Delicious Relaxation... Aka Lazy Fatty.

Ok... so I've been a bit lazy in updating and now I find myself with 4 days to summarize. Though I've officially been called out on this having become an actual blog which I write for an audience, and not just a photoblog as I originally claimed. True story.

Photos updated-- Beijing:
http://iamlicious.blogspot.com/2011/06/beijing-roots.html
I thought about just letting it be but then I realized this post includes the great wall and such so it's sortof really necessary.

Friday-- explored the center of the city including 2 massive malls and 1 massive bookstore, Eslite, which essentially functions as a mall before walking along a sky corridor to the Taipei 101. Stopped in the super ritzy Mitsukoshi mall and played with an ipad 2. I hate how useful and fun they seem to be. Then walked in the burning heat to city hall, then to Sun Yat-Sen's Memorial (a significant figure in the rise of the Republic of China... side note: I wiki'd to ensure historical accuracy and when I typed 'sun' the only thing in the dropdown menu was sun-dried tomatoes... sigh, I'm such a fatty.) Then hung around randomly and met Titan and Norman for dinner along the Huping River.

Sky corridor between mall buildings, eventually leading to the
Taipei 101.

Inspiring advertisement: Open mind, piggy can fly.

Sun Yat-Sen had such colonial handwriting!

Sun Yat-Sen plus armed guards resembling toy soldiers.

Best of the shitty night pictures that my camera sucks at.

 Saturday-- went to an exhibit featuring the ancient/traditional/famous art scroll, "Along the River during the QingMing Festival," painted in the Song Dynasty. The exhibit featured a digital, animated version of the scroll which was originally unveiled at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. Really cool use of modern media technology, in my opinion. The original painting is incredible because of the intricate detail which displays the daily life of basically an entire town across this ridiculously long scroll. When they animated all of these actions it made it supercooler. It cycled between day/night and the progression of activities through each. But the styles of the animation were SO different and that inconsistency made the whole thing kindof strange. After Norman pointed it out (the people are 2D in daytime and puffier and 3D-esque at night) I couldn't stop thinking about it. Read up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Along_the_River_During_the_Qingming_Festival#Digital_version

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/05/30/2003504536

I think these posters intended to show the graphic design behind
the animated people in the digital painting.

Length of the animated painting, resembling a scroll along the wall.

Afternoon snack-- Tiramisu!
From a French cafe. In Taipei.

 Then went to Longshan Temple, a Daoist one, then to yet another night market, this time at Huaxi Street. My cousin must love me-- taking me to a different night mkt almost every night because he knows I find them superfun :)

So many offerings.

With Titan in front of the temple.

Hwaxi Street Night market. This one seemed to specialize in
reptile consumption-- turtles, snakes, etc.

Lychee beer! Basically tastes like juice.

7-11's barley tea. I can't stop drinking it.

 Sunday-- Superlazy day. Woke up and went to play pickup ultimate. At 2:30. Oops. Threw a score, caught a score, had a few d's, but my ankles hate not having cleats/braces. At least when I'm back in the states I'll feel so fast. Then ate a HUGE bowl of beef noodles, then shared a HUGE mango dessert with Titan, then digested in a park. Then came back, internetted, and went to sleep. I was awake for just about 12 hours.

SO MUCH GRASS!

The juice lady. She's adorable and rides around selling homemade
juices. She makes bank off of the ultimate crowd. Sunday pickup at
3:30=heat stroke. I drank 2.

With Becky from high school!! I'm sweaty.

Taipei 101 along the horizon. Pickup=stack is a constant mess.

With large bowl of beef noodles. When we were ordering the lady was
like oh, a small is plenty for you right? And I had to be like ermm
actually I think I'll have a large thanks.

Titan with his small bowl, making me seem even fatter.

Accomplishment.

At the original Din Tai Fung.

Can someone please buy me a hat like this?
I'd love to be an ebi sushi.

Mango dessert-- shaved ice, black sugar syrup, 2 kinds of fresh
mango, house made mango sorbet, mango syrup. Not overly sweet,
surprisingly. Mango-licious.

 Today-- lunch with Norman at yet another mall, this one doubling as a sortof amusement park type thing. Then went over to the National Palace Museum. Today was also an epic win/fail public transport day. I took the subway a few stops south, a few east, and a few more north, only to realize that I could have just taken a bus for less than 10 minutes to get from my origin to my destination. Instead I spent about 40 minutes and more money on 3 different subway trains. Oops. Seeing the map made me feel extremely stupid, but I realize I enjoy subways a lot. They're so efficient and reliable, and the maps are always colorful and easy to imprint in my memory. It ended up being a win though since I got to the museum just in time to get the late-arrival half-price ticket. Plus student ID=another half off. Hung around there for a bit, then got on a bus and cruised around the city for an hour. Such a great feeling to wander and not know where the hell the bus was going to take me. Found my way to Chang-Kai Shek Memorial just after sunset so there was a nice glow in the sky, then dinnered with Titan. Beef noodles again. Same name, but oh-so-different because it was a different restaurant.

Lunch-- some sort of sizzly, delicious fajita-esque hot metal plate food.

View from the terrace area of the National Palace Museum.
Beautiful day.

El museo.

Supercute wine vessel from 3-4th century BC.
Inlaid with turquoise and malachite.

Rocking my new Renegade Province jersey.

View from the bus. Love being an occasional vagrant.

CKS Memorial arches, glowing.

Large beef noodles v2. Yes, I am wearing the same shirt.

Accomplishment x2. Though I look slightly
comatose already in this one.

This night market had the CUTEST fruit helmets. The strawberry
picture didn't turn out very well.

Post-dinner snack. Seriously. Plus another boba.
This is why I'm fat.

Also, CNN calls Taipei the Asian city representing Gluttony:
http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/asias-most-sinful-cities-174006?page=0,0

The fattiness is not my fault.

And my (lack of) sleep schedule-- I think I'm on Kazakstan Standard Time.