Back to Taichung: Part 3

Frostfox posted up another part of the Taichung video. In this one you can see a small Temple on my street and some cool night time shots as well.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sLtwBUhbBY

Scooter Crash!

Well I was driving to work the other day and ended up crashing my scooter. I was trying to get through an intersection as the light was turning red. One guy was getting a head start on the green light so we were both in the intersection when we shouldn't be. I swerved sharply to avoid hitting him and just wiped out crashing onto the ground. I'm not that clear on what happened but I didn't hit anyone, I landed on my shoulder and ripped a hole in my coat.

My helmet hit the ground but so did the side of my face on my cheek bone and brow. I was bleeding a lot it seemed but overall was okay. I picked up my scooter and kept driving. As I drove my vision started going white until I couldn't see anything. I guess it was the shock and adrenaline. I pulled over and just sat there resting for a while.

I continued to work where my co-worker gave me some first aid and I rested for a while before going home. Here are some photos of my face as its progressed. I'll add some pics of the damage to my scooter later.

Taiwan Dreamin' : Teaching English

For this one I didn't call it episode 2 and just decided to call it "Teaching English." This whole episode focuses on teaching, what you need to teach legally and all that. I brush over a lot of things quickly so it's not really to be used as a guide but just to give an idea of how it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL9HGc9mJO4

FF in TC part 4.

Here is part 4 of the video series by Frost Fox Films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbGlSF20gMU

Hawaii 51

Last night I went to eat at a restaurant called Hawaii 51. The food there was really good, tasted a lot like Chilis or Fridays, same kind of selection. When I was ALMOST done with my food I bit into my ceaser chicken wrap and bit down on something hard. It wasn't hard like a bone, I mean it was HARD. I put my fingers in my mouth and pulled out a push pin. Yes, a little yellow push pin that you'd find in a cork board.

Well it didn't stab me or anything so I didn't complain to much. Just showed the waiter. The manager came and said that particular order would be free, although he didn't offer to make Ash's food free as well. Later on he brought us a chocolate cake and ice cream dessert thing.

The problem now is that I really liked the taste of the food there, and the price was a lot lower than the other places. Then again it also had a lot more push pin, haha!

Sometimes I think it's important to look past these things, it was a freak mistake. Probably one of their decorations fell down and the put pin landed in one of the pots. Weird that even the cook didnt notice it while wrapping up the chicken though...

Well maybe I will go there again, maybe not... Leave me a comment, what do you think?

VLOG

Talking about McDonalds, Taiwanese Money, and my broken video camera.



Let me know if you have any suggestions about fixing or buying a new one.

VLOG #1

The other day I made a Video Log instead of writing a blog post, you can check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wf5rKrL08E



If you haven't seen my Taiwan Dreamin' Ep 1 yet, watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBeM_ipFzDU



-IAN-

New ARC

My contract has been extended so I am staying at my school for another year. I had to go and do some paperwork with taxes, take another health check, and go to immigration for more paperwork. Yesterday I went to pick up the new ARC, looks the same as the old one.

I bought a new game, Killzone 2, it is pretty fun, but the controls are kind of weird, not sure if I will stick with the online multiplayer, but the game is really pretty, great graphics. Resident Evil 5 is coming soon, can't wait for that!

I started editing Taiwan Dreamin Ep 2 before but I haven't worked on it for a long time, I need to do that some more. These past few days I have been sick with a cold or something, think I have a fever too maybe. Well I will go to work today and wednesday is my day off so I can get a lot of sleep then.

Some friends came down from Taipei to stay with me and hang out. We played a lot Street Fighter 4, and we went to a small concert in a bar, was pretty cool. We also went to an arcade and took some video of us playing the games. Another thing we did was a part of a little skit for one of my friend's Youtube channel, we both like to make videos.

Okay - I will try to keep you guys updated and finish my video - bye bye!

Today I am 25.

Today is my 25th birthday. Wow... When I came to Taiwan I was 23, then shortly after turned 24. I have been here for slightly over a year.

I decided to stay here a while longer so I had to renew my Resident Visa. To do this I need to have a job, I am staying at Wells English School here in Taichung. Then I had to go to the hospital for my health check. They do x-rays, draw blood, and test your vision. Check your height and weight as well. I was about 77kg and 174.5cm something like that. Surprising, haha!

I feel pretty annoyed with myself that I only have a few Taiwan videos online, but of course I have other things I am doing too. I am editing episode 2 currently but I haven't been able to get past the intro music part yet...

I make a note not to talk about my relationships on here but I will just say I currently have a girlfriend and she has been helping me to learn chinese more than I had been with my friends. My Chinese tutor moved to New York so I don't have an organized class currently.

There are 3 videogames I am looking forward to coming out soon; Street Fighter 4, Killzone 2, and Resident Evil 5. Hope they are all cool. I have played the hell out of Fallout 3 since November. I want to continue to make videos about Taiwan though, I think I will do some more 'close to home' subjects for the episode after this one, that should make getting footage a lot faster!

Well, I am sorry I didn't update this blog more often. Not sure how many people actually even read this but if you do, let me know in the comments.

Monkey!!!

When my father was here in Taiwan for his visit we went to Da Keng Mountain. There are 4 trails. My ex-coworker Jen told me that trail #4, which is off in a different direction, had monkeys. She had seen one herself.

I took my dad there and we didn't see any, he also went again alone to check it out.

Well the next time I went I took my video camera and actually saw this large male monkey. So here is the video, I just basically put the entire amount of footage I got of the monkey which is about 2 mins. I whistled at the monkey a couple times, seemed he didn't like that too much. At the end you can see he shook the tree which I think is kind of a warning he is getting pissed off or territorial, that's just a guess though, I decided to leave him alone.

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=2rRRLWap2Iw

Richie Post #3: Scooter Rental

We’ve been walking quite a bit actually, just not downtown on the bigger streets. The smaller streets aren’t bad, though you do need to keep an eye out.

Ian and I rode down to the area of the bus station and I was able to rent a nice silver 125cc scooter for $20 a day. All the people I've met here have been very welcoming, and the scooter rental lady was friendly and funny. It turned out my getting an international license was a good idea, and Ian’s Chinese was good enough for there to be no problem. We rode a windy little road into the foothills to the east outside this city.

It's very strange to see bamboo and palm trees growing in a jungle on the mountains. It was also interesting to see how quickly the landscape transformed form city to wilderness with hardly any sprawl or urban transition. The battery in my camera ran down so I didn't get any pictures today. Tomorrow I'm hoping to check out a park a little to the north of where we went yesterday. Ian says there are wild monkeys living there like squirrels, and I’ve got my camera all charged up.

Eating here is cheep and delicious. We picked up some large steamed dumplings, like the puffy white ones we used to get at the Nanking, from a big farmer's market on the way home. They have four different fillings and sell by the dozen for $3.00. They use motorized gizmos like slow moving horizontal fans with tassels over the fish and prepared food to keep the flies off. It works well, and a whole table with fresh fish had none of the little critters buzzing around.

I bought a six-pack of Kirin beer labeled, “Bar Beer”. I think its draft beer, light but good, and also inexpensive.

The picture is of what they call the 'night market', really just a big strange smelling flea market.

It's still hot and a little muggy during the day, but it cools down at night.

Richie Post #2: Eating in Taiwan

I met some really nice friends of Ian’s for dinner at an interesting restaurant the other night.

There’s a big pool about four feet deep in the center of one section stocked with shrimp. You rent poles, drink beer, and catch dinner. We caught a dozen huge shrimp which we grilled and ate with our Taiwanese seafood soup. Yum!

It’s been raining for the past couple of days and the forecast is for a couple more. Since we don’t have a car it’s put a damper on our traveling, though we have been out riding. I walked several miles yesterday and took some pictures.

Last night we went to a sushi bar for dinner. It’s a very Japanese place with a conveyor belt that runs through with an assortment of plates with various exotic selections. Lots of squid, octopus, and cuddle fish along with the normal looking rolls. The plates are color coded for the price of each dish, and if you want to order something special there’s a touch screen menu at the table. Those orders arrive by an electric high speed train that runs on a track above the conveyor. It was great, and really expensive for Taiwan. The two of us stuffed, with soup and three beers was $15.00.

Not much going on today, probably another long walk in the rain.

Richie Post #1: Driving in Taiwan

This is a post written by my father while he was still in Taiwan in November. It was his first time in Taiwan, these were his impressions:


We went to a Taiwanese restaurant here in Taichung for dinner last night. Ian and I followed his girlfriend and her cousin on their scooter through town in some truly amazing traffic.

Ian drove with me on the back. Disney, or Six Flags should consider such a ride, as it was more thrilling than any roller-coaster ever built.

Scooters are the dominant vehicle here, and Saturday night there are thirty or forty waiting at every light. Since scooters are not "allowed", ha ha, to make left turns, if a rider wants to go left, they make a partial right turn, then a quick left at the front of the intersection and stop to wait for the light. Cars are supposed to wait further back, which they do most of the time.

What actually happens when a light turns green is, (after a brief period where the people; running the light, making left turns across two lanes of traffic, and those who have started the race early, sort out their differences), something like the start of a motorcycle race. A slow motion race, but a definite race none the less. In lieu of high speed the Taiwanese add obstructions to the "official" half lane to the right of the two normal lanes used by vehicle traffic. Bicycles, scooters pulling over-sized trailers, scooters driven slowly by old ladies with both legs hanging down, parked cars, portable signs, a surprising number of people driving against traffic before heading whatever direction they'd really like to go, and an occasional suicidal pedestrian can be counted on to liven up the competition. The track is gaily lit by bright signs of every color and store fronts, so scooter lighting is optional, and since working mufflers are also optional, the sound of the race is authentic.

Once the pack gets up to speed the riders jockey for position ready to squeeze between the various moving as well as stationary obstacles and the now overtaking cars and trucks. To assure the action never slows an assortment of vehicles backing into the roadway, making U turns, and maneuvers of unknown purpose are performed randomly.

It was amazing to me that we were able to travel several miles each way through this mayhem without observing an actual collision. By the time we got back I had begun to develop a begrudging admiration for these fearless riders, and today I'm ready to rent a scooter and join them, slowly with both legs hanging down.

Da Keng Mountain

My father posted a video of our outting to Da Keng, check it out:

My Father's Photos

Okay, just posting this up. My father's camera is a lot nicer than mine, check out all the photos we took during his trip. I have to say, some of them are really amazing!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15979413@N02/

My father's visit

My father arrived here in Taiwan about 2 weeks ago. This Thursday he will head back to the US. It has been a fun visit. We didn't do much tourist stuff, mostly just checked out the local life and the sorts of things tourists rarely get to do or see.

My father wrote some interesting little journals to send back in e-mails, I asked him and he said it's okay for me to post those on my blog here. I took some video , but actually not a whole ton of it, we were too busy having fun. I did get some good stuff though, so I will be excited to use that.

Here are some photos to tide you over before the video gets finished:

Taiwan Dreamin'

Episode 0 is complete and i will be uploading it tomorrow. 0 is just a intro to Taiwan, Episode 1 will be focused on temples and religious type things like that.

I am using my Taiwan Dreamin' promo to warm things up on YouTube and advertise the posting of Episode 0. I plan to post episode 1 a day after 0 to help boost interest in the show. I hope that I can get a lot of views, and more importantly comments.

My father will be here soon and I will have a chance to get a lot of video. Things like Taipei 101, Hualien, the night markets, and other things will be easier and more fun to film with two people.

So please go and support my video on YouTube here:

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=52KvqhxtEWk




I've already posted this on LiveVideo but please click the link even if you've seen it before, help me get more views and spread the word!

10 - 29... my father will be here soon!

My father and I almost had our brains exploding due to a strangely typed itinerary page. In the end I discovered that the date listed only applied to the departure and not the arrival, so he will leave on 10-28 and arrive on 10-29. Glad to figure itout, but it also means I'll lose a day of hanging out time...

I am one step closer to completing my Taiwan Dreamin' episode 1, I may also make and episode 0 which is just a short introduction to Taiwan. I just uploaded my footage today and I think I have enough to make a full episode.

I also spent a few minutes to give a tour of my house, check it out here:

LIVE VIDEO

Taiwan Apartment Tour

10 / 10

Today is 10 - 10 day, independence day for Taiwan. I didn't have to go to work but it doesn't seem that there are any special things going on. To be honest I don't know much about the independence day and I'm sure that people who believe Taiwan is not independent from China would ignore this holiday.

I recently got a few photos of myself teaching. Here you can see one of them.

This student I am swatting is Oscar. He, like many of my students, is full of energy and pretty funny. Of course they can drive me insane sometimes, but overall I am still enjoying teaching.

I went out driving around today and took a few photos. I just looked at the map and drove north on one of the bigger roads. I came across this small Temple so I took a photo. It was across the street from a big stadium, I'll upload more pictures to Flickr later.


Also I discovered Donald Duck condoning cannibalism on a sign over a shop selling roasted ducks. Teacher Jen once pointed out that there are a lot of signs in Taiwan with a cartoon animal suggesting that you eat it. "Please come and kill me and eat my flesh, thank you!"

Temple MANIA!

Guan Yu sitting atop Nantian Temple, yours truly in the foreground

Well I went and took some photos of the exterior of three different temples. Baojue, with a huge statue of Milefo (Budai / Hotei / Laughing Buddha,) Nantian Temple, with a huge statue of Guan Yu (Guan Di,) and another smaller Buddhist Temple near to my house.

Statue of Guatama Buddha's Succesor, Budai

I took more photos which you can see on my Flickr account here.

I also saw a funny sign, take a look:

Sign reads "Pants Kingdom: Even the biggest of birds can fit in our pants."

Here is a statue broken by the most recent Typhoon:


I took some video as well and hope to edit it with some other things I have in order to create the first episode of Taiwan Dreamin'. It shouldn't take much longer! I may be able to get chinese subtitles as well!