.
next up? my favorite part of the day. the paper museum. i made my own paper!! it was the coolest thing. and i bought some nice gifts for my sister and lizzette for scrapbooking, i went wild, its such beautiful paper so I bought about 40 bucks on huge sheets!
After, i head down to some old ugly alley, think of downtown LA by A and S where cristy worked, i head down and find an old shop. not crowded only anther person and myself. the shop is about the size of my bedroom back home. a 90 year old man sits, smoking a pipe and carving away beautiful trays. i couldn't resist so I bought a really nice one for my mom. set me back 100 bucks, but its worth it. honestly. the tray you ask? you can serve your tea and coffee to your guest. a serving tray, catch my drift.
next up... an yes the best taxi ride ever part 2. i only closed my eyes and prayed to God only once. the funny thing is.... in okinawa there are far more accidents (actually havnt seen one yet here in Taipei...........yet) more accidents, with only 2 lanes, one to go and one to come back, the okinawans drive much much slower, and still i see about 5 accidents a day in Oki. here, lizzette will freak out! i f she thinks yann and i drive bad, she would be wishing that we drive instead of here. lanes, what lanes, they drive i nbetween lanes/ its crazy!!
anyways, so the taxi driveer speaks little English, and asks me "do you like dog meat? huh? i say, NO yuk yuk yuk! then he goes on and on how americans eat dog meat. i stop him and say,.... i am american, and trust me the lawyers will be all over us if we ate dog meat. well it turns out..... Dog meat = HOT DOGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 hahahahahahahahahahhaha
next up, back home to drop off all the things i bought. get a half hour nap, head out to dinner at this mongolian b b q place. by far beats the montebello town center! then i head for some more shopping but didnt buy anything at the snake alley. you read right,,, snake alley! snake soup. blood, hearts, tails, everthing you can imagine. it ws quite grosse! i wanted to barf it smelled really ugly, since they were drying fish, squid next to the snakes. uhuhhhhhhhh.. ok so
10 30 pm here in taipei, 11 30 in okinawa and 8 30 am back home. my feet hurt, time to hit the sack and again wake up to have yet another interesting day in the land of the shoppers paradise. I can just imagine Jesse yelling "MARIA!" Yolys' heaven and Jesses' nightmare!

Ok i did it !! i really did it. i got it done a reflexology foot massage for an hour. oh my god, i dont know when was the last time a good looking man was rubbing my feat! details, as it gets its own dedication later.

ok so the short version. since its 11 48pm in taipei 12 48pm in okinawa and around 7 48 am back home.

i just walked in the hotel, carrying so many bags. its hard to shop for souvenirs here, since they dont really haven any besides the casual postcard and key chains, its a shoppers paradaise for clothes shoes, etc, but not souvenirs. anyways i did mangae to buy a couple of things for the fam.

i was at the pickpockets heaven today, no worries, i have everything, luckily i was not a victim, since i have my passport and mula in an underwear pocket. they are underwear, but there is a zipper on the belly to put stuff in.
ok, so i bought my dad some kick but shoes, set me back.. shhhhh secret. bought some and too tired to be countinued.......

Well, that was my last entry in my journal. I got too lazy to write some more. The picture on this blog is the group that I went to the National Museum with. The Korean man sent me this picture the other day. I don't have any pictures to post since I didnt take my digi cam. Why? I took my good camera to take pics with and I didnt want to carry so many cameras.I went home a couple of days later. I loved Taipei, but I was glad to return to my cozy apartment. By the way....... I didnt return by boat. I bought a new ticket on China Airlines, I was home in 75 minutes compared to the long hours on the boat!
ENJOY!!!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly...of the Japanese

While being here in Okinawa I have discoverd what the Japanese Culture is really like. It's almost like a dictatorship or even communist, why? Because, the Japanese government keeps the people under tight scrutiny, and everything and everyone at the same level. Examples:

First- To everyone everything unknown or new is "Dangerous"

Situation 1 -I am going on a ferry trip to Taiwan ANSWER- "It's dangerous"
Situation 2- I am going swimming ANSWER- "No, you can't its dangerous!"
Situation 3- I left my window open Answer- "Someone can enter, it's dangerous"
Situation 4- "Don't walk on close to the road, its dangerous."

These sound like normal dangers right?..... Well.....

Situation 1- They are not telling me "it's dangerous" because I a female traveling alone on a ship. No, they tell me for the fact that the ship itself is going to drown. Because, it is not the norm of traveling on boat since its cheaper than flying, the airlines need to stay in buisness, right? So what do they do? They scare the bejeezers out of you. You ask, how does the government play a role here you ask? Politics, everything is money. Television is a powerful tool to keep the masses informed. You know that little sailboat that went down in the south of Spain? We never heard about it back in the states, here in Japan, Titanic #2. Tactics, scare the public about traveling by sea, buy air tickets! Everyone flies.

Situation 2- Usually, swimming is dangerous right? Especially when jellyfish is involved. The thing is there are plenty of beaches here in Okinawa. So on the same exact beach, 300 feet apart are two sections, One with jellyfish, and the other without. The side with jelllyfish, there are signs of "danger, jellyfish." On the side with no jellyfish, it's ok to swim. The truth is, there are NO jellyfishes on this side of the island. There are nets to supposedly secure the area from those see through fish; but according to my close friend at the prefectural office, they only say that there are jellyfish, to keep the people all on one side of the beach, so they scare them off with signs of jellyfish posted all over the "danger side". Reason being? Not enough life guards to keep watch. Why? Not enough money to pay them. So they lie instead, instead of saying, KEEP OUT NO LIFEGUARDS. A weak Prefecture in Japan? NEVER!! One Prefecture more richer than the other.... NEVER!! SEE PICTURE OF SIGN.

Situation 3- I left my window open. Ok, enough AC, my bill is expensive. I live on the 2nd floor, with only one side of the apartment building with stairs to get you your door. On the back end of the complex there are windows, for example: my shower window with BARS. You can't get in. First, it's on the second floor, it's tiny,it has bars, and there is no access to the window. BUT it's dangerous! Someone might get in, like in America people break in all the time into houses. It's not safe. This leads to another situation. On television, everything is the way it is. So America is dangerous. When have you seen one or two Japanese travelers travel alone? Don't we always see them in flocks? uh, hum. It's dangerous to travel to America.

Situation 4- Speed limit on Okinawan roads: 45. MPH 30. You swear, these people drive so damn slow! And theys till can't drive. The sidewalks have metal little fences to outline them. Going at 35 MPH what are the chances of breaking through one of them and hitting you? But its dangerous to walk too close to the metal fence, you might get hit!

Ah! Yes, my favorite THE SUN
They are so afraid of the sun. It's hot, figure 90 somthing F. Humid, no wind. Ther are covered from head to toe. Literally. Tele-v's commercials galore on the dangers of sunbathing. Yet, they have old people that die from heatstroke. why? they wear gloves, hats, longsleeves, they wrap their heads in towels and tie them from the bottom of their chins. They are covered from head to toe. The sun is dangerous, but yet who gives a damn on heatstroke.

THE RULES OF JAPANESE CULTURE
1 Never say "Goodbye" when you leave a party.
2 Don't stick your chopsticks upright in rice, it means death.
3 Never whistle
4 Never pour yourself your own drink
5 Always take off your shoes when entering a home or school.
6 Never take "sick day" always vacation days. It looks bad....... (i do)
7 Never leave school before 6 pm for teachers, it means your not working hard enough.. ... (i do)
8 You must change schools every five years, to teach at. Never leaving one comfortable at a workplace, to keep you working hard.
9 After the age of 6 NEVER take your children to school, they have to walk. (seriously, there are first graders that always walk alone to school)
10 NEVER DISIPLINE a kid at school. Its a form of embaressment. Students don't have to do homework, if they don't want to. They can sleep in the class if they want. They yell at the teachers. You can't suspend students or take them out of class for bad behavior, why? Its the students right to be in school. So the case of the girl who stabbed a girl in the neck last year with a pen, came to school the very next day, as the victim lay in a hospital bed for 2 weeks. If you discipline, you are embarassing the student, a teacher can get fired. Me? I disiciplin all the time, i am a foreiner. Its ok. So the teachers just give me a sign to yell at the class. What do I know, I am only a foreigner?

So many more rules can't think anymore off the top of my head.

Ok, so Japan is not communist or under a dictatorship, but there are so many insane rules, and asking permission for everything, time here just gets really frustrating. I had to relieve stress somehow.......

The Famous Tug of War

Isn't that the most cuttest kid!!!
We gathered down on route 58 in Naha City
for the world famous tug of war. I don't
know how many people went, but it's the
largest in the world. Me you ask? Oh, just the casual blisters since I let my side to victory. Ok, no not really, BUT it was a blast. There were taiko drummers and men again balancing sticks up the air. I still don't quite understand why they do that, but hey, its cool to watch.

You can see more pictures, just click to the right and you can view the album titled "Tug of War"

The very first entry......to my family. Just wanted to let you know how I miss and love you all!
Not a day goes by when I look onto my picture frames and imagine what travesudas the kids are doing now, what finger my dad has slammed a nail into, what book is my sister reading now, which new car part has my brother bought, what new bargain has Nysa found and lastly whats cooking on the stove, mole or chiles reyenos?
I also want to sqeeze the chubby legs my handsome new nephew Benjamin Thomas has. I can already hear the screams of Danyelle, Rebecca and Emely fighting as to who's turn is it to clean the room, I can see Mathew trying to hide his toys from Andrew, while is Andrew is occupied running like a chiken without his head, trying to hide from his Tia Cristy because all she wants is a kiss! Not to mention the best dog in the world!!! Guido barking as hard as he could to the stupid old man of a neighbor, "He who shall not be named" for fear that I can get sued for putting his name on this site.
I miss you all!!!
PS
What can you see me doing?

Billy in Okinawa

A few days before I left.... Now I am going at almost 3 months and think what a long way to go. I am officially all settled in, and even made my first trip to Taipei, Taiwan. An exciting trip with lots of adventures, including being stuck at 11 pm with no hotel. I was so tired and sea sick that even the metro station seems comfy for a night cap. More to come........