Only three more weeks left! It’s crazy how this summer has flown by.
I am currently wrapping up a long weekend after a week of midterms, which have been pretty busy. Again, apologies for the inconsistent (and somewhat lackluster) posts – I plan on writing more substantial, lets-wrap-up-and-reflect-on-my-time-here stuff soon. The workload has gotten pretty tiring lately; just grinding away at vocab and grammar is honestly starting to burn me out a bit. But the end of the summer is near! I’ll really miss Taipei (I still absolutely love this city! It’s so awesome) and the people here, but I’m starting to feel ready to head back to school and see everyone again.
In the meantime, here are some highlights from the past week or so:
Ran into a huge march for Falun Gong (Falun Dafa), the religious group behind those Shen Yun shows with posters that are somehow absolutely everywhere. From what I understand, they’re a large religious group that was (and still is) severely persecuted in mainland China (they claim that followers in detention under Chinese authorities are killed for organ harvesting). If you haven’t seen Shen Yun, you should, because it’s a pretty cool show with a healthy smattering of some very unsubtle propaganda (it’s almost a little surreal). Frankly, I think a lot of Falun Gong's beliefs aren’t super great – they condemn homosexuality and mixed marriages and are just a tad anti-science – but their history / political situation is worth reading up on.
Saw a dog wearing sunglasses (apparently he frequents this park)
Went to another concert with some friends! Was in a pretty cool warehouse at the Huashan 1914 Creative Park and featured three great Taiwanese rock / alternative / indie groups: 非人物種 (Inhuman), 無妄合作社 (No-nonsense Collective), and Deca Joins.
Short rant/update: I thought having a cat around the apartment would change my mind about cats (I usually don’t really like them) and it was going really well until my roommate went away for a few days and asked us to take care of Cha-cha. It has only been 24-hours and she has already 1. Woken me up at 6:00am (two hours earlier than I usually do) by yelling and scratching my bedroom door 2. Pooped on the floor twice (I have never seen her poop outside her litterbox before today) and 3. I was just standing in the hallway, minding my own business, when she looked me in the eye, meowed, and took a huge piss on the ground right in front of my feet. Verdict: cats are cute but also horrible creatures and totally not worth it.
Went to Raohe Night Market! Saw a pretty awesome temple and got some really, really good food (including an amazing $3, Michelin guide-featured bowl of pork-bone soup!)
Took the bullet train to Taichung and got a meal at the birthplace of bubble tea at Chun Shui Tang. I think it was the best boba I’ve ever had.
Verdict: while unflashy, their humble signature black milk tea was a return to the fundamentals of the drink, something that I think a lot of other stores miss the mark on. There were no options where you could get some crazy dragon fruit tea or add grass jelly or get it topped with some candy animal. Instead, you could customize just three things: drink size, sugar amount, and ice amount. What the drink lacked in excitement and novelty was more than made up for in every other way. Served in a large frothy glass, the quality of the tea itself was second-to-none. I ordered my usual 50% sugar, which proved to be the perfect amount of sweet while still allowing the freshness and smoothness of their black tea come through. The bubbles themselves were pea-sized – notably smaller than most boba. They had just the right amount of sweetness and flavor and came through the straw in beautiful, uniform stream of tapioca, making for a more consistent and pleasurable drinking experience. If you’re seeking the purest boba experience in the world, look no further than the Chun Shui Tang in Taichung.
Went to the Taipei Farmer’s Market and stumbled across some huge cosplay convention? We couldn’t go in, but there were a few times where a giant crowd of cameras would surround someone posing on a bench or something.
Also went to a showing of The Parasite, a cool (and somewhat dark) new South Korean film that recently won a bunch of awards. I’m not sure about its availability in the US (I was only able to see it at a smaller, indie film theater with English and Chinese subtitles), but I highly recommend! Might be one of my favorite films I’ve seen this year.
Also, I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before, but Taiwan has an unbelievable amount of cool tiny coffee shops! Each is pretty unique, super nice for doing work, and they usually have pretty fancy, high quality coffee (every once in a while, I’ll spend more on coffee than food for a day…). Here’s a lovely one I found right by my house this week:
If you’re in Taipei, here are some of my favorites in the NTU area (I’ve been to over 20 so far):
- Peppermint Night Café - ridiculously chill atmosphere, plays cool ambient music, owners are hip and only speak in soft tones, whole store smells nice
- AGCT Apartment - annoying hours, accessible only through a barely functioning, vintage elevator around a hidden back entrace of some apartment building, still awesome
- Rebirth Café & Restaurant - cool and grunge-y, open util 2:00am most nights
- RUFOUS COFFEE - really, really fancy pourovers
- Beanslab Coffee - feels like a crossover between a kids playroom, IKEA, and a coffee shop
- UNI CAFÉ - lets you smell and choose exactly the type of coffee bean you want, has nice cats