side quests

part one: i spend eight hours in and around eslite

despite being a self-proclaimed ghibli-head, i somehow did not know there was a documentary about miyazaki while he was making the Boy and the Heron called Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron. a friend and i went all the way up to songshan to see it at eslite arthouse but he'd accidentally booked the wrong day. thankfully, he hadn't paid yet and we could shift to a different showing. the issue just being that it would start 21:30. we were like "we're here. might as well". we also didn't want to waste the time it had taken us to the cinema. and so, we wandered in and around songshan cultural park area for six hours. i would say i now throughly know that mall haha. jokes aside, it was nice to explore this other eslite location. the one in zhongshan is where i got ghibli soundtrack vinyls and i was seriously tempted again as this location has way more records.

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the movie was very good! he clarifies who inspired come of the main characters and i was kind of right. after seeing this and seeing how much miyazaki idolized takahata, it is clear that granduncle is takahata. of course miyazaki wouldn't see himself as the master of the world that is ghibli. takahata passed during this production and miyazaki was feeling haunted by him so it was kind of a way for miyazaki to process. granduncle is takahata, miyazaki is mahito and suzuki is the heron. all three of them together are the founders of what is now studio ghibli. beyond that, i remember there being a lot about grief and loss in the movie and seeing the behind makes it make sense. so many people that were close to miyazaki had passed. one had wished him to do one more feature and that helped him keep going (she inspired kiriko). anyway, this just cemented for me the fact that the Boy and the Heron is actually very autobiographical.

part two: push day

today it was back to class and pressure is on the horizon with midterm proposals, presentations etc coming up. after class, we tried going directly to the gym. we've been trying to find the best time to go so that we don't have to wait for machines, dumbbells and/or barbell racks. being as close to opening as possible, like today, seems to be the best so far. we still spent a good 2.5 hours there, but the difference is that we fit way more in that time. even though i didn't get to full 3x10 sets, i benched 44lbs! i'm more like 3x7 or 3x8 heh. but it feels so damn good. i was already more stable today compared to last week. i noticed that i really like exercises that are traditionally thought of as masc (like bench press and pull ups). and i think that's just because they make me feel strong and maybe because i never really saw myself doing them. so proving myself wrong! i guess my point is that the gym is kinda fun when you know what to do or are with somebody who does.

part three: wednesday drains

jeez wednesdays are tiring. this week it was a 8:00-22:00 day. i had morning class until 12:00 and then korean for lunch with friends. after, i had another class until 17:00. then after a quick dinner with other friends, i went to photography club where they had a photographer do a class on portraits. it was run in chinese of course and i actually got a fair amount of it! unfortunately the waipai (field trip) is full for this weekend, but at least i'll be busy with my coursework. it's coming so quickly 😭

part four: pull day

today was my first group presentation. it went fine but this is the class with weird discussion. the prof talks a lot. like he did ask us some questions but then proceeded to give his thoughts, effectively answering said question. good news though is that our final presentations are canceled due to having to move the schedule back two weeks.

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then we ran over to the bookstore to see, and try, the new winter drop of school merch. the lady helping with sizing was so sweet. she kept saying how good we looked too – very good saleswoman. if we get enough people interested, we can get a discount! one of my classmates is very proactive with this. she set up a spreadsheet of everyone and what they want and even a group chat haha.

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and since it's thursday, it's gym time again. we did back, lats, biceps, forearms and my core circuit. it feels good to see progress however little. i am already up to the next weight of dumbbells for most exercises!

part five: thrifting

a friend and i went out thrifting and he found some cool stuff. and i found some replacement shoes on discount as my day-to-day ones are getting pretty beat up with all the walking. before we left though, there was a sort of fair on campus with food and little shop stalls. i liked the vibe of the mexican stall that was all decked out for halloween. later, we had dinner at one of my favorite hotpot adjacent places –korean style!

part six: street fair

the street fair is still set up. i'm not sure why or how long we have this for but it's really nice. in the evening, they have live music which i think is from the music club. earlier in the day, i had one class, lunch and then a meeting at the library for a presentation this week. after, was gym time! i'm really proud of sticking to a schedule and making some gains, especially in upper body strength. for dinner we grabbed hong kong style bbq meat. i love love this kind of chinese sausage. the owner was so nice and recognized my friend, so much so that he stopped by our table and chatted a bit after he'd sold out for the night. this place is fun too because there's a cute kitty.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/f148f6_f817a658a22d426c9e46c7bf1280afd4/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

part seven: typhoon?

today my group and i presented our second of three presentations in morning class and then back to the gym to keep up our T, TH, SAT schedule. after a rewarding session, we hiked up the mountain with the rain and wind at a high. so much that it flipped my umbrella inside out a couple times. we eventually gave up and just took it because the wind was so aggressive. the news had said that tropical storm trami in the philippines would bring heavy rain to taiwan, but it's a bit odd because the weather is worse than when krathon was right off the southwest coast. anyway, it's ok the weather is so bad since all i am doing for the foreseeable future is reading research and writing midterms :/ wish me luck!

♡蘇晨