Taiwan Day 3!

Sorry for the delay in my posts; there's no internet connection readily available at my grandmother's house! I have to walk a couple of houses to my uncle's house to upload videos and pictures, and then it takes forever for everything to process! But here I am with day three of our Taiwan tour! On this day, we mainly visited the Hakka town in Taiwan, where they specialized in home goods such as pottery, bath soaps, and even homemade wooden massagers! There were also BEAUTIFUL intricate wood carvings and sculptures on sale, which I'm sure were worth a ton because they take to long to complete and every little minute detail is paid great attention to. Below are the video and the pictures I took on that day, remember to watch in HD! Enjoy :)

Day 2 in Taiwan!

Hey everyone! I'm currently in Malaysia YAY! I was finally able to upload a few of my videos on youtube, even though it took an eternity to process because of the internet connection here in Malaysia. I already have some vlogs in Malaysia in queue ready to upload and share with you all here, but first I must finish uploading day 3 and 4 in Taiwan! My trip was amazing, the last day even more so, since I was able to purchase a couple more pairs of shoes and goodies! Enough talking, check out the video and the pictures below of beautiful sights and food you will only find in Taiwan!! Watch it in HD to truly enjoy all the sights, especially Sun Moon Lake!

Day 1 in Taiwan!

I'd successfully uploaded and edited day 1's footage in Taiwan, saved it, then opened it up later only to find that all the files in the video were corrupted!! It's my fault actually, because I uploaded the files to Windows Movie Maker straight from the memory card and deleted them right after they were uploaded, which caused the broken links :( All the videos were lost from day 1, but fortunately I still have the pictures! The lost videos showed the streets of Taiwan more in depth, and I'm so upset I can't share it with you here :( We did all kinds of things, from visiting the museum of Chiang Kai-Shek to experiencing the night life on the bustling
streets of Taiwan!

Taipei 101, ranked second tallest in the world, with Dubai's Burj Khalifa taking the title for #1

Salt and Pepper Porkchops - FIRST MEAL IN TAIWAN!!

After enduring 16 or so hours on a plane plus a connecting flight, we'd finally arrived in Taiwan! It was almost dinner time, and as much as my mom and I would have loved to walk around and shop for some clothes, we were all JUST TOO TIRED and exhausted from our flight to wander that far haha. We had a bit of trouble deciding what to eat, considering how we wanted to have a real, authentic taste of Taiwan for our first meal! We finally decided on this local noodle shop, which was known for their amazing porkchops that went fantastic with their homemade noodles.

Salt and pepper Pork chops with pickles on top.

The perfect combo to end the long day of spending 16 hours in a plane!!

I wish we walked around more to see more of the night life, but our tour of Taiwan will start tomorrow morning, and I plan to take many, many more pictures :) Check back here for more updates!!

V

Goodbye NY!

Ah, the day has come at last. In two hours I will be boarding our plane to Taiwan, and our adventure begins from there! The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the grueling 18 hour flight itself, as I tend to get motion sickness quite easily :( My plan is to just sleep through the whole ride, and then wake up to arrive in Taiwan! From there, I will try my best to capture every special moment to share with you all on this blog :) I can't wait to experience all the great sights and food!!!! I have an idea of a photo and vlog diary in mind; stay tuned for amazing adventure in Taiwan and Malaysia!!

To everyone living in the states--hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July!

One of the most beautiful islands on the archipelago of Langkawi, in Malaysia!  I'm really hoping we'll have a chance to go there, I remember visiting Langkawi when I was younger and seeing serene oceans and crystal clear blue waters!

V

Home style Latin food yummmm!!

Anyone who has been to Cafe Habana knows just how their renowned Mexican style grilled corn makes you salivate just thinking about it!! They only have two locations, one on Prince St and Elizabeth St in Manhattan, NY and another one in Brooklyn. I've only gone to their Manhattan location because it's just so convenient when you're shopping in SoHo around the area! Today, I decided to take my friend Annie to this little gem so that she could have a taste of the amazing grilled corn for herself! The lines are never really that bad, and even if they are bustling with customers this little cafe has a really great and fast turnover rate! We both ordered an ear of grilled corn each, and we split their also-famous Cuban Sandwich, which drips with the juices from the fresh pulled pork :) Prepare for a whole ton of salivating and lip licking :

The oh-so-famous Mexican grilled corn. Grilled to perfection with a side of some lime wedges. Then they slather on some good ol' mayo with some cheese, cumin and chili powder, and you have your own mouth-watering side dish :)

Where are my pianists out there?!?!

So, I mentioned somewhere in my earlier posts that I'm very passionate about being a pianist! Granted, I haven't been taking lessons and taking a professional's tips and advice for quite a while, but I believe that if you have it in you and if you practice for a considerable amount of time, anyone is capable of playing a song of any caliber, no matter how intricate the piece! Some finger dexterity practicing is needed too though, of course :)

I find that playing music takes me away to a place where nothing else matters and it is just me, the melody, and the notes harmoniously flowing together. I've recently started playing some classical music again, Chopin, to be exact. For those of you who aren't familiar with the composer, he was greatly known for composing beautiful waltzes and nocturnes, and was dubbed as "the poet of the piano". Understandably enough, I had no interest in classical music when taking lessons as a child, and I would've much rather skipped practicing all together! Somehow classical music found its way back to me, and I really don't remember how, but I spontaneously decided to flip open one of my old Chopin books. I'm currently working to perfect Valse Op. 64 No.1, also known as the Minute Waltz! Here's a beautiful interpretation from Youtube that I particularly enjoyed listening to:

Close your eyes while listening, now can you imagine an image of a puppy happily chasing around his own tail? Apparently Chopin had been watching just that, and it lead him to compose this beautiful piece!
So if you are interested at all in listening/watching my interpretation of the Valse, stay tuned VERY SOON, and I will be more than happy to share my version :) I'm currently trying to the best of my ability to perfect this waltz haha.

P.S. I would like to share with you all, my OOTD!

I didn't want to pass up the perfect opportunity to check out some sights on top of my roof, so I took a little trip there after work today :) Enjoy!

xoxo,

Valerie