GOODBYE TAIWAN

yep,

the time has actually come. much faster than i expected.

in 26.5 hours i will be on a malaysia airlines flight leaving taipei, taiwan. one-way flight to LA.

siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigghhh. i have made such incredible friends here. such genuine fun ppl.
living in a city is fabulous: lively nightlife, great public transportation (MRT, taxi, bus), cheap food (altho i am quite sick of taiwanese food), walking everywhere, quaint inner streets w/ random bubbles of parks, and tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurants. LOVELY.

i HIGHLY recommend studying abroad.

and i even learned some chinese........along with giving armenian lessons to ppl that cared ;-)
GOOSHTEM!

the one Taiwanese way of life that i am bringing back with me to the states is the idea of biking everywhere. i'm getting a new bike and biking to classes at calpoly. i don't want to use my car at all. unless i have to.
my ipod died somehow. gonna get that 16gig ipod nano, green.

my dad asked me what i want to eat when i return home: SALAD, with CHEESE, and EGGNOG.

the xmas decor in my home is ready for meeeee!! yayy!! AND-i'll hang out with my peeps that i haven't seen and that are looking forward to hearing my stories :-) that's always nice to have.
and of course, visiting my nana and aunts. :-)


nicole's comin' home.


studio final review.......me and Tu




roommate picture!! me and marie.. my amazing roomie.


hello kitty cafe...........amazingness!! with my girls. .... me and elena (from spain)

danny (from bolivia) Tu (from vietnam)


YAY!!! I had been waiting for months to go to this restaurant!


elena has the most contagious laugh. love her!


one of the many group pics we've taken...must upload more photos and more ppl
tu, shiva, me, tina, wendy, josh (from cpp)

thanksgiving!!

ni hao!!

as of right now, i'm finishing up my studio project (the baseball stadium)..it's due this friday!!..........i'm using Revit for this project.

i've been using Archicad for the past 2 years and it was time to learn a better program!.

i had an amazing thanksgiving.....marie and i wondered all over taipei to get everything ready. we found apple and pumpkin pie!


the family: lang, lily, melissa, cindy, me, marie, michael, josh, kenny

i was the DJ: xmas music galore!!!

me and marie preparing the food.

those little things are egg tarts from KFC. and of course, pumpkin and apple pie. we got the pies from this western bakery called Florida Bakery.

menu: salad, roasted chicken/corn/deep fried corn/ corn soup from KFC. baguettes and cheese. we ate in the dormitory lounge area.

this was as close as we could get to a legit thanksgiving dinner w/out a kitchen!

time for a toast.

oh, lang.



....my children

mama/weekend with new friends/bldg on fire= entertaining week.

hello,
sooooo, i have a bunch of stories that i need to write in my journal, and a little bit here.

first of all, my mom came to visit me in taipei this past week.....6 weeks after being in taipei.....oh, mother.

a family friend of ours, Gloria, who is from Taichung, Taiwan, came with my mom. she was our tour guide for the weekend that i spent with them. and then for the rest of the week they were on a real tour and they visited many beautiful scenic locations in taiwan.
my mom really enjoyed the country, it was a beautiful balance of city life and scenic coastlines. my mom and i love the city and the ocean.
TAIWAN IS SUCH AN UNDERRATED COUNTRY!! it's so sad b/c it's so rich with culture, food, kind people that like actually like Americans (unlike the rest of the world), a great city life, and one of a kind scenic spots. i don't know why the previous sentences are blue and underlined...stupid blog thingy....

her first night in taipei, we ate at this cute little restaurant and had

delicious Taiwanese food. my friend Tu joined us.

This is Tu, she is from Vietnam, she is my architecture classmate, she's getting her masters....her Chinese is super good, if it wasn't, we would not of had food on our plates that night!

Tea Tasting in Danshui

Danshui Bridge

Danshui night market area
a national park, we saw a waterfall...it was raining, we hiked on slippery rocks, i was wearing sandals..thank goodness i didn't break my neck.

at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial, view of Taipei 101... this site is across the street from the site of my baseball stadium for studio.

Queens Head, Northern coast of Taiwan. sooooo beautiful! it was my first time there, too!

it was super windy...

So- during the weekend i went to Taichung with Oliver (our host that is from there), Tu, Josh (from cal poly), and Wendy (she's taiwanese). We stayed at Oliver's house and his relatives house. it was such an amazingly fun weekend! Oliver's parents took us all over central taiwan, including Sun Moon Lake. it's this massive lake that is in between mountains....so beautiful!!!!
we arrived there friday night and left sunday night.
so, sunday we were on our own, we went bike riding on the streets and through the adjacent country side where there's lots of vegetation..whenever a bunch of us go biking, i feel like we are in that scene in the sound of music where all of them are biking and they break out in song! usually end up singing that one song while i'm biking...haha...........I LOVE BIKING IN TAIWAN!!!!! it's beyond awesome..especially in the streets...haha..good times.
since we were there for 1 weekend, we packed everything in our backpacks, so we had to lug all of our crap with us on the bikes....but i'm use to this, we did the same thing in Kaoshiung, when we were there for a weekend and one of our friends from there (south-easter taiwan) was our host.



Wendy, Oliver, Tu

This is how i feel when we all bike!!!!!! :-D

at Oliver's house, we were eating breakfast..so good! we got food from this corner food place
Lena (oliver's older sister), Tu, Jessica (younger sis'), Oliver

Tu, me, Josh, Oliver (our host)

me, Wendy, Tu and Jessica (Oliver's younger sister)..crammed in the car for the whole day while oliver's parents take us everywhere!! they were so kind and generous with their time. :-)


the chubbiest child ever at Sun Moon Lake

cheesy ads for ppl running for office in Taichung.....sooooooooo corny!




josh being eaten by a lion at a temple

the way people will live, if pollution and global warming does not subside.....hahaha..awesome stroller.

yep..........come on, he had huge nostrils, how could i NOT pick it?

awesome sushi place that serves the food on the conveyor belt....so awesome & delicious!!!!

my absolute favorite dish from there!!!!! salmon and raw onions........OMG! i had 3 of these plates....i'm obsessed with them!



sooooooooooooo good! Taiwanese shaved ice with chewy yumminess! we had this after we rode our bikes...so refreshing.


FIRE!!!!!!........well, u can't really see it in the pictures....15th floor from my dorm's balcony...


hahaha....josh, ur hilarious....