hello everyone, sorry for the lack of updates lately!! i’ll be sure to post some stuff up this weekend but i just wanted to share some exciting news to all of you — the looking glass is now a 4 piece band!!

a few weeks ago, we were introduced to a local dj here named baer, who introduced us to a local drummer named greg. we talked through facebook/msn for a while and finally got the chance to meet up on wednesday.  while phoebe was in the US, her friend who plays bass, iki, expressed interest in playing with us so come wednesday, and all of us finally get a chance to play together for the first time!

the playing studio — the one thing that can keep me living in taiwan forever.  for $10/hr, we can rent out a studio space that includes all the equipment any band could ever need.  all we needed to bring were our guitars, synth and a pair of drumsticks.  we could play as loud as we wanted without having to worry about neighbors next door.  coolest thing of all was that we got an awesome view of ximen from our window.

we grinded out 3 songs off our demo which was awesome.  playing with a real drummer and bassist really makes a huge difference!  we also noticed a few people standing outside our door, trying to sneak a listen and a little peek of what we were doing.  i don’t have any pictures of the studio space or the new guys, but i’ll have some by next wednesday!  we now practice every wednesday, and it sounds weird, but wednesday is now my favorite day of the week.

so welcome greg and iki to the band, they’re both amazing players and hopefully we’ll be able to play a few shows in the near future

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wednesday night (birthday eve): 人間 with my classmates!

my “birthday cake” — 25 test tubes filled with what we think is sprite and vodka (all for ~$25us!)

thursday (day of my birthday!): dinner with annie @ 王品

course 1 – bread with liver and butter

course 1.5: complimentary birthday champagne

course 2: salads

my seafood salad

her seafood fruit salad

course 3: seafood soup!

course 4: main dish

my steak roast

her fish and ginormous shrimp (practically a baby lobster)

course 5: frutas

course 6: dessert

her lava cake+ice cream (apparently one of the best she’s ever had!)

my creme brulee (served in a giant freakin shell)

course 6.5 – my birthday cake! haha

the service here was awesome.  i can’t count how many times each of the servers said happy birthday to me, haha.  not like in the states where you go somewhere for your birthday, they give you a complimentary cake and tell you to gtfo so other people can sit haha. they even gave us a picture frame!!

by far one of the best meals i’ve had in a very very long time   thanks honeyyyyyyyy!

friday night: gotta go to primo

pre party at 全家

the guy in the back, elroy, gave us a lot of tequila, and for every 1 he gave them, he gave me 2…death by tequila

with our favorite dj

then at some point in the night, the girl in the first picture started pouring tequila down our throats on the dance floor….it burn so good

there are a lot more pictures from this night which are probably more entertaining but they are currently stuck on wes’s camera so i’ll post those up later!!

thanks to everyone who made this birthday super special!! that goes to all the people who i spent it with here and to everyone who left an email, IM or wall post.  i wish i could get everyone back home over here so we can party together!!!

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just a pic from the first night

more to come this weekend!

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one thing you’ll learn while living in taiwan is that convenience is always top notch, even the way they prepare food! i’m sure many of you know what a japanese bento box is, well this is a taiwanese style bento box…called a bian dang (便當). bian dang-bento-bian dang-bento….nevermind.  not only do they include a full meal + a drink usually, it’s cheap as hell (~$2US).  normally they give it to you in a paper to go looking box, but i’ve recently found a place down the street that puts the food in an actual wooden box.

so cool

mmm 叉燒 (i think they spell it “char siu” in the states hahah)

only problem with the wooden box?  i think i ate a splinter or 2 while scraping off the last few pieces of rice -_-

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人間 has by far the best gin and tonic i’ve ever had!

in case you can’t see, that is one giant ice cube in there…ugh so good

anyway, to enter this lounge, you have to put your hand through this rock

classy drinks

we all got these nice seats because we showed up early, but wes came late and had to sit here HAHA

ya!

pretty cool glasses

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i don’t know about the rest of you guys, but all i know is that when turtles in time was announced to be released on super nintendo, i was ECSTATIC.  when they announced that they would release a remixed version on xbox360 a while ago and NOT ps3, i was so sad…so so sad.

BUT THEN, i came to taiwan, bought the ps3 slim, went to the playstation store and to my delight, they released a version for the ps3!  YESSSS.  i am currently playing the hell out of this game like i used to back in elementary school.

best $10 ever spent.

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this is what i usually eat for breakfast before class

and maybe once or twice a week i get this for about $2US

yum yum!

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on saturday afternoon, we all decided to take a trip to costco, but it’s not as easy as a trip to costco in the states would be.  in taiwan, the costco is out of the main city, so we can’t just get on the MRT and start shopping.  we have to take an MRT, take a grueling bus ride and then walk a ways to get there.  the reason for being so far out of the city is because getting a building that ginormous in the city would be nearly impossible, so getting something that big in the more countryside is a lot easier.  anyway, i finally decided to take out my big camera for this journey:

waiting for the bus (notice, annie and wes mirror imaged)

they qt

the painful bus ride

ya that’s me

the walk

the hike

the balancing

the arrival

the food!

from left to right:

• clam chowder
• pizza (seafood, hawaiian, beijing duck!)
• chicken wrap and bulgolgi wrap!
• hot dog
• hot/cold drink or coffee
• salad
• mango slushy
• vanilla yogurt with mango topping

and i got a beijing duck pizza (which was amazing)

after buying a bunch of stuff, we realized we had too much to carry so we decided to cab back to our place which to our surprise, was only a $3 cab ride -_-

next post will be an acoustic video of The Looking Glass playing a song off our demo!

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so we went to a pool party at the taipei country club.  when we thought country club, we envisioned this super luxurious place but came to realize that this country club was literally a country club.  the pool was super nice though, especially because it’s been so hot and humid lately.  why aren’t there more pools in taiwan? it’s seriously the perfect way to cool off.  there was even a waterslide!

countryside pool, pretty cool

it was a pool party for the cool kids at my school

see the slide?

the guy behind us is clearly having the time of his life

i love how everywhere you go in taipei, you can always grab a pretty spectacular view of the 101

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