end of the year

part one: dorm update

i got a roommate! both good and bad i suppose. i liked my own space and living on my own time, but back to considering another. the room feels so much smaller now. but she is a local and so i get to practice chinese with her as her english is not fluent!

of course this is when my wifi router decides to die. i hit the reset button eventually after the classic "unplug"/"replug" but it just made it worse 😭

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tried this bomb bbq skewer place where you just pick what you want and they grill it for you. and tried a somaek which is beer (maekju) and soju together which is actually pretty fire. i am trying to like beer with varying levels of success haha.

part two: back out on the streets after midterms

i am exhausted mentally from being at the hospital for like 6 hours. i get there when it opens and grab a number. it says approximately 12:00 so i go get breakfast from seven downstairs and no surprise, i had to wait until like 13:30 just to talk to the guy. then we chatted mostly about travel plans and insurance heh but eventually i get out.

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took a little detour to uniqlo for gifts and an errand for a friend. before heading back out for kbbq! i got invited by a senior of mine to have dinner with imics alumni – her friends. it was super nice to see her outside of the study grind mindset. hopefully it will happen more and more.

part three: back on the grind for finals (and that in between)

i found my favorite study spot (other than the designated imics room on campus). it's called ruins coffee roasters and i'd die for their assam tea and spiked hot chocolate. it's decorated with wood, has warm mood lighting and has an industrial vibe. there's also a resident cat!

^^ their anniversary is coming up and we spend a lot of time there, so they gave us little postcards to send to them. very cute!!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/f148f6_ce6cd4f9b8f04b79b344a1e9821408c8/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

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other highlights include:

dinner with a friend at my favorite beef noodle shop

dinner at 老闆's and the master himself played live and even let me try. he's self taught and only 4-5 yrs!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/f148f6_c2b742b69e794cd6ab93cd4fb9e0f4ad/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

老闆 means "boss" and we use it to refer to this one southern chinese meat place beacause the boss is so nice and friendly. like literally have run into him on the street and he recognizes us. also, he tends to come chat with us.

part four: back to hsinchu and the quest for pizza

our host family program organized a day for us and our host families to go to hsinchu area to explore a Hakka market, Hakka food and finally Hakka arts at the Hakka Museum. it had been a while since i'd seen them and i guess my 妹妹 (little sisters) really missed me and low key fought to sit with me. though as the day went on, they got a bit more restless. props to my host mom given the even was 8:30-18:00 ish.

at the market

hakka lunch

hakka museum

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the next day, i wrote a bunch for our group final paper and then went to a proper pizza place! i got one called "popeye" which was white sauce base, spinach, ham, provolone and parmesan, fresh egg and bomb-ass seasoning! we were in a big rush though because our bus ran late and we had a movie at a certain time so we speed-ran dinner so hard that i was chugging my cider by the end hahah. had to uber to the mall the cinema was in and then find the actual location. thankfully, we made it just in time and only missed the ads and trailers.

part 5: happy holidays

it's so weird that christmas is already here. there is not much vibe other than lights up in the city centers. nccu tried to put up trees and other decor in the dorms which is nice. we finally got our merch that we ordered a while back.

another group of friends booked an airbnb by the sea for a fun night of "xmas" festivities which was super fun but not necessarily on brand if you know what i mean.

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my program, imics, hosted a christmas party where we all ate pizza and played a jackbox game. even the professors came. everyone is so nice! we showed off our new merch with a little photoshoot haha.

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my bf and i went and played pool for two hours. surprisingly, i won 4-0 BUT he did lose a lot for hitting black in the wrong pocket so idk take that as you will haha.

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despite it being december, my first grade came back (100% bb) and apparently i'm a natural qualitative researcher! another class ended early before christmas. this was by far my favorite class and here's my little group of friends there.

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other than this, i've just been doing finals. we're frequenting ruins a lot and just the last time, the two kitties were so vocal and chasing each other around. one just wanted to chill but the other was a menace.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/f148f6_95f4d0ea0f5b492e86a5814e643d9750/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

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a friend of mine was looking for someone with an american english accent do do voice acting of books and thought of me so i gave it a shot just recently. went to a proper studio and it was wild. props to parents reading to their kids. they wanted the american accent but also enunciating everything clearly. also super slowly, so it was a bit odd. of course i need some time to figure out doing different voices though. it was a super interesting time though. i was in the booth and read. if i messed up or got going too quickly they'd stop me through the headphones and then we'd go again. it's hard to explain but with the headphones, we could talk between rooms but once we went to record, something flipped off and i'd only hear the lead in sentence i'd just said and then i'd continue. then to stop me, i'd start hearing the other room and their comments. usually, i'd speed up or lost the beat or whatever. it's hard! props to voice actors too – my friend says have a voice for boy, girl, a woman, a man at least aside from your normal voice. she went before me with the chinese version and she did seven different voices! the weird thing was the script was written by somebody else and some parts i would add function words like "the" or "a" because it's more natural in my opinion, but they were really wanting to stay directly to the script. another just insane thing was that they had the scientific name of an animal and a word that i didn't even know. that's just annoying. if i don't know, how are kids supposed to?? anyway, we'll see how it goes.

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unfortuntately, i worked on homework on christmas eve. but by the evening, the school christmas market was open and we explored there before going to see our friend's dance performance. i got mulled wine which was the most seasonal-feeling thing to me. i miss all the apple cider, earthy smells, and xmas vibe. other than that, i had a double stacked sausage (one is rice and kinda acts like a bun!) and tteokbokki.

then it was off to the performance hall to see our friend dancing. at first there were solos and then a bunch of groups went up. not particularly xmas themed but school was popping with the market stage outside, the stalls and this all happening at once!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/f148f6_3ce4827ee0d147da83838769b57ebcb4/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

and then, i finally had the time to watch the holdovers and i stayed up until it was officially christmas day because i have class in the morning 😭

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

i unfortunately had class in the morning, but i went into the city to maybe the best indian food i've ever had. and they were so sweet. in the name of holiday spirit, they gave us a bunch of stuff on the house. another round of wine, pani puria, a street snack where you pour spinach (or maybe celery juice) in a little ball with spices and potato as well as dessert cake made from nuts (i think it was maybe kaju katli).

then we went to the cinema to see the new lord of the rings movie, but unfortunately, it was only subbed in chinese so not the best way to spend our time given one of us doesn't know chinese and i can't read that fast. so i got the gist, but unfortunately, the plot was too predictable and not very engaging. we did get limited edition posters and pins though so that's cool. then we just wandered around xinyi to see the trees and lights. there was way less than last time i was here i feel like. the lights helped set the mood but it was also like 20º C so not really...certainly the most fun not christmas christmas i've had hahah.

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but what about second christmas?

apparently the dutch celebrate second christmas on the 26th which is very hobbit of them. we got together with our secret hitler gang and had snacks, cocoa and just vibed the night away. despite having to deal with the less than optimal dorm lounge, as always, it was the people that made it more christmasy.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 新年快樂

it was pretty simple. got back around 5:30am from our activities. we hit hot pot for dinner and then went to 101 for fireworks. unfortunately, we had to move because apparently the road was still going to be open – last minute decision i guess. thank god we still got a pretty good view. very good again but i guess for me it's not really worth the hassle and crowds tbh. after, we made our way to the river and danced the night away.

also surprise! i am kinda learning dutch. ik ben sophia!

tot ziens

♡蘇晨