Blazing July/August Days

Hello everyone! Been a LONG time since I've last blogged. It's mainly cuz I've been busy running around here and there, and just there hasn't been much to blog about until recently.

Well let's start:

My Grandmother (on my dad's side) was recently diagnosed with cirrhosis. Because of the disease, she hasn't been able to eat as freely as she used to, and she LOVES to eat (THAT's where I get it from) so it hasn't been easy for her, but she's been VERY strong. I admire her for that. Well for her birthday, she requested to eat Peking Duck (good taste!) and also instead of a birthday cake, she wanted to have this:

What is this you may ask? Well, let's open it

There's stuff inside...

LITTLE BUNS!!!! hahah So you can eat ALL of it. The outer skin is just sweet flour and in the inside are little tiny buns that are filled with lotus paste/red bean paste (popular sweets in Chinese culture, as an ABC, it's taken me awhile to get accustomed to the taste, but i like it now)

My grandma said she's been curious about what's inside these huge buns for over 40 years and now she knows hahah

One day while waiting for a friend, I bumped into my friend Anson (on the right) who I knew from dance class in Hong Kong! It was quite a surprise to bump into him in Taipei. As we Chinese say, we have "yuan fen" which means we have predestined affinity haha. So with our chance encounter, we (and his friend Hermann) hung out quite a bit before he went back to HK. I MISS HONG KONG SO MUCH!

Near Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial on Guang Fu Street is this WONDERFUL new mango dessert place called Mango Cha Cha. Aside from the silly name, the place really holds true to its name having a menu consisting ONLY of mango goodness. The mangos are imported from Japan all year round, so they are incredibly sweet!

This is the standard. It's mango with condensed milk over shaved ice. It is AMAZING. 140TWD (around 5USD)

Mango Sundae (I don't really like the taste of their ice cream)

In Taiwan, there is also something called "Shabu Shabu" where you get individual pots with the broth and meat of your choice, and you cook veges/meat/noodles inside the pot. It's pretty much like fondue. I love eating at Shabu shabus!

Bitter gourd drink. Sounds gross right? haha I hate bitter melon when it's cooked (cuz it's really bitter), but the drink wasn't too bad. They add honey to it so you can't really taste the bitterness, and surprisingly this drink is VERY popular in Taipei (esp. the Ximen area). It's also supposedly good for your skin.

Little pastries filled with your choice of red bean paste, butter, and others. Butter is the best, but I'm sure it's like a heart attack plus a clogged artery. These little pastries were served in Mahjong-shaped pieces. Very cute

So,remember from wayyyy back, that artist I was following in Hong Kong? I found his many art pieces throughout alleyways in HK. Well, I found one in Taipei as well in the downtown district outside one of the clothing stores.

I was so excited to see it!

Maybe I'll find more

In August, I decided to try out for one of Taiwan's popular singing competitions, known as "Super Idol" Season 5. I called in and immediately got an answer back to go to auditions. I passed the first audition which consisted of singing 2 songs acapella in front of a camera and judge. Then I got called for 2nd audition, which was SCARY! Basically, you walk into a room with 5 judges and you sing a song a capella. If you mess up at ALL or if they just don't like you, they can push a "X" at any time. If you get 2-3 Xs, you get a chance to sing another song. If you get 4-5, you're automatically out. So you can imagine how NERVOUS i was. I asked my BEST friend in Taiwan, Simone and her friend, Jack to come support me. They really helped me calm down. Well, I went into the room and gave an introduction and then sang. I GOT NO Xs!!!! But when I was done, the judges stared blankly at me and we stared at each other for like 5 awkward seconds until one of them said "that's it?" cuz they thought my audition piece was too short. hahah but they still let me pass.

With Simone and Jack after I passed to the TV rounds!

Right after I passed, Simone and Jack took me to their friend's online restaurant headquarters (basically you can order online things you want to eat and his restaurant cooks it and delivers it to you) I had no idea I was gonna experience food bliss..

He is A MASTER cook. Made some AMAZING dishes. He's holding a pork cutlet dish with broccoli and on the other plate is caesar salad. I'm getting hungry just blogging about it now

Deep-fried Shrimp "pie"

Sweet-chili nachos with cheese. FUCKING AMAZING

His older brother is in charge of making the drinks for the restaurant, so we were all treated to shots and shots of wonderful alcoholic bliss. This was a candied cucumber shot.

Bartender hard at work...

My friend , Yida was sharing a room with me as he was preparing to leave Taiwan to study abroad and work in Australia. I'm sad that he left and he took his dog with him. This is Mao di (which means little hairy brother). I love this dog despite the fact he peed on me like 10 times in 2 days (it was bizarre, 2 weeks after moving in, he started peeing on me non-stop and spaying the area around my feet. I think he was trying to claim me as an owner) I will miss him. The day he was leaving, it was like he actually KNEW he was going away, cuz he jumped on me extra excited and seemed to be saying goodbye :( so sad :(

On Father's Day, I made a quick trip to E-lan, a city in the western side of Taiwan to attend my grandfather's birthday/father's day dinner. These are the parents on my mom's side. A lot of family came out and it was good to see everyone again. It used to take 6 hours to get from Taipei (north) to E-lan (east), but then they blew a hole through the mountains and now it only takes an hour. Thank god for technology.

Ever since I've embarked on my adventure, I've received a lot of encouragement from friends and family that has meant a lot to me. A lot of the encouragement comes in forms of letters, and every letter that I've received, I have kept with me wherever I go. I miss everyone so much, and I feel by keeping these things, their love and support will follow me everywhere I go.

Well, at my grandfather's party, my cousin, Larry announced he was getting engaged, so I went up to the mountains to my mom's aboriginal village known as Siji (Four Seasons) to attend his celebration. It also happened to be my 2nd aunts 60th birthday AND Thanksgiving (in Taiwan). I swear, there's always something going on. haha

2nd Aunt with her b-day cake

My grandparents (mom's side) and 3rd auntie

B-B-Q fresh mountain boar meat - mountain style

Taste SOO good

Mountain boar stewed soup. The innards are all edible and tasty!!

Well, after returning to Taipei, I had to start getting back into the mental preparation mood prior to competition. It was going to be tough, going from 82 contestants and going to 36. Talk about rough!!

The round was determined to be putting us in groups of 3 and only choosing 1 to continue on. Tell me that isn't nerve-wracking!!

Well, what better mind to relax a bit and not stress out so much than to...

GO TO THE ZOO!

Admission is only 60TWD (around 2USD). The zoo was very well-kept and had a wide array of animals like giraffes, pandas, penguins, and elephants. I recommend everyone to at least go once! i love animals!

Competition day!

Everyone is getting ready to go on stage so it's time to make-up our beautiful faces and put on our beautiful clothes.

San-Li Television

My three good friends in Taiwan: Becky, Veronica, and Stefan. The three of them (plus unpictured friend from Tech, Tess, and her friend) came to be my FIRST ever supporters. In the 2 competitions I've been in, no ones ever made a sign for me so I was so touched to see my friends all made a sign for me to show their support!

Thanks guys (and thanks Tess and your friend as well, sorry I didn't get to take a picture with you all, but thanks for making your signs!)

The stage. Wooo!! Nervoussss!

Dressing room. It's hectic before stage time

A collection of pictures of all the dramas this television station has broadcasted.

Well, in my group of 3, I was fortunate to move on to the next round. The competition was tough! I'll post the video up when it's uploaded

The next day, I went with my new friend Jennifer Chou (Rou Rou, former Star Avenue contestant) to the live shooting of Star Avenue finale. I got to see KAREN MOK! One of my fave Chinese singers. She was the guest judge for the night. Damn, the girl is SOOO skinny. One point, she walked by me and my friend said "stephen! did you see Karen? She was right beside you!" and I had NO IDEA cuz she's THAT"s SKINNY! haha

My friend, Rose and fellow season 5 contestant, got 2nd place in the contest. Damn proud of her. She's got a great voice and is a fellow ABC. Keep up the good work, Rose!

Alright, well, that's it for now. Wish me luck in the upcoming rounds and hopefully I'll have good news to post coming up! Take care!