Taipei adventures // day 1 //

I just went to see my stats... and there were a few views from Japan?!
こんにちは皆さん！
日本語がわかるけど、旅行の内容を書きにくいから、英語だけがある。
ごめんなさい。

maybe the stats is wrong and no japanese readers HAHAHAHA.
then I'm like talking to myself SHIT.

anyways, back to blogging about Taiwan :)


woke up bright and early the next morning HEHE.
this was taken at the street below our airbnb!

our airbnb had 3 rooms so it was enough for all of us, and very conveniently tucked at XI MEN DING 西门町／西門町 but was also at a quiet corner so it wasn't too noisy :)
TIP: please read all the reviews in the airbnb page before you decide! normally the previous people who stay there give very good advice/ recommendations.
airbnb の中は他の人の紹介があるから、みてみてほうがいいと思います。
例えばこの家はいいとか、悪いものもあります。


while waiting for our breakfast order...
the taxi and bus of Taipei.
Since their drivers drive on the left (and Singapore is on the right), I kept thinking that the buses had no drivers and scared the shit out of myself HAHAHA.
so retarded. I remember this happening in Europe too OMG.
運転手さんのところで見たときはいつもびくりした！
シンガポールの運転手さんは右いるけれども、台湾の運転手さんは左から、違います。


how a typical shop looks like.


some of what we DABAO.
in Singapore, when we takeaway, we say DA BAO 打包, but in Taiwan they say DAI ZOU 帶走。
so remember not to say DABAO cos the aunties will be like ??? lol.

we took a bus to Taipei 101 after that.
luckily one of my friend is a Taiwanese so we could navigate around with buses yay.


how it looks like from the bottom...

the tickets weren't cheap but its a good experience la.
I mean what's the point of taking a picture from below HAHAHA.
チケットは安くないけど、いい経験と思います。
時間とお金もあれば、みてみてください。

we took a super fast lift and the pressure got to everybody's ears but it was fun.
I took a video but I need to figure out how to post it here whoops.


this is what you pay for! $.$


trying some ice-cream beer thingy.

the top reminds me of Jungfraujoch in Switzerland.　スイスの山みたいところです。
it is like a mini shopping centre with souvenir shops, food (ice-cream etc) and also jewellery etc.
you can spend up to 1-2 hours there.
MAKE YOUR TICKETS WORTH!


a very cute bag I got hehe.
think I bought it the night before... and used it immediately ^^ #girls
AHAHAH.

J joined us from Japan after that and all 4 of us went for.. DINNER!!
decided to try LU ROU FAN (braised pork rice) 卤肉饭／滷肉飯 :)
but I have always been obsessed with JI ROU FAN (as mentioned in the previous post) so I got that instead.


LU ROU FAN on the bottom left and JI ROU FAN on the bottom right.
everyone ended up loving the JI ROU FAN YAY!




close up of the goodness.
the rice is drizzled with garlic oil and when mixed with the chicken... OMG!!
I LURVE <3

友達は豚肉御飯はいいと思うけど、私は鶏肉の御飯より面白そう。
もより美味しいと思います。

and of course we ate till about 70% cos the other 30% is reserved for the night market HIAK HIAK HIAK.


FRIED CHICKEN!!
I forgot the name of this stall but it is quite good. some japanese brand?

MY NO.1 FAVOURITE IN TAIWAN HAS TO BE MENG JIA JI PAI 艋舺鸡排／艋舺雞排!!
OMG I TELL YOU... I tried it in all 3 cities I went to HAHAHAHA.
it is thick, juicy, yummy, tasty and EVERYTHING A PIECE OF FRIED CHICKEN SHOULD BE.
all 4 of us loved it too!!!
it is really DA BOMB. please try it!!

一番大好きのもの！
とても美味しい！！！食べてみてくださいね！


THIS! can you see how thick it is? and it is JUICY. REALLY.


I don't drink bubble tea in Singapore but I have to admit this is good hehe.


and the usual suspects. 大肠包小肠／ the cheese potato thingy.


some collage I did of the food we had :)
this was for instagram so its filtered and all...

anyways, this post is getting me hungry.
more adventures in the next post~

Taiwan, HELLO! // day -1 //

Since I am so bored now...
I shall attempt to blog about Taiwan hahaha.
We went on 28th August and came back 4th Sept~ So that's about 7 nights?
which is alot for Taiwan.

But we went to Taipei, Taichung and also Tainan,
so its not alot of time in each city.

It's called day -1 cos we reached about 4-5pm so we didn't have a full day.


waiting for our flight because we are... EARLY :D
my friends would know I cannot stand being late, its like my organs are jumping inside.
so being early is always good ^^


went to visit the sunflower garden because it is inside the departure hall so if you're not flying anywhere... YOU CAN'T VISIT.


nice mah? my picture with the flowers hahah.
its nice enough to be my FB profile pic lol.


I LOVE SINGAPORE'S AIRPORT.
we have so many things to do and EATT!!! had ramen for breakfast.

we took SQ so we were pretty stuffed throughout the flight lol.
keep eating and eating OMG.


got these SIM cards from the Taipei airport~ Taoyuan airport I think.
its quite cheap cos unlimited data hehe.

it was raining SIAN, and the taxi queue was so long and we spent a long time in the jam :(
but finally got to our airbnb place at 7pm ish I think.
okay la just in time for dinner.

our first meal in TAIWAN! :D
slurps. I really like 鸡肉饭／雞肉飯/ Chicken rice but its quite different from our local one.
and the portion I like! not too filling and I have enough space to eat other things hahaha.

 

of course I had to try this! It's not bad but if the queue is too long I wouldn't wait.


and then MORE FOOD.
this is like roadside BBQ-ish kind of thing? you pick what you want and they will BBQ it for you.
LOVE THE CHICKEN DRUMSTICK HEHEHE.
damn fat but damn good.

Taiwan's food in general is quite affordable/cheap and nice BUT the only thing I don't really like is that there is this sweetness in alot of food...
I don't like my savoury food sweet ._.
But some people mentioned its part of their culture because having sugar signifies wealth in the past so it got into the food as well.
I guess every country/culture has their own distinct flavour :)

So this is it for day -1!
AND I ALREADY HAD FUN ^^

Taiwan is one of the places I didn't thought I would love SO MUCH.
The food, the price, the people and of course the cheap taxis HAHAH.
my travelling mates didn't fancy taking public transport -.- so we took taxis alot but it was okay!
since there were 4 of us to split the fare :)

MORE STORIES IN THE NEXT POST~~~
再見！

2016

WOW HELLO NEW YEAR~

I started this blog in 2014 (wow wow wow, it has been 2 years!!) when I left for exchange in Sweden :')
It is really nice to look back once in a while on what I did, so..

I will try to be diligent and update this space with more of my travelogues when I have time/ when I actually travel HAHAHAH.

2016 is going to be eggciting <3
BRING IT ON!!

what is left

It scares me that I've about 50 days of school left OH MY GOODNESS.

I thought 6 + 4 + 2 + 4 years wouldn't finish so quickly but I'm wrong T.T
and to feel sad means that... I actually enjoyed school #nerd
HAHAHHA.

I don't know what to feel about 'growing up' and having to feed myself.
That sounds pretty scary OMG.
and I don't even know if I would get a job.

And what kind of job would I land myself into?
Will I like it? Will I earn enough to give my parents pocket money?

All these questions and nobody knows the answers.

"Hi future self,

I hope everything is okay by then.

Cheers,
current self."

SO SCARY.

WHAT IS LINGUISTICS?

So, I have finally penned down my 'rant', on dayre hahah.
but I shall upload it here too.
As a reminder for myself and to educate others LOL.

10.33am

since I'm graduating end of this year, I thought I should start looking for jobs...

but I see the careers all like HR/ business/ writing and then I'm like  not interested leh.

I don't even know what I'm interested in. ya la learn languages lor hahahah. I know MHA has this language analyst job where you analyze articles and stuff in another language.

and in order to do that, you have to be proficient plus culturally aware so they will send you overseas maybe?

that kind of job seems cool hehe. 

but talking about learning languages, people always assume LINGUISTICS means LEARN LANGUAGES 

SO HOW MANY LANGUAGES YOU LEARN? YOUR ENGLISH VERY GOOD?

SORRY GUYS. linguistics is NOT learning languages  

it is learning ABOUT languages. we approach languages from different perspectives and areas!!! 

and NO, our English is not supposed to be fantastic, because linguists are supposed to be descriptive, and not prescriptive.

descriptive -> describe the way people write/speak

prescriptive -> make people follow a certain way of writing/speaking AKA grammar nazi.

there are many many different areas in linguistics and they interact with other arts & social sciences.

for example: sociology + linguistics -> SOCIOLINGUISTICS!! 

this is about how language is used by the society eg. gender & language! how females and males speak differently. or the effect of language planning & policy on the society! 

psychology + linguistics -> PSYCHOLINGUISTICS!! 

how language affects our cognition. eg. are bilinguals smarter than monolinguals?

or do bilinguals look at the world differently/ process things differently cos we learn two languages? 

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS also include other areas like child language: how children acquire language. and also language and communication disorders.

history + linguistics -> HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS!! 

how languages changed/evolved or are spread around the world. 
#funfact DID YOU KNOW MALAY CAME FROM TAIWAN?

(from Google) 

and of course there are the technicalities part of linguistics~ 

like phonology, syntax, phonetics blah blah blah.

so we learn how to read the funny symbols beside the words in the dictionary, it is the proper pronunciation. 

this means we can also write out languages we don't understand, just the sounds of course, not the meaning.

all these grammar stuff!! it is interesting too~ but most people prefer the application of linguistics (those that I mentioned earlier)

and then all the Siri application, google translate is part of computational linguistics!! 

how to apply linguistics to technology etc. because linguists will take into consideration the nuances of languages and all, like accent, use of words etc.

SO IT IS A SUPER COOL MAJOR!! 

and no I don't learn languages okay!! I really hope people will stop asking me that every time I say I'm in linguistics 

I WILL SHOW THEM THIS POST NEXT TIME.

yep, STORY OF OUR LIVES 

but then again, this is how Linguistics works in NTU!! our major is called Linguistics & Multilingual Studies.

so our assignments, projects can be on anything EXCEPT mainstream languages like English/Chinese/French/Italian all those. 

BUT NUS DIFFERS.

they learn alot more on English!! because their major is called English language & linguistics (if I'm not wrong...) 

so NUS concentrates on English but in NTU, our profs like super ulu languages gahaha.

so most of the time, we have assignments on languages we do not understand at all!! 

and we have to work out the grammar system based on the translations we have etc. or learn how to work out the history of the language.

because of this, I feel like we can pick up languages faster because we are trained to observe the patterns of the language and how it works. 

and after I explain all of this... people will ask me the next important question 

SO WHAT JOB YOU DO NEXT TIME? TEACHER AH? TRANSLATOR AH? 

but I shall not continue my rant lol. tmr maybe. 

sorry my friends for making you all read this hahah. I just wanted to record this down so I can show people next time when they ask... or at least I can look back and rmb what I learned 

disclaimer: my descriptions are very very brief, the various aspects of linguistics can't really be explained so easily. it can be more sophisticated  

#linguisttalk #idonotlearnlanguagues #notgrammarnazi

JULY

Decided to come back here for a while hahha.

Dayre (an app) is really too convenient!!!

Microblogging on the go plus cute stickers and what not :D hehe

some pics...

 

comfort food MAGGI MEEEEE

I forgot the name of the restaurant omg.

I think its called Paradise Dynasty? hehe. 

some shiok maki for you? but standard dropped leh :(

and random tze char picture HAHAHA.

I am going to try vlog-ing cos it seems fun and more interactive than photos keke.
Maybe for my Taiwan trip next month!! and Japan trip next year ^^

DON'T SAY I DIDN'T SHARE.

THIS ONLY COSTS SGD$700 ON SIA.

Even though I booked 8 months in advance whoops, but it is really cheap.

Considering I am flying to Tokyo but coming back from Osaka!

AND IT IS THE SAKURA SEASON (SAY WHUTTTT?!?!?!)

I don't think it is the SIA promotion~ 

Maybe it is just an early bird thing but who cares right.

HEHEHE.
cheap thrill~

CAN'T WAIT ^^

and internship ends this week.
OH YAY.

is it not?

I was just looking through my 21st birthday scrapbook and reading through all the messages.

It kind of struck me that people change, circumstances change and tomorrow will never be the same as today.

A friend can be a close friend today but there is no guarantee it would be the same tomorrow.
A happy moment today can be nothing tomorrow, or something not so significant anymore.
A sad moment too, can fade over time and hurt less. 

I guess it didn't really strike me until today... that today and tomorrow, no matter how similar they seem, are not the same.

Everyday seems very similar and tomorrow will feel like today. 
But when you look back in a week or two, or a year or two, everything seems so different.
It is like a tsunami overwhelmed you or a typhoon came and left.

I always remember a quote by C.S. Lewis:

“Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different...”

But I never really felt it until today, like 5 seconds ago.
It just struck me that this very moment, this very precious moment, will never ever come back again.
No matter how mundane this moment is, or how exciting it is, it will never come back again.
It is almost impossible to replicate that feeling at the exact moment, because so many things make that moment unique.
Do you know what I am saying?
It scares me. It scares me that I can never ever get this moment back ever again, or any moment at all.

But who knows? This feeling will fade soon, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week.

I don't know how to reconcile this feeling with myself.
It is kind of weird.