Back with an uber-long rant. Like, really UBER-LONG
Okay, obviously, I haven't had internet in the last 8 days that I was in Taiwan. As such, rant time!
Margh. Laptop is screwed up. It was FINE yesterday night when I packed it up. Now the screen's just blank and white. I have it hooked up to my dad's monitor right now. *sigh* At least it's only the screen that's screwed.
And I'm gaining weight. No, seriously, I ate WAY too much in Taiwan. I'm like, 10 lbs heavier than I usually am right now. Literally. Eh well, I don't care too much since it's not like I'm fat or anything, but it's getting dang annoying to listen to my mom complaining. *sigh* Gonna have to figure out a way to sneak cookies to my room now.
Right, Taiwan. First time back in...6 years? About that long anyhow. Kinda fun, kinda depressing. We mainly went back 'cause my grandpa (paternal) has had several strokes and now he's really not doing well at all. He's living in the apartment and my family had when we lived in Taiwan...about 12 years ago. Really kinda weird going back. I remember visiting it when we made a trip back 6 years ago and we actually stayed there for the week. Now it's just my grandpa and one of my aunts. We stayed at another aunt's apartment since it's basically vacant now that they're living here in Canada. Really really...I dunno how to say it, to be back. Something between creepy and depressing. Seeing the old place all worn down. Our nice (but old) leather couch is ruined now since my aunt has this huge dog. The coffe table's discolored with age and the place in general seems so....SMALL. I mean, I expected to think it was small the first time I went back 6 years ago, and I didn't then. So I didn't expect that much of a difference now. But...it's...argh, I dunno.
I hated seeing my grandfather. I mean, I like the man, it's just extraordinarily disheartening. Because of his strokes, he can't talk, can't sit up, can barely move at all. I have no clue if he even recognized me. Margh, I wish my brother went back. Stupid guy. He *should* have gone back. My grandfather's old-fashioned to begin with and now he's...well, not all there, I think. My brother is the only er...grandson he has. By grandson, I mean the son of his son. The children of his his daughters (my aunts) are considered to be 'out of the family.' So basically, my brother's the only grandchild that I think my grandfather's really concerned with. *mutters* Stupid Roy, should have gone back with us. I'm fairly certain he recognize my father. It's hard to tell though, some days he seemed like he was aware of everything, other days it seemed like he was just a shell. I think the worst part of it was that he didn't really *look* ill. I expected him to be pale and...almost wasted away, but he wasn't. Just glancing at him, you'd think he was healthy. We visited him for a little while almost every day we were there. It was...*sigh* I don't know if it's even possible for him to get better, but I sincerely hope he does. He was such a incredibly wonderful grandparent before all the strokes.
Thankfully, most of my vacation in Taiwan was mainly cheerful...or at least contented...I think. ^^;;; I'm too tall for this country, I think. I hit my head like 4 times in various cars/taxis and was crammed into the side of a bus. Ya know that one image of chibi!Tezuka smooshed up against the subway in one of the chibi eps? Yeah, that was me ~.~;;; 'Cept worse, 'cause the ceiling at the sides of the bus were lower so I couldn't even stand upright. (...On the upside, I was half a head taller than everyone else so I think I had better ventilation ^^;;)
Taiwan was mostly a trip down memory lane. Checked out my old pre-school, the area where my mom used to live, some old childhood haunts. I only have the vaguest recollections of these places. ~.~;; Went to some touristy places like the Chiang-kai Shek Memorial and 101. CKS was kinda dull, just watched the changing of the guards. Only other people there were masses of Japanese tourists ^^;;; But the place was very picturesque.
101 was overall a let-down. For those who don't know, it's the tallest builiding in the world (for now, anyhow, I think Shanghai has a taller one in the works). The first 5 levels make up a mall and the rest are offices. Visited the top floor that we can go up to (89th). Sorta cool, but again a let down. The trip up was a regular elevator so it's not like you could see out. But hey, going up to the 89th floor in the fastest elevator in the world (whole trip took about half a minute) not bad at all. The view from the top was disappointing, I must say. Taiwan has this constant haze over it which I think is part weather and part pollution. Couldn't see much. Wasn't even frightening and I'm horribly acrophobic... But! There is one good thing about 101. Actually, I shouldn't say good. Good's too weak, in fact, I don't know a word strong enough for it. ^___^
101 has this FABULOUS bookstore, PageOne. (Yes, I'm fangirling over a bookstore. Yes, I'm well aware of the fact that I'm a total geek) It's SO AWESOME. It's not even all that big, just kinda thrusted into the corner of the food court. But it's decently sized. And it has both English and Chinese books which was great after only finding purely Chinese bookstores. And it was laid out in this really really cool way so that the whole store's basically a circle. And English and Chinese books! (I know, I've said it already) But English and Chinese books! Which meant English and Chinese manga! Okay, fine, English manga I don't care for, but lots and lots of Chinese manga! And I mean LOTS. All the other bookstores I was in (yes, that does mean I had gone into several other prior ^^) only had like a shelf's worth of manga. This had an entire section. Like, a MAJOR section. Like how most bookstore's would have a section for cooking or sports or mystery novels. I was SO freakin' euphoric I was grinning like an idiot for like 10 minutes. Couldn't get anything then 'cause we had to leave quickly, but yes. Totally in love with that bookstore, *totally*.
And the whole grinning like an idiot thing was kind of a continuous thing over this vacation. A few days before, I was still getting over jetlag so I was totally tired and dizzy and just really really out of it. My dad flipped on the TV to just browse around and the first thing that came up--Naruto. As soon as I saw Tsunade on the screen, I perked up before my brain even went "Hey! Naruto!" My dad just looked at me and tossed me the remote and left ^^;; Unfortunately, it was Japanese with Chinese subtitles so I barely understood it ~.~;; It was one of the eps when Tsunade was meeting with Orochimaru, I think. But I couldn't really understand it so during commercial break I flipped around and found Chinese dub Pokemon, Doraemon, and a few other shows. Kept flipping around until I saw something familiar and my brain went "...wait a sec, swinging hammocks?" I went back and was just in time to see...the ending theme to One Piece. I think the only thing that kept me from screaming "Nooooo!" Out loud was the fact that my parents were in the next room. I was SO ticked off at myself that I missed it. But it showed the next eps preview and it was one of the older eps that I've already seen fansubbed, so no big loss. Kept channel surfing since a new set of shows was starting. Found Detective Conan, another ep of Naruto on different channel and DB. I just kinda kept going in hopes of finding another OP ep....and I did ^^ Didn't even realize it at first. Just randomly stopped at a channel and went "huh, random pirates falling off a breaking boat. Looks like OP art, but the scene isn't famili--...Wait, did that ship just split in half? Split in half means...." *scene pans out, shows Baratie* "OMG Mihawk! It's the Mihawk ep!" Sadly, I had to leave halfway through the fight. Even more sadly, the Chinese dub sucks ~.~;; Not as badly as the American one, but the voices as just very generic and Luffy sounds too feminine and Usopp's too shrill v.v;;; meh. But the PoT Chinese dub I found a few days later was even worse. It was Shishido and Ohtori vs. Inui and Kaidou. Again, generic voices. Kaidou didn't even have the gravelly voice and omg, ATOBE. HORRIBLE. Atobe's voice was like...nasal x.x;;; GAH. Bad, very bad.
Had a few other anime sightings, FY, Inuyasha, Hikago, Yugioh. And oh yeah! I saw an OP UFO catcher in on of the malls. Did manage to get some manga. The Mr. Prince volume of OP, first two volumes of Hikago since I've never read past the first chapter, and OP Red and Blue. All in all, not a bad haul considering I had to buy them and pack them without my parents knowing. It's not so much that they would disapprove, I think, since it would help my Chinese, but it's...just that it would help my Chinese, so my mom would probably end up making it a translation excercise and take all the fun out of reading it ~.~;;;
Did other stuff too, of course, other than depressing nostalgia trips and anime fangirling. Went up to Yanming Shan, but we were about a week too late this year and all the sakura trees were already kinda wilting. That was the trip up and down the mountain where I was crammed like a sardine in a tiny bus. Was car sick for the first time in ages. Didn't throw up or anything, but ugh...
Also went to check out the National Chengchi Univ. A childhood friend of my parents' who they're really close to now teaches there as a prof. She and her husband were close friends with my parents throughout college (they're all alumni of the NCCU). They have two kids, a girl in college and a son my age. They lived in Taiwan about the same time we were and stayed a few years longer, I think, before moving to Australia for several years. Their kids were basically raised in Melbourne. They moved back to Taiwan a year or two ago. The boy, Doug, has such an australian accent ^^;;; Half the time I'm not too sure what he's saying. HATED him and his sister when we were kids. My bro and I both did. Probably drove our parents nuts since they're good friends. But ugh...His sister is the typical girl and loves fashion. Used to use me as a live doll when we were kids *shudders* Maybe that's why I hate clothes shopping now... childhood trauma. And Doug was an annoying little brat. Geez, it was the only time my brother and I got along when we were kids, 'cause we both hated him so much. He's pretty cool now. Much more laid-back, but incredibly lazy. It was good talking with him, so at least he's tolerable now. Our parents talk forever when they see each other. Had dinner with them three times that week, twice he was there so we actually managed to converse and not totally ruin our parents' convo. Once I was by myself and fell asleep at the restaurant ^^;;; Can you blame me? We finished eating at around 8:30, when they woke me up to go, it was past 11...
Oh right, NCCU. NCCU, I'm actually pretty interested in because it's a political university, the name literally means National University of Politics/Political Science. Basically, it's the Georgetown of Taiwan. They have a study abroad program with several of the US schools I applied to. I really really want to spend like a semester or two there. Brush up on my Chinese and Chinese history...Just not sure if I'd be able to survive in Taiwan on my own. The roads there are hell and I have no survival instinct ^^;;. I'd probably get run over before a month is up...~.~
The flight there and back wasn't too bad. My parents had business class seats flying there (I had economy...but we switched a few times) Got to watch The Incredibles, bit of Bridget Jones 2, and Shall We Dance. I'm actually semi-impressed with Shall We Dance since I've watched the original Japanese version. J. Lo was....blah. The overall story kinda lost it's meaning since the original was kinda a commentary on JAPANESE culture. But I think the movie on it's own was great. Richard Gere rocks and the minor characters were AWESOME. I love the adaptation of Link (I think that's his name?) SO true to the original. Best scene: Richard Gere's character practicing dancing with Link at the office, guy walks in on them and Link promptly pretends to have fainted ^^; While the main theme kinda changed, I really liked how they kept a lot of the little things and took them straight out of the original.
Watched After the Sunset, part of Spongebob, and Fat Albert on the way back. After the Sunset was okay, but rather contrived. Spongebob, I DO NOT understand why this show is so popular. I could FEEL MY BRAIN CELLS DYING as I watched. I honestly thought I was getting dumber by the second watching that thing. Stopped after a while. Meh, I can see it's appeal to little kids, but there are like teens who still love Spongebob which REALLY scares me.
And...now I'm exhausted 'cause jetlag's a pain and I've spent way too much time typing this ^^;;;
Margh. Laptop is screwed up. It was FINE yesterday night when I packed it up. Now the screen's just blank and white. I have it hooked up to my dad's monitor right now. *sigh* At least it's only the screen that's screwed.
And I'm gaining weight. No, seriously, I ate WAY too much in Taiwan. I'm like, 10 lbs heavier than I usually am right now. Literally. Eh well, I don't care too much since it's not like I'm fat or anything, but it's getting dang annoying to listen to my mom complaining. *sigh* Gonna have to figure out a way to sneak cookies to my room now.
Right, Taiwan. First time back in...6 years? About that long anyhow. Kinda fun, kinda depressing. We mainly went back 'cause my grandpa (paternal) has had several strokes and now he's really not doing well at all. He's living in the apartment and my family had when we lived in Taiwan...about 12 years ago. Really kinda weird going back. I remember visiting it when we made a trip back 6 years ago and we actually stayed there for the week. Now it's just my grandpa and one of my aunts. We stayed at another aunt's apartment since it's basically vacant now that they're living here in Canada. Really really...I dunno how to say it, to be back. Something between creepy and depressing. Seeing the old place all worn down. Our nice (but old) leather couch is ruined now since my aunt has this huge dog. The coffe table's discolored with age and the place in general seems so....SMALL. I mean, I expected to think it was small the first time I went back 6 years ago, and I didn't then. So I didn't expect that much of a difference now. But...it's...argh, I dunno.
I hated seeing my grandfather. I mean, I like the man, it's just extraordinarily disheartening. Because of his strokes, he can't talk, can't sit up, can barely move at all. I have no clue if he even recognized me. Margh, I wish my brother went back. Stupid guy. He *should* have gone back. My grandfather's old-fashioned to begin with and now he's...well, not all there, I think. My brother is the only er...grandson he has. By grandson, I mean the son of his son. The children of his his daughters (my aunts) are considered to be 'out of the family.' So basically, my brother's the only grandchild that I think my grandfather's really concerned with. *mutters* Stupid Roy, should have gone back with us. I'm fairly certain he recognize my father. It's hard to tell though, some days he seemed like he was aware of everything, other days it seemed like he was just a shell. I think the worst part of it was that he didn't really *look* ill. I expected him to be pale and...almost wasted away, but he wasn't. Just glancing at him, you'd think he was healthy. We visited him for a little while almost every day we were there. It was...*sigh* I don't know if it's even possible for him to get better, but I sincerely hope he does. He was such a incredibly wonderful grandparent before all the strokes.
Thankfully, most of my vacation in Taiwan was mainly cheerful...or at least contented...I think. ^^;;; I'm too tall for this country, I think. I hit my head like 4 times in various cars/taxis and was crammed into the side of a bus. Ya know that one image of chibi!Tezuka smooshed up against the subway in one of the chibi eps? Yeah, that was me ~.~;;; 'Cept worse, 'cause the ceiling at the sides of the bus were lower so I couldn't even stand upright. (...On the upside, I was half a head taller than everyone else so I think I had better ventilation ^^;;)
Taiwan was mostly a trip down memory lane. Checked out my old pre-school, the area where my mom used to live, some old childhood haunts. I only have the vaguest recollections of these places. ~.~;; Went to some touristy places like the Chiang-kai Shek Memorial and 101. CKS was kinda dull, just watched the changing of the guards. Only other people there were masses of Japanese tourists ^^;;; But the place was very picturesque.
101 was overall a let-down. For those who don't know, it's the tallest builiding in the world (for now, anyhow, I think Shanghai has a taller one in the works). The first 5 levels make up a mall and the rest are offices. Visited the top floor that we can go up to (89th). Sorta cool, but again a let down. The trip up was a regular elevator so it's not like you could see out. But hey, going up to the 89th floor in the fastest elevator in the world (whole trip took about half a minute) not bad at all. The view from the top was disappointing, I must say. Taiwan has this constant haze over it which I think is part weather and part pollution. Couldn't see much. Wasn't even frightening and I'm horribly acrophobic... But! There is one good thing about 101. Actually, I shouldn't say good. Good's too weak, in fact, I don't know a word strong enough for it. ^___^
101 has this FABULOUS bookstore, PageOne. (Yes, I'm fangirling over a bookstore. Yes, I'm well aware of the fact that I'm a total geek) It's SO AWESOME. It's not even all that big, just kinda thrusted into the corner of the food court. But it's decently sized. And it has both English and Chinese books which was great after only finding purely Chinese bookstores. And it was laid out in this really really cool way so that the whole store's basically a circle. And English and Chinese books! (I know, I've said it already) But English and Chinese books! Which meant English and Chinese manga! Okay, fine, English manga I don't care for, but lots and lots of Chinese manga! And I mean LOTS. All the other bookstores I was in (yes, that does mean I had gone into several other prior ^^) only had like a shelf's worth of manga. This had an entire section. Like, a MAJOR section. Like how most bookstore's would have a section for cooking or sports or mystery novels. I was SO freakin' euphoric I was grinning like an idiot for like 10 minutes. Couldn't get anything then 'cause we had to leave quickly, but yes. Totally in love with that bookstore, *totally*.
And the whole grinning like an idiot thing was kind of a continuous thing over this vacation. A few days before, I was still getting over jetlag so I was totally tired and dizzy and just really really out of it. My dad flipped on the TV to just browse around and the first thing that came up--Naruto. As soon as I saw Tsunade on the screen, I perked up before my brain even went "Hey! Naruto!" My dad just looked at me and tossed me the remote and left ^^;; Unfortunately, it was Japanese with Chinese subtitles so I barely understood it ~.~;; It was one of the eps when Tsunade was meeting with Orochimaru, I think. But I couldn't really understand it so during commercial break I flipped around and found Chinese dub Pokemon, Doraemon, and a few other shows. Kept flipping around until I saw something familiar and my brain went "...wait a sec, swinging hammocks?" I went back and was just in time to see...the ending theme to One Piece. I think the only thing that kept me from screaming "Nooooo!" Out loud was the fact that my parents were in the next room. I was SO ticked off at myself that I missed it. But it showed the next eps preview and it was one of the older eps that I've already seen fansubbed, so no big loss. Kept channel surfing since a new set of shows was starting. Found Detective Conan, another ep of Naruto on different channel and DB. I just kinda kept going in hopes of finding another OP ep....and I did ^^ Didn't even realize it at first. Just randomly stopped at a channel and went "huh, random pirates falling off a breaking boat. Looks like OP art, but the scene isn't famili--...Wait, did that ship just split in half? Split in half means...." *scene pans out, shows Baratie* "OMG Mihawk! It's the Mihawk ep!" Sadly, I had to leave halfway through the fight. Even more sadly, the Chinese dub sucks ~.~;; Not as badly as the American one, but the voices as just very generic and Luffy sounds too feminine and Usopp's too shrill v.v;;; meh. But the PoT Chinese dub I found a few days later was even worse. It was Shishido and Ohtori vs. Inui and Kaidou. Again, generic voices. Kaidou didn't even have the gravelly voice and omg, ATOBE. HORRIBLE. Atobe's voice was like...nasal x.x;;; GAH. Bad, very bad.
Had a few other anime sightings, FY, Inuyasha, Hikago, Yugioh. And oh yeah! I saw an OP UFO catcher in on of the malls. Did manage to get some manga. The Mr. Prince volume of OP, first two volumes of Hikago since I've never read past the first chapter, and OP Red and Blue. All in all, not a bad haul considering I had to buy them and pack them without my parents knowing. It's not so much that they would disapprove, I think, since it would help my Chinese, but it's...just that it would help my Chinese, so my mom would probably end up making it a translation excercise and take all the fun out of reading it ~.~;;;
Did other stuff too, of course, other than depressing nostalgia trips and anime fangirling. Went up to Yanming Shan, but we were about a week too late this year and all the sakura trees were already kinda wilting. That was the trip up and down the mountain where I was crammed like a sardine in a tiny bus. Was car sick for the first time in ages. Didn't throw up or anything, but ugh...
Also went to check out the National Chengchi Univ. A childhood friend of my parents' who they're really close to now teaches there as a prof. She and her husband were close friends with my parents throughout college (they're all alumni of the NCCU). They have two kids, a girl in college and a son my age. They lived in Taiwan about the same time we were and stayed a few years longer, I think, before moving to Australia for several years. Their kids were basically raised in Melbourne. They moved back to Taiwan a year or two ago. The boy, Doug, has such an australian accent ^^;;; Half the time I'm not too sure what he's saying. HATED him and his sister when we were kids. My bro and I both did. Probably drove our parents nuts since they're good friends. But ugh...His sister is the typical girl and loves fashion. Used to use me as a live doll when we were kids *shudders* Maybe that's why I hate clothes shopping now... childhood trauma. And Doug was an annoying little brat. Geez, it was the only time my brother and I got along when we were kids, 'cause we both hated him so much. He's pretty cool now. Much more laid-back, but incredibly lazy. It was good talking with him, so at least he's tolerable now. Our parents talk forever when they see each other. Had dinner with them three times that week, twice he was there so we actually managed to converse and not totally ruin our parents' convo. Once I was by myself and fell asleep at the restaurant ^^;;; Can you blame me? We finished eating at around 8:30, when they woke me up to go, it was past 11...
Oh right, NCCU. NCCU, I'm actually pretty interested in because it's a political university, the name literally means National University of Politics/Political Science. Basically, it's the Georgetown of Taiwan. They have a study abroad program with several of the US schools I applied to. I really really want to spend like a semester or two there. Brush up on my Chinese and Chinese history...Just not sure if I'd be able to survive in Taiwan on my own. The roads there are hell and I have no survival instinct ^^;;. I'd probably get run over before a month is up...~.~
The flight there and back wasn't too bad. My parents had business class seats flying there (I had economy...but we switched a few times) Got to watch The Incredibles, bit of Bridget Jones 2, and Shall We Dance. I'm actually semi-impressed with Shall We Dance since I've watched the original Japanese version. J. Lo was....blah. The overall story kinda lost it's meaning since the original was kinda a commentary on JAPANESE culture. But I think the movie on it's own was great. Richard Gere rocks and the minor characters were AWESOME. I love the adaptation of Link (I think that's his name?) SO true to the original. Best scene: Richard Gere's character practicing dancing with Link at the office, guy walks in on them and Link promptly pretends to have fainted ^^; While the main theme kinda changed, I really liked how they kept a lot of the little things and took them straight out of the original.
Watched After the Sunset, part of Spongebob, and Fat Albert on the way back. After the Sunset was okay, but rather contrived. Spongebob, I DO NOT understand why this show is so popular. I could FEEL MY BRAIN CELLS DYING as I watched. I honestly thought I was getting dumber by the second watching that thing. Stopped after a while. Meh, I can see it's appeal to little kids, but there are like teens who still love Spongebob which REALLY scares me.
And...now I'm exhausted 'cause jetlag's a pain and I've spent way too much time typing this ^^;;;