Better luck on roll two?

Today I dropped my second roll of 120mm shot from the Rollei off to the photography district Konica print center. These were taken on a Kodak Tmax ISO 400. Hope they turn up with a little more grain for that antique effect. However doing some research tonight, it seems that I should really try out some Ilford Delta 3200 Pro. Quality grain, good contrast and push processing to 3200. Unfortunetly, I'll have to import this, no way to find this in Taiwan. This shot is from the second roll. I took it in the rain with an umbrella so the camera doesnt get wet. I wanted to get a sense of seclusion and warmth with a group of guys enjoying some soup on a cold, windy and rainy night. Also I found a nice Italian restaurant near Shida on section 2, JinShan South Rd.It's called Pasta My House I believe. It's on the bottom floor of a building. It's small and quaint with a small menu of 5-6 items. It's cheap and really feels like i'm in someone's home. Even the front door is just a sliding glass door like in a house. The pasta was well made and they offer unlimited hot and cold tea. I really like this place, it really hits the spot. It feels so home cooked :)

Back to Gongguan Billiards 撞球

Tonight I went with friends and classmates back to Gongguan Billiards. We went to celebrate Fabien's birthday. But he had dinner plans with his girlfriend. So It was cut short. We'll postpone the major celebrations to Friday. Happy Birthday Fabien!

Saizeriya

Today I went to my friend's business presentation to support them. It's similar to network marketing. Obviously I'm still not participating in this, business wise, but they're good friends and I want to support them in any way. And of course they're fun to be around. :) She coordinated a dance routine for the intro and outro. It was well choreographed and entertaining. In between was 4 hours of speeches in chinese. Let me tell you, it was difficult to follow! Not only was it extremely cold (I think i was sitting under the A/C vent), but they spoke very fast and I cannot understand a lot of their more advanced words. But it's good practice none the less. Afterwards we all headed to Saizeriya for a "taiwanese" italian dinner. I should specify more like Italian fast food. It's pretty tasty, and cheap and you get unlimited drinks. So the cost outweighs the quality :). I'll definitely go back if I need a quick fix of affordable Italian food.

Interior design tour

Today I hung out with Yukiyo again. She had some work to do today. Her job today was to take pictures of the interior design in Q Squared mall (attached to Taipei Main Station) and Bellavita mall (near Taipei 101). So we leisurely walked around and talked and took pictures. She has to do this for her interior design work back in Japan. We ate at the Q Squared mall B3 level food court. However Q Squared still has it's share of nice fine dining restaurants on the ground floor. Afterwards we headed over to Bellavita. The Roman architecture and interior design is very elegant. We also walked around the food court and found some excellent imported Bre cheese. We got a gift along with it. We were joking that everyone should visit this place while it's still around. Due to the fact that everything is so baller expensive there, no one buys anything. How long can this keep up without any business? Apparently the back story is, this mall belongs to the richest family in Taiwan. When the daughter wanted a mall of her own with only her preferred shops, her dad bought and built Bellavita for her. So who knows, maybe they're so rich they'll just keep it running out of their own pockets. Now that super spoiled! Yukiyo said there is a new high rise mall under construction nearby and will be opening soon as well as the new W hotel. So i'll be visiting those two places in the future when they open up.

Friday...Bastille bar again

After class I hung out with my classmates again at the Bastille bar. This is turning out to be a tradition on friday's. haha. Anyways, the others had to head home early and the night was still young. So Yukiyo and I went to go see The Tourist which she has been wanting to see for a long time.

Saboten

Tonight was supposed to be another night of billiards, but Yuhki forgot Jerry had class this evening. So we just went out for dinner. We ended up deciding on Saboten tonkatsu, just outside of the Taipei Main Station. It's at the top floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi mall (新光三越百貨). Saboten is famous for it's tonkatsu. I didn't actually know I went there until after I got home and took a look at the business card. I've wanted to try this place out after eating the other competition's Tonkatsu at Tonkatsu Koshiya. I definitely still like Tonkatsu Koshiya better. The environment isn't as nice, but it's the same quality for cheaper. If your in either area, you can't go wrong with either though. My first roll of 120mm medium format film has been developed and converted to digital. Only three good ones came out. Better luck next roll :)

Hotpot 123 (closed)

Tonight I went with my friend, Yukiyo, to try out a new hot pot place. It's in the Shida night market and called 123. Simple enough, heh. My aunt told me about it after she read a good review about it in the chinese news paper. It is indeed good. The flavors were bursting and the price was right. $150NT for the hot pot + the meat and vegetables are separate when served, so it's fresh and not pre-boiled like most of the $99NT hot pot places. It also comes with a free refillable drink. The place is clean and nice. You can also add more ingredients for an extra cost. So it's kind of like a customized personal hot pot. I had the mongolian Ma-La flavor. What can I say, I like my spices! Here's the address, No. 6號, Lane 105, ShīDà Road, Da-an District.

New leather jacket

I finally bought a leather jacket after looking for several months. Of course I saw a few I liked, but not for a student budget. I finally purchased one off a street vender at the Shilin night market. I scouted it out on 1/1, but wanted to think about it over the weekend in Hsingchu. I also wanted to see if the Hsingchu markets had anything to offer. Anyways, short and simple entry, I'm happy and warm now, finally!
Random photo from yesterday that I couldn't fit in. It's Jia Jiang Mien (炸醬麵). Well probably not that authentic because it wasn't very thick and dark. But it was still delicious! Enjoy the photo.

East Taiwan hot springs

Last night I stayed over at my relatives place. They were curtious to let me stay over. I went with her to the local traditional market. It is unlike a night market where they mostly sell clothes and cooked food. It's more like a daytime market full of fresh produce and meats and fruits. It's usually outside and a lot dirtier than a supermarket. But the prices are cheaper too as long as you can stand the grittiness of the place. Shortly after that, Lucy and Hatuyen showed up at the house. We then headed into the mountains by car to reach the east side of Taiwan. About a half hour drive. We ended up on an old historic street and nibbled on street food for lunch. I bought some small mountain zongzi (粽子) to bring home.They were extremely fragrant and delicious. It had a more smoked and herbed flavor to it. Kind of like being in the mountains :). Afterwards we headed over to the hot springs (泡溫泉, pao wen quan). Another half hour drive east. We found a rather nice one. Relatively clean environment, not too crowded and a boar meat vender opposite the street. $300 for entry all day. That's cheap! They have larger pools of varying temperatures, smaller hot tub styles, private gender separated nude hot springs, napping area, dry and wet sauna and a couple whirlpools. There was still a lot more to offer, but I didn't go exploring that much.The feet get pretty cold walking from tub to tub. If you can get yourselves out there without too much cost, it's definitely a cheap and extremely relaxing for only $300. I don't know if that goes for all the hot springs around the area, but it's definitely cheaper than what you'll expect from the Beitou Hot Springs. Still I'd be willing to pay more and try Beitou since they're much easier to get to. I live very close to the Beitou springs, and it's just a MRT ride away. I can't wait for next time, and there WILL be a next time!

Playboy fashion!?

I took it pretty relaxed today. Well, at least it started slow and relaxed. After sleeping in until the afternoon, I woke up and immediately headed over to the Shipai market for a curry hot pot lunch. Then I went to the photography district to send in my first roll of 120mm film to be developed. This little Konica film developer place a few stores east of the KFC offered to convert it to digital for $150. Then I met up with Lucy and Hatuyen at the Taipei underground mall. We shopped around a little underground and outside in the Tong Lin shopping area. I tried on two leather jackets from the Playboy store. Yes, Playboy. Oddly enough the Playboy brand has a lot of nice and fashionable clothing. Unfortunately also very expensive. Nothing but high class for ol' Heff right? So skipping on the overpriced jacket, we had a quick dinner and did some new years shopping around Shilin. Shilin was slightly more busier than normal. Which means it went from shoulder to shoulder, to a push and shove stand still. It was close to 11 o'clock when we decided to call it quits for the evening because we had to take the Taiwan High Speed Rail train down to Hsingchu. We ended up getting on the last or second to last train out of Taipei. Next post is from Hsingchu!