It's 5 A.M., do you know where nodoh is?

So I must not be playing enough volleyball because I woke up at 5 A.M. today and had the energy and the urge to go outside! So I grabbed my camera, put on my marathon-wannabe shoes, and headed out to see what the city looks like before it goes on with its busy day.

"Super steak please!"

You know how sometimes you don't really appreciate something until it's gone?
Well, after a long long hiatus, I went back to Boston for a visit! FINALLY!

And of course, no trip is complete without paying homage to my absolutely favorite food place in Boston- Anna's!!!! Ah, if the walls could talk, it would say that I was there way too much! In college, Anna's was C and my default meal, where W and J tried to figure out how many burritos they could make in a minute (yup, we were bunch of nerdy kids), where me and my boys hung out (second only to BK... and that was because BK stayed opened later and was physically closer). Later, in law school, this is also the place where X and I spent our time when we skipped antitrust lectures. Oh and this is DEFINITELY the place where M spent about 15 minutes a week telling me about his research. One time he even gave me a napkin full of equations and told me to prepare for the pop quiz the following week, same time same place.

Ah, good times! I think I'll take one of these to go please.

oh ok, so instead of super steak, i got a steak quesadilla instead. but it was AWESOME.

If we had more time, I would have gone for that hole-in-the-wall Thai food place. That's where X and I spent the rest of our time when we weren't in antitrust lectures :)

Spring

When I left NY, it was still dead winter. Then I came back and POW- flowers everywhere! This weekend X came to visit, so we took a stroll around town.






As we walked through Central Park, we enjoyed not only nice scenery, but also good music too!

oh wait, I forgot...

oh Wait, I forgot my detour to HK between California and Taiwan...

My hotel room and the view from my room.

I got there late, but you know me, I couldn't resist walking around. I think HK people don't sleep either. They eat!


oh and crazy thing- they use bamboo poles for scaffolding, uh....

(I don't know why, my memory card seems to be corrupted, so I can't access some of my pictures (ALL my day pictures.) I am hoping that either SanDisk or Nikon would know what's going on...)

Old Street

Master and I also went to Old Street. Apparently, the mayor of that town long ago pushed to have an ordinance passed, which prevented destruction of the facades of these old buildings.

The Master and his apprentice

So during my trip to Taiwan, I found a new master- Uncle W. He took me under his wings and started to teach this clueless apprentice all things Taiwanese. It's not that I didn't know anything; it was the fact that I didn't know SO much that went into the making of the current Taiwan. It's sad that this heritage might someday be gone because people are too busy fighting over party line than to preserve the fragile Taiwanese identity.

Uncle W took me to 台灣人權景美園區 (Taiwan Human Rights Memorial Park). Since it used to be a military detention center, it was architecturally uninteresting- typical utilitarian concrete blocks, but nevertheless historically significant in Taiwanese democracy. This is where many human rights/democracy activists were held (beaten)/tried (what a joke) /sentenced (if you are lucky to be alive).

When we were there, there was a special exhibit for Uncle W's friend who died 20 years ago. He published articles re: freedom of speech/ democracy and was persecuted by the KMT dictatorship. He ultimately committed suicide.


All those green doors are doors to jail cells. The cells are about 8 feet by 8 feet, with a semi open toilet and sink.

Many walls were lined with propaganda posters- gibberish re: overthrowing the communists, returning to china, silencing those who stirrup trouble etc...

Oh yeah, the prisoners were farmed out to do laundry.

(sorry for the over and under exposed pictures, I was too taken with everything around me to pay attention to what my camera was doing. I also did not take any pictures of the many excellent exhibits we saw. I was too busy absorbing the exhibits and my master's tidbits)

Night (day) market

Here are some pictures of the night market, now operating during the day also!


So there is this shaved ice stand that we always go to- I think the owner is a patient of dad. She wasn't there, but instead a younger woman made my ice.