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I have just uploaded a new widget in my blog and it's a shoutbox actually, If you have any short message or a short "Hi/Hello!", feel free to use it.

The shoutbox is just at the right side of the blog >>>

:3

Day One

It's officially my 9th day now in Taiwan. And updating the blog isn't as easy as I've expected o.o

Anyway, back to where I've stop........

I woke up around 330am on August 24th, 2009 (Mon). In anticipation of going to Taiwan that morning. But the real reason that I've wake up very early that morning is that I was gonna transfer my old My Book (wts 2kg) 500GB files to the new My Passport 500GB (around 750 grams) I bought earlier in SM North. The transferring of files took longer than I've expected! By the time 90% of the files were transferred it was already 620am! and I'm bound to leave my uncle's house by 630am...... So I have to sacrifice not to transfer the remaining 10% of my files from my old hard disk (which were mainly all movies) and rushed out of the house. and I left my bulky old My Book harddisk with my uncle danny for safekeeping. :3

We drop off Uncle Danny's children at St. Stephen School in Ongpin Binondo area and we head straight to NAIA 3. I arrived at the airport at around 830am which is less than 3hrs from my departure time. Everything went on smoothly from check-in to customs.


Before entering the waiting area, I saw something that I shouldn't have see!

Perfume in Duty Free! I can't resist buying good perfumes... I ended up buying Lacoste Red (Motion in Play i think) and it cost 70USD. Oh well, at least these perfume last me 2-3 years. Kinda worth the money.

There weren't much people when I reached the waiting area, guess I was kinda early being there. But it's better to be early than to be late, especially for international flights o.o


NAIA 3 Waiting Area

1040am was the boarding time for our plane bound for Taiwan (I boarded Cebu Pacific this time). The plane was actually 85% full when we are ready to take off, and I was seated next to a kid and her mom which they look like Filipinos. And suddenly the kid said, "Pang-Pang Cong Chang" which means "Chubby factory" (I was like LAWL!!) and her mom suddenly said, "Don't be rude to him, he's Taiwanese and he could understand you!" (in Mandarin). I replied them by saying "It's Ok, and I'm not Taiwanese... I'm a Filipino" (in Mandarin too.) And suddenly the mom said "Filipino ka pala?! Sensya na... Kala ko Taiwanese ka eh...". and as we talk to each other during the flight, I found out she was an OCW before in Taiwan and got married to a local Taiwanese and start living in Taiwan. Luckily I also found out that she's also gonna ride the Bullet Train bound for Kao Shiung which is only a station away from Tainan. (Boy was I glad that I had company during the travel to Taiwan! God never ceased to amaze us, it's as always said... "God will make a way~!"). So we kinda chatted until halfway of the trip and eventually fell asleep, guess we're all tired by waking up early. :3



By the time we arrived in Taoyuan International Airport it was already like 1:30pm. We took the bus to the Taoyuan Bullet Train Station, it cost 30 NT for one way and the trip only took like 15minutes. Oh, the bus leaves the station whether it's full or not! 'Coz there were only like 5 of us in the bus when we left for Cao Tie (高鐵).

Purchasing ticket in the Cao Tie or Bullet train station is as easy as ABC, First find out your destination, then go ahead to the counter and tell them your destination then pay. That's it o.o! (Taoyuan to Tainan cost 1,010NT one way).

The trip only took me like 1hr 30mins to get to Tainan, but if you take the bus it'll take you around 5-6hrs while traditional electrical train will take you 3hrs or so. The Bullet train travels so smoothly without any "bumpiness" along the way. and the interior of the train is more spacious than the plane I took earlier.



Arrived Tainan at around 4:30pm, and luckily the university arranged someone to fetch me at the station. I also met someone in the station that who's also going to the university, he was from Finland, (forgot his name though... I'm really bad with names... HONESTLY!) and he's here to take the 2 weeks cultural and mandarin class. Then we met the chauffeur who'd take us to the university. By the time we ended up in the university... it was already like 6pm. And I WAS BEAT! >_< !!



I was brought to my room in my dormitory, and that's when I met Benny (The one who took me to my room) and Mohammed aka Mome, my roommate.

And the rest is history..... nah, just kidding, I'll update my next entry soon. :3 (This is one of the longest post in months!)

Day Zero

As you can recall in my previous post that I'm bound for Taiwan for my studies, but before reaching Taiwan I was in Manila for almost 24hrs. During those time I was able to stay over at my uncle danny's house for a night (and I got to save money too! <3)

Arriving in NAIA 2 from Zamboanga

I have planned out the whole afternoon to meet my little sister (Christine) and do some "lakwacha" :P and decided to meet each other in Trinoma, Quezon City.

We arrived in Trinoma at around 3 in the afternoon, and we started roaming the mall (since it was my 1st time going to this particular mall). We walked around the whole mall for like 2-3 times and then decided to head to SM North EDSA. And I couldn't believed how much SM North has changed since the last time I've been there.... (think it was 2005).



Many "window shopping" later, I decided to invite my sister to have dinner in T.G.I.F. (man! I really miss this resto.... but I didn't miss the price at all). Afterward we had desserts at Red Mango. I had the Green Tea Yogurt w/ Almond slices while sister just got the plain Green Tea Yogurt (diet daw... xD). The first bite tastes weird at all, coz it taste a little bit sour than I've expected but the more you had the better it tastes and eventually you'll look for more! o_O Although the yogurt's not really cheap at all, a small cup will cost you like P80 and each additional toppings will go for P20 each. But I'd still recommend to try it out once in awhile. :)


While having our yogurt, we went in Toys R' Us (the little kid inside can't resist not going into the toy shop). We fool around w/ some stuffs and we saw Rubiks 360 on sale (Which I have read 'bout it in Gizmodo.com some time back) and curiosity took over us and eventually we bought it at P699 each.


After all those pigging out and toy fondling, we finally called it a day and went our separate ways afterward. 'Coz I still got a big day of traveling the next day.

Stay tuned for Day 1 of my Taiwan travel. ;3

Musiq Review: Clazziquai Project - Love Again

Time for another random music review from the land of the sun~ well, neighbor from the land of the sun to be exact.

Introducing Clazziquai Project!



Clazziquai (Hangul: 클래지콰이; Classic+Jazz+Groove) is a South Korea fusion band that combines several genres including Electronic music, acid jazz and house. The group's first short unofficial albums were released online in 2001, spreading its music through words of "Netizens" who positively received the group's unique music. They remained underground until the release of their first album Instant Pig in 2004, selling over 80,000 copies. Since then, their music has been used in various television commercials and movies, and has given them the chance to perform at various events.

Clazziquai's fame increased greatly after the success of My Lonely Solomon, a 2005 a kDrama (Korean Drama) that received over a 50% share by the end of its run. Clazziquai contributed two songs on its soundtrack: "Be My Love" and "She Is", the former of which became the show's theme song. The show's popularity brought the group increased media and public attention. The group won an award at the MNET KM Music Video Festival for "Best Soundtrack", and has also been the most nominated group at the Korean Popular Music Awards II(2회), winning "Artist of the Year" and "Best Pop".

Since then, they have released a second album Color Your Soul and its remixed version Pinch Your Soul in 2005, and released their third in June 2007, Love Child of the Century. The group's unconventional style has proven popular enough to have the group widen their focus to other countries, signing a contract with avex tracks in 2005, in addition to gaining a licensed album in Taiwan. They have contributed to works by Japanese artists, Fantastic Plastic Machine and M-flo. The group appeared on ETPFEST in 2008.

Clazziquai Project - Love Again (Latest MV)

Kitty Madness (Kawaii-desu~!)

Ok, I'm much of a sucker punch for adorable cute animals... makes me wanna squeeze 'em till they turn into a small ball. *lmao*

This one cat from Japan named Maru is on my "squeezing" list. This cat has one of the cutest overall feature that I've ever seen.... It's chubby, hugable, kinda bulky, chubby, funny "hobbies", chubby and did I say chubby? o_O






Anyway, Check out it's blog @ http://sisinmaru.blog17.fc2.com/

*oh yeah, the blog's is in japanese/nihonggo but some captions are translated in english and it's very easy to navigate.

Adventure Ahoy!

In this lifetime you'll never stick to one routine that makes you think that you're used to, or getting tired of. Because you'll never know what will ever happen the very next day. Life is always been a mystery to mankind since the beginning of time.

Yeah, you tend to get sick of waking up in the morning (or afternoon for me -.-) and start saying "Meh, It'll be another boring day for me....." (True, we tend to say that once in awhile) BUT! Whenever you start to lose hope and giving up of finding that "happy place".... and "POOF!" opportunities always pops up out of nowhere or whenever you least expects it.

This is what happened to me for the past 2 months. On a boring Sunday night, when I think it'll just be the same usual evening (lame and typical game playing night while rotting in my shop) my sister suddenly drops by and hand me a brochure, which I didn't pay attention at first glance (I thought it was just another credit card application form). But my sister suddenly said it's about a university in Taiwan which caught my attention in an instant. That's just the start of the juicy information! Apparently, this university offers scholarship for upcoming Mandarin bachelor courses and English masteral courses. Golden opportunities doesn't come into your life that so often, and initially I was rather hesitant in applying but some of my friends convinced me that it is worth a try into the offer. And boy I'm glad I didn't turn down the offer back then. After I passed all my required documents, waited a few weeks and the good news came. "I GOT ACCEPTED!" *dances like a nerd* and best of all, the course I applied was one of my dream job interest of my life.

This coming August 24th, 2009 will mark as the day where A new chapter in my life, a new adventure to explore. As I'll be attending as a college student (again lol) taking up Mandarin Bachelor Degree in Digital Arts of Computer and Multimedia Entertainment in Souther Taiwan University (STUT) in Tainan, Taiwan R.O.C.

So only God knows what's ahead of me for the coming school year, but I'm sure it'll be an exciting and new life.