Mid-Autumn Festival

中秋節快了！

 

Hello from Taiwan!

 

So I have decided that I want to try to have some organization to my posts, thus, for this post I am going to talk about the Mid-Autumn Festival festivities that have been happening here in Taiwan for the past week or so.

 

First, I guess I should explain what the Mid-Autumn Festival  is (also known as the Moon Festival which I will be calling it from now on in this post since autumn is incredibly irritating to type). The Moon Festival is a lunar harvest festival celebrated in China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Since I do not want to try and explain this festival for fear of sounding moronic, please watch this short clip…. Mid-Autumn Festival  There is much more to the holiday including many different stories of how it originated, alas, I am not an expert on the subject and do not want to tell you guys wrong. What I can tell you with certainty, however, is that this festival is celebrated much differently in Taiwan. The video you just watched showed how the Moon Festival is celebrated in China, but, in Taiwan they add a little something extra…………….BBQ!

 

Mehhhhh, you guys may have already guessed that since I already talked about it a little bit last week. This weekend was the official holiday weekend though and it was filled with even more BBQ, smoke, and excitement than I could handle…(literally, the smoke was thick).

 

The first BBQ I had this week was with my Taiwanese friends/language partners that I had become friends with last summer. One of my friends was part of a ‘Roller skating club’ and she invited me to join her BBQ. Little did I know that this BBQ was going to be a big production. I finally arrived to the place where my friend told me to meet her (I was lost T_T ) and found out that there were about 50 other people that were a part of this BBQ. I also found out that we were all going to go by scooter to a bridge about 15 minutes away and were going to BBQ under the bridge. Once we got there, I saw that there were about 10 disposable grills all lined up with folded up cardboard boxes (our seats) surrounding all of them (I wish that would happen in America). We spent the rest of the evening sitting around these grills and shoving our faces with food…. GOOD FOOD. We grilled chicken, sausages, green peppers, mushrooms, string mushrooms with butter, etc. Guys, it was so good and we ate for hours and hours. The cityscape was beautiful, the air was filled with the smell of Taiwanese BBQ, and the moon was balla (you didn’t think I would start getting all gushy, did you?) Long story short, it was amazing. And I am going to give you guys a clip to show you all of the cool people I was hanging out with that night. My friend is the one in the pink skirt……Gangnam Style Flash Mob Yup, this is where I live guys…jealous?

 

My next BBQ experience for this week was at my school. We had all heard about this celebration a few weeks ago and had signed up for it at the school. Well, little did we know, that it was a huge production. We all thought that it was just going to be a little classroom filled with like 30 people (international students) but no, no guys, it was a huge auditorium filled with hundreds of people. So I walked in found my friends, luckily, and sat down by them. This celebration consisted of a Karaoke contest and food. During the middle of the show there was an intermission and then it got real. Imagine two long tables of food on either side of the auditorium and then hundreds of people rushing towards them at the same time, cramming in trying to get some food. Yeah. It happened. At one point this French girl and I made a deal. I go for the salty foods and she’ll go for the sweet foods. BREAK. Good plan, good plan. I am proud that we are intelligent enough to think up ways on how to not starve for the rest of the evening. After this celebration, a group of us headed back to a dorm room and watched a movie. After that, I ran into two friends and went into their dorm room and chatted. Once again a good night here in Taichung.

 

Then last night a German girl, Finnish girl and I all went to another night market on the other side of town to go shopping. And since this post is already going long I will just say it was a success and I bought an amazing pair of shorts. Oh, and also, while ordering food the people loved that this white, blonde kid could speak Chinese and then were hilariously surprised when the Asian looking girl behind me in line started speaking English. WIN. They literally couldn’t stop laughing.

 

Well, this is the end of my post and I am honestly going to put up more pictures once I get all the ones transferred from my I-phone. For now, here is just another random assortment of pictures that really don’t have a lot to do with this post. Sooooooo, sorry?

 

BYE!

Moon Festival

So good!

yay!

Tea Time 

Top of Department Store with themed restaurants

Used book store

Englsih

Lazy mans Chinese

What I walk through to get home at night

Dept. Store



Shopping at Carrefour

Lunch

Dinner

Long way to the toilet

I have arrived to the toilet

BEST PANTS EVER

 

I'm alive.

Dear world that is unable to read my Facebook updates,

I am still alive.

I know that before I left the US I said that I would try and update my blog like twice a week, but, at that point I forgot that I was a lazy person. Don't judge me though! Honestly, have any of you tried to write a blog? It is not easy. Whenever I sit down to write I always forget what it was I wanted to write about, the witty jokes I had planned, the pictures I wanted to put in, and how to use proper English grammar (seriously, my grammar is the worst). But, I keep on keepin' on just so I can please you people and to also let you know that I have not died in a car accident(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRoxjMzUq3g). On that note, I will now tell you all what has been going on for these past few days in Taichung, Taiwan. Sooooooo, let's do this.

*Looking at pictures to see where to begin*

Okay cool, so the other day I went to this Department Store named 'Tiger City' with my friend Ben. We got there by scooter and then went to 'Zara' to look at some clothes. Guys, I wanted all of the clothes in there! They were all so chic and fierce (international friends, this is how you use fierce). I basically just looked super sexy in anything that I tried on, so that was awkward for everyone in the store. Fun fact, Department stores in Taiwan are expensive too. Soooooooo, ya, no clothes for me. But even those few minutes of wearing expensive, high class clothes makes me happy on the inside (VAIN!). After that, we walked around the rest of the stores and just took a ton of pictures like one does in a Department store. Long story short, fun.

**Spoiler** The next story may sound very similar to what I just explained.

Two days ago, Ben and I went to another Department Store named 'Top City'. Top City is less than a year old and even just by looking at the outside of the it you can tell it is brand new. It has shining lights, a giant HD screen, doormen, and other rich people stuff. When we first went in we went to the Supermarket inside the building and got some drinks. I got some Chocolate Milk and Ben got Tea. Well, attached to this bottle of Tea was (any guesses??.....you're wrong) a square piece of soap. Guys, I wish I could tell you why you get soap when you purchase that tea, but, I have no f'ing clue. I guess that maybe you need to clean up after the rigorous task of drinking tea, that is my only guess on this matter. Next, at the top of this building were a ton of themed restaurants. It was much like Las Vegas and/or Epcot. So, of course, it was picture time again. The 'Captain Morgan' was my pose of choice for that day I guess..... so enjoy these pictures (DON'T HAVE THEM YET ><)....I am not a giant freak at all. After all of this picture taking excitement we went over to a restaurant and had some duck and rice. AMAZING. I honestly think duck is my favorite meat (in case you were wondering). So that was my Wednesday night.

NEXT

Last night was really fun! My language partned invited me to dinner with him and other Taiwanese and internatioinal students. We all met at the front gate of our school and then took two cabs to a German restuarant. So, yup, there we were. In Taiwan... eating at a German restaurant...with peepz from Taiwan, France, Finland, USA, and Germany. It was way fun and I got to meet a few new people :D. Also, in true expensive restaurant fashion, there was not a lot of food for how much you paid haha but it was still good. Also, going back to the dorms after dinner I was the guy sitting in the front of the cab giving the driver directions. So that was new for me and it was crazy to think how much my Chinese has improved since last year. Another good thing that came out of that night was the new plan that has been set. Me, a German girl, French girl, and a Finnish girl are all planning to watch ANTM every week and party it up! We had our first ANTM party last night and it was totally balla. Trying to explain American slang is tough though, let me tell ya. Seriously. Try to take the stupidity of all of the girls on that show and turn it into a fluid English sentence. Impossible.

My weekend was also fun and filled with excitement. Saturday I was invited to my friends apartment building to join their Mid-Autumn Festival party. I walked in the courtyard of the apartment building and the first thing I see are hundreds of people sitting down on little plastic buckets and BBQ'ing with these disposable BBQ's. What we had to eat that night was some sausages, chicken, pork, etc.....however, this food was a million times better than American BBQ.

When Sunday came me, my friend from Michigan, and her friend from Paraguay met up to go to this Thai Water Throwing Festival that was being held. Well, the area where this was was quite far and so we rented scooters in the city. $10 American for the day was the cost and it was worth every penny. My friend drove me on the back of her scooter and we were off. I would love to say that we didn't get lost butttttttt I would be lying. Good thing though is that we only got lost when we were really close to the festival. We stopped at a 7-11 and asked anyone if they knew where this festival was and this really nice family said that they would show us the way. So we made it to the festival in time and took part in the giant water fight, which was really fun. I haven't been in a water fight since I was a kid so it brought back memories. Right when this water fight started I bet you guys can guess who a lot of people went after. Yup, the white, blonde Americans. So that happened. And being able to attack kids with water was fun too. FUN FUN FUN. After the water fight we went up to this abandoned amusement park/hotel and looked around. It was cool and definitely worth a look. Worn down Dumbo will be in my dreams for months to come.

On the way home.....

We were all traveling in a group back to Feng Chia. Well, at one point we may or may not have ran into the back of our friends scooter and scratched our scooter up and broke the headlight (a little bit). But you know what guys, it is okay, because this is Taiwan. When we went back to the scooter rental place the guy didn't make us pay anything extra for the scratches and we were on our merry way back to our apartments.

Yuuuuuuuup, that is about it.

I know that my blogs are just random short snippets of stories, but, I promise I will start writing down my blog ideas and try and keep it to one topic every time I post.

Like next time, I may just solely talk about the night market.....mmmmmmkay? Cool.

k, bye!

**Random Group of Pictures**

The Gay Agenda

Fried Pork, Rice, and French Fries

Art Museum

Science Museum

Ditto

Lunch :O

Taichung City (outside of the Science Museum

Running with the stars

Taichung City Park

Walking back to my Dorm after class

Sausage with Passion fruit Sprite

Haunted Amusement Park

Walking to School in the morning

Waiting for the elevator at my dorm

Taichung

Do that.

Da Keng Area

Amusement Park

Read this post.

Sup.

So I am almost done with my first week of school and it seems like e'erything is going to be just fantastico. I have class every morning at 8:10-10 and then M&W I have another class (so from 8-10 and then 10-12....I don't know if that makes sense. DEAL WITH IT.) Compared to last year my teachers are speaking mucho, mucho faster and by the end of class one tends to be brain-dead from listening to Chinese for that long.

Enough school talk.

So on Tuesday I went to this American Diner with two Taiwanese peepz. My friend wanted to take me there since I told him that I am going to miss Mexican food (Tuesday night tacos..holla). So that was fantastico. After that we went to this open park area and walked around and it was totes beautiful.

This would be a moment where I would put up a picture but I don't have WIFI yet. Patience is a virtue ya'll.

The day after, after class, we went to a museum :D. This museum is grossly huge and I took so many pictures that I want to show you guys. Alas, I am unable. Trust me though, there were so many different things and sections. It was like BOOM learn about space BOOM learn about humans BOOM learn about plants BOOM. boom. After the museum, we crossed the street and had some gelato T_T. It was soooooo good guys. Be jealous. Also, in that same area there was a table set up with some stuffed llamas and I have the most adorbz picture with them.

WIFI!

So ya, that has been my last few days here in Taichung. What have you guys been up to? Plz let me know. Okay? Like, is you good, is you? Well, that's good cause I wanted to know.

I leave you with a picture that was iCloud'ed the last time I managed to have WiFi.

buh-bye

Taco Tuesday!

Scooter Ride.

Where is Clint a.k.a 艾克林？

Hey Grrrls,

So I thought to myself that some people will be like, "oh cool, Clint is in Taiwan at some college....how fun for him." But I am pretty sure that some of you may have no idea where Taiwan is (or what it is all about) or some of you- my family- would like to know exactly where I am in this great big world.

This is also a good way to add pictures to the blog since I still don't have WIFI and thus am unable to e-mail the pictures I have taken on my phone. Soooooooo here we go.

Let's start out BIG PICTURE style......

WOW! China is big...... well, I am not there. I am the little island on the bottom right of it.

ZOOM IN: I am that town right down thurr with the red cirle around it. (In the 3rd largest city in Taiwan)



ZOOM IN EVEN MORE: I live in the area with the big black circle around it.

LAST ZOOM FO REALZ: The night market in which I live.

 

 I currently preside in the Feng Chia Night Market which is claimed to be the largest night market in Taiwan. This is great news for many reasons. First, I literally never have to cook. Like, seriously, I can walk out my door from before sunrise to like 2 or 3 in the morning (depending how busy the night market is determines how long shops stay open) and just get whatever my little gay heart desires.Which, speaking of hearts, is one item I am able to purchase. Another reason why living in a huge night market is amazing is because of the clothes that are being sold all around me. These clothes are my style and cheap! Like I can buy pants for about 15 dollars American and, people, these are some good looking pants. The clothing here is also amazing for another reason.

The grammar mistakes made on clothing.

 Last year I saw a butt load of clothes that had misspellings (is that spelled right?) on them. Like this,

The amount of joy that this brings me literally cannot be measured.

 

Tonight, I saw some Calivn Kelin underwear that I am probably going to purchase some time in the future. So you better watch out for that.

 

So these are my two cents for why living in a market area is amazing. There are so many more but I will save that for another post.

 

Now you are all aware where I am living and now my posts can start becoming that hard-hitting news that everyone wants, such as:

 

-Why do I see more about American politics on Taiwanese TV than I do American TV?

-Why is it impossible to find a garbage can in Taiwan?

- How I am going to win the Taiwanese Lottery

   and lastly,

- Why does my Taiwanese debit card have NBA players on it?

 

So until next time friends and family.

 

Keep it real.

 

 

 

 



 

 



Got my din din, yo.

Cool, so I know what you are thinking...."Wow, reading a blog about Clint going to dinner, how exciting.....".  Ya, I am aware that this is not the most exciting blog post but it is all I can give you right now since I haven't started school yet and since the long video I made to put on my blog has decided to not work.

DEAL WITH IT.

 So here I was on a Monday night thinking to myself, "Clint, you are hungry." So I got all ready a.k.a put some presentable clothes on (since when I walk anywhere in this country I am constantly stared at) and was off....if I is gonna be stared at I might as well be lookin' good, am I right girls? Holla.

I got a little ways out and then decided that dis girl was goin to explore the town. I went on some streets I had never been on and it was really cool. I got lost for a second and felt stoopid in front of all the people I had to pass twice but ya know what, it is okay, I was born this way, baby. Anyway, I got back on track and headed on the main road back to the busiest part of the Feng Chia Night Market.

Then weirdness pursued.

I was walking on the road minding my own business when all of the sudden I see this guy (like 18) in the corner of my eye just smiling at me. Not just like a friendly smile, like hardcore smiling. I looked over and he all of the sudden, without warning, basically screamed "hello" at me. So me, being so so so so nice, smiled back and said hello back. This guy then proceeded to run a little bit in front of me, was stopped by the crowd of people, and then ran back behind me with his group of friends while they all laughed saying "oh eeee ahhh I did it I did it, he smiled back."

Sorry I got out of control. Long story short, it was interesting.

Well, after that I decided that it was this guy's time to get some food.  And get food I did. I saw a burrito stand and stopped in my tracks. Lemme tell you, this was a pretty delicious Asiany-Mexicany burrito. Next, I walked down the road a little bit more and at this juice stand saw a sign that said 百香果雪碧。For all of you stupid people that can't read chinese...it says PASSION FRUIT SPRITE. I did one of these @_@ and died for a second. I was so excited to taste this beautiful concoction of wonderfulness and could hardly contain myself. Not gonna lie guys, it was pretty g-darn delicious. Those are like 2 of my favorite drinks and to have them mixed into one was like heaven. Like literally, it's like if you could mix 2 of my favorite cuisines into one (oh wait, that totally happened earlier with the burrito). I couldn't stop eating at that point, I mean if I was finding these amazing things tonight what else would I find?

I found white people.

Besides that, I also found this amazing sausage with some veggies in it. It was kinda spicy and just amazing and I want another. Except, next time I get one I am going to get the one where they put chocolate syrup on top because I am really curious as to how that would taste. I am pretty sure "terribly" is the answer to that question.

Dinner was fun.

 Nothing like that would ever happen in Utah. Like, in Utah, I would not be freaking out and smiling at every white person I see just because they are white. No guys, it just wouldn't happen. Seriously though, every time I see a white person I understand for that split second why everyone in Taiwan stares at me. It is the shock value of the whole thing. You are not expecting it.

It is like in Jurassic Park. Ya know, when the two kids are in the kitchen, hiding from the raptors. They are like, "oh thank god we are finally safe, these raptors can't open doors because they are just stupid dinosaurs." Think again girls.

SHOCKED!










Same kind of shock value going on here.

Well, I am going to bed now. As you can tell, I had a very long and busy night. I shall leave you all with a picture of my food *BURRITO NOT SHOWN*

If you want me to talk about a certain topic or something, please tell me. Srsly, I need ideas.

Love ya later,

Clint 艾克林

I will try and upload the video I made once I can use the schools WIFI (for those of you who care).

K bye.

P.s. -- My grammar is terrible and always will be. I am aware of this, so do not be like "Clint, you should have the comma here and period sdlf; msdlgmc,s;dlf"

I will delete you from everything.