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.

Oh the duality of life.

Bad News: I've turned into Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. My nose is a shiny red stump. It glistens in the sunlight and flashes radiance in the moonlight. Great.

Good News: Items are now up! Seriously, check it out. Shameless self promo once again.

LalaLiu.Love

When I grow up I want to be a world famous fashionista extraordinaire by day and a superhero saving the world by night. I haven't thought of a cool superhero name yet, but give me some time. Good ideas take some time I'll sew my own spandex, my own flowly cape, oh wait, never use a cape (remember The Incredibles?), my own sparkly mask, it'll be awesome. For the colors, I'm thinking red, white, and black. I've had a strange fascination with those cliche colors for a while but then again maybe not because they were my highschool colors. I don't want to be mistaken for a mascot. Come to think of it, I don't possess any superhero abilities or any cool gadgets. I can't fly or climb towers. In fact, I'm rather below average when it comes to my physical prowess. Still, a girl can dream, can't she?

So maybe becoming a superhero won't pan out too well. But somewhere deep down, I would like to save the world.

As much as I love fashion and would like to pursue a career in it, sometimes I get jaded by the superficiality and shallowness of it all. I want to inspire and create beautiful clothes but inspiring and creating can only do so much when it comes to helping out those in need. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't want to be become a doctor.

During the the end of the school year, I've decided that I want to make it my summer project to use fashion for a cause. And hence, LalaLiu.Love was born.

My idea is simple, nothing revolutionary, in fact there are other projects out there probably quite similar to mine. With each sale I get from LalaLiu.Love, I will be donating 50% of my profits to charity. And the other half? Well, that small amount will go towards funding for Italy. A girl needs to make some travel money afterall. This summer, the money will be used towards the China Earthquake Relief. While I may not be saving the world or even traveling to a third world country to build homes, this will be a start.

Items will below will be up for sale starting at $9.99 each. Actual auctions will begin in around in a week or two as I will be off to Taiwan in 8 hours.

If you would like to support the cause (and my trip to Italy), take a button if you like.

<br /><a href="http://myworld.ebay.com/lalaliuliu" target="new"><img src="http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n236/tykeboy/lalaliulovebutton-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />

Farewell my fashion loving friends! See you in two weeks and don't forget to bid!!

Lala's Style of the Day

• T-shirt dress: $3 tjmaxx
• gray tights: $1.50 target
• Doc Martens: $1 buffalo exchange
• the coolest purse in the world, aka my canister purse: $5 local thrift.
• Half a star sunglasses: found in the park.

What the heck am I doing wearing nylon tights in the middle of summer at 91 degrees? Simple answer. I thought it was going to be cold today. The sky is the mister trickster. You have no idea.

The sister and I went to watch Wanted and then we had a picnic consisting of Thai food to go in the park.

I Will Not Be Defeated...

I was plucking out my nasty leg follicles one by one with my mom's Revlon tweezers this morning while sitting on my sisters bed watching her take some alcohol education video for college. I looked up at the ceiling with my pathetic bug eyes and my pitiful flat nose and said, "Man, am I bored."

I had a momentary slip of gross-ness with the hair plucking fiasco but I swear to myself and to the grave of my poor passed away guinea pig that I will not cave in to the temptations of the gross.

It's been less than four weeks into summer and today I've already started complaining about how bored I am. I really hate complainers, so I really hate myself at the moment, but I'm just going to blame all my frustration on good ole PMS. The ironic thing is that during the final days of school I was so excited about summer with all these plans floating around in my head and I even wrote a little motivation booster, but here I am now. Or was now, because honey, I will not be defeated by boredom! You here that boredom? I'm gonna kick your sorry hiney. I got my Spartan moves down. Swords and shields and flowy red capes are my forte. Leather undergear and chiseled 10 pack abs of perfection - umm, not as much, but with my brains and determination and my eyes of a hawk and ears of an elephant, boredom won't know what hit it.

Tonight, as I prepare for battle, I will fight and prevail. Dangerous you say? Well I LAUGH in the face of danger. Hah. Hah. See the picture above? It's my Spartan scream. ROAR. Fear me now baby.

Yes, so I was bored today even though I could have been doing so many things but somehow nothing was coming to me. And dare I say it, not even making clothes. Nothing came to me as I draped an old skirt around my squishy mannequin. Nothing. Nada. Shocking I know. I basically wasted a perfect day for goal achieving. But as I said, I will not be defeated so I've decided to make a list of all things to accomplish so if I ever decided to come back here on my blog will see this list and remind myself to strive. Strive like a hummingbird.

• Finish revamping lalaliu.com. What should take only a day or so is taking forever because I'll just say it, I'm lazy. But not to fret, the new website will be up and running and dashing and lovely by August 1.08 when I come back from Taiwan.
• Work on LalaLiu.Love. I already have items ready to go but the timing of finally figuring out how to work it made it a little too late as I leave for Taiwan in a week.
• Tell everyone about LalaLiu.Love. A post to come! Stay tuned.
• Make things to sell.
• Make things for myself.
• Experiment with clothing again.
• Draw more designs
• Blog more.
• Write and illustrate a childrens book.
• Learn to cook more than just the recipes on the yellow Bisquick box.
• Model for my sister and do cool fashion shoots because I'm cool and her camera's cool.
• Listen to my Italian CD. I need to know more than "hello" "goodbye" "my name is.." and my "1,2,3's" in order to survive in Italy.
• Learn how to Lyrical hip-hop so-you-think-you-can-dance-style.
• Finish my impossible hair plucking task....dang, I slipped again.
• Learn how to smile correctly for a passport photo.
• Be Fabulous.
• Try to be fabulous if the above goal fails.

As I type now, I realize that my boredom is just a scapegoat for my innate laziness. I'm like a sloth, but just a little faster and less moss covered and way cuter. But sloth no more because I am determined...and just plain sick of being bored.

I'm really tired now that I've lost the energy to make any more witty statements. The yellow Bisquick box beckons me to sleep for I shall rise early to prepare delish chocolate chip pancakes tomorrow.

My sis took that picture and all my LalaLiu.Love ones. She insists on being credited. She sure knows how to bring out the fug in me.

Coming Soon to a computer near you.

What you lookin at?!

Lala's Style of the Day.

• Altered Blue vintage dress: $2 st. vinnies
• FlipFlops
• Bag

happy 4th of July everyone! off I go.