White Birthday

January 17-18, 2010

From now on, I can officially say: I CAME TO TAIWAN. You know why? White Ladder Photo Studio. The end.

We took the metro, as usual, and then took a taxi to get there. It took less than 5 minutes from the station to the photo studio. When we got there we started to see the photo albums and some of the stuff they had in the office. I was the second to pay, just after Michi.

Like 10 minutes later, a lady told us that the studio was in front of the office so, we walked again and got to the real place. I chose my outfits pretty quick so, I was the first one. The first outfit was really asian. I had this short wig that looked like a mini bob, a checkered white and yellow shirt, a green short with huge pockets, striped socks and red pumps. In the second one, I was a gypsie woman. I had a long curled wig accompanied with a brown bandana and big flowers and a halter dress under a short sleeved lavender sweater. On top of that, I had a cowboyish vest and two indian looking belts surrounding my waist. Le numero trois, I had a white dress, that looked like a wedding gown, with little rhinestones and flowers. The fourth one, was my favorite even though it didn't look like me. It was a black dress with ruffles. I had a long brownish wig with gray flowers. The last one was the red dress.. the one that everyone chose.

On that night, we went to Sun Merry and picked up Nicole's birthday cake. We were making a surprise party for her. The plan was perfect and it went like this.. We told Michael to go upstair and wake up Nicole (Excuse: 'Awei is calling you and wants you to go to the basement right now!) She actually believed the whole story, until Michael asked: 'Hey, did you do something wrong? and Leisa and I said WHAT??? NOOO?? hahahaha (we are such bad actresses) but after all, she really enjoyed the 'almost surprise'.

We gave her Ferreros, Torblerone and the best of all Alexa's present, a cudly panda! which we named it 'Lacoste' teehee.

That day, at night, we went to Friday's to celebrate again with a typical "Sheng Ri Shang Ni Kuai Le"

Icy Garden

January 16, 2010


The day started with the daily EGG. Every plate you eat gotta have egg. Who knows why.. but is already disggusting me. After breakfast, I went up quickly because the teacher was already waiting for us in the lobby. We had a fieldtrip today. Destination: The Lin Family Garden in Banjiao.


The garden was beautiful! I really loved the arquitecture. It has a big pond where thousands of golden and orange fish swim around, butterflies, peaches and pomegranate windows, big stanked vases where baby fish are raised and perfectly resting along the pond.

Later on, we went to the ice skating rink. Joel taught me how to go backwards and it was really fun! You had to see me.. At first, it looked like an ass dance or something! But, then I practiced a lot and success! I made it.

When we finished ice skating, Nicole,Alexa,Joel, Augusto and I decided to stay 'shopping' because we saw this fancy looking mall. We didn't buy anything. It's the worst mall I've ever been to, REALLY. Don't you believe me? then, what if I tell you that our main attraction was "Toys R Us? We just ended up with our stomach full.

Voila! Notre jour a terminé.

Laguna Beach, Woopee and the Night Market

January 11-15, 2010

Hahaha, Well on these days I have been doing nothing. I just go out to eat (a.k.a surviving). I am out of money so, I can't buy anything, just food because of the ticket thingies. I have tried the Japanese place, the J&K (where the woman would O-N-L-Y say 'Xie xie'), Sun Merry Cafe, and the Korean restaurant.




I LOOOOOOOOOOVE LAGUNA BEACH! end of story.




Oh, and I have to mention my roomies! Nicole and Leisa. Leisa would come everynight screaming: 'WHOOPEEE' and Nicole & I just have to laugh our asses off. She is a real trip. And Nicole.. well, I got to know her better and now she's a good friend of mine. I really really love them! Those two make my every night.

Thank God I'm surviving Taiwan with more that two feet.

3 boys, 1 girl

January 10, 2009

In the early morning, the phone rang. Nicole thought it was a prank call again, but she decided to give me the phone. When I picked up, it was Koke. He had forgotten to ask for his wallet again. So, I went up and returned the wallet. But, at the same time they were just at the knob closing the door to go out and have lunch. We were four. Koke, Joel, Ernesto et moi.

We were planning to go to Subway. But, in the way we found this really fancy-looking place with cheap prices. We totally forgot about Subway and went in to the watchamacallit restaurant. The plates looked really expensive, gourmet and everything, Just for 3 dollars. It was about the same amount of food I have in Panama, in this restaurant called Ten Bistro. The difference is that each plate in Ten Bistro costs about 12 dollars or so. The thing is that the food was really really good! I would totally have it again.


Later on, we took the metro (which is 'another day in the metro' because the first day I took it, it was like a Disney ride. Seriously). Our first stop was Ximen, because Ernesto and Koke had to pay 'White'. Also, Ernesto had a piercing, Joel and Koke had icecream and to end our stay in Ximen, we went in to a photobooth and took this really asian photos. Haha!


Our next stop was Shilin! Those three thought I had already been to Shilin, but the truth was that I was standing there, just like them, not knowing anything about the city. The only thing I knew was that the night market was really big. So, we started walking and saw this little sign that said 'night market' and believe me I was really excited. When we got there we started smelling this terrible odor, Koke thought it was the frog egg thingy, but I still think it was the Tofu.


We went to a Pagoda, ate some sweet-flavorish fried chicken and went to a hundred places were only snickers were sold. I HATE SNICKERS.. but anyway I had a good time. It was awesome. Now, I realize that I get along better with the guys, well in that group.

101 Dalmatians

January 9, 2010

Well, 'au jour d'hui' we ended classes at 11:50. My plan was to go with Maria Mercedes, Michelle's cousin, to who knows where. But, the other gang decided to go to 'Taipei 101', the tallest building in the world, you know, the one known for the 'Damper Babies'. I really wanted to go there, so, I joined the people who wanted to go to 'Taipei 101'.


The journey was quite long, but as always, worth while. We ended up in this huge city (the type of Taiwan I have always waited for, 'cause here near the U it's a bit old.. like no tall buildings or techy stuff). As we walked, we started seeing dogs, and I thought it was a park in which people normally walked their dogs or so. But, suddenly there were a million dogs! guess what? it was a dog contest. I saw so many different kinds of dogs, the only ones you see on TV or the PC. There were ginormous dogs as well as little tiny winy dogs. It was really cool, for me. Ha!


Later I got myself lost with Brandon, Joel, Federico, Christian and Jorge. Yeah, the only girl within the little group. They decided to go to the biggest building in the world by themselves, forgetting that other people might have been looking for us like crazy. So, I started panicking. Of course, Brandon and Joel started laughing at me. The thing is that we made it there and entered TAIPEI 101. The first things I noticed were the fancy shops well, boutiques(like, Dior, Chanel, Emporio Armani,etc).

Then, we went up. The elevator is really fast and the entrance really looks like Disney Quest, the one in Downtown Disney, Orlando. Well, the door opened and we stepped out. It was wonderful. The view was precious, you could see the whole city from one single place.

After a tiring day, I ended up taking care of Koke because he was not feeling well at all. And that was it for today.

T.G.I.F

January 8, 2010

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY! Yay, week-end!!!

Well today I took calligraphy classes and bead art and rope classes. In calligraphy class I wrote 'water', my name and 'Wo Ai Ni' which means I love you. Then in rope class I made this really cute key chain.

At night, we went again to Ximen. We got a little bit lost, but we found our way. When we got there Alexa had cravings for icecream so, Joel, Nicole and I joined her. We ate Mc Donald's icecream. Alexa and Joel had Chocolate Sundaes and Nicole and I had these crazy-looking icecreams, like vanilla icecream swirled with raspberry and apple candy! Yumm



After so much time walking, we went to T.G.I Friday's! What a marvelous way to complete our lovely day.

Electronic Rainfall

January 7, 2010

HEYAAAA! Today was not as exciting as the other days, but we had culture classes. In the second period I went to 'Straw Art and Molded Dough Figurines' class. I had a really bad time.. At the end of the class I came up with NOTHING! I just don't have the patience to cut pieces of straw nor being concentrated so much time. Oh! and the worst part is that the 'lao shi' doesn't speak english. So, I will never be able to understand a single class.

Later I went to chinese Yo-Yo class. It was really cool! At first, I was going to give up; the damned yo-yo wouldn't stay in equilibrium (plus, I already had it with the straw thing). Anyway, I told myself: 'Dorianne you can do it! so, I started. For two hours trying to do the same thing over and over again. The yo-yo would fall, i'd pick it up again and do it 47583457835 more times. After '47583457835' times (by the way, I memorized how many times I dropped the Yo-Yo) trying to do the same trick, I finally got it! OMG! No kidding.. For real. I screamed loudly, Thank God everybody else was concentrated in their yo-yo's. phew.

To continue the routine, we went out and it was raining. I hate the rain in taiwan. It's like acid rain or something and somebody told me it makes you lose hair. So, you HAVE to use the umbrella. Well, proceeding.. This time I went to a huge place that only sold electronics. I'm not a big fan of electronics but, I came out with these really cool baby pink headphones. Ah! and Alexa, Nicole, Iveth, Michelle, Guille, and Alejandro went to Xiling. They went shopping!!! Next time, I'll go with them. FOR SURE

ttfn

Headband Patrol

January 6, 2010

NI HAO! wo shi hen hao, ni ne? So, today was my first day of class. I thought it was gonna be a very boring day, but I was terribly wrong. Our teacher, Ling lao shi, is so cool!!! yeah, i can't believe I'm calling a teacher 'cool'..

Later, all the students, including me went to the auditorium. A girl with a purple vest started to talk fluid mandarin. So, at the end, all I knew was that I came out from the auditorium with free coupons for food! Great huh?

As every night, we signed the paper and went out. This time I went CRAZY with headbands!!! I just stopped in every single place I saw a bunch of them. Gosh, you had to see that with your own eyes. I would actually scream H E A D B A N D S ! ! ! and started running to the store. Well, I didn't buy that much.. just 4. And you know something.. I was willing to get more but, my friends decided to stop me and would not let me go to another place with headbands. Not so great huh?

Runny Nose

January 5, 2010

HAHA! Just don't ask. I really don't know why I named it 'Runny Nose'.. I guess it was a bit catchy, but it kinda has its purpose. This morning I woke up sneezing like craaaaaaazy! I had this really runny nose and it wouldn't stop. I was terrified. I didn't want to get sick!! Then, Alexa told me that if the booger from my nose wasn't coming out GREEN, you were just having an allergy problem (Check!! no green-greens). I came to my room again and took a Tylenol Cold and voila! NO MORE RUNNY NOSE!

So, today was a bit dissappointing. I really don't wanna say this again.. but I'm a chinese person who doesn't know how to speak chinese. I left everything in BLANK in all of the tests! well except from the oral one, in which the girl traduced everything she asked me. But, i have to say that I did answer her questions back in mandarin ;)

At 5 o' clock p.m we went out. We headed to XIMEN, taking the metro. There we found the 'White Photo Studio' little office to make an appointment with the salesman (which i think it's a salesWoman) and confirm the day we were doing our photoshoots.

It was a little bit rainy and really cold! Now we're going to bed check at 10:00 p.m in the meeting room, as I'll have to do every tuesday from now on.

n00B

January 4, 2010:

Day of Arrival!, that means being plain noob in Taiwan. I have to admit it was one of the most embarrassing days of my whole life! I started being a dummie since the moment I stepped out from the plane. How did i realize that? well it goes like this: I was really tired of carrying so many things so, i decided to put my purse inside the bigger bag. It was a really good idea. Oh! and for the record I locked it for more 'safety'. Hey! that 'really good idea' was turning into the greatest idea! BUT, guess what? the key was inside my purse F M L .

Ok.. I have to say that it's terrible when you're CHINESE and you don't know how to speak the language! you had to see the people's faces when they asked me something and words wouldn't come out from my mouth. Ah! and the most hilarious thing is that we (Alexa, Nicole and I) look like locals, with these boots, blazer jackets and faux-fur-hoodie sweaters. Like this, people will never recognize us as TOURISTS. Haha! Well, just for one thing I bet they'll do.. Alexa. She would practically ask everyone if she can take a picture of them. Like, random people who look funny, people in scooters (or vespas, whatever it's called) or people who are plain cute in their outfits.

The thing is.. that even though today was not my day at all.. I really liked it here! I loved my room, the people, my roomies.. EVERYTHING! especially the night market ;)