Fridays special event
We had a special event at chinese class today...
We brought beer and snacks...
I bought some taizhong beer...and my own home made one...etc...
My teacher brought cookies...
I laso had a belgian beer...it was pretty bitter...
It was one of the most funny classes so far...
Omg, I also found a swedish cider in carrefour...
And I also wonder, whice bottle is 285nt (left or right)? The first staff I asked told me the left one...the second staff I asked tole me the right one was 285...so funny with this "not losing your face society", making people just guess even in their profession.....
I also tried to compare prices...in sweden we have price per kg, so its easier to compare differnt package...here in taiwan, they put price per "the wieght the product is"...making it as useless to have the compare price, since its always the same as the prodict price...I wonder why they never questionize the reason why the compare price is stated...
I ended up buying mango etc...no all you can eat today...first time in maybe 2 month i did not go for all you can eat on a friday...
Attempt to beer safari in Taipei...
Starting of with le ble d´or
Suffer from the second slowest elevators in taiwan...again...
No seats at the bar, but we quickly became best friends with the staff, and then suddenly we got some seats...
Many people were here on this thursday evening...
Honey beer...not as good as it could have been, hmm, maybe its because I did not eat anything with it...
They had a gagnamstyle video when they sang "le ble d´or"...it was fun...
Continuing east....to some night market...
We ended up at McDonalds...
And then to carrefour...900nt for 6 beers...they better be good...
Some baby mugs with the absolute vodka...they are surely looking for new customers....
Carrefours logo...
And finaly I bought a new chain for my bike...not my bike wont make soo much noise anymore...
I ended they day by buying fruit...to compensate for all the beer and hamburger...omg, my new healthy lifestyle...
Road whistling...
Even if a taiwanese sees you, it doens mean he/she notice you...
Many times, even if I have eye contact, someone can drive right into me...so im contacntly whistling...it often helps to get their attention...
Coconut fenzy
I tried my coconut drink today...
It was good, tasted like coconut milk...
Wednesdays class and some beer experience
I did some magic for my teacher today...she was impressed...
She is nice...
I also tried my beer that I bought yesterday...this one is a honeydew melon flavour...its very nice...
I went out for a run in the 35-40 deg heat...(atleast if feels like it)...so the beer tasted extra good...and as everyone knows...beer is the perfect recover drink...so it felt extra good....and useful...
Another burgerbar in Taipei...
I passed near TaiDa, and ShiDa nightmarket today...
Same street as I ate burger at last weekend...they seemed to have many european stores...
Some german place..
Goethe...
Pita...reminded me of when I was in Sarajevo...
This place I visted some week ago..also a burger bar...
But now I went to this place...
Wooden tables...
And alot of wine...
Many books...some swedish...
I read this some years ago...
I got mashed potatoes
And the "biggest "burger they had, called Double double...but only 1 meat...for over 300nt...hmm, maybe a little bit overprice...
They have many interesting hang out places at this area...
A new local beer store in Taipei...
I found another place to get local beer...
This one is a store...and a bar...where they sell many kind of beer, but also wine and whisky...
Some beer is from Taizhong...
They have alot of belgian beer...
www.mybeer.com.tw...some address for more info...
Breakfast...
I often have this as breakfast these days...Påskmust...
Some reminder from home...
Monday...
Monday, monday, a new week full of adventures and expectations....eh. no expectations...
My friend MAxime was back from china...
And my apple was rotten...but i got it cheap so it was ok...
Another lazy sunday...
Lazy sunday again...
Started of by baking some bread...
I made a pizza out of it...
It was so tasty, so I did one more...
Dippingin olive oil and vinegar...
After a run, in the 30+ degree, I went to buy drinks...
And I also passed by a local yilan beer bar...
They seldom have any season beer (last time was duing christams, then they had ginger beer)...
I saw Alexander Skarsgård on TV...
Xiaomai pijiu...is the chinese name for this beer...
A night with the swedes
There are many swedes in taiwan in these days...
I went last night to this Thai resturant...meeting connor, vlad saamet etc...
And later to this restaurant meeting Oskar...
It use to be his favorite restaurant...
They moves recently to a new direction, now its in the party district of taipei...omg swedish cider...my friend joel must have been here too...
We also headed to 7-11...
And hang out with some local americans who were here for some basketball tournament...
Some blur pic of the queue to luxy...
Then more swedes joined up...
And old gmba students....
We headed to Forkers...they had burger...
Then we went to 7-11 for more drinks...
And more talking...the singapore guys also joined up...
And some other swedes...
Ater that we went to AQ...its a shots bar...
They played some games...I did some magic...
Jesper organizing the drinking...
We had to buy tickets...for shots...minimum buy was 4 tickets...
And we got some tequila...it was soso...
Shoting more tequila...we also joined a game called "buffalo for life", we always have to drink with our "wrong hand", else, if we get caugt by other people playing, we have to finish the bottle/glass, or buy them a drink...it seems fun...
More 7-11 hang out...I met the Bartdentdergirl´s bartender in here...I asked about Micasa (a latino club) he told me they will reopen soon) at some new location...
Some police came later...just like in hsinchu...taking care of the order...
They were good in english...so professional...
Later on we entered luxy...the "luxy girls" were dancing lady gaga songs (And some boys)...
The partenders are nice at luxy, compare to the guards....
This is my favorite bartender...so nice...
Busted...some taiwanese girl making out with my friend....(lisa to the left is totally innocent)...
M0re entertainment..."the luxy boys":..
Cool and fun as usual...
Some advertisement..."panasonic":..
Back to 7-11, eating ice cream...
And some grape beer...
And more dancing...
When luxy closed we hanged outside near 7-11...
Many people hanging there...
And some guy peeing on the street...
And some random locals arguing and maybe fighting outside luxy...welcome to taiwan...
A trip to leofoo
I went to Leofoo themepark today...
It was 4 years since I was here last time...
THings looks the same...
Except that they also have a waterpark here (or it will open soon)
It was sunny, one single girl walked in the sun light...the rest walked in the shade...
Many animals...this one from south america...
I was heading for a rollercoaster, bu tI was to tall :(
Hippos...
Many...
It was ok...just like in Balis zoo, they had a train, driving around...
So we could look at the locals...when they eat and interact...
Lions...
Some fight...
They also had a bus, that drove around...
Some funny comment in the toilet...
A cute parking for strollers...
More attractions...
I remember this tubing ride...some kid died here some year ago...when he stood up during the ride...
MAny american flags...
I brought my chinese book...my teacher asked us to bring it...and take a look at the chapters once in a while...
The mountians in the backgorund...now im heading back to taipei...
Hang out with Oskar
We got cake at my chinese school today...
Due to the end of this first semester...
Some bronwie cake, with taiwan touch...
I headed to ximen later...
To the BBQ with free beer...
I met Oskar and someother friends...
They had an englishmenu this time...
Mashed potato with cheese, that is good...
And russian icecream...
Alot of things on the table after a while...
And some 50 marshmallows...
Oskar wanted sticky rice...we got some 50 peices of that too...it was pretty good...
Bread and wine..
It is nice to have some bread and wine...
I mean read bread...
Thursdays adventure...
Thursdays...same same...every week...
I got a grape juice from my friend...very refreshing...
LAter I went to Costco...
They surely earn alot of money here in taiwan...
My swedish friend, who recommended me to watch beer documentatires in sweden, joined up and wanted to try belgian beer, since they critizised beers in this documentaries (they all taste the same but they give different images to the drinker)...
They changed coke to pepsi...omg...mabye it will taste better...asian coke often taste wierd, the sugar is different tapped, from the botteled one...
And some sauer kraut...
And turkey sandwish my totaly favorite nowadays...
Costcos concept is buy alot...tai ppl seems to like it...sometimes its even more expensive to by large amounts, than small (per weight), and still they buy large amount...wierd...we had to buy 6 pack of beer...it was nice...
Macgyver inspiration...
I stepped on some asfalt glew today...
And some black stains remained on the floor...
No time to fix the shoes...I used the "WWMD" concept...(What would Macguyer do), i just pressed some tissue on the shoe and it was solved...
A normal wednesday
I had chinese today...
It was fun as usual...
I also updated my bankbook...it was also fun as usual...
kizomba night
My swedish friend Greg, pays a short visit to Taipei, while doing his world tour...last week he was in the Philippines, but he seems to like Taiwan even more.
Starting of with a hamburger...breaking my fasting...I like fasting...it reminds me of my student life in sweden...limited eating to create a longer life...
Heading to Brass Monkey...why I asked for cider...they made me choose among 3 swedish ones...
I piked elder flower...I use to make cordial of elder flower inthe summer...back home...
Greg, he is on a visit to teach us Kizomba..., which is a dance developed in portugese speaking countries, mainly on the african continent.
Many latinos and Taiwanese who travelled to latino countires showed up as usual...
Greg presented himself and the dance...
Then we started the session...
It was fun...
The DJ kept playing salsa music afterwards...I didnt stay for salsa...
I made a short visit to Zhonghe´s Yilan beerbar on the way home...
Yilan maitian...is the chinese name...means Yilan malt fields...i think...
Nice beer...
Not sure why they have hongkong pics on the wall...
Candy and cockroach
I got canides today...
Some one came back from a trip, and shares aound...nice...
And cockroach, so many...sometimes I miss home, a cockroach free zone...
Culture experience in Hsinchu
I was invited to experience some culture in Hsinchu last Sunday...
Feels good to take the old bus to Hsinchu..."not birds" and "no mokus passengers", i guess its so common that these to guests are extra forbidden on buses here in taiwan...
Rainy weekend...initially...
Some school kids were guiding us...
We played games to remember each others names...
And visited some stores in Hsinchu downtown...
And went to an old market...
We were suppose to bargain get as cheap banana as possible...
It was easy to get lost in here...
I cant say im good in this...but I started to scan the market....
And after asking about the rules, I bought some mini bananas, that was not really eatable yet...but I got them pretty cheap...
We also got to try some local food...rice starch and red meat...
And dumplings...
This place was famous we were told...
Lost again...how do we find the way out...?
I also got some free fruit from some locals...
An old street...
And an old tempel...
You enter on the right and leave from the left door...and never step on the threshold (even though I saw some locals doing it)...
And people are suppose to pay, for making wish....
Omg, someone almost stepped on the threshold...
Omg...it was like 50-60cm long...they wanted to challenge the visitors for sure...
And some other things ppl could buy...like toy money, crackers incents etc...
This is where you turn the incents on fire...
And here are some things you throw on the floor to see if your wish comes true...
And here you burn the fake money...
We also passed this store, where I also passed 4 years ago with my friend anders...he was hungry and wanted this spagetti soup...but lost his appatite, when he gof noodles on ice with some wierd fruit and sweet beans...
We continied to this bakery...i have been here before, I think they once had a rat in the bread, not sure...and lost many customers....
This place was also famous...
And this....
Atleast we bought bittermelon juice...omg, so bitter....
And this medicine store was interesting, smelled like a swedish teastore...but more smoky...
The doctor told the girl that she was sick...or something...
Now the sun was strong...
We contined to a rice store, old fashion...
He showed us old equipment...
He was certified by the goverment to sell rice or something...
More equipment, maybe this was from japan...
And some local food...if its oily its good...and exclusive...we were told...
Some potato muffin...
And some old tempel again...
And the "north gate" of hsinchu, it doesnt exist anymore, but they had this momument as a memory...
And a puppet store...the owner was not there...but the students prepared an interview from the day before on their pad...
Omg, a burgerbar, i havnt been here yet...but visit it...
Omg, if a stupid foreinger enters...I wonder what they think. "no smoking", "no fox (or dogs)", "no food or drink"...you must smily, and some stomach pain?
Next stop ws some meatball store...
Interesting illustrations...
A guy was speaking chinese...some times he but some english words for us foreingers...I heard "1938" in english...I wonder if he thought we understood what the context was...
We got some tools to mash pork...
They also told us that the interior design was special, with the floor creating luck etc...
mashing meat...
They prepared some mashed meat, since it takes 3 hours to do ot by hand...
Gloves on...
And squeeze the meat to balls...
and then into hot water...
We got some more rice strach in red meat...
And rice dumplings...
"1938" i think they started their business...
Here are the meatballs e made...
Alot of cups...
They bought the tiolet sign from some store...but didnt consider that it said "in the basement to the right" or something...so many people were confused, since the toilet was just in side this door...
Next stop was a makeup store...Johannes got his left hand processed...
And me too...
"oil rice store"...interesting
Some birthday of a god...alot of celebrations...
Kids running around...
And dancing with painted faces...
Maffia maybe...with tattoos...
And the mouth full of binlang...
They also sacrificed some binland and taiwan beer to the god...so generous....
Paper from fire crackers...
Maffia people maybe...its comon that maffia owns the temple...earning money from people buying things to the gods...
This guy was decorating a stone...
Focus!
And many people praying...
On the way back I had one of the bananas we bought in the bargaining competition...
I ended the stay with some hang out...it was a fun day.
Saturdays events...
I saw the last episode of a beer documentary on sweden televisision...early saturday...
It was nice...I miss europe....
On saturday afternoon I headed to a burgerbar...
At Gongguan in central taipei...
I met up some old classmate there...
They had cool paintings there...
They asked me to order the biggest "monster burger" that they have...
I later on saw a fun sign on a store...
Later in the night I met some other swedish classmates who are on a visit in taiwan...
I waited at an MRT exit...and a lady asked people to not stand there...
Some girl was performning near by...
Omg, another guy who was asked to leave...
And another guy (its nice to wait at the mrt entrance, since cold AC air is comming up, and you can see all short people who you are suppose to meet)...
I met my dear friends later anyway...
We went to my favorite burgerbar...
Since i already had a "monster burger" earlier that day I only had 1 patty now...
I wodner who all the bars on the second floor at ximen red building survives, no customers seems to go there...
We also went to another bar, to have some drinks...I had pinacolada...
And later we went to "le ble d´or" my favorite beer bar...
We met up some friends from taizhong...
Honeybeer...
And the magician was there as well. I asked him to perform something...
My friends also had an interesting charger....which he was showing up...
I was asked to sign a card, I made a 11th of spades...
Then, before we left, we met some drunk americans who wanted to join us to the next party...Saamet and Vlad was going somewhere...I think they met up later that night...
Friday rituals...
Wow, after some weeks, now my japanese classmate attended class again...
Its always fun with chiense...
And later, I went to a hotpot...
Same cheap one as I use to...alot of chocolate sauce this time...
And shrimps....
My classmate emerson says its bad for the cholesterol...
Good that I alternatve with more chocolate sauce then...and some exersice once in a while...
A trip to the pool
I will do another ironman in june..but this time only a quarter of an ironman...
My friends will join me this time...so we went to the pool togetter...
I only swam some kilometer...i think its enough...hopefylly I can do the 8km swim in kinmen someday...then i get more motivation to swim more...most long distans swimming competitions here are around 3km...
Wednesdays events...
Started out with a grapefruit juice...
I really like the flavour...and its good, since i didnt sleep much recently...vitamines are needed...
Then, by coincidende...I dropped by KGB burger...
First time I had a "normal" burger...omg, so small...I should atleat go for a double next time...
Thursday evening...
I was pretty thursty lat night...to bad I didnt have any juice...
A cider worked as a quencher...
MBA gathering...
My old classmate Henry visited taiwan (he works in china usually)...
So we met up at my favorite beer bar...Le blé d´or...slowest elevators ever...(as usual here in taiwan, i observed)...
Taiwan made, but french name and german interior design and staff outfit...just like taiwan use to be...
Henry looked like his brother when short hair...maybe they cut his hair in china...like in the Qing dynasty...
Yummy, honey sweeted beer...(but not that much honey flavour)...
They kep odering things....but it was not as expensive as last time...when I had to leave and they kept on ordering things, and later split the bill with me...
I made sure to stay the until last man...
We wanted special treatment, so we created a birthday for Henry...
I think he liked it...
Many peopl eI havnt met since...ehh...some month ago...
Rossy used his large sized calculator to split the bill...
it was a nice place...however, an all you can eat and drink would peak the event...in many ways...
Assigment monday...
I had an assigment to finish this monday...
I was late to chinese class...but still i think im in the lead in the attandence leauge...
Sundays business
STarting of by doing some presentaion preparations...
Its slow....
I also went to carrefour, tasting bread...and benchmarked some flavours....
Red wine, and oil to dip the bread in...
I further watched a documentary about beer drinking...
And ofcourse had to have my own beer while watching...
And some parma ham...
And made a batch of bread with garlic...
More wine and oil...
And parma ham...mediterranean style all day long...
Papaya times
It is pretty cheap with Papaya here...around 30nt...
That is like 7-8SEK, and its super big...doesnt stand to long time though, I better eat it directly after purchase...
Saturday evening...
I went to buy yeast again...
Fresh, only goes in 500g...
Rainy afternoon...at ximen...
Finally I tried the all you can eat korean restaurant near the red building at Ximen...
Some pre dish...
And typicl asian side dishes...
Some pancake...
And fried rice...
And the the typical wrap...similar to the one I ate when I was in korea...
They said that there are usually not that many people there when it is raining, but it was pretty full today, after a while...
And they had Meiji ice cream, its pretty common here...
The vanilla flavour was pretty good...
Rainy saturday...
Today the heaven was open...
Heavy showers over northern Taiwan...
And the pavements ofcourse becomes super slippery on this non friction surface...
Walking barefoot is safer than wearing flipflops...
Some tais are donating food to ghosts...interesting...its mothers day today in taiwan...
It was kristi himmelfärdsdagen last week...holidays in sweden, nothing in taiwan...
Classmate hangout...
I hanged out with my classmates last night...
Meeting up at Ximen again...heading to a BBQ...
Omg, a taxi with a sporty look, made me think of the french movie "taxi"...
Beef and pork...
And alos of salad....
I didnt eat any fish here....
But alot of prawns...
The tap was there for self service....
Taiwan beer...
And 2 kinds of icecream...
I nded with marshmallows...
Omg "Merry christmas"...so funny...
A new burgerbar visit...
I went to a burgerbar that was said to be famous...
Rabbit Rabbit inTaipei downtown...
Nice paintings...
And people were posinc with rabbit masks....
And they had many kinds of burgers...
And some old painting with a rabbit...(but no rabbit burger)...
Feels like i have seen this image before...
Here is the mask, that cusomters could try on and take a pic with...
I had the biggest burger they had...as usual.....
It was expensive 440nt...lika an "all you can eat"...and since i was fasting recently, my stomach was pretty small...not ifs back to normal again...
And then, back in the taipei night...millionsof scooters...Taiwan touch your heart, isla formosa...
Wednesdays events...
We talked about different symbols at chinese class...
I was asked to write a nazi symbol...its intersting here in taiwan, I even see clothes with this symbol, its like wearing a che guevara tshirts in some countrys, very controversal...
As the tradition offers...burger tonight too...
And peanut butter banana sandwish for dessert...(The food pics of the day)...
Breaking the fasting...
If u are fasting too much it might affect your breath they say...
I ate alot of fruit this evening...I bought it very cheap...29nt for 3 mangos...(like 7SEK)...and some bananas...its interesting here...apples are considered expensive compare to these fruits...
I fried the banans in oil....
My contribution to Elvis...a sweet peanut butter and banana sandwish...
A trip to the swiming pool
I went sweiming today...
A new pool with a 100m and 50 meter pool...it was pretty cold in the 100m one...
They had a mobile floor to adjust the depth from 2m to less...
As usual in taiwan, boys needed speedos, and girls could wear whatever they liked...
New gmail is tricky...
I tried to send an email today by gmail...
Where is the "send" button?
Hmm...
I used my hotmail account instead...
Today i semi fasted...ate cake, drank wine...but in small portions...
Lazy sunday...
This sunday I did not do much...I should have gone for a church event, but kind of messed up...I need a calendar...
Burger for lunch...
I planned to buy chincken at Mcdonalds, but they did not have it, so I had a burger for dinner to...
Except for a run and some minor things i did this:
Chinese TOP test...
I did a chinese TOP test yesterday...
Many foreingers were there...its popular, so one needs to sign up early...
I met some GMBA students tehre...
It was computer based....
We had to sit at certain seats...
I was 22...
They prepared some cardboard to make it more cozy...
Then people went out, after 90 minutes to talk about the result...
My classmate Emerson kept his pen...we all had pens at our seat, no one knows why...maybe if we wanted to take notes...
They saidwe could not use cell phones, and even had a picture on how to take out out batties, incase "we had an alarm activated"...as if we did not know how to turn it of!?!
We there after went to eat pizza...and I concluded that taiwanese ppl like to stay near the doors in the MRT, blocking for new people to enter...
I also some GMBA student and her sister in Taipei city...
The initial decition was go to to a new pizza all you can eat...
But they did not have all you can eat offer anymore....so we went to PIzza hut instead...
They even had Hawaii pizza here...
Nice...
With thick crust its easy to get full fast...I ate alot of fruit afterwards, since they didnt have any ice cream...
And they consitently took my fork, so in the end I only had knifes left...I used knifes then to eat...
Tpe 101 in the back ground, we were at S.Y.S memorial hall...
Shin Kong tower run up...
Last year I did "Taipei 101 run up"...
Today I participated in Shin Kong tower run up...its the second highest building in Taipei...only 46 floors instead or 91 floors (at Tpe 101)...
I never been up in this building, except when my parents visited me 4 years ago...
They have to parallell run ups...since they have two staircases...
Many people were there...about 1000 people...it was for sure not as popular as the Taipei 101 run up...
Some teams dressed up...
Even some fire men participated...I would like to try run up in their out fit...
The earlier you got to the place, the earlier you got your starting number, so I had to wait for some hour to start...
"Shin Kong", or Xin guang in pinyin...
People started every 5 second or something...
In groups of 20...
And they scanned a bar you needed to have on your wrist...
The floors were numbered....
Ofcourse slow walking people were blocking all the time....
Its the same as running marathon...everyone thinks they are the fastest....so the dont keep to the right...(here you run counterclockwise, taipei 101 was clockwise....
Water was served on every fifth floor...more or less...
Many people waiting for the elevators down...
Long queue...
And the view was nice...
I wanted to get down, so I didnt spend much time up here....
It was really like the "Taipei 101 run up" in a lighter form...
Slow elevators...
However the elevators went all the way down...not as in 101 where you had to change elevators after some floors...
I got a printed diploma directly...I ran on 9 minutes something...a little faster than 101, where I got 20 minutes...(for twice as many floors)...even though I didnt run that fast...
Chinese test...
I had an exam in chinese last evening...
I was there a little bit early, and had a nice talk with my teacher...
Later on I met up my classmates and went to this hotpot (its like a tradition by now)...
Started with ice crea....(you know the menu)...
Seafood...prawns...do they have alot of cholesterol? My friend said so, another said, "you lose more energy than you gain by eating them"...hmm...
Attempt to study chinese
I have chinese quiz tomorrow...
So I tried to prepare today...
Wile eating parmesan cheese...drinking wine...
And eating my forst homemade burger since last year...it was super good...
Gmail...
I sent an email to a friend...
Gmail scanns every word I use...(and asks if something is not done according to normal emailing pattern)...
so smart...
First of may
Omg, I started the day with checking my receipts for january and february of 2013...
One win...that was ok, since I did not have that many receipts...
Later on I passed by Costco...many people were there..
I tried some whisky...
And there after I went to Carrefour, concluding that its nice and cold outside...like an autumn back home...
Its fun in taiwan, the drivers name is displayd at the back of the buss...
Evening in taipei...
I went to this returant...
And had some beers...
I met up my swedish friend here...we tried mostly belgian beers
I tried 2 different kinds...
A banana flavoured and some other bitter one...
The wiatress was aboriginal, a mix between Paiwan, Amis and Bunun...so cool...
They didnt take the glasses from the tables here...so there were plenty of bottles etc when we left...
We continued to Le Rouge, where I have been before...
TThey had a Salzone here, its a calzone with salad inside, their invention...
I had this beer, its comeeting with my friends brands...(he imports beer)....
And we went all in for pizza...
I had some blue cheese one, recommended by the chief...
Its fun in taiwan, the drivers name is displayd at the back of the buss...
Evening in taipei...
I went to this returant...
And had some beers...
I met up my swedish friend here...we tried mostly belgian beers
I tried 2 different kinds...
A banana flavoured and some other bitter one...
The wiatress was aboriginal, a mix between Paiwan, Amis and Bunun...so cool...
They didnt take the glasses from the tables here...so there were plenty of bottles etc when we left...
We continued to Le Rouge, where I have been before...
TThey had a Salzone here, its a calzone with salad inside, their invention...
I had this beer, its comeeting with my friends brands...(he imports beer)....
And we went all in for pizza...
I had some blue cheese one, recommended by the chief...
Later on, I found that I had mail from home, many magazines etc...it was interesting, I have to read...
