Jigga I Nigga

Unless you know I'm mixing Chinese and English, you might have an eyebrow or two raised at the title. The title translates basically into This I Like. I still don't know much Chinese after being here several days now but I'm picking up bits and trying to piece that into something useful. I'm getting by mostly with pointing, waving my arms around, and using English.

View from the place we stayed at

This is to be the first of a few blogs on Taiwan and my time there. I'll try to blog only about a few specific things each post. I've learned while trying to blog a few times now after several days of not posting anything, I just have so much to say and I need to keep it more focused. At the end of my trip in Taiwan I plan to have a final post with my thoughts and that will serve as a somewhat tutorial to how to get by in Taiwan, with other useful information. I don't plan on making the tutorial too in depth, but will point out things I had a hard time getting info on and point people in the correct direction for further reading. Now let me get back to where I left off after I got onto the airplane to Taiwan.

I had a little confusion once I got off of my flight. One thing I was glad I did was, I grabbed the information card early in the flight to fill out for customs. I didn't see everyone grabbing one so I wasn't sure if I needed to, but I found out only people not citizens of Taiwan have to fill them out for customs. You'll have to wait inline again if you don't have a filled out information slip ready. If you don't have one ready, they'll give you a information slip to fill out and then you'll have to wait again. While making your way toward baggage claim, you'll see a fever screening. If you're feeling fine and coming from the US just keep walking. If you're looking for a bathroom after getting off your flight (into Taipei Airport) there should be one easily found around the baggage claim area. Another thing that seemed odd at first when boarding the airplane, even though I knew about the custom was the face masks. You'll have to realize that you're not in a quarantine zone, but rather people will be wearing face masks if they aren't feeling well or even if they think they might be getting sick to let others know and to keep from spreading sickness. Some will be wearing masks additionally to try to avoid catching things like on an airplane.

Getting to my destination wasn't too difficult because my girlfriend had already picked up some of the language and knew here way around a little, as she had spent a few weeks in Taiwan by the time I arrived. We booked our place to stay through www.airbnb.com, which got us both a nice place and a well priced place. There are other options/ways when looking for places to stay and I'll cover that in more detail in my final Taiwan post. The view was nice from the apartment and the place was festively covered with stickers of cars and traffic signs in a styling I'm used to in a child's room but I liked it. The bathroom was a bit of a shock because it had all of the controls in Chinese. The Chinese wasn't shocking but the fact that the controls were so complicated was. It was nice that it had a lot of program options and such but I couldn't make full use of them.

I wasn't very culture shocked and I think it was because I anticipated the environment I would be in to be a shock and it reminded me of being in anime movies, which I've seen plenty of. I know Japanese and Chinese look completely different but if you don't know much of either, they will leave you with the same bewildering feeling. I found little things became a source of major confusion. At the apartment getting the key in wasn't too bad. We stumbled through conversation with the two security guards and eventually got it sorted out when they called the person we'd rented a room from on www.airbnb.com. We were shown our way up to the room and in a no thrills manner of fact method. When it came to leaving the building (main door), it took a few attempts to figure out we had to hit what looked like a doorbell to open the door. On the first few attempts the guards open the door for us remotely.

The security that we had issues with!

Turning off the A/C in the apartment was an adventure in button mashing. Meg wanted to turn off the A/C but made the mistake of thinking the security system was the climate control. I thought it looked like the climate control as well. She hit a few buttons hoping for luck to get the results but the LCD screen never turned on, what did turn on was the alarm. We panicked and started hitting buttons after the siren went off for the alarm. I think I hit an orange button at one point during this process as well. The orange button I hit was an emergency button. This wouldn't be the only time I accidentally pressed a button like this. The other guard that didn't show us up to the room came this time. The guard didn't appear to be very amused with the confused foreigner looks we had on our faces. Eventually, we got everything figured out and learned how to appropriately leave the apartment. The day wasn't even over but the (mis)adventure had begun.

The EMERGENCY button!

Bathroom Controls

It has lights, so you can see it in the dark!

For the A/C

Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell, and Etc...

I'm sitting at the airport. I've been away from Seattle long enough it doesn't feel like I ever had a home there. If you stay away from home long enough, you won't feel like you have a home after enough time. Also not actually having a place with all of your stuff helps this unattached feeling. I left my things with my father. If I had a home it would be at my father's. I haven't even left the country but I feel like Seattle is a world away.

Over the last few days I've had some good adventures and some good family time. Even while taking Persian (Farsi) I wasn't the best student in class. I found this the first time I've spent any time with my family on my father's side that is sizable enough to count in weeks since I've finished taking Persian. I recalled a lot, which I'm proud of. What I didn't recall much of was my verbs. If I had recalled more verbs I might have been able to have a simple conversion outside of, “How are you?” “I'm good” “Hello” “Goodbye” etc... Verbs were always my biggest enemy while in class, oh and clothing.

Did I mention I'm at the airport in San Francisco, and almost have California behind me. I want to return to California after my trip to spend more time with my mom and other family members again. I miss them all already. What I don't miss are the drivers. People tend to not use turn-signals enough and I've seen a lot of aggressive driving. Also, a lot of the curbs are way too high for most doors to either open all of the way curbside or at all, so watch out. The sheer craziness of everyone basically running red lights is a problem as well. If you see three or more cars take a turn after the light turns red don't be surprised. My best guess is since they turned off the red light cameras people are taking full advantage. Lets cover the last few days, since I've been putting off blogging.

For a few days I didn't do much but catch up on sleep that I missed while trying to maximize time with my mother, brother, and sister. I also helped with some my cousin's homework and such, but not much. The biggest part of the day was getting lunch with my Aunt and my oldest cousin.

I also rode around with my Aunt when she picked up or dropped off people for sports and such. I'm forgetting the order of things as I tend to organize thoughts in my head in categories rather than in the order. So I remember food events in more of a lump than drove here, did this, eat there, etc...we were trying to have a home meal at one point but some how (cough, kids wanted to go out, and the dominoes fell from there) we ended up at Chipotle Mexican Grill, which made my belly feel grand.

During the lunches, pick ups, and drop offs I found myself walking around Los Gatos. It was a long walk; as I let myself get a little lost by walking off into a residential area. I walked the main strip twice and found some nice stores and even purchased some new sunglasses to replace the ones I left in my mother's vehicle. I found an exciting looking bush with poisonous berries, not poisonous for birds though. The picture does do it some justice, but seeing the vibrant colors in person was a site.

 
 


Los Gatos seems to have some character as well. I found some anti-Obama signs, which as far as these for and against graffiti things go looked professionally done. Here is a good question to ask someone that my cousin got me with...

With out delay or stopping to think, tell me Obama's lastname.........................If you said Barack you'd be wrong like me.

This isn't the worst name for a store that I've seen on the Internet, but it did make me stop and gauck at either the boldness of the owner or the massive over looking of her/his store name: Black Watch. Again, not the worst but still thought they could have used a more direct name for their business or if they had put a picture of a watch between the words or had made the “A's” circular part into watches/clocks it might not have stood out to me, maybe.

Los Gatos has a really nice car dealership as well. I found seeing impressive cars that aren't in motion or going balls-to-the-wall fast (a scientificly technical term :) not that impressive. I started to think why don't cheaper sports cars look amazing as well, or even your everyday car? I figure some of it might be the cost but it couldn't be that much if every car looked bang on like a Lambo or such. I figure it is more to do with marketing and creating the :needed” difference between luxury and/or expensive vehicles with those of the bottom end of the line ones.

I went to Cafe De Flore on my long walk, which is a connected to a bike shop. To be clear they each have a their own doors but once inside you can walk back and forth between the two. It reminded me of being in Green Lake in Seattle. Had a hippie vibe with the styling of a rustic northwesterner. I only had the smoothie (Berry Blast) and it was very good. It wasn't overly sweet and used real fruit. It ran me about a five spot but it was better than a Jamba Juice in my humble opinion.

I stayed with my grandpa for a while one of the days, and then I spent the night with him a few days later. An amazing guy. If you have nice grandparents like me, you should talk to them more. Your grandparents most likely have a story that is more interesting than you think or that they let on. I find that spending a lot of time with your grandparents while your still young seems to kill interest in their lives before you. My hypothesis on this is that by spending a lot of time with them our brains come to an unjustified conclusion that we've learned all we need to know about the person, and add with that we're getting older with a ton of new unknown things in life such as personal relationships, jobs, school, music, etc...name your poison. It may be it is just the later distractions, just remember that you don't truly know someone even if you've spent fifty years with them. We all have private histories. Yes, I had some good Persian/English conversations with my grandfather. I also had some similarly informative conversations with both of my uncles...so what am I missing about my father, eh? The final night I was in California we had a family dinner at my youngest uncle's house. We took some normal photographs as well but I find the goofy one of just the grandchildren the best.

<< At my uncles they also have some the cutest bathroom decorations for the kids!




Just to get out a bit and to get an errand accomplished for my uniquely awesome partner in love, my third oldest cousin and I went to get some lunch and coffee. I say coffee because it is always easier to describe getting coffee than tea to those used to living in the U.S.A. I actually purchased a Chai Tea, and don't get me started on how many languages that would really be saying Tea Tea. I received my Tea Tea from Peet's Coffee located in King's Court of Los Gatos. I believe the Chai wasn't bad but I put in cinnamon like I usually do for the health benefits and taste, but their cinnamon left me with a bitter taste and a earthly feeling in my mouth. It may be just this location, or just this batch of cinnamon but I can't in good conscience tell anyone to try the cinnamon at Peet's. I went into a beauty supply store, which wasn't a first, just that it was my first time not going with my mother. It wasn't too bad, other than feeling terribly out of place. I completed my quest to retrieve some hair dye for my companion. I left in hand with 3 oz of raging purple, 3 oz of indigo blue hair dye, and six vinyl gloves so that I don't have to see multicolored hands for a week each time the dye is used. A note here about why I bought the dye in the states, I was told the cheapest that it could be found was something like $70-$90, which could be from a lack of not knowing where to go but most likely is just because if you travel to countries that don't use a lot of dye the prices will be higher...and to my point if you like to have your hair colored and you're traveling best to bring some with you.

Before my father and I had to travel to San Francisco for are departing flights, we went to a park of sorts named Montalvn? Arts Center (see picture for my confusion), and like the name implies there is more there than just a nice lawn and trees. The orange trees' fruit was small and mostly dense , and obviously great for playing catch! There was a small garden with sculptures and plants accompanied by their scientific names. The whole place was rather lovely. My father decided to claim a tree his own, which meant climbing it. I saw him climb at least two trees. If he climbed more I didn't see. My third oldest cousin also climbed a tree. This wasn't the first time on the trip that my pops had climbed a tree. I caught the first time on digitized film and the last episode at the garden. The climbing incidents were entertaining. Speaking of trees I found one tree that looked like it had fat rolls or double chins. Another tree had an impressive amount of bird houses circling the trunk. I caught a glimpse of the art gallery they had open as well, while driving away from “Montalvn”. Overall an interesting place but as my tenth grade science teacher teaching math would put it “the air was lacking in kinetic energy”, which was too little for my energy tastes.

        

                      

                      

The ride to the airport was shorter than I thought it would be. I remember the drive to San Francisco being longer when I was younger, although that could easily be because we stopped more or some combination of the stops with the simple fact I'd find boredom easier while in a car as a child. This drive to San Francisco was shorter because traffic was good; I had an expectation that it would take more time; and lastly, my father let me talk the whole time. I do enjoy talking about things that interest me. My friends probably know all too well about my ranting abilities.

The airport was massive, but that I do remember from my other trips there. I had to kill about 6-7 hours. I started typing this blog journal, I read, I walked, I walked, I stretched, I talked on the phone, I texted, I ate food, I watch some television , I instant messaged, I walked and stretched, I bought a few snacks, talked on the phone again, etc...wasted time. I found myself getting nervous for the first time. The nervousness wasn't at any point until the boarding started. I paced and focused my thought; I found it felt something akin to what I felt when I was just about to jump out of a plane for my first time skydiving. The jitters faded once I got in line to board.

The flight was good...well, I'm still on it but good so far. I traveled Eva Air. The staff was okay. The food wasn't too shabby for economy. I have no idea if after the first meal they came around again for liquids or snacks. The only real snag was before we were to take off there was a little delay and then it turned into a large delay. It took an extra hour and a half to take off. I don't blame most of the delayed time on the airlines because it was a passenger that felt that she/he was having heart issues so we had to left them off and their luggage. I slept most of the flight, except for the first few hours and the last few, which the later is why I was able to finish this entry. We did get a breakfast meal as well. I'm excited to arrive. I'll have to post more once I've been there for a few days. 

And random, but to make sure you say Pho right because I hear a lot of people say it wrong: http://www.lovingpho.com/pho-opinion-editorial/how-to-pronounce-pho/

Tip For The Day: if you must travel, travel with room in your bag. If your bag is full before you get to your destination you've already limited yourself in what you're able to do while traveling, and I don't mean just what new things you are able to put in your luggage. I mean your mindset is too narrowed. Your focus is on what you're leaving behind and not enough on where you're going. There are exceptions to this like virtually all things in life, just make sure you're in an exception scenario before you fill that bag to the brim. And besides the mind set, getting around is much more cumbersome with either heavy luggage or a lot of items to tote around or both.

Android App List

Note, in the Process of updating links since Google changed from the android market to Play.

New Phone? Looking To Travel? Just Need Help?

Image thanks to Doug Melton, creator of the Andy-86 app.

I originally wrote this guide for my aunt but it hit me that others might like this too...

Here is a short list of Apps I recommend and a brief description of each:
Note: I tried to include only those that are free and if I made a mistake sorry. Also, if there is paid version and free version for a specific app I give the link to the free one. You should be able to search the Android Market for all of the apps below, and those that you can't I've included extra instructions.


Andy-86: For download (note that the link on the name is to the creator's website) http://download.pandaapp.com/android-app/andy-862-id2669.html click the "uploading.com" and then wait and click on the one that says "free download" in grey. You'll have to connect your phone to your computer and move the file and then install it that way, but this is a TI-86 on your phone! The TI-86 is a $120-$160 device which is great for math classes...so maybe for you or the kids?


Amazon App: go to Amazon App: go to http://www.amazon.com/mobile-apps/b?ie=UTF8&node=2350149011 and you can also click for the free app of the day but the link is for their app so you can do it all from your phone is in the upper right corner. Enter your phone number or email address and you'll be sent a link by email or SMS (depending on what you input) to download the app. You'll have to enable unknown sources to get it to install.You'll need Amazon account to take full advantage of things like the Free Paid App of the Day.


Astrid Tasks: This is a great app for to-do lists, and it also syncs with your Google account so that you can see everything online as well. You can also create calendar reminders as well from within this app.


Bubble Level: Simple app but lets you use your phone to see if things are level.




Calendar: If you don't have this app and it should just say Calendar, you'll need the Business Calendar Free app which will let you see your Google Calendar and sync everything.



Car Home: This is a nice Google app for navigating your phone while driving simple and safer. Please still watch the road!



Chrome to Phone: this is a great app that lets you send links, text, phone numbers, etc... directly to your phone. So if you have a webpage up you can send it to your phone for when you need to go.

The one catch to this is you'll need to install the add-on to your browser.
If you use FireFox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/foxtophone/?src=search

If you use Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/oadboiipflhobonjjffjbfekfjcgkhco


ColorDict: If you want a good offline dictionary than this would be it. Support for several other languages and translation modes as well. The only quark is that you have to install other apps for the other dictionaries but once they download the dictionary it will uninstall its self. ColorDict will make finding the apps you'll need/want easy.


XE Currency: A great app of seeing the currency while you're out and about in a foreign country




Documents To Go: This is great if you have non-PDF or other documents that you want to open from your phone. Only down side is the free version won't let you edit. I haven't found a good free app that will let you create/edit docs.


ezPDF: Great app for opening and reading PDF files. If you don't want ads the pro version is $3.




FaceBook: If you use FaceBook!




ES File Manager:  So you can find, rename, delete, install files (Andy-86 for example), etc... all from your phone. It does seem to have some added features as well, which mainly are a built in FTP and the ability to browse files over a network.


Free Advanced Task Manager: I like this app because sometimes apps stay open that I don't want to and you can create a widgets that will kill all of your open apps.



GMail: If you don't already have it, then this is the best email app for Gmail.




GMote: Great app for remotely controlling a desktop's mouse and keyboard. You will need to install something onto the computer but the app has instructions for that.



Goggles: Is a good and basic bar-code scanner, but I almost never use it as most places don't bother with this anymore.


Hapi Podcast: As far as free podcast mangers go this is the best one I've found.




IM+: This is a great all-in- one IMing solution for your phone. Skype, GChat, FaceBook Chat, MSN, Yahoo, etc... I have the Pro because I got it free from Amazon, but the non-Pro version isn't worth it really.


IP Webcam: Another free app that lets you use your phone as a Webcam, which is handy if your laptop/computer doesn't have one and you need one.




K-9 Mail: This is an excellent free mail program if you have anything other than GMail. The built in app is shameful and this restores what should be built in.



Google Maps: If you don't have Google Maps you should. Even if you don't have GPS in your phone you for turn by turn navigation, you can still get a direction list. Also comes with Google Navigation (see real-time traffic) and Google Places to make it easier to find locations near you.
Update: If you have the newest version you can go under the Settings > Labs and turn on some fun new features like the "Pre-cache map area" and such...not the best cache option for using maps offline but if you want a free mobile app not too shabby either.


MoBoPlayer: If you want to watch video clips that aren't in the native Android format this is your player. I know of one other free video player this also good, which is later in the list. I use this one primarily but I have the other one installed because some video files player better in it. Between the two I get all my needs met.


QQPlayer: I mentioned MoBoPlayer earlier and this is a very similar program for watching videos. I use it with Mobo because they each handle video a little differently and this one seems to do better on some files. I haven't figure out the pattern but I only use this one. Plus this app has the option for hidden video lists. Also, this one is also free.


OneBusAway: This is only for Seattle. It is a University of Washington application that helps with getting around by bus. I found most cities have something similar though. Most major cities have something similar for their buses or subways or trains, so just do a search.


Opera: I've used the default browser, and I've tried a few other free ones and even some paid ones. I've found I like Opera as a web browser the best.



Paper Camera: I know this app is $2 and I also know that it gets cliche quickly but it makes some amazing photo/art that if you don't know how to do yourself or if you don't have the software, it does it quickly and professionally.


ReadItLater: This is a little a kin to the Chrome to Phone app, but it saves the page for you ahead of time so you can read it in offline mode. You can also see what you've saved from any device you have it installed or from any computer. the Pro version is $3 and isn't worth it unless you find you want to support the project or need a few extras. I have the pro only because of Amazon's free app of the day.


SeekDroid: If you want a little more security to your phone, or peace of mind I recommend this app. Even if you don't want to opt for the Pro version at $5, which I recommend, it will still be worth while.


Skype: You'll get the IM function from IM+ but you'll want the full Skype app if you want voice or video chat.



SMS Schedule: Is what it says. You can schedule a text for later. Great for remember something late at night but don't want to disturb anyone, or if you want to send a happy birthday reminder when you remember it.


GroupText: If you want to mass text then you'll like this app. You can also setup specific groups if you find yourself texting specific groups a lot. I setup a group for my chemistry class so I could text everyone at once to figure out studying times or hangout times when we were done with tests.


Group SMS & Scheduler: Is a combination of the SMS Schedule and GroupText, but I used those more than this so I thought I'd include them just in case this app doesn't meet all of your needs. I like this app overall though so I'd say just try this one first.


SoundHound: They have a pro version of this app but I wouldn't bother unless you use this a lot, a lot. This will let you figure out what song is playing somewhere when you like it, someone asks, or you're just curious. Is like Shazam but for the free version is better since it will let you search more songs.


Speed Test: Basic app for figuring out what your connection speed is.




SwiftKey: This will replace the default keyboard and add a lot of nice features. The Pro version is $4 and I recommend it if you really like the app otherwise the free should give you everything you need. I have the pro version from Amazon's free app of the day...how I have most of my apps.


Tabs Tools: $4, which helps you tune your guitar and such.




Guitar Tabs: $3, helps you learn songs. Doesn't just give you the tabs but helps you with the rhythm and everything.
I have both of the above because of Amazon's free app of the day, and although I'm not great on the guitar I found these very useful but if I was good on the guitar I probably only want the Tabs program. Most of my friends that are good with a guitar can tune them by ear.


Nexus Torch: Turns your flash into a flashlight. It works on more than just the Nexus phone. I found it the best flashlight app because it lets me "overclock" my LED, but be careful because the LED gets really hot that way and can burn out if left on too long.


Translate: Another Google app and it is just like their website. So it works mostly great but you'll need an Internet connection.


TuneIn Radio: Great for streaming local or any radio station without having to go to the website or finding each radio stations app. If you don't like ads, Pro $1.



Twitter: If you want to Twitter than this is it.




Vevo: Similar to YouTube and has a good range of features and content, but I honestly never used it much since I don't have enough bandwidth to stream things they way I'd like.



Voice: A Google app to connect you with your Google Voice account, and if you don't have a Google number you should get one: https://www.google.com/voice I find it a great advantage to have one so if you want family that only has a landline to call you just pick a number that is local for them. I also enjoy texting from a computer keyboard and not just my phone. You don't have to but you can also use it to manage your voice-mail, and if you opt to have it forward all your calls to the Google number to your cell or any other line you wish. You can also forward texts to your phone as well so even if you don't use the app you can still get your texts and calls all in one place. I find it useful when traveling and you don't have a cellphone overseas because you can still make calls for free to any phone number in the United States and text your friends & family.


Voice Recorder: Simple sound recorder but what I like about this app over the others is that it keeps working on my phone even after I turn off the screen.


Wolfram Alpha: It will solve systems of equations for you and do other searches like Google, but where it excels is it will give you a encyclopedia like result with broken down information. It is $3 and I only got it because it was free from Amazon but came in handy when doing advanced calculations that my calculator couldn't. You can also search and do math for free on their website.


XBMC Remote: Is a remote for XBox Media Center. XBMC is much more than the name implies. If you have it running on your desktop it can do some amazing stuff, check it out http://xbmc.org/


YouTube: View and search YouTube from you phone.



I hope this helps you or someone you know. Let me know if I missed anything!