the time has come for immediate action; the mental mind must be stimulated; the heart must be listened to; the mind must work; chaos seemingly ensues and we must confront it--
for what is life without the terrible indecisions of lust, love, truth, lies-- embrace the fierce self-inflicted pain in struggling for the always unknown future, and once more you shall find freedom-- care not for the end, care for the means, and perhaps you will find the ride much more accommodating.
A new blog is on the way.
G

Election 08

I respect George W. Bush for being our president for the last 8 years.
Whether or not we agree with his decisions concerning Iraq and other controversial issues, I realize that the office of the President of the United States of America is an extremely trying position to be criticized in. What information is exchanged behind closed doors is invisible to our judgement, and perhaps we are in no position to say what Bush should or should not have done. Would things have been better or worse with a John Kerry in office? It's impossible to speculate.
That said, I am eager to see the capabilities of our new President Barack Obama and excited to see how a nation pulls together through such difficult times.
Grace

Blogske

WE are back but planning road trip.
R&Y

Last Day of Asia

Asian Mullet. Tadpole boy's is slightly less extravagant, but in a way fluffier, and blacker.

Today, we went to the spahhhh for the last time. Did a ton of laps, said goodbye to pooltaker Tadpole boy (picture tall skinny unusually tan, with the sharpened end of his mullet carressing his ridges of spine, leading to a bright red tiny speedo) under our breaths as well as Mustache Man (cue balding but shaved-head muscular old man with a bushy mustache and a tiny black speedo, hanging out by the hot and cold tubs). Chilled most of the day-- packed, watched The Hills (everyone on that show is so good at being retarded... loooooovvveee it), and then Mean Girls...(quotes include "OMG danny devito, I love your work!!", "That's so fetch", "Your hair looks sexy pushed back", and much more)

It's been a great vacation! I loved it cos it was super relaxed (ten days is a lot) and we didn't have to talk to anyone we didn't want to, which makes for a great getaway. And don't even go into the shopping....

Goodbye, traffic, goodbye scooters... goodbye, 7-11's on every corner, goodbye Dante Coffee, goodbye badly printed English on everything... goodbye, squat toilets, goodbye Britney Spears playing in every store that had trashy shirts (Credit cards only... cash not accepted), goodbye food (not to the pig's brain soup, though), goodbye potstickers, goodbye hot and sour soup, goodbye noodles... goodbye soymilk, goodbye Taipei 101, goodbye metro. Goodbye 13th floor penthouse/studio with courtyard/garden, goodbye slow oven of an elevator, goodbye cockroaches at night, goodbye mosquito bites, goodbye Asians, goodbye crazy driving. Goodbye Daddy Yang, goodbye all those people I met that were his acquaintances, goodbye shopping malls with luxurious air conditioning and escalators galore, goodbye Eslite bookstore with 6 stories of pure ecstasy. Goodbye pandalize me, goodbye cheap prices... goodbye first two weeks of vacation. Goodbye blogging about Taipei, Taiwan... just wait til we hit Mexico.

Love,

R&Y

Damn Kids

Pitch'as!!!

Temple ness
Sportin' a fly 'do
Scary ferris wheel

Fantastic Two in a Temple Abouve Taipei

Temple. Cool.

Family Scooting

Listening to: "Fix up, Look Sharp" Flii Stylz, Rize soundtrack

Today was ... a day. Filled to the brim.

Woke up super late-- we slept like the dead-- and went off to have lunch (pan-fried potstickers, fish soup, sweet and sour soup, and for dessert, mango and passionfruit smoothies. We then went to the large ferris wheel north of Taipei but we were all too freaked to get on (it was hot, the ferris wheel was large... and slow) so we walked around the mall beneath it. Almost convinced my dad to watch Batman in the Imax, but failed. So we motorscooted up a mountain to a nice temple, where the view of Taipei was spectacular and the architecture, awesome. After that we trained to Keelung, another city, and had dinner at a famous night market featuring only food delicacies, where my father proceeded to stuff us like Thanksgiving turkeys.

I guess it doesn't sound like much when I type it out, but it feels like it's been a long day.

We leave you with some videos for your pure entertainment.

Goodnite!

R&Y

Day Twelve

Yang and Roske in motorcycle gear.

It feels like we've been here forever! in a good way. Taipei is super fun; public transportation is awesome and easy, so we can do whatever we want, whenever.
Before all this, though, check it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U
It is a must-see. You will probably melt with warm heartfelt feelings of goo.

Anyway, today we woke up feeling like shit (swimming=using muscles) because we didn't sleep very well. We ate some lunch, drove to the jade market and the temple, where we asked for our fortunes.

It's not exactly fortune telling, but it's a fortune of sorts. What you have to do is take incense and introduce yourself to this god, Win Tsu Gong-- let him know your name, when/what time you were born, who was your father... where you live. Then you take these cashew looking toys, that if you put them together they look like a whole cashew? and they're each flat on one side. So you're suppoed to take these cashew things and ask him a specific question-- you ask him whether or not he can give you advice on something specific-- whether or not your boyfriend is a guy you want to be with, or if you should take risks in finance, etc-- and when you throw the pair of cashew halves down, there are three possibilities: if the cashews are the same side facing up, that means you have to ask again, and the answer is not clear. If the cashews are the same side facing down, same difference. If they are different-- one facing up, and the other one facing down, then that means a positive confirmation. After that, you draw a stick from a tub of numbered sticks, and you do the same process over again, this time asking if that is the correct numbered stick. If he answers negatively (cashews facing the same way), then you choose another one, until you throw the cashews and they come up facing opposite ways. Once that happens, you take the fortune labelled by the number stick you drew and he confirmed.
IT's crazy.
Both me and Sarah did it-- I had to re-do Sarah's because her ancestors and spirit aren't in tune with the Asian gods as much-- "communication problem", as my dad said-- but they were pretty interesting answers, considering what we asked. It was one of those things that made you think really hard, and second guess your own motives or decisions. Mind boggling.

After temple, we went home and chilled before we headed out to the waterfront. The metro was packed, because it was a Saturday, and everyone was out and about. Especially where we were going-- it's the popular waterfront park/nightmarket in north Taiwan, just north of Taipei-- Danshui, which means "clear water". Once we got there, we walked around, ate dinner, and then me and Sarah went shopping at the Shilin nightmarket again. Because it was the weekend, it was impossibly packed-- human traffic jams in the streets! We saw a bunch of white people and scowled at them.

After that, we were exhausted and headed home, but then we got super hungry. My dad had been waiting for us outside the apartment complex (as I predicted!) because we had returned pretty late. After hearing us whine about our pooooorrr empty stomachs we went out to eat. What a wonderful day...

Some cool dancing kids we saw at Danshui; those poor bastards were sweating like crazy! But they were awesome, in an Asian choreography kind of way. And they were sweating hard for complete strangers.

Beatie Boys have come onto my iTunes, so I'm off to chillax!!!

Over and out, chirren!!!

R&Y

ps: holla out to goth pagan witch, I miss u dearly!!!!

Day Eleven!

Sarah and Me were at Dante's coffee-- a coffee joint which, btw, features a segregated smoking room-- chillin', drinking our vanilla lattes, and playing a doodle game. The game is where each player takes turns doodling, where their doodles are supposed to kill the previous player's doodle. I don't know what' it's called, but it's super fun, and here was the product of that evening.

It starts from the bottom left, where the little dude in the corner is a samurai.

1) Samurai with sword

2) Tara kills samurai with fire breathing devil capabilities

3) Cat allergies kill Tara

4) Mouse who ate Mario mushroom kills cat

5) A tornado kills the mouse

6) Al Gore, being the champion for people against terrible natural disasters, stops the tornado with his sharp rhetoric and his integrity (boosted by him being shafted in that election...)

7) Al Gore's mom kills Al Gore with a rolling pin

8) Death kills Old Lady Gore

9) Death is killed by the atom bomb-- because there are too many deaths to collect, so he quits sort of.

10) Lindsay Lohan realizes that her love for Samantha Ronson was a phase, and the world is right again

11) An extreme surplus of coke kills Lindsay Lohan

12) Amy Winehouse snorts all the coke

13) Amy Winehouse loses her powers as she recieves a haircut

14) Spencer Pratt of The Hills ruins everything, including haircuts.

In the meantime, we went shopping at Shilin nightmarket last night. Today, we woke up, ate, I went to the dentist *cringe* and then we went to the spaaaaaaa. It was deliciously relaxing, I did a bunch of laps and melted in the hot tubs, saunas, and steamrooms.

We are now super exhausted, but in a good way.

The election news continues!!! I can't wait to watch the debates; witnessing the twisted, narrow ignorance of the Republicans will frustrate me but in a strange way, will make me feel better about myself.

Go Obama! 08!

R&Y