Thanks Lisa! ^^-b

A quick note... Thanks Lisa!!!

... as usual, Lisa is the bomb... Love her to death (if she didn't kill me for trying to hug her anyway... =P). ^^-b

Birthday List

Woo, today's going to be a fun day... it hadn't been an hour yet and I've already recieved five (god, to think that people used to not know because they never asked). I completely forgot how it even leaked out... Well anyway, I decided that this year would be funny if I wrote in the times, and so the current results are...

1. Steph (7:45 PM [on the 11th])
2. Ray (10:35 PM [on the 11th])
3. Lisa (11:51 PM [on the 11th])
4. Mabel (12:53 AM)... [technically first!]
5. Elaine (1:21 AM)... [I'm surprised she's even this high in the list... not really.]

So some really cool things about today:
- Dude, it's like hella Free Pancake Day @ iHOP! (update: Until 6 pm apparently).
- Abraham Lincoln's Birthday (ironically many people don't know about this yet it's in the calendar).
- 28 North's DCM is Today.

Well... I'm out of things to say, but I'm sure that there's more to come... ^^-b

.... and after UPDATE #1, we have:
6. Anna (6:28 AM)
7. Krystina (6:45 AM)... [Only surprising because she actually texted me at all in the morning.]
8. Pyline (6:46 AM )
9. Reo (7:12 AM)
10. Mom (8:39 AM)... [at least she made it top 10 this year...]
11. Howard (9:41 AM)
12. Mark (9:44 AM) <-- This was surprising, since I expected him up at like... Noon. >.>
13. Emily (9:53 AM)
14. Don (11:53 AM) <-- And rounds the corner.

UPDATE #2 ...and then the meyhem continued with the rest of the world chipping in.
15. Wade (12:17 PM)... [You totally surprised me on this one bro. Props. ^^-b]
16. Robert & The Rest of the AP Physics II B/C class (12:18 PM)... [Ms. Lein got to Eric first though, ahaha.]
17. Justina (1:12 PM)
18. Em (1:36 PM)...[It's too bad you couldn't be there Em, I was hoping for it yenno? Would've been fun.]
19. Jaci (1:38 PM)... [I'll give you the credit and say I heard you, because we were like "what, what!" too... lol.]
20. Kassi (1:39 PM)... [Took you long enough! You even had all morning! =P]
21. Lok yi (1:39 PM)
22. Kathy (1:41 PM)
23. Izzy (1:46 PM)... [Woo! Thanks Izz, but I'm not going to a strip club unless you're comin' with, you know that.]
24-25. Marilyn & Simon (1:49 PM)
26. Tammy (2:05 PM)
27. Tiffany Wang (2:07 PM)... [Thanks Tiff. ^^-b]
28. Joy (2:12 PM) 29. Albert (3:08 PM)
30-39. Canyon Springs Key Club (4:22 PM)... [There was just so many of them.]
40. Tynah (4:48 PM)... [This was definitely a surprise.]
41. Mellanie (4:56 PM)... [Was thinking about the whole "kissing the cake for good luck" joke.]
42-66. Division 28 North (5:05 PM)... [Oh yes, that was insanity.]
67. Miso (5:12 PM)
68. Katelin (5:53 PM)
69. Laureina (6:20 PM)... [Faster than I thought really.]
70. Stefany (7:59 PM)... [Facebook reminders strike again!]
71. Perng (8:22 PM)... [Wooooo, thanks couz!]
72. Wayne (8:26 PM)
73. Jane (9:49 PM) ... [Took you dead long enough!... I mean, how long have we know each other again?]
74. Dad (11.39 PM) ... [In his defense, he is in Taiwan.]
75. Shaun (11:49 PM)... [Really? I thought I was younger by a few months or something...]

All in all, a crazy day. I mean, this has definitely been an awesome day, especially DCM.

UPDATE #3... It'll be occuring a lot, since this is the "day after"... and so on the 13th:
76. Winston (1:39 AM)... [Well, we knew this was going to happen anyway bro, so I was totally prepared for it. ^^-b, but hey, you did it anyway. =P]
77. Jason (1:47 AM <--yeah, I did too. =P)... [lol don't sweat it, you know I don't realize till like... 12:45 anyway. Though I was expecting it at 12:30, when the procrastinating first starts... ahaha.]
78. Koo (4:12 PM)... [Yes Tommy, it was mine. heh.]
79. Sara (6:55 PM)... [Haha, same ol' Sara.]
80. Felicia Dorng (7:30 PM)... [Thanks =P... and I don't recieve those letters until about March, so you'll know then! ^^-b] ... that's about it. =P

Taiwan: The Re-Experience

I finally found the time to go and update this ginormously after 4 days here... or was it 3? I don't really remember, since I'm too dazed to figure it out.

That's besides the point though, as in my boredom I figured I give you a quick little idea of just what's happened up till now... and give an introduction as to why the hell I love Taipei so much. So the place we're (as in the entire family of cousins in the area) staying at is the Agora Garden Hotel... incidentially enough, everybody in the staff speaks fob English, so even if they have no idea what I'm telling them in Chinese, I can always try to let them figure it out in English. The hotel looks amazing, and the lobby is so expansive.

I mean, just look at it; and hell, that's just the front door to the place. That's the cool thing about Taiwan though... everything's huge. A prime example of this ended up being on the very next day, where after lunch we decided to head out and check the sights (the hotel is about... a 10 minute walk from Taipei 101, and there's about 300 stores around the area).

This complex is actually part of a multitude of them... I think there's about 12 in all. but they're divided into smaller buildings to make it look cooler. It's new, only been around for a few years I believe, but that place alone has about anyhwere between 30 to 40 stores... so just think... 30 x 12 = 360 stores. I can't think of a single girl right now that wouldn't love it... and I believe that Pyline and Elaine would just pitch tents in the place.

Another reason I love coming back here is just for the night markets. Just imagine an alleyway big enough to let two cars go through side to side, and line them up with food stalls, stores, and probably a kitchen sink too. You can get bargains beyond bargains and the food is what I believe to be the best in the world and cheap as hell; we bought enough food to feed 10 people for the price of two McDonald's Value Meals, it's crazy... I still refuse to call it anything else but the holiness of all that is good. There's a bunch of night markets around the area, but there are a few that are known for something, like shi-ling for instance. It has a night market, but there's the warehouse area just for food stalls. That's what it's literally famous for... good food (this is just for Tammy... muwahaha).

Yeah, it's crazy packed in there, but it's good food. Taiwan has something for everybody though, and if you don't like the hustle of night market food, you can always go and eat at random hole-in-wall places, like the place a few of us went to the next morning for lunch. Taiwan has a bunch of these random places just... well anywhere really. It's good food, and despite it's random location, people will go to it. The place that we ended up going to was around the corner from this ginormous restaurant (goes to show you, not everything famous has to be in glamorous place).

There's my infamous brother chowin' down... ahaha. We don't forget however, the real reason that we're here... to attend a lot of weddings and eat a lot of banquet food (which most of us, including the bride(s) and groom(s), were sick of by the end of the second time). It was cool going to my cousin's wedding and attending my brother's reception, but the highlight (and here's where I make all the girls who love the asian singer's here extremely mad at me) of either night was that I got to meet Patti Hu in person. She's a close friend of my cousin, and is extremely friendly... there was a lot of joking around in the club afterwards.

It's been a fun time overall so far... and I've uploaded the pictures for the next set already, but I'll save that for next time. Till then. ^^-b