Zaijian Taiwan....konnichiwa Japan!!!

In search of fresh air I have left Taiwan yesterday, my home for the last 4 months, and flew to Osaka, Japan. But before I give you all the ins and outs about the air in Japan...first a little bit more about my last days in Taiwan, which can be characterized by the following words: partying, eating and saying goodbye (or some combination between those).
--> oww by the way, my site address has indeed changed: WWW.MICHAELBALVERS.WAARBENJIJ.NU

The ‘eating’ began approximately 1,5 week ago, after Wenai’s graduation ceremony, when we went to an all you can eat Thai restaurant to celebrate her Master title. Soon after , Simone cooked ‘real Australian food’ (lemingtons...little furry animals right ;) ) during one of her infamous rooftop parties, followed by a dinner with my old roommates with whom I drank about 2L of tea on the top of Maokong mountain (which was really good by the way). There was a lot more food the last couple of weeks, but that would become to boring....anyway, my culinary tour had to end with a bang, I thought. I found ‘that bang’ at McDonalds....THE MEGAMAC...or FEICHANG DAMAIKE as we call it. Yesss...how awful does that sound hehe....so I had to try, and dragged Simone with me in my downfall. Afterwards....divine intervention....I haven’t been sick in Taiwan, nor had dianna, but after the megaMc I spend a night praying to the porcelain goddess (in the dormitory, to complete the picture)...a big bang all right, of my stomach though.

Yet, now I come to think of it, in its mission to make me sick the Damaike probably had help from some alcohol that was still in my body from the night before (last Saturday). I namely already had a pre-goodbye party on Saturday...which means that together with my best friends here in Taiwan we first had dinner and then went to a latino (open) bar where we danced until the first rays of sunlight. Was marvellous guys!...again :D

After that, everything went very fast...the last days I had class as usual, had to arrange some final things before my departure and already tried to emotionally distance myself from my great ‘new’ roommates. NOT!!! Eikels...they were noisy nocturnal animals who rather preferred to sleep during the day in the library on their books (probably gives them the feeling that they are very studious) so that after 12 they can conquer ‘worlds of warcraft’ or something similar and keep me out of my sleep. (for the record: my ‘old’ roommates, from my previous dorm room, were very nice!).
That brings me to something else...I uncovered another ‘Taiwanese mystery’...when I just arrived to the dormitory a few months ago I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the happy tunes of an ice cream truck approaching. Hmmm....nice, ice-cream in this hot hum(m)id weather :)!!! This feeling of surprise quickly turned into one of disgust when one of my roommates so kindly pointed out to me that the source of that sound was actually a garbage truck....yesss, they disguise garbage trucks as ice cream trucks here! So I immediately saw visions of Taiwanese kids chasing the garbage truck thinking they would get an ice cream....and maybe that is were things went wrong...and that is the moment Taiwanese start to link ‘stench’ to ‘delicious food.’ Taiwanese namely seem to love food that stinks....choudoufu for example (stinky tofu/bean curd), which has a nastier smell than human shit. My previous teacher once told us that she would cruise the city on her scooter in search of a trace of choudoufu smell between the cities’ already normal stench...hmmm lekker hmmm! So conclusion, Taiwanese people in general like things that stink (the dormitory is just another example....:P) :D:D
(Wo tingshuo mouge ren, feichang bu hao de pengyou ;), ji le yige hezi gen choudoufu dao wo helande jia....shishikan dasi wo fumu & didi!!!....ni weixian Keximeng, wo yao rrrrevenge!! :badgrin: )

Anyway...back to the storyline :)....Wednesday night I had dinner for the last time with my friends and afterwards we had a drink together. Thursday: class for the last time, saying goodbye and off to the airport together with Simone, Taito, Shino and Heather as my ‘goodbye-committee’. Fortunately...crowd control wasn’t necessary this time ;).
The moment of departure was actually very difficult...I think even that saying goodbye to my friends in Taiwan has been the hardest ‘goodbye’ in my life....such good friends I am leaving behind, plus I am one of the few that is going (as opposed to México, where everybody went approx the same time).

So one more time....thanks guys for being such good friends and making ‘Taiwan’ such an unforgettable experience...I will miss y’all, but we’ll keep in touch and someday we will see each other again!!!

And after that...I arrived in Japan, we’re all of the sudden all my efforts to study Chinese proved to be worthless as nobody speaks Chinese here. Fortunately my Japanese friends already provided me with all the essential ‘survival Japanese‘ :). Things like...you are a hot girl, shit, you will die etc etc (xiexie taito...wo juede nage zanghua hen hao yong :badgrin: ). Proved to be very useful because today I rented a bicycle to do some sightseeing here in Osaka....and during my ‘bike-ma-geddon’ I used some of my Japanese (not too loud of course ;) )

Amongst others I have seen the Osaka castle...very impressive...a temple and two of the shopping districts. Pictures say more than thousand words so I won’t bore you with a description of these places....next update I will put pictures online! That update will also be the last one for my ‘Taiwan period’, as I arrive in NL coming Sunday the first of July around 16:20....and then the adventure of this year is over....at least for the ‘abroad part’.

Tomorrow I will go to Kyoto, the imperial city ....so more about Kyoto in my final update!

Zaijan / Tot heel snel / hasta pronto,


Michael aka BoMaiKe aka DAMAIKE


p.s. THE HOFFF RULEZZZZ muahahah :) !!!!

p.s.2 Nogmaals, zodat niemand achteraf kan zeggen dat ik het niet gemeld heb:
ZONDAG 1 JULI om 16:20 kom ik aan op schiphol!

p.s.3 the air in Japan: mamahuhu :P