像童話中的傀儡 口是心非

Recently I've been feeling nostalgic over Byakuyako. Yes, Bya, one of my favorite dramas, and also the most messed up piece of fiction I've ever seen. Seriously. Not for the faint-hearted.

Anyway, I was skimming my caps (of which I am oddly missing a lot of), and knew icons were in order. So here are the few I made. Apparently I am in a red/orange mood recently.

001. Ayase Haruka as Yukiho,
002. Taki (Yamada Takayuki) as Ryo
003. Taki/Ryo chilling in front of the Tokyo Tower. (Taki icons are sooo hard to find. I need to make more, preferably not while he's in dirty hobo mode...)

001	002	003

( Rules, as always )

Obviously I am not sane.

I have EIGHT types of tea I am bringing home.

Aged Kings Tea (oolong, or 老茶)
Ti Kuan Yin Tea (oolong)
Jin Xuan Tea (oolong)
Oriental Beauty (oolong)
Tung Ting Tea (oolong)
High Mountain Tea (oolong)
Pu'Er Tea (post fermented)
Rose Tea (herbal)

Plus I hope to buy two more types: Silver Needle Tea (white tea), and Alishan Tea (oolong). I'm not that big a fan of green tea, so I'm probably not going to buy that.

ALSO I totally need another suitcase. Probably a full size one too. Luckily carrefour has them for sale. *sigh* Too much stuff. Add in my Korea purchases, and it's not going to be fun. Stupid erhu.

I am stealing this idea from aliaspiral and phrenk because I think it's a great idea. I love Christmas (or, non secularist, the holiday season), and I love giving (and receiving, of course :D) gifts. I've looked into random internet gifting before, so whatevs, I'm going to do it!

Step One
- Make a post (public, friends locked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two
- Surf around your friends list (or friends friends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.


( My wishes )

Aliaspiral's Wish Post
Phrenk's Wish Post

THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE IN ADVANCE!

Today was an, um, interesting day.

Last day of school, last time to see my classmates! It was sad. We ate a lot, and took pictures!

I mosaic-ed out Lisa, because that's just what friends do! (We both hate pictures of ourselves, but since she was RIGHT next to 張老師, I couldn't cut her out... I cut myself out though!)


And then we were waiting for the bus, and a random guy on a scooter stopped next to me, and was miming to me. We think he was saying I was pretty (or at least he really liked my eyes). It's weird, but I've been randomly complimented here more than anywhere else. Taiwanese love me.

Later on a guy commented on how he thought (again, we're unsure about this) I was Indian, or Indonesian, or something. Um, I'm very white looking. It was odd.

So then I come home, and find THESE PICTURES, which I swear, made my uterus explode with flail. I LOVE BABIES. I LOVE BIG BANG. I LOVE BIG BANG HOLDING BABIES. (Article at Allkpop


I can't wait to go to Korea if only to buy BB stuff incessantly. Seriously. It's a disease. ONLY ONE MORE WEEK.

Otherwise I bought some more tea stuff (Chinese tea has a LOT of instruments), and some tea! YAYS!

Random: Robbie William's new album is big here right now. I'm glad. I like Robbie Williams.

I bought myself a tea set. A proper Chinese tea set, fit for a formal tea ceremony. I learned formal Taiwanese style Gong fu tea, which is pretty damn complex. As I understand, the brewing is more complicated than Japanese ceremony (though I think the Japanese tea is a bit more rigid, but that's more a difference in Chinese culture vs Japanese culture than anything), but very similar to Korean style (again, from what I understand).

Anyway, my set is basic. I need several more utensils and pieces before it is complete, but it's a good starter. It's beautiful too. Butter yellow, with a slight ridged design.

RANDOM QUICK PICTURE!


There's 6 cups/saucers, two pots, and a dish. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I also have a small travel tea set which is less formal, but equally awesome. YAY 中國茶!!!

But also... I have no goddamn idea how I'm going to carry home everything. NO IDEA. Um, extra suitcase? Plus I have a freaking Erhu that I need to carry on the plane(s) with me. *sigh*

I naturally have very dark brown hair. I AM NOW MOSTLY BLONDE. It's crazy, and I love it. Seriously, it's so weird and different, but GOOD! I've always wanted to be blonde.

It's also short(er). I love long hair, but I always tend to forget I look better with shoulder length hair. He cut 10cm/4in of my hair off (it was around 61cm/24in to begin with) It feels so healthy and pretty.

And now I am going to go practice my GD nails (if I get it right this time I'll post a pic, but in general they're white, with red apple KONADs, and red gems).

*sigh* The gems are probably a no go. Oh well, it's still cute!

Last night was a LONG night. After school, we come home, and flipped out about going to Alishan (it was badly planned) so we canceled our tickets, and then decided to go find the new Big Bang single album for me to buy (it came out here on 13Nov09). After going several places, I did find it (YAY). I also bought a super cute apple shaped bottle perfume.

Afterwards we decided to go KTVing, but it was too late (trains stop at 12, and it was 10:30), so we went home (by way of the Taipei 101 of course... we go there A LOT). I then slept FOREVER.

Today we decided to go to Maokong, which is the mountains south of here. But, as it happens with us ALL THE TIME, we got kinda lost, and nothing worked. I did get some lovely shots of the mountains though!


Afterwards we went to Ximen to find food, ate at "Coke Forest" which is an American themed restaurant with horrible chinglish menus. Something to eat? How about Chicken Naggets? Want something to drink? How about some lovely Classical Battle?


Otherwise the food was good, and the Lemon coke I had was AMAZING.

Afterwards we KTVed. Not only that, we DRUNKEN KTVed!! Something we've been meaning to do for a long long time. We bought shitloads of sake, and juice, and drank a ton (thought apparently not THAT much, because I'm not even tipsy anymore). And we sang english (both of us), Japanese (Lisa) and Mandarin (me) songs. It was definitely amusing, especially the more we drank. We then stumbled on the last train, and I spent a good portion of the way home randomly sit-dancing to very loud Fall Out Boy on my ipod.

FUN TIMES.

BTW!!!! At Family Mart (which is owned by Lotte) they have all these ads for the Family Mart concert, which apparently stars Rain. And EVERYIME I see them, I yell "Raaaaaiiiin!!!!" ala Stephen Colbert.

It's been awhile since I posted anything BB related (it's hard to keep on top of new stuff, but since it's BB, I try...), but this was just too adorable to not share. Dae with the kitten was the best. And while my love for GD is immense and overwhelming, I flailed the most over Young Bae, who was too adorable with the puppy, and THEN was playing with the kittens. He's such a goddamn doll, that boy.



Also, kinda old news, but whatev. Se7en is going to be at GD's concert! I'm so excited! I figure all of the BB boys will make an appearance, as well as Dara, CL, Kush, Teddy, and hopefully Park Bom (since they all have songs with GD). I'm hoping for a random Jinusean appearance too. This concert is going to be amazing, and I'm DYING from excitement.

Tomorrow we leave to visit Alishan (as seen in the twdrama, Wish to See You Again), and watch the sunrise on the top. I'm also going to be buying some tea (Alishan high mountain oolong is one of the best in the world), and possibly sleeping on the mountain.

ALSO! Today in the MRT newspaper there was an article about Zai Zai not being in a movie or something. Either way, ZAI ZAI! And they totally called him 仔仔 too, not his real name. 很可愛!

QUESTION!

Is there anything anyone wants me to get them from Taiwan/Korea/Japan?

My time here in Taiwan is running short, so I'm trying to get all my shopping done here, so if you want something (albums, magazines, books, random Taiwan things, etc) let me know, and I'll try to find it for you.

(I use paypal (or whatever you want), and I'll be sending everything from the US, so shipping won't be as crazy as it would be from Taiwan)

Also! Since I'll be going to the GD concert, I'll try very hard to get various concert stuff from the concert (though it might be hard, since I'm going to be buying ONE OF EVERYTHING for myself), so if you want something, let me know.

I've been buying bunches of stuff here. Some of it makes sense, some doesn't. The other day I bought gloves, and, um, it's 85F (~ 29C). Yeah. F-you Taiwan. But I've bought about five necklaces recently.

Oh! Reminds me! You know how cheap things in the US are from Taiwan or China? Well cheap things in Taiwan are from Korea. Yeah. WEIRD.
( Meme I stole from Lisa )

So finally my tickets for GD's concert are all set. Lisa and I aren't sitting together (which is crap), but at least we're going on the same day. Because I ordered my ticket before she did, I have a standing seat, which is desirable, and SUPER CLOSE to the stage. Map of the concert hall (I'm in section 003). I'm so excited.

BUT time here in Taiwan is winding down. We've only got until the end of November here left. After that we'll be flying to Korea for a week, and finally to Japan. I'm SAD. I don't know when, but I KNOW I'll be coming back to Taiwan. I really do love it here. There's STILL so much to see. We need to visit Sun Moon Lake, Alishan (which I REFUSE to miss), Tainan, Taichung, Taroko Gorge, and many many more places.

Also, we have NO IDEA what to do in Korea. Other than go to the concert... I honestly would go just for the Kpop merchandise. Lisa's been to Japan before, but I haven't. And I have no idea what to do there either. *sigh* I'm going to be doing a LOT of research in the coming weeks.

Any suggestions?! We're going to Seoul and Tokyo. We can do day trips, but nothing TOO far away.

I've been waiting a VERY long time to say this, because I wanted to make absolutely sure before I broke the news. But... but... I was just informed earlier today that everything is a-okay.

I'M GOING TO
GD'S SOLO CONCERT!!

I CANNOT CONVEY THE DEGREE OF FLIPPING OUT I AM GOING THROUGH RIGHT NOW.

When I first heard of the concert awhile back, I knew I was going to be in the vicinity for it. I also knew I was going to try to go to Korea during that time period. It made sense to try to obtain a ticket. So I searched some BB contacts, and managed to get in touch with a lady who would buy me tickets. Tickets went on sale on the 28th, and I've been on eggshells ever since. She just let me know today that not only did she get me tickets, but she got me GOOD tickets. Standing (because standing = better) by the catwalk.

AND OMG I'M GOING TO KOREA TO SEE GD IN CONCERT!!!

Plus, after we go to Korea, we're going to go to Japan.

Today was just plain awesome (ZOO, KTVing, Ximen, getting a box from home, and GD)!!!

We found a German bakery and biergarten in Tienmu today (along with ANOTHER cat/dog cafe). I seriously love Taiwan. It's so random and awesome here.

The german place is cool, because they have traditional german desserts, but also imported german food like bavarian mustard and weissbier. They also had adventkalendars, which was super cool.

Speaking of, does anyone else celebrate Nikolaustag (St. Nicholas Day) on December 5/6th? In college I was heavily involved with the German club, so I adopted a lot of German traditions, that holiday included.

That's also, incidentally, why I usually try to travel to Munich Germany every year in December; Munich's Christkindlmarkt (christmas market).

Yesterday, while hopped up on pain and fro-yo (long story) we giddily flailed about the Tienmu SOGO, where I bought myself Konad nail art supplies. And OMG am I obsessed. The plate I bought has fruit on it, so now I have the most awesome silver nails with bluish black apples and fuchsia glitter.



Don't mind the horrid paint job or my weird cuticles...

Lisa accused me of using apples because of GD, and to be truthful I hadn't thought of it. But seriously, it's apt! I also bought some of those little clay(ish?) nail art things for 3D nail art. In fruit, of course (also desserts).

I TOTALLY have a design for awesome GD-inspired nails in my head ;D

ALSO I finished up until episode 4 of You're Beautiful, and now am awaiting subs. I also randomly downloaded MY FAVORITE CARTOON EVER (that was made for kids, not adults); Rocko's Modern Life. Which I am now rewatching and giggling madly over.

For the first time in, oh, more than a year I am completely and utterly clueless about currently airing dramas. I can only name about 7, which is INSANE.

On top of that, I'm only watching one (kinda).

I've been following You're Beautiful, if not necessarily watching it as it airs. I have all the episodes downloaded, but I've only watched one full episode so far. I'm still highly amused that it stars Jang Geun Seuk, who I previously only knew as a musician. I seriously didn't know he was an actor at all... when I first saw him, I was like ".... hey, 'Toucholic'!"

And, well, that's is. I occasionally download and watch random things. Like right now I'm trying Fantasy Couple. I tried watching Next Stop Happiness, but honestly, it was too baffling for me to watch without subs (and without the use of rewind and pause so I could read the Chinese). And I wasn't excited enough about it to download. So whatever. I'm not huge on family stories anyway (I really just don't like children in dramas [should probably make the "in dramas" part clear...]).

WHICH　REMINDS ME!

I wonder sometimes about this. I DO NOT consider myself having completely watched a drama if I've fast-forwarded through any part of it. But I know that some people do it. I don't know why though. I often find a lot of detail in the smaller parts. It's kinda like cheating to me. Like skimming a book and saying I've read it. (Of course I know different people have different watching styles, but I just can't do it that way)

I'm a completest to a fault. If I miss, or don't understand something, I will rewind and rewatch until I do (and believe me, sometimes it takes a lot of rewinding). I wonder if this is why it often takes me a long to watch stuff as compared to others.

We're getting residual typhoon rain, so it's been gross the past few days. Tonight we're going to chill and watch The Frighteners, and I'm going to drink some heavily sweetened Oolong Tea (not fancy tea, I wouldn't dare to sweeten that!). And tomorrow we might go to Alleycats for some good Western style pizza (WITHOUT　CORN, thank God... weird Taiwan and it's corn), and maybe some shaved ice (oh God, is shaved ice amazing, seriously, I wasn't too convinced at first, but seriously, the stuff is magic and so good).

再見, 我的電腦朋友!

I'm sitting in the computer lab here at school (in preparation of a LONG day), and there's a dude here who is listening to "ABC" by The Jackson 5 REALLY loudly on his headphones (so loud that I can hear it perfectly, and I'm pretty far away from him. Not only that, but he's listening to it on repeat, and SINGING ALONG (on of my biggest pet peeves in the world is people singing out loud to themselves when I'm trying to do work).

Seriously, dude... WTF? Oh, thank God, he just left...

笨蛋.

Today is not a happy day.

Guess who f-ed up her knee today by not noticing a slight step down... Have I mentioned the hilarious tale of how I broke my knee about two weeks into my freshman year of college (a college 500 miles from my home)? Ever since then my knee's been weird (like how I can't wear heels...), so way to go me.

On the other hand, at least I got some amazing pictures and cultural activity out of it!


The famous Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Built, obviously, for the controversial former KMT President of Taiwan. Despite doing by the MRT station every day, this is the first time we actually visited. It's HUGELY impressive.


A view of the "Democracy Boulevard", and the National Concert Hall, and National Theater. Both are amazing buildings.

I fully intend on going back. It's free, interesting (the hall itself has special exhibits. The one we saw was about Chinese calligraphy), and the surrounding parks are AMAZING. They have ponds. With the largest most monster Koi I've ever seen in my life. Seriously, these things looked like small tuna. It was insane. (Random aside, but WTF KOI?! They can live for CENTURIES?!)

I promise one day I will get back to comments. It's been tough because I'm usually VERY busy. I have regular class every day, plus 6 hours of culture class a week, plus commute, cultural activities, homework, studying, ETC... It's all I can do to get home and crash. I don't even really watch stuff anymore because that would require energy I don't currently possess. It's honestly a nice change of pace, though detrimental to my rich online life :D I still read everyone's comments and posts though!

What I did this weekend can pretty much be summed up in these three pictures. (Though I have about 400 more pictures and at least 20 videos than may or may not get posted in the future)





Other points of interest...
1. An eight hour train ride
2. Trying to find busses at midnight
3. Old dudes making weird kissing noises at us
4. Taking pictures of a random hot guy
5. Getting caught up in a fucking MOB
6. Climbing on giant stacks of ghost money (we're talking around 10 feet high)
7. Falling down on said ghost money when the guys pulled it from underneath my feet.
8. Getting in the way of everyone
9. Getting caught in ANOTHER giant mob, and then getting crushed against people (including creepy middle aged dudes whose crotches were pressed up against me)
10. Having a random girl turn to me, and say, in english "Hello! You are very beautiful!" (Apparently I am considered really attractive in Kaohsiung, this type of thing happened to me a lot there...)
11. Escaping the mob and falling asleep on the beach
12. Seeing shitloads of tiny little crabs
13. Getting lost when trying to find the bus station and asking random white people for help
14. Sleeping on little more than wooden boards covered with a blanket (and being surprising comfortable)
15. Taking pictures in the mouths of a giant tiger and giant dragon
16. Being mesmerized by the shiny sidewalks of Kaohsiung
17. Going in possibly the worst smelling bathroom I've ever encountered
18. Being stared at by guys on scooters while waiting for the bus (to be fair we were wearing really low cut shirts...)
19. Getting lost AT 11PM IN A STRANGE CITY after the damn bus driver let us off in the middle of fucking nowhere after demanding we pay him extra.
20. Deciding that we never ever EVER wanted to leave the Shui ever again (the Shui = Danshui, where we live)

And, um, more stuff... It's really nice to be back in the Shui.

Question!

Because I have yet to watch Black and White fully, did they ever explicitly state where it took place? I thought it took place in Taipei (everything takes place in Taipei...), but it was filmed in Kaohsiung.

I know that because remember this scene in episode 1?



I've been looking for that station since I go to Taiwan, and couldn't find it. BECAUSE　IT WAS IN KAOHSIUNG ALL ALONG! No wonder everything in that show looked so shiny and new...

(I'm in Kaohsiung currently, for reasons I will explain more about later (with pictures). It's so weirdly clean and pretty here, but as pretty as it is, I like good old slightly-dirty Taipei more. It's my Taiwan!home)

Feels like I'm high. Which I'm not. And I'm not high on life either, because I just woke up, and who in the world is high on life at 6:30 in the morning?

But seriously. Way to be weird, body. Way to be weird.

Bought a crapload of makeup today. It was always eventual. Makeup = my downfall. Though all the stuff I bought was from a french brand (one of my favorites, but still)...

I also found a cheap bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate! There was much excitement.

I keep seeing ads at subways stations for a movie, and one day I was like "Hey... those people look familiar" I just looked it up, and OMG I WANT TO SEE IT SO BADLY! It's called "Prince of Tears" (泪王子), and it's about Taiwan's White Terror, which is one of the most interesting periods in recent Taiwanese history (IMO of course). I'm DESPERATE to see it! It's released on the 22nd here, and I plan on watching, despite the language barrier.

Plus it stars three of my favorite people in Taiwanese entertainment; Joseph Chang (his surname is 張!), Viter Fan, and Terri Kwan. And the preview looks amazing!