Monday, October 30, 2006

Halloween - muahahaahaha


Halloween was FUN! We didn't make a too big deal out of it, just a couple of minor props as you may see... We were laughing our asses off getting ready. On our way to Plush, a tour bus stopped next to us, and the driver was laughing and waving at us, giving us the thumbs up.. Haha. And people were going crazy when we were waiting outside the club. I don't get the fascination, I mean, there were several girls dressed as a naughty nurse, slutty little red riding hood, whorish white bride, nasty go-go dancers (oh wait, that wasn't a costume...) etc. People actually wanted to take pictures with us! Haha, oh well, it was hilarious! Plush is a club on 12th floor in a shopping mall. The place was decorated with lots of halloween props, very cool. It was a really nice club. Spacious (but got quite crowded after a while), nice bartenders and clean bathrooms.

Night snack time again. This time Jenny almost shoved a dumpling down my throat coz I was trying to steal one of hers when she wasn't looking. I guess she doesn't like to share food huh?? Haha...

Trick or treat... Weee..!

Look in the photo album for more pics!

The Bed and Room18.


Johnny received this message from Eiren: "Hey, we're going to the bed, wanna join us?". Not knowing that Johnny had a new cell phone and didn't have E's number, we were questioning why J never answered this msg...

The Bed is a really nice shisha lounge, you know, water pipes. Great atmospheare, good drinks and very very tasty shishas. We've tried most of the tobaccos I think.. the rose flavour is my fave. So to us, the Bed is basically shisha and lychee mojito. Yum!

We moved on to Room 18 a bit later. 18 is a crowded place, even when you have a private area. A lot of ABCs go come here, so we had to check it out. We had a lot of fun of course. The picture above is of us girls. Nice huh? There was a hot dancer at one point btw... Hehe...

Weee... and then it was time for night snack. But I had to hug a lamp post and a tree on the way... Don't even ask... coz I really don't know...

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Som jeg savner dere...

Enten om dere holder kontakt via e-post, sms, msn, skype etc - det gjør meg utrolig glad! Det jeg bekymrer meg mest for er at jeg går glipp av altfor mye. Det er nye jobber, nye leiligheter, nye studier ++. Men det at dere holder meg oppdatert betyr mye for meg. Jentene mine, det er første gang på gud vet hvor lenge jeg er borte fra dere, men jeg vet at ting går bra og at det alltid ordner seg for snille piker! (eller hva, Ingunn?) Uansett, det går veldig bra her nå.. Etter mye opp og ned begynner det å slå seg til ro nå, både når det gjelder mine tanker og det som skjer rundt meg. Som dere vet, så har jeg heldigvis fått meg noen veldig flotte venner her allerede. De er som meg, mongiser oppvokst i utlandet. Vi tenkte kanskje aldri på det da vi var unger, men de beslutningene foreldrene våre tok da de etablerte seg rundt omkring i verden skulle virkelig påvirke oss såpass mye. Lenge har vi gått rundt som noen spørsmålstegn og bare lurt på hva som skjer på den andre siden av kloden, det stedet der mor og far vokste opp. Hvordan er virkelig livet der? Hvordan vokste de opp egentlig?? Det vi alle her har til felles er at mye er annerledes enn det vi er vant til. Når vi møter slektninger er det ofte kommunnikasjonsproblemer, ikke bare det at det er lingvistiske problemer, men det er også store kulturelle misforståelser.
For min del var jeg i hvertall naiv nok til å tro at alt skulle går som smurt her. "Alle" vet at jeg har tilbragt 18 år i trygge, hyggelige Norge. Men jeg hadde aldri trodd at det skulle bli brukt i mot meg. Det som gjør mest vondt er at noen av slektningene mine ikke forstår hvorfor jeg er tilbake, hvorfor jeg er villig til å "sløse både tid og penger" når jeg bare kunne ha holdt meg hjemme i Norge. Men seriøst, hvordan definerer man "hjem"? Er det der man har tilbragt mest tid? Er det der mor og far er? Eller er det rett og slett bare forskjellige steder man føler det finnes en viss hjemfølelse, uavhengig av geografiske punkter, antall år og hvem som finnes der? Jeg visste at turen til Taiwan var en emosjonell tur. Ikke kjenner jeg stedet, ikke er jeg vant til å bruke språket hele tiden, og ikke klarer jeg å lese visse ting... Frustrerende tro meg, men som sagt, jeg er ikke alene om det. Takk for det... Akkurat nå, føler jeg at Taipei er hjem - jeg har bygd et nettverk, jeg har et rutineliv og jeg klarer å ta til meg det byen har å tilby. Oslo kommer alltid til å være hjemmebasen, men det gjør da ingenting å ha flere hjem? Syns det er helt ok jeg.

Dere som kjenner meg vet at jeg er supersensitiv og veldig sentimental når det gjelder sånt. Jentene i klassen vet at jeg er litt mongo når det gjelder følelser, jeg vil ikke skremme dem avgårde.. Derfor skriver jeg det her på norsk.. hehe.. Men vi vet alle sammen at de månedene her kommer til å være bra. Når noe er galt, har vi ihvertfall noen å snakke med. Ikke bare hører vi på hva hverandre har å si, men vi skjønner også hverandre utrolig godt. Vi har definitivt vokst opp i forskjellige miljø, men vi har også veldig mye grunnleggende kunnskap som bare er tilstede i tankene, og av og til avgjør det hva vi faktisk vil oppnå her i livet.

Jeg er kjempeglad i dere der hjemme, og det føles helt fantastisk at dere støtter meg gjennom hele denne reisen selv om jeg av og til ikke høres helt smart ut. Men når ble følelser logiske lissom?? Takk... Betyr veldig veldig mye for meg...

And as for u guys right here right now... U know how I feel. I could not have done it without you all. Things happen for a reason, we know that now. The way we all got together, meant to be I tell u, meant to be... 我 們 一 開 始 都 想 換 班 ﹐ 但 是 過 了 一 天 就 知 道 這 一 班 是 最 好 的 ... 所 以 每 一 天 都 很 High... 哈 哈 . . 你 知 道 嗎 ??? Love you!

Snakkes snart... tata...

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Earthquake!!!

I experienced my first earthquake three days ago!!!! I was chatting on MSN with Jen, and suddenly she wrote "earthquake". And I was like What? Is that a band or something, coz we were talking about music. And then she wrote EARTHQUAKE!! and suddenly it can to my place, shaking for about 20-30 seconds. MY GOD... It was a weird feeling. I was sitting on my bed, and suddenly it was moving, it's hard to explain what it felt like, there was just movements. It was measured to 5.7 on the Richter scale. I was dumbstruck after the quake. Luckily no afterquakes. Every Taiwanese still have the great quake of Sept. 21st 1999 (9.21) fresh in mind, over 2000 people died, 6000 buildings were destroyed and 100000 were left homeless. Scary, I know. I was in Puli, Nantou region, in central Taiwan three weeks ago. The 9.21 quake struck there, in the middle of the island, measured to 7.6. Now, 7 years later, you can still see the aftermath of that quake. My flatmate also told me that the elders say that Typhoons are "afraid" of earthquakes, so they never happen at the same time. Well, all major typhoons this summer have shun Taiwan, striking Philippines and China and made great damage. I don't even wanna think if this is only a myth or what. But really, they were expecting several typhoons this summer, but they all managed to change their course a couple of days before hitting land. Yikes.


But yeah, this is a part of life in Taiwan. People here are so used to it. I don't wanna get used to it, damn! Ok, ok, I'm making it sound worse than it really is... Hehe, no worries, I'll be fine!!
Talk to you guys later - love you all!

PS: I had a Skype conference with Inger and Kjersti today, it was sooooooooo nice!! We talked for more than an hour, I love Skype! The webcam function is really good too. Funny, all of us were in different countries - what would we've done without this technology huh? Smask, jenter!

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Luxy!!!


When you come to Taipei, and ask ppl here where to go out clubbing, most ppl will say Luxy. Luxy this, and Luxy that. I've been hearing about this place for ages. I guess it's one of Taipei's hottest clubs. So, we had to check it out of course. Jenny turned 25 last week, so it was a perfect oppurtunity to go out. So we made a reservation (Baoshang - private table).
We started out at Eiren's, getting ready and had a couple of beers. Picture: Jenny, Jenny and me.
We arrived at Luxy right before midnight, and they showed us our baoshang. Um, not quite what we wanted, coz they put us in a place with techno and dance music. But Jenny 大 姐 took care of that. Haha.. She told the guy that we weren't happy about the baoshang we got, so they moved us to another section of Luxy, where they played more suitable music. People always say that clubbers at Luxy are so hot, the girls are like models, and the guys are handsome. Haha... Oh well, maybe we have a different taste. First round: tequila! My god, I'm not very fond of tequila, but it's ok to take one shot. All kinds of drinks were coming to our table... and the last but the most beloved one: a bottle of Johnny Walker Green Label. I usually don't drink pure whiskey, but this one was too good to mix. YUM. Jenny sure knows her alcohol. Haha. Woohooo.. we had so much fun! But man, foreigners at Luxy are WEIRD. You guys know how I have a habit of slapping my friends on the ass... Well, I was just goofing around, and slapped Jackie on her ass. Suddenly, this bald white guy, probably in his 30's came up to me, lifting his shirt and said in Chinese: Can you slap my ass too? MY god!! So um yeah whatever... So many non-Taiwanese guys who are shady in Taiwan. This was actually the first time I went out clubbing in Taipei. It was awesome and the girls rock!
So yess... Johnny W suddenly went empty... and another bottle came.. Together with a fruitplatter and a case of Corona. This is a lot for five girls.. but Luckily Jenny and her friend like to drink. Our host AJ, brought this Taiwanese guy to out table, and was telling us something about him. Turns out that this guys knows how to beatbox, so he was like beatboxing and spitting everybody in the face. Nice... Appearently, I ended up dancing with him. I don't remember, and I don't want to either. Haha.. The ppl at Luxy were ok. There was this one guy, who was "good looking for an Asian" quoting Jackie, and maybe a couple of pretty Taiwanese girls who were not wearing revealing clothes and looked like umm... prostitutes. The Luxy girls on the stage were hilarious. 5 girls were dancing on the stage, next to the DJ. And they lost clothes for each song... Hm, I guess the concept it OK, but sadly, the girls couldn't really dance in those high heels, they were way too skinny and it's not flattering to dance in front of hundreds of ppl in their bikini-look-a-like outfits. Suddenly, it was 3.30 and we left the place. We went to a dimsum place to get night food, and at 4.am yours truely lost contact with the world. Haha... I'm not even gonna tell you guys about it. But those of you who know me, know what happened to me.
Luxy was great becoz of the girls in class, can't wait til next time. Yay!

Yeah baby!!

Woohoo!!
I have now moved into an apartment right next to school. It's in the middle of the ShiDa night marked and it's great! I share the apartment with two Taiwanese girls and a cat. The rent is cheap, we have everything we need here, and there's so much food and drinks right downstairs. Life is sweet. There's a breakfast place right across the "street", so I always get my soy bean milk and chinese breakfast on my way to school.

"To eat or not to eat, that's the question"

"Buffet now, fat later"