I'd been thinking about this post for awhile, and now, nearly halfway through the year, I've begun it! On top of my game! As a prologue, I need to talk about how amazing 2014 was. I think 2014 was quite possibly the best year of my life. I had a job, I went to fantastic music festivals, I was booking stuff every so often, I had the closest, most amazing friends, and I was feeling confident (for the most part). My schedule was so wonky, I would be working weekends and some holidays at a job that started at 7:00 am in Carson a.k.a. a far, distant land. But that couldn't stop me from going out because, hey, it's the freaking weekend, baby I'm about to have me some fun (eProps to those who know the reference). My friends slash most people are free on the weekend, there're activities, and there's nothing I could've done except go out at night, get home at 4 (or not go home; shoutout to Club332, Babbitt, and my dad's van) sleep for an hour or so then head to work. Sometimes these would be back-to-back nights. Sometimes I slept for 20 minutes. Sometimes I drove more than I slept (damn you LA distance and traffic!). Always I looked like ass the next day. Many times I was exhausted. Always I felt fulfilled. Sometimes I still took days off of my 3-day workweek #slacker. If you ask any of my friends, they'll tell you what I was doing is probably not recommended if you'd like a healthy lifestyle. I'd argue that it was. Because my friends gave me life and it's definitely what I needed. It was pretty wild, but I liked it. I thought it was really cool to be living such a not-average life. And isn't it weird that I was so happy, but wanted to move? I feel like most people move because they're not happy with their current situation. I, however, was riding unicorns when I wanted to explore more. But I think that's the way my neurons fire, the more I do, the more I want. I think that's similar to thrill-seekers; once you get it going, you get adventure-bit. Daredevils want more and more and more. And so I came to 台灣. I'll leave objectives, goals, etc. for another post (that, let's face it, may be a number of months down the line).
Thank you 2014! May the best of 2014, be the worst of 2015!
New Year's in another country was actually pretty not lonely thanks to all the visitors we had!! The difficulty was locking down plans especially since we were in a not familiar place. Hard to get into a club? Do we need a table? Should we have bought tickets way way way in advance? How much would it cost? Also, gotta see 101's fireworks while we're here right? But fearing crowds of people, we didn't know the best way to go about this. So yeah, not the most stress-free. We decided to hang out on the roof of Jeff's building since he has a pretty sweet view of 101. And then JFan and I wandered around on the street and found space near where the City Hall concert was happening, which was closer to 101. So it turns out, yeah, there are lots of people, but it's not as insanely crowded as say Times Square. We found some decent space pretty late (circa 10-11pm...?), so it was all good. Tons of places you can check out 101's fireworks and still one of the most convenient things about Taipei is the transportation. Ahhhhhhh so happy we didn't have to drive anywhere and worry about getting home safely. ESPECIALLY because on New Year's Eve, they keep the MRT running all night! WHAT.
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| So much face in this picture! |
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| Miss that case. And that Jeff Fan! |
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| Special guests: Keywee, Spoonbutt |
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| Blurry, but it has everyone! I think! |
Then there was the second New Year's to celebrate! Lunar New Year! Though you might expect it to be party central up in Taipei, it's quite the contrary. Good thing we'd received warning that during Chinese New Year ("CNY" from here on out), the city is actually dead. Like... zombie apocalypse dead. For a week. This includes ma and pa food stalls. Eep! One of the things I've learned is that for the most part, people aren't from Taipei. Most people work in Taipei, but their homes are elsewhere. So come CNY, it's time to go home and celebrate with family. And it's usually a week-ish because Taiwanese people are extremely hard workers and throughout the year they hardly get any holidays, so CNY is special and people can take multiple days off.
I think picking a year to live in Taiwan was a good choice so I can experience the different seasons as well as the traditions throughout the year. My CNY was quite.. interesting! I was able to hang out with family (both sides), and I sort of didn't sleep much, but it was such a great experience to bond with family I wouln't have had it any other way. Like I always say, I'll sleep when I'm dead. Thank you family for lifting me to cloud nine!! How cool would it be to be able to come back to Taiwan every CNY? Food for thought. Except no food. I won't be hungry.
Mom's side:
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| The first time I even heard of 佛跳牆 (Buddha jumps over the wall) was at 師大 in Chinese class. Didn't know I'd able to try it only a couple months later! |
And the rest of CNY can only be defined by this -
開心開心 <3
