Second Star to His Right: Taiwan

Hey y’all!

Sorry it’s been so long. Midterms have just come to a close, so I have a little time now. These are pictures from my recent journeys. The first pictures were from my trip to Jiufen. It was amazing. The man with the strange instrument.. yeah, that is a musical saw..? I know. it was nice though.. if you look at the pictures next to it, you will see some of the landscape. so just imagine the haunting sound of the musical saw paired with the view. Needless to say, I got the chills. Then we went to a local market in Jiufen. This was our lunch stop. I tried fish ball soup, something that translates to “fragrant intestines”, and some japanese cuisine that was basically octopus fried with mayo. Jiufen was an excellent day trip, also I sat next to a friend on the bus over who apparently shares an appreciation for american tv shows in the supernatural genre.. On sunday of last week I went to Maokong with two friends. We stopped at a tea house. It was really nice because it was so much like being at home. We drank a Tieguanyin Wulong that I can only describe the taste as something along the lines of having a tea banquet with the jade emperor.. It was typhooning outside, with clouds whipping all around our little mountain tea house. We spent a good 4 hours there before we decided to head back down the mountain and return home. I should mention now that the gondola ride that started from just around the corner from Zheng Da (my school) and was about a 40 min ride all the way up the mountain. The whole way up we had a beautiful view of the surrounding Muzha area. However, like I mentioned earlier, while we were up the mountain the typhoon got kinda crazy… So imagine.. that 40 min gondola ride, but this time at night, and with a typhoon whipping our gondola car around like Willow Smith’s hair.

Lately I have just been studying a lot, with the occasional trip down to my local congyoubing cart to grab a snack. I missed getting to see a good friend (Mrs. Carlisle, congratulations) and I basically miss seeing everyone, but I am still having the time of my life and learning SO much. LOVE YOU ALL.

我愛你們！

子文

photos from Taichung.. 

Taichung (Taizhong)

Sorry for taking so long to post here! I’ll do better next week! I swear!

So I went to Taichung and Nantou. ABOSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. 

You know those Chinese and Japanese paintings you see with the dramatized mountains and clouds.. well, its real. I’ve seen it.

I have a couple of photos and videos. CHECK IT OUT! 

NO WORRIES!!

Hey everyone! No worries!! I am alive! These past few days have been a whirlwind adventure, so I haven’t been able to post! I’ll post tonight with pictures of my view and of some recent sights.

Love,

Ben

Legit bento box. YES.

School girls… I shamelessly took pictures of them. :}

I ate real sushi here. REAL SUSHI.

I ate real sushi here. REAL SUSHI.

I made it! Also, I’m really tired, so this will have to be a brief one..

I say we do this slideshow style… and by that I mean that Tumblr is strange and won’t let me add photo’s that are saved on m computer. So, I will just add them separately and provide a description. 

Here we go.

Little Rock -> Dallas:

I slept the entirety of the trip. 

Dallas -> Tokyo:

Slept most of the trip, but the real action begins in Tokyo.

I feel an overwhelming since of accomplishment after navigating that airport. 

These are the things I did~

I ate sushi (words can not express). I saw cute things. 

Cute Things:

single function appliances

stuffed toys in the shape of food, animals, toasters, hello kitty, and everything in between.

Japanese School Girls…

Yes, there were hordes of them. Being the nerd that I am, I shamelessly took pictures of them. 

Tokyo -> Taipei:

I slept some more. Watched Japanese television. Listened to J-Pop (THEY PLAYED IT ON THE PLANE.) .. might I add that it was surreal (for lack of a better word for the magnitude of joy I was experiencing)

Then a friend picked me up from the airport and took me to my hotel. I cannot express my gratitude enough to him, because I am the poster child for Jet-lag right now.

Now I am here. Now I am tired. 

~Ben

OFF TO NEVERLAND: Beginning

Taipei Skyline (I do not own this image)IM GOING TO TAIWAN TOMORROW!!!!!

Those expecting me to flail about in Disney style theatrics tomorrow morning would not be worthy of the title “psychic”. It’s obvious– if we’ve spoken on dreams that is– that I have been waiting for an opportunity to immerse myself, “face-plant” if you will, into Taiwan’s unique atmosphere.

“But WHY Taiwan?”, says the stately gentleman in the corner.

Well sir, while wiser people study the intricacies of medicine or how to make mechanical arms stamp “Oreo” on the top of sandwich cookies, I prefer studying something entirely foreign. I like studying Asia. Language, history, culture, politics… FOOD..all of it. Taiwan is chiefly fascinating to me– I won’t get in to it.  Just know that Taiwan represents a unique and valuable element of the east asian dynamic. For that reason, I gotta go.

“I wanna hear more about you!”, says an adoring female fan.

Oh, you flatter me. Well I guess I could give you a few key words.

Faux-Asian

Disney

videogamesanimemangaMTG (oops) 

Constructive argument

Cool threads

Expect pictures video and stories from my adventures abroad. 

love y’all!

Ben