Taiwan Hip Culture

Hipster Taiwan

Hey everyone! I know that it has been a few days. I am just having so much fun. Recently I got to experience the hip/young side of Taiwan.

Yesterday I went to Taiwan's Ximen District 西門町. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me so I don;t have too many pictures. It was so fun though! It is the area that has a strong Japanese influence. So, with my roommate we went to a super high-tech arcade and played games like wack-a-mole, Mario Kart, Street Fighter, and first person shooters like Rambo. it was so fun! 

Along the way we stopped at the historic Ximen Red House.

It was a market built in 1904 during the Japanese rule of Taiwan. In 1945 it was turned into a theater. Now, it has been renovated and is a mini-museum with a cafe and shops.

Outside the building they were rehearsing for the Miss Taiwan pageant. Funny.

I really enjoyed this part of Taipei because there were so many young people and lots of exciting things to do. 

Also that day we went to a very artsy/hipster part of Taipei. A fine arts square called Hua Shan Creative Park ( iin Taiwan it is called 華山 1914).

It was very cool. It had a lot of shops featuring work from local artists. there was also a movie theater that had underground films and a concert hall. We stopped in the interestingly named art exhibition. 

Not sure what that is supposed to mean but I guess anything can be artistic.  It had lots of interesting paintings, sculptures, and movies.  Here is a small look at some of the artwork.

There was a lot more but I just took a couple of pictures. It was a very interesting gallery.  

On the way out we saw a swing dancing class. Pretty cool stuff!

I am a little sad because I have a video of the dancing but the internet connection is not fast enough to upload it. Sorry! 

Wedding Crasher

Funny story. Today I crashed a wedding. My roommate took me to a get together at a Canadian family's house 40 outside the city. It was nice. there was a BBQ, games, and swimming.  Afterwards, he stopped at the church. I was curious but didn't ask. As it so happens, we went to a wedding reception. 

It was nice. Lots of speeches, a photo montage, and a congratulations video.  At the end they did a throwing of the bouquet ceremony but it was different. There were so many strings tied to the bouquet. Both single men and women took a string and at the count of three would pull. The strings would come undone until there was just one connected. That was the lucky person who would soon be married. 

So, it was very fun. I enjoyed meeting new people and talking to them in Chinese. Each day I get better and more used to it. 

Taiwanese Food

At the wedding someone said to me, "Don't like Taiwanese food too much or you'll be a fat man when you get home!"  Too late! I have been enjoying the delicious and famous Taiwanese foods from the night markets and different restaurants. 

Yesterday I went with classmates to eat dumplings for lunch. They had so many different kinds: pork, Korean style, vegetable, curry etc. All very delicious. I think I ate about 15! So good.

Then for dinner I went with my roommate and had 南瓜海鮮麵湯 (Pumpkin Seafood Noodle Soup).

It was so flavorful. It also had oysters in the sheel. I had to pick up the shells with my chopsticks and slurp them out. there were also unshelled shrimp. Apparently here people use their teeth to unshell them. Anyway, it was really good. 

Today, my roommate took my to eat Taiwanese dessert. He ordered for me something called 仙草 or in English GRASS JELLY!

It was very delicious and had interesting combinations and use of food. There are four different components of this dish: 芋頭, Frozen sweat potato (the white chunks on top), 紅豆 Frozen Red beans, underneath everything, 波霸 Boba, the brown looking beans at 12 'o'clock, and 仙草 Grass Jelly, the red looking jelly. 

He told me to put cream on top and mix it up. It was really delicious and pretty sweet. However, you can't tell in the picture, but it is a really big,  deep bowl.  Probably could fit at least five scoops of ice cream. So, I couldn't eat it all. however, it was still very good and very interesting. 

the dessert shop

Afterwards he said he wanted to eat something normal. He wanted to give me a surprise. So we went to a little soup and bought cups of soup. He siad he wouldn't tell me what was in the soup until after I ate it. 

The name of the soup in Chinese is 大腸麵線 which translate to Large Intestine Noodle Soup. It was yummy and I wasn't shocked because I have eaten pig intestine before. It was very good. I will probably eat it again.

You will be happy to know that I did go running yesterday. I ran about 2 miles around the university track. So, hopefully I won't get too fat! Anyway, I am having the time of my life and loving every moment. 

thank you for your comments, emails, and support. I hope to hear from you all soon. Especially my sister that just had a baby!