The Wedding Trip Part 1: Improving my Luck

So, Venus and I had our wedding ceremony in Boracay, on December 22nd , 2013.  But, we ended up having many adventures both before and after the wedding itself.  This will be the first in a series of blogs showing you all of it.

Venus went to Taipei, Taiwan, the day before Thanksgiving.  We picked that day because the flights were cheapest.  I needed to get through a few weeks more of school before I could get away.  So, I wasn't scheduled to  fly out until a few weeks before the wedding.

My laptop had been having issues for quite a while.  So, I decided that I wanted to send it in for repairs while I was gone.  Unfortunately, the hard drive was having problems so I couldn't make a complete backup before I did that.  I tried like 5 different backup programs and none of them worked.

A few days before I left, I decided to register for classes for next term.  Much to my surprise, there was a financial hold on my registration.  Looking at it, I saw that FSU decided that I owed them $7900.  Apparently, some time in the middle of the term, they decided that I should not have been given student loans after all and unpaid me.  So, not only did I owe them that money, but also I was expecting to get another student loan payment in January for the same amount.  And after paying for the wedding, I didn't have an extra $7900 lying around.   Even after my flight to Taiwan was delayed by 24 hours due to weather, I was literally on the phone in the airport trying to talk to people about it.

So after having almost $16,000 of financial aid taken away, you would think things could only get better.  But somehow, I managed to lose the cash I brought with me to Taiwan in an airport somewhere.  Needless to say, I was pretty stressed about the whole thing when I got to Taiwan.

Venus had planned a lot of dinners and lunches and such for us in Taiwan.  Since I got there a day later, we had to cram everything into one less day.  Most of the wedding stuff was prepared.  But we still had a lot of heavy wedding stuff that we had to divide up and get people to bring to the wedding.  Venus did a great job at planning every aspect of the wedding.  I will write a whole blog about that later.

One of the first things I had to do was meet Venus's dad.  I have seen her mom many times, but I hadn't met the dad.  This would be the dad who sat her down before she came to the U.S. and told her "Whatever you do, don't marry an American."  (Pro-tip:  If you think your daughter is too rebellious, never give her opportunities like that...)  I survived the lunch ok.  So, maybe my luck was already changing...

Venus wasn't so sure though, so she said maybe I should go to a Taoist Temple.  So we went to Xingtian Gong. I had of this temple before because they have an MRT station named after it.  In case you ever want to go to one, I will tell you how you go about getting some good luck.  You can buy some offerings from people on the street on the way to the temple.    

Step 1:  Leave your offering on the table.  You do not need to open them.  We didn't know that and Venus opened the rice cake.  The volunteers there made fun of us a little bit for that.

Step 2: Get some lit incense from the volunteer there and bow 3 times to the statues of the gods.  Then
you throw the incense in with all the others.











Step 3: Get some more lit incense from a volunteer and get in line.  Then the volunteers will waive the incense around you and say something.  They say your name a lot.  I'm not sure what else they said










At the end, you can take your offering back.  You can eat it if you want.  It seems kind of weird to me that you get to do that.  In the end, they gave this and said I would have good luck if I kept it with me.







After we went to the temple, we went to the Volando Urai Spring Spa & Resort which is always nice.

And then we got to see our friend Andrea which was really great too.

Next time, I will talk about our trip to Shanghai.

In Defense of Taiwanese girls

So, I read this web page and it really made me mad the way they were criticizing Taiwanese girls.  There are so many things wrong with the things they said there that I hardly know where to start.  But, looking at it carefully, I think the whole thing is fake anyway.  At the very least, it was put on the ck101 website by someone (most likely a Taiwanese guy) that was trying to install racial hatred against foreigners.

Why do I think it is fake, you ask?  Well, you have some guy that is supposedly an American Born Chinese (ABC) spouting a bunch of really horrible things about Taiwanese girls.  But, he posts a bunch of pictures of white guys with Taiwanese girls.  Why would he do this?  It makes no sense.  Why would he post a bunch of pictures of Taiwanese girls with other random white guys? On the other hand, if he was just trying to stir up some anti-foreigner sentiment, then he would just be putting up pictures to try to make Taiwanese girls reading it be pissed off at foreigners.  Venus says that probably the words in the article itself were taken from some BBS posting or something, and the pictures were added just to this web site by someone else.  If so, then then we have something put together for reasons of promoting racism quoting unnamed sources without attribution and trying to make it look like it it was put there by foreigners.        

Anyway, it still conveys some pretty negative stereotypes about Taiwanese girls.  So, let me address those.  For example:

"Yes the long eyelashed and legs empty egg-shells are gold diggers, oozing superficial arrogance that would turn a sensible man like myself into a sexual vice animal against it."

If this was real, then he must not have met the same Taiwanese girls I have. Every country has a small subset of girls who are gold diggers.  I would imagine that given his less than charming personality, the only girls that would want to talk to him were the gold diggers.  The others would (hopefully) dismiss him as soon as conversation moved beyond the superficial.  This might come across as "superficial arrogance" I suppose.  I would call it "not wanting to date an asshole".  The only other thing that I can imagine would make someone think Taiwanese girls are superficial is their makeup. It turns out that girls in other countries tend to wear makeup more than girls in the US.  I don't think this is superficial.  It is just a minor cultural difference.

"As an Adult Business Teacher, i listen to a lot of answers to topic questions in my class. when the topic gets around to love and relationships you always hear TW Girls saying the same exact shit.... 'i want a guy who is tall, understands me, is responsible, etc'"

He goes on to say wanting someone to understand you is some sort of character flaw.  Personally, I think that is pretty universal.  For example here is a list of things girls should look for in a guy. #8 on the list is "He makes me happy & he understands me".  Almost all girls also want a guy who is responsible.  It is a mistake to assume that someone from a different culture can't understand you.  Besides, if someone wanted me to write an essay in Chinese about what I wanted in a relationship, you can guarantee that I will write the most basic and easily translatable stuff I can.  It is pretty likely that girls who are learning English have all sorts of ideas about their ideal guy that they can't really express in English.  Ultimately, most girls want a guy who loves them for some esoteric qualities of their personality and not just for their beauty.  

There is a bunch of other stuff on the web page that is super offensive that I won't even bother with.

The Truth About Taiwanese Girls

Taiwanese girls are just like girls everywhere else.  Though, if you want to compare them to American girls, there are a few differences. So, let me talk about a few things I have noticed.

In general, Taiwanese girls (and guys for that matter) are better educated than American girls.  Taiwan had this idea to build way too many colleges or something.  At one point like 90% of  the people who took the college entrance exam were accepted into college.  According to the US Government, 74% of Taiwanese 25 years old or older have a bachelor's degree or higher. In the US, only 28% of people 25 years old or older have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Taiwanese girls (and guys too) think their English is much worse than it is. I think it is just how they were raised.  One time, when Venus was a kid she got 98 out of 100 on a test.  She was very proud and told her mom. Her mom was not impressed at all because two other people in her class scored 100.  I think Taiwanese parents are very reluctant to give their kids credit.  Anyway, so you have a lot of Taiwanese girls that speak pretty good English, but are really scared about talking to people in English.
                         
Taiwanese girls are a little more dependent on their parents.  They tend to live with their parents longer.  They tend to get married a little bit later.  In some cases, Taiwanese girls might listen to their parents a bit more than American girls.  

On average, Taiwanese girl are thinner than American girls.  I think this is related to how horrible our diet is here.  Almost all girls from Taiwan have dark hair and eyes and tan skin.  
     
So, in conclusion, Taiwanese girls are great. I don't know why anyone would think otherwise.  
    

Trip to Hong Kong with Venus

I am going to Hong Kong over spring break with Venus and her mom and her nanny.  I am very excited.  The best thing about Hong Kong is that they have High Tea there.  But even better than the high tea  is that I will get to see Venus.

As most of you know, Venus and I have had a long distance relationship for such a long time that it feels like an eternity.  Not being able to see her every day sucks.  And not just a little bit.  A lot.  I am very lonely here without Venus.  We got engaged over the summer.

Anyway, I miss Venus so much.  Seriously. For one thing, when she is not around, it is really quiet.  For those of you who don't know Venus, she likes to talk a lot.  I think this is great.  When she is not talking, she will often make weird noises.  I think maybe she can't really handle silence or something.  In any case, it means that when she is around, things can never get too boring.  But, the side-effect is that when she is not around, it seems really really quiet all the time.

Between the two of us, Venus is the one who works harder to keep in touch with me.  We skype usually about two times per day.  At least we can see each other.  But, it isn't quite the same as having her here in person.  When we can't skype, Venus will call me.  She is really good at this sort of thing.  I don't think we could survive the long-distance without out her skills at this.

I also miss Venus at really random times.  For example, I miss her when I am grocery shopping.  One time, when we were grocery shopping she said she liked the song they were playing, so I danced with her to it.  I miss that.  Anyway, when we are grocery shopping, normally, that's when she tells me how we need to buy a lot of vegetables and less soda.  I am not too happy about the "less soda" part, but I still miss her being there to tell me that.  After all, I get diet Mountain Dew, which is green, and that makes it a vegetable.  For some unknown reason, Venus doesn't agree with my impeccable logic.  See?  Even when we argue, it is cute.*

Speaking of arguments, we really don't have that many arguments at all. It is definitely the most drama free relationship I have ever had.  Now granted, at times I have been known to have friends who have a lot of drama in their lives.  And, perhaps once or twice, I have dated high-drama girls.  OK, more than twice.  But anyway, Venus is really low-drama. We don't really agree on everything.  But, when we disagree, we generally talk about stuff and work it out.

Venus's dad doesn't think that she can cook.  At one point, he told her no one would want to marry her because of her cooking.  He is so wrong.  Venus is a really awesome cook.  I  miss making dinner with her.  Generally that involves me chopping a bunch of vegetables (but not diet mountain dew) and her doing every thing else.  Occasionally, I will make rice or something (even after that one time where I used the wrong bowl, which apparently was bad for some reason.)  It is a little odd that she doesn't know the correct way to eat with chop sticks.  But, it seems like a lot of Taiwanese are like that.  What's that about?  

Anyway, I am really looking forward to going to Hong Kong with her. And I am excited that she will eventually come and live her.  I can hardly wait.



* I also believe that chocolate is a vegetable.

The Wulai Hot Springs

A long time ago, Venus and I took a trip to a little town called Wulai.  It is famous for its hot springs and also its Native Taiwanese culture.  The Taiwanese call the non-Chinese people that were here originally aboriginals.  But, every time I hear that word, I think of Australia.  Anyway, Wulai was apparently derived from some words meaning "hot and poisonous".  (Mental note:  If you are going to try to promote tourism, try not to be too honest about how you name your town.  We never called Orlando "Cheap Swampland City" for a reason... )

It is very scenic. There are a lot of hot spring hotels there.  Some of them are more expensive than others. In the picture below, you see a bunch of pipes/hoses that carry water from the hot springs across the river to some hotels. 

I think this is a temple

They have a traditional market there that serves a few things that are less Chinese than the typical night markets in Taipei City.

The hotel room was amazing.  We had our own private balcony with two bath tubs.  One is for hot spring water and the other is for cold water.  Even though it was really hot outside, it was still relaxing.  At night, we had a good view of the stars.

The next morning, they left a great breakfast outside our door.  

Anyway, going to a hot spring hotel was really relaxing, and I highly recommend it. 

Proposing to Venus

On August 7th, 2011, I asked Venus to marry me. But, I had been planning it for a long time.  I think almost everyone in the world knew that I was going to propose except for Venus.  I had many of her friends helping me. They were really awesome.

Buying the Ring


A while back, I went to Orlando. Wennie was there and she helped me pick out the engagement ring.  Iris had previously helped me look at some rings online too.  Desire had offered to go ring shopping with me.  I was going to do that, but then I found out Wennie would be in Orlando and so I got her to help me.  I had no idea what Venus's ring size should be.  I have decided that Facebook should ask every girl what their ring size is and put it in their profile information.  Then, after they have been in a relationship for a few years, it should start posting messages to their boyfriend that say,"Did you know that Venus's ring size is (whatever)?"  

The Search for a Chow Chow Dog

Venus loves Chow Chow dogs.  We have plans to have one some day.  We talk about it a lot.  Anyway, I was hoping to find a Chow Chow dog here in Taiwan and have it there when I proposed to her.  But I couldn't find one.  I had Wennie send an e-mail out to Venus's friends, but they couldn't really find one either.  I even tried posting on http://www.forumosa.com but no one there really helped me much either. So, I reluctantly had to give up on having the chow chow dog there.



Balloons

I needed to buy some balloons.  That in and of itself proved difficult.  I thought I could just find a florist and they would have them.  But, many florists don't really show up on Google maps if you search for them in English, and it is really hard to figure out which ones are near an MRT stations, and which ones are in the middle of nowhere.  Also, the ones that had web sites didn't appear to have any balloons.  I asked for help from many people.  Alice asked around, but didn't really know where to get balloons.  Jackie gave me some suggestions for stores that I could buy balloons at even though she had a lot of serious stuff going on at the time.  Nan were very helpful.  Her English is not too bad, but like most Taiwanese, she thinks it is much worse than it really is.  Eva was super-awesome.  She found me a balloon place and even went with me to pick out the balloons.  I paid for them in advance, and she picked them up for me and brought them to the restaurant.
  
The Lunch Where I Proposed


Eva, Nan, and Lina, set up a lunch for us all to get together.  And, secretly, they knew I would propose there.  Their boyfriends also came, so that was cool.  When Venus and I were in the MRT station, Eva called me to ask me if I wanted the restaurant to make a little cake with "Marry me please" on it or whatever.  I thought that was a great idea.  But, Venus was right next to me, so I couldn't say too much.  When I got off of the phone, Venus asked me who called me.  I didn't want to lie to her, but I also couldn't really tell her who it was because Eva never really calls me normally.  So, I told her I would tell her after lunch.  Of course, Venus got really curious then and kept asking me about it.  She wasn't really suspicious or jealous or whatever.  But, if you ever want to drive Venus crazy, just tell her that you have a secret that you will tell her later.  She's cute like that.

The Proposal

So, after we ate lunch, I got the balloons and the cake and the ring and brought them all to the table and got down on one knee and proposed to Venus.  They wrote "Merry me" instead of  "Marry me" on the cake, which was amusing.







For a little while, she was incapable of speaking.  I was pretty sure she would say yes, but when it took her a really long time to answer, I got a little worried.  Eventually, she said yes. :)  Here is a video and some pictures:

  

Venus was in shock		"Is this really happening?"
	Venus Loves baloons	The ring was a million sizes too big for her finger...
We are so happy together	The guys

Our trip to Kenting

Venus and I took a trip to Kenting, which is a town on the coast of Taiwan.  It is point C on the map below:



Getting There

On Thursday night, we road the high speed rail to Kaohsiung and spent the night there. It is about 245 miles form Taipei to Kaohsiung. The high speed rail is so awesome.  You pay around 1490NT ($ 52 dollars) and get from Taipei to Kaohsiung in about 1.5 hours.  We have nicknamed Kaohsiung "City of the Lounge Bar" because the whole city looks like a lounge bar. Anyway, it is very beautiful at night though.  

Then, on Friday, we took a Taxi from Kaohsiung to Kenting.  It is around 100 miles, but it only cost us 350 NT (around $ 12) each for that and it took about 2.5 hours.  
  
We stayed at a really great Bed and Breakfast place which is owned by a guy who used to be a chef at a 5-star restaurant.  They were nice enough to give us the honeymoon suite at a discount.  Our room had it's own balcony, and a bath tub that overlooked the ocean.

Here is a video of our room.  As you can see, Venus was very excited about it.  She's so cute.

Here are some pictures:

During the day, we went to the beach and explored a little bit.  We ate at some great restaurants too. At night, we went to the night market there.

	We put our stuff too close to the water
On Sunday, we went to an Aquarium.

The breakfast at our Bed and Breakfast was really good.  I especially liked their home made bread.  The pictures really don't do it justice.



It was really amazing and romantic weekend.  We really didn't want to come back.

My handwriting in Chinese is better than in English...

Doing  homework on the high speed rail

Studying for my test