Linkin Park Concert

My sister was travelling through the Internet world one day about a month or two ago, specifically Myspace.com, looking at a band's page, specifically Linkin Park, when she just happened to skim through the tour dates and see Taipei listed. Normally this would not cause any sort of notice at all except for the fact that I happen to live quite close to Taipei. So she informed me of this and I went into research mode right away. I confirmed the date on their website and contacted my friend and old classmate, Ping Jia, because I knew she was also a huge fan of the group, they are actually very popular in Taiwan considering they are California based, but it's because two of the members are Asian. Ping Jia also confirmed the concert and I asked her to get tickets for me. They were pretty much sold out of course, but she found someone online who had numerous sets of tickets, and I said get 'em!!

So November 16th with Gretchen, Alida, and Leon, we headed into Taipei to a huge soccer stadium where the concert was being held. I'm not even going to go into detail of me forgetting the tickets in the apartment because I'm still upset over that little hang up, I'm just glad I realized it in the first 20 minutes on the bus, rather then standing outside the stadium. Luckily the band started 45 minutes late so I didn't miss much. It was standing room only, which is fine because we were all jumping and rocking out, it was packed though and completely awesome!!!

Here are video snippets from two of my favorite Linkin Park songs, both of them you can hear me singing along, sometimes I don't really sound that good!!:

Chester, one of the main singers of the group, on the big screen right in front of us:

We actually weren't that far from the stage, although a lot of the shots are fuzzy from the crowd moving so much:

Chester and Mike, lead singers:

Trying to see the stage again:

I thought this was a cool shot, I just happend to snap a pic right when the were changing angles on the screen:

Rocking out:
Enjoying all the pretty lights:
Only good shot I could get of the crowd, it was huge: Nice finale picture :) :

Our after party at Roxy 99:

Gretchen enjoying herself:

First, second, or maybe third round of Tequila shots:
I don't really remember this picture, but I guess I was trying to take it myself and that's why I'm not smiling because I'm to busy making sure we're all in it:

I'm a Taiwan Resident!!

I finally recieved my "ROC (Taiwan) Resident Certificate" I have an ID card with all my info on it, basically it says I'm allowed to be here for a year :D Good enough for me! By getting this lovely little card I was able to open a bank account, so now on payday they don't have to hand me a huge wad of cash anymore, I love direct diposit. It was a bit of a difficulty finding time to get to the bank though. They are only open from 9-4:30 Monday-Friday. Gretchen and I went during a lunch break, we usually get two hours. It took two hours and we were 5 minutes late for class :P It's cool though, I feel like I belong more now.

Really bad picture because I have horrible lighting in my room. But I wanted everyone to see it :D It has all the basics of any ID except most of it's in Chinese obviously. It even has my English name translated in Chinese. Because the bank is an offical establishment, it's usually recommended that you get a name stamp or chop, which I also have now. It only cost 50NT ($1.50) and he made it while I waited in his shop. Very cool, now I don't have to sign my name a million times to papers, I can just hand them my stamp and it's like a signature.

Taipei 101

I've finally been able to do some shopping....for books of course! November 9th, Gretchen and I ventured into Taipei to Taipei 101. A building with 101 floors obviously, that was under construction when I was first here and finished the summer after I came home. For awhile it was the tallest building in the world, but was quickly beaten out in the world race to be the best :P We only ventured through the first 5 floors this time, but there is an observatory on the 91st floor that I plan to get to sometime. The layout though, goes like this:

B1 - Grand Market - has an international grocery store called Jasons Market Place, which is where everyone goes to get cheese :P and there is a huge food court with everything from Mcdonalds and KFC to Japanese and Thai high-quality restaurants

1F - Avenue 101 - International popular fashion brands including Kenneth Cole, DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger, Roots and swatch

2F - Designer Walk - International designer brands like Coach and Ralph Lauren, along with SOGO 101 which is a huge Taiwan department store, there's at least 3 others throughout Taipie

3F - Galleries Couture - Couture brand flagship stores like Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Versace and Tiffanys

4F - City Square - Restaurants and Page One, which is a huge bookstore that likes to have sales on English books ;)

5F - Financial Center - Banking and VIP services, didn't really go here much except there is a Bose and Sony store with new hi-tech electronics

It was just weird how it was very much like a shopping mall that you'd see in the US, which is not common here at all.

New News

Well the greatest thing that's happened recently -- I finally figured out how to view my blog and this whole website in English (which is really really great news)! It was so frustrating navigating around Blogger with all the buttons and tools in Chinese, which is probably why I've started blogging less and less.

I've been wanting to blog for awhile because there's been so much going on, but it's been difficult....because there's been so much going on! Last week was super busy.

Tuesday evening was spent creating a haunted house in the school basement. Although I didn't get to help during the time it was going on and it was for the older kids that I don't teach, I still wanted to help out ahead of time.

Wednesday was Halloween obviously, and all the teachers and kids were required to wear costumes because in the afternoon we went trick or treating. The previous Sunday I went shopping with Angela and her mom and sisters for a costume. I was a bit discouraged because I knew I wouldn't find any clothing to fit, so I ended up just buying a ton of random little things. I turned into a "Funky Fairy" as I call it, which also turned into the "Uncle Sam Fairy" and a "raver" by some :P It was fun and the kids were so cute.

Thursday I ended up going home early in the afternoon because I was not feeling well...I think it was a combo of the sort of flu season Taiwan is in right now and exhaustion from the long days. I came home and slept all evening and night and was feeling better on Friday.

Saturday, Gretchen had plans to meet with a Chinese teacher from school, Franny. Franny wants Gretchen to help her with her English, although she already has really excelent language skills, she still wants to improve. They met here at the apartment and I was in the living room just wanted to say hi and then get out of the way, but I ended up staying and it turned into the three of us doing a language exchange sort of thing. We're going to meet every Saturday from 2-4. The first hour will be English and the second will be Chinese. I'm excited because I already feel like I've learned a lot from her and she's a very aggressive teacher which will make me practice more.

Sunday morning Franny took us into Taipei to her church because Gretchen mentioned wanting to find a place with English services. We ended up visiting a Morman church. It was very beautiful, but a little awkward for us since we didn't really belong. We didn't go to a service, just toured the church. It looked exactly like a Morman church I went to in California when I was visiting my friend Steven. Franny also took us to a clothing store in that area that has larger sizes, which was totally awesome...I'm going shopping this weekend!!!! And she took us out to lunch to a pretty popular place that serves beef noodles...very yummy! And all of these places were in the same area as my Chinese lessons. Gretchen and Franny walked with me to see where my classes were at and then Franny made me practice my vocabulary before class (I told you she was aggressive!!) It's all good though :D