Take me Back to Taiwan...please?

WARNING: Lots of pictures ahead. If you find that offensive somehow, then you can leave. Or suffer through the offensiveness.

So I'm back from Taiwan and life has become boring once again. Not that my life is boring, goodness no, but where my life is located, aka the sunny suburbs of California, is so dull compared to Taiwan. Whereas lights are out by 10 PM where I live, the lights never go out in the city. I really have become a city girl.

I love travelling. I love going to other places and seeing different cultures. Smelling different foods. Stalking different fashions. I should stop buying clothes so I can save money for my flight around the world. What an idealist I've become.

It took forever to load the images onto blogger. By the end I got tired so some days have more pictures than others. I don't believe in day elitism, I swear!

DAY1: Midnight flight to Taipei// Slept on plane// Tried to understand that I'm flying into the future // Watched Sex&City on the personal TV // Slept more // Landed in Taipei at like 5 in the morning // Bused it to the hotel // Met 3rd uncle on my dad side // Met a small typhoon// Realized third uncle on my dad size got a little fatter // Took us around the city, Taiwan drivers are CRAZY! // ate yummy breakfast // More driving around // Nap at hotel // Met my dad's crazy-interesting family // SLEEP. That was by far the longest day I ever had.

Day2:

Woke up// "YAY, I'm in Taiwan" thought // Met with sis's friend // Walked around the street // Took the metro // Off to Xinmen Ding for some shopping // Indulged in money spending // Memorized the exchange rate // Ate with second uncle from mom's side and met cousin I never met.

Day3:

Woke up // Went to get new glasses. Glasses here are so much cheaper! // Lunch with dad's opera classmates // WuFenPu Shopping!! So much cheap things, so little time // Went to harbor// Dinner with mom's friend at this really pretty building // Ate icecream // Tired.

Day4:

Awake // Took metro then taxi to resturant // Went to wrong resturant so took taxi again // decided not to eat there when we met up with mom's friend // Taipei 101!! // So pretty super fast elevator // went to National University for mom reunion // ate cheesecake and homemade milk // tour bus // hiked // sweaty pig = me// seafood.

Day5:

Left Taipei for our trip around the island with third uncle and his SUV // visited old towns // visited memorial sites // visited temples // visited dad's friend's museum// met third uncle's family and ate dinner // night market // coolest "motel" ever with swirly TV

Day6:

Lots of temples Day. Mosquito bites emerge.

Day7:

OMG! MONKIES!!! the coolest part of my trip was getting so close to these monkies. My uncle drove up this mountain and talked about how all these monkies just sit at the side of the road. I was super excitied but then when we got there there were no monkies. About to leave disappointed and super sad, I suddenly see a family of monkies coming closer and closer and WOWOW sooo cute. I fed them peanuts. Too bad my camera ran out of batteries :( // Food // Dutch Historical building // Night market .. stinky tofu=yum! // Boat ride at night to beach

Day8/9:

Coastal scenery.

Day9:

National parks!! // So beautiful // waterfall cave // super awesome.


Day11:

Drove back to Taipei// Went through a long tunnel // SOGO department store shopping and gawking at expensive things // back to WuFenPu for cheap stuff! // Met uncle on mom's side again and cousin I never met // Walked around // Market with adult stuff and snakes // back to WuFenPu! We're crazy // typhoon coming // Got drenched because dad told the taxi driver to get off at the wrong stop.

Day12:

Met with dad's friends and played with cute kids and cuter dogs // ate at this really weird but really cool resturant that's like a piece of art! It was sooo beautiful in a weird way. Called Five Cent Driftwood. I want to be like the architect.artist // Met with sis's friend // Watched an episode of drama at his house. Bleh. // Taipei 101 viewing! // ate at nice japanese resturant // love the graffitti.

Day13:

Picked up glasses // Bought thin 0.28 pens! Yes! // National Palace Museum // Taiwan bakeries are sooo good // dinner again with mom's friends

Day14:

Last day = sad // History Museum to see the Millet paintings. Dude it was super crowded, it was as if I was waiting in line at Disneyland, totally ruined the experience of art-going. but now I can say I've seen a piece of art that I learned about // Found a Mister Donut! YES! // Strolled XinmenDing // Strolled Computer Market // Went somewhere with second uncle // ate dinner at this rotating high building thing // ate escargot for the first time! // plane ride // bye bye taiwan!!

I still have serious jet lag. Bad Bad.

Working on LalaLiu tonight.

And remember to bid, if you wanna, no pressure.

A Trip Downtown

Yesterday my suitemates and my friend headed off to the heart of LA to the cool, hip place that is Fashion District. Bacne decided to ditch us for sleep. I will introduce the crew in a later post.

We took the Big Blue Bus down there. I'm like a public transportation expert now. For sure man, for sure. Then we walked. And aha! There it was, in all its glory, the Fashion District sign. I had led the team to the right direction.

The place was not crowded at all. Last year when we went on a Saturday, the streets were filled with people. Especially, Santee Alley. Santee Alley is basically this long alley way filled with clothing, toys, accessories and more! Lots a fakes and lots a fun! I was tempted to buy the "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" Bag just for fun, but I forgot to ask them how much it was.
I thought I would not buy things because either the stuff is cheap and yucky or a little more expensive but not yucky. But thankfully, after passing hundreds of shoe stores, I found a place where they had this two pairs for $10 deal. I think I have like natural instincts to find out where the clearance loot is. So this is what I bought.


I was instinctly attracted to those red sequined flats with a subtle tiger pattern. Or maybe it was a zebra pattern. They are my ruby shoes of magic. The other pair were a nice wedged flat with a floral pattern.

We kept walking and then decided to head back to the bus stop. We took a different street back and realized that all the cheap not yucky things were on the less known streets. I found these super fabulous rainbow flats with some skull embroidery for only $3.33!!! It was on sale - buy 3 pairs for 10 dollars. MWang bought two nice sandals.



We then went to do some purse shopping for my friend, who I shall call J Shrew. She didn't find the purse of her dreams. But I found more cheap stuff. I should seriously have a commandment of "Thou shall not buy cheap stuff just because it is cheap". The store was a $2.99 store which is sort of a hybrid between one of those downtown LA stores because umm, it was in downtown LA; a thrift store because it had a lot of random stuff that didnt have any multiples but things were new..I think; and a thank you mart because everything was $2.99.

I first found this orange South Park shirt for Bacne because it reminded me of her. Then I found the most hideous bright blue jeans in the world but they just called out to me:

jeans: Lala! Lala...Lala.... come over here.

me: *shrugs* Okay.

jeans: come to me. Buy me. Give me your tender loving care...

me: What are you?

jeans: I'm an awesome pair of Levi's mom jeans with a button up front dyed to a bright electric blue perfection. I am destined for you.

me: *I think I'm being brainwashed by these jeans* Okay. I'll buy you.

and that was basically the whole story. Then I found this orange strapless floral dress. I didn't really need it but it was nice and cheap. Man, I just broke my commandment.

After straggling along the streets for a while, I realized that it was alredy 3:30! We had planned to go eat a late lunch at Chinatown, but I guess it was not happening. We did end up going back to UnionStation so we could find the Big Blue bus again to head back to school. We were super dehydrated so we went to find a drink place. We passed by Olvera street a long the way, but to our dismay, found nada.
Finally, we settled for this Mexican cafe and I ordered a mango smoothie. It was good. But maybe it only seemed that good because I was on the verge of passing out.


The bus took like an hour to get back to school during which I fell asleep. It was a fun day, but sadly tomorrow, school will start and I will have to go back to my routine of waking up, school, sleeping. Hopefully I can manage to sneak in fun activities along the way.

The Art Gang's Last Adventure: Travels to Pasadena

It was a dark and stormy night. The towns of southern California were quietly sleeping. Floating dreams were hoovering throughout the midnight sky, but deep into the heart of the town, the Art Gang were planning something - they were planning something huge, big, gigantic, humongous. Inside their crazy, masterful minds they were about to save the world one last time.

But let us stop. And back up. And retrace our steps to when it all began....

In the fall of 2004, four human beings were brought together by the forces of high school counselors and schedule placements. There was Kaypable, Carmenstrual, Toddler, Tommysterious and I, Tiffanypack. These of course are not our real names. Heavens no. They are merely our secret identities for when we are normal people. So there the five of us were. With our powers combined we formed the Art Gang, a group of superherovillians trying to save the world by bringing art one day at a time. Our motto? Art or Die. It was quite simple actually. We were kids with PeterPan syndrome. We refused to grow up. So instead of growing up, we decided to become superherovillians.

Now, let us stop. And fast foward. And go to present day.

So yesterday, theArt Gang minus one decided to travel to pasadena once again to solve the case of the murder of the art student. It was no ordinary art student. This particular art student that the Art Gang had to save would be the saviour of mankind, so in an indirect way, the Art Gang was saving the world you see. Not only that, but Kaypable had class for four hours and since we all had nothing better to do, we hopped on the train in the morning and off to Pasadena we went.

When we arrived there was a giant ball in our way. Luckily, with my superhuman strength. I stopped it from rolling over us and turning us into flatbread.

The rest of the gang helped too.

We knew someone was trying to sabatoge us by planting a gigantic rolling mosaic ball. We traveled a bit more into the deep forest and befriended some deer. Suddenly, we saw a sign. This cigarrette ash can tipped over by Toddler pointed us north. So north we headed.

We asked the naked man to tell us more about this saviour art girl and about the evil one who was after her. He didn't tell us much. He was a rather quiet old bloke. We traveled some tunnels. And hallways. Suddenly! Out of nowhere a giant octupus with a mustache attacked us. Before I attacked back, I laughed, because it was such a funny site. But then right after I fought back. The Art Gang defeated Mr. Octopus. We did Chinese Water Tourture on him to spit out the information we wanted to know. All he could muster was "fashion girl" before he blacked out. We dropped on the ground and left.

We finally found the on named "fashion girl". She was wearing the coolest outfit I have ever seen. But I could not stare at her fashion chicness because I was on a mission. She told us that if we wanted to defeat the even one and save the saviour, then we must go read fashion books and fashion magazines.



And so we did. For four hours. We read fashion books.

And fashion magazines. Which was fun for me because they had all these hard to get European Magazines too. So Carmenstrual and I divulged ourselves in I-D, Dazed&Confused, POP and an assortment of the hipster mags. We read and read and looked and looked. We didn't understand the point of the whole thing and how it related to saving the art girl, but we didn't care because we read all the fashion glossies with are heart's delight.

After reading we didn't know what to do next. Where do we go from there? Where would we find the evil one? and the savior? We had no idea. So we decided to head back home and let some other gang figure it out, because for now, we were tired and we needed to catch the train back home before it was too late.

It was a rather un-climatic ending so we decided to celebrate with a little Islamic Chinese food and bicyle riding at Target.

And then some yogoboba. We may have not solved the case, but at least we had fun.

If you don't understand this story, it's okay, because I don't understand it myself either even though I wrote it myself.

Vacation

If you haven't figured it out already, I did not actually go to Uranus, although I did really want to, but my parents just could not afford it. So instead, we opted for a small five day trip up north.

The first day was just a whole bunch of driving and sleeping on the car. Hmm.. I really do love sleeping on the car, especially after a nice fullfilling lunch at good ole Denny's. We met up with my mom's friend from college and her family.

Stanford, the school that failed to acknowledge my greatness.

Day two consisted of touring Stanford for my sister. At the little one hour admissions information session, the person said they look for people with potential that will contribute back to the university. Hmph, so they thought I didn't have potential did they??? I'll show you!! LALA WILL RULE THE WORLD ONE DAY and then I'll show you who has the potential now! Jerks.

I don't feel that resentful. Seriously. Up north, they don't have much fashion sense and many hot people. That was mean. I apologize. Sorry.

Then we went to Monterey for beach, fish smells, scenery and all that jazz. We visited fisherman's Wharf and then Cannery Row where we walked and did tourist-y stuff and then ate at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co., which I must say is one of the coolest seafood places I've ever been to even though it was a bit pricey, but all the Forrest Gump memorabilia totally made up for it.

Boats at the wharf that don't really catch any of the fish they sell at the wharf. What tricksters.

The Harley I road up north. Fine, fine, it was just a display next to a shop.

Bubba Gump's! The little shrimp is rather ugly, but boy are the desserts so not ugly.

After our fun at Cannery Row, we headed back to the motel which happened to be right next to a Salvation Army. I had the thrifting itch the whole trip! Hopefully a trip tomorrow will cure me of my madness. The motel had fungus on the shower curtains. So not cool.

The next day we went back to Cannery Row to the Monterey Aquarium. So many fish, so little time, and a lot of people. I love sea otters and I now know how to sniff one out if there happen to be any in area.

Jellyfish!

Afterwards we drove to Carmel where Clint Eastwood was once mayor. And then we paid $9 to drive 17 miles around Pebble Beach, a golf course, and rich people's homes.

Carmel: city by the sea

The tree.

The day was not yet over as we went back to Monterey to drop our friend off and then decided to adventure into downtown and what was there? Why a farmer's market!

I was whining for one of those fish hat, but my parents wouldn't pay and I didn't want to either. I will make one someday and then I can be the coolest girl in the block with this giant fish eating my head.

The third day we left Monterey and drove down south. We passed by Harmony, the most coolest, fun-filled city in all of America. With population 18. I can now say that I've ran across an entire city in under a minute.

We drove down more to Solvang- a fake Denmark.

Our motel was next to the infamous Anderson's Pea Soup Restaurant. We got the pea soup and on the first sip it was wonderful. But then I realized it was pea soup and I don't like peas so I kindly gave it to my dad.

Finally, on our last day we drove back down, stopped by Santa Barbara a bit and then went down to Malibu to visit the Getty Villa. And then we drove back home where I made it just in time for Showgirls.