Sleepless

Sleep deprived is more like it. I've been over the top busy this past week and as a result catch cat naps right before class every day.

I like the beginning of a new quarter because during class change period you get to meet a lot of other students. My class has whittled down to 6 students. The friendly Japanese woman moved to the morning class. One of the Japanese men disappeared as well. At one point an Australian and another Japanese woman tested out the class, but they didn't come back. We got another young woman from Hong Kong, so that leaves the men from Japan, Turkey, Guatemala, America and the women from Hong Kong and America (me). Today another guy from France tried to get in, but the teacher didn't let him.

I really like my teacher, Deng Lao Shi - unfortunately, she is taking a 3 week vacation in Germany starting Friday. Last quarter's teacher took a 3 week vacation to Turkey, Greece and Egypt. Our substitute that time was great. It was nice to have an alternate approach to learning the material and it helped when the first teacher came back. However, I really like Deng Lao Shi and have trouble imagining anyone else being as organized as she is. Oh well - at least she is coming back.

This past Saturday I took the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Kaohsiung. About $1200 NT one way taking 1.5 hours. I went to watch the Asian Oceanic Ultimate Championships (AOUC) during the day. Six countries were there: Japan, Australia, Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. My Ringers of Fire teammate, Kwong, was representing Oz. Quite a few of my teammates from Singapore Open were on the Hong Kong team (Tim, Nic, Bay, Wilkie, Erica, Elaine, Rob, etc). And of course Taiwan had some of the local players from Taipei (Fei fei, Xiao Xiao, Chi Chi, etc). The Taiwan team had a wai guo ren (外國人) coach - he only spoke English and called Xiao Xiao "Smile". It was funny to hear. I don't know if he calls Chi Chi "Seven" or just Chi-Chi. The weather was gorgeous -- further south is really much warmer than Taipei. The games were fun to watch (Hong Kong had a brilliant run at the end of their game against the Philippines) and I had a nice time seeing some of the Kaohsiung Black Lung players again (Shane and John mostly, with a short chat with Holly and Julie). Our teams struggle with some of the same problems. It's hard to get such a mixture of people to be committed to Ultimate and develop successfully.

The highlight of the trip was seeing my uncle and aunt again. They picked me up at the fields and we stopped to watch some of the Frisbee Dog action. Then we enjoyed a nice dinner together where I spoke most of the time in Chinese - a first for us. My aunt was highly encouraging in boosting my confidence - saying my Chinese was coming along really well - but I do believe she has a forgiving ear. Afterwards we stopped at a famous bao-zi place to pick some food up for PoPo. This place was amazing. Granted, everything is more spaced out in KH than in TP, but this place was like a bao-zi warehouse. A huge open store with racks and racks of baozi in the making. It was as close to bao-zi heaven as I could imagine.

I got back to celebrate Mitch's birthday. Jocelyn chose a restaurant just around the corner from where I live. I was late so didn't have any food but everyone raved about it, so I am planning on going there again to try it for the food. It's called Jolly's:

29 Qing Cheng St (台北市松山區慶城街29號B室)
It's just behind the Nanjing E Rd MRT (behind Brother Hotel - just walk straight out of the MRT station, down the road on the left). It's next to Mo Mo Paradise, which is a Japanese Sukiyaki place that I've also heard good things about. Jolly's serves Thai food and has a big bar with a good deal on half-yards. Jocelyn says you have to have a reservation if you want to eat dinner there.

Speaking of food, I've tried another Niu Rou Mian place. It's near the Taipei Main Station MRT. It's won in several categories in the Festival the past couple years.

牛三寶麵
Niu2 San1 Bao3 Mian4
台北市開封街一段29號
29 KaiFeng St, Sec 1, Taipei City
11:00 - 22:00
2388-6840

I tried their current special, which has a tasty soup and different kinds of meat. I also tried their regular. Today I had the dry mian, which was really good - it reminded me of a dish I used to make at home when I wanted something tasty but was feeling lazy. I combined ramen with a can of Chinese stuff and ground beef. The blue can had tofu, peanuts, bamboo, and other yummy bits in it - I forget what it's called now. I also tried some of their jiu cai shui jiao (chive dumplings). They were ok. Maybe would have been better if I hadn't let them go cold on me. Dan says the bao zi aren't bad, but they had already run out by the time we got there. They also have a meal set - you get a xiao cai (small side dish of your choosing), their standard niu rou mian, and a drink - either tea or this other stuff I forget the name of (this is what sleep deprivation does to me - kills my memory - as if it wasn't bad enough as is - but I'm sure Dan will remind me what it's called). Anyways, they press the juice themselves, so it seems quite special.

We had actually tried going to a different place on Zhongxiao W Rd tonight, but they had closed by the time we got there. It turned out to be a good thing because a minute after I sat down I heard someone behind me say "Ultimate Frisbee". It's pretty rare to hear English, and it's even more surprising to hear someone talking about something I love. I shot my head around to see a table of three players from the Hong Kong team. What a pleasant surprise! We introduced ourselves - they had recognized me from the weekend since I had been talking with some of their (aforementioned) teammates. Dan helped give them good directions to Xinbeitou for the hot springs as an activity on their last day here.

I've been dogwalking a friend's dog for a few days now and will be dogsitting the rest of the week. Besides studying, going to class, walking the dog and eating, I don't see time for much else. I haven't been bringing my camera around, so no new pictures (I wish I had taken it to KH). That's about all the news I can muster for now.

oh wait, since random people end up here after googling ultimate related things, this is the best info I have for the rest of AOUC. My teammate Michael went down to watch Sunday's action:

It was awesome. Japan beats Australia in the final.
the score is 15:12 or 15:13. Honda totally used it's
speed and Auzies took advantage of the height by
throwing hammers down field. there are at least 5
hammer scores. I have some movie clips in my recorder.
I will see if I can put it online or burn a DVD for
anyone who is interested.