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• i love Taipei

  Wednesday, Feb 18, 2009 12:49AM / Standard Entry / Members only
  19 comments

   

  So my friends Christina, Marie and Amy told me that there are great photo studios here where you can get your hair and makeup done, and they also help provide wardrobe.  I've been looking for one and finally found one in Xi Men Ding, an amazing shopping area known as the "Harajuku of Taiwan". 

  The place is called Modern Concept Photography.  I went in and scheduled a shoot for the following day.  They didn't speak English too well but one guy spoke a moderate amount, and everyone else tried their best (while of course clowning my Mandarin).  When I went in for the shoot, a girl with dreadlocks did my hair and makeup.  Their wardrobe selection wasn't very big, so I'm glad I had brought some clothes. 

  I paid $180 for two looks and got my 15 favorite shots on a cd (which I took home right afterward).   They allowed 6 hours for the shoot but I ended up taking only 3 hours.  (I'm pretty fast with these things.)  Now that is a deal!  The place isn't as big as it is tall (6-or-7 stories) with tons of different backdrops.  I wanted my first look to be more natural and the second to be a "cute" semi-fobby type of look. 

  Here are some of my favorite shots:

  

  
  

   

  
  

  I went to the Taipei Zoo and saw this Caucasian girl walking by herself.  She looked American, and I felt like she had a good vibe, so I jumped at the chance and said, "Hi!  Where you from?"  She's actually British, and is here looking for a teaching job.  We ended up walking and talking for hours, and had a great time!!  I have never done anything like that in my life, so that was HUGE for me, and rates as one of the highlights of my trip so far! 

  

  Also, my Mandarin is improving!  WHOOOO!!

  I mentioned in my first Taipei album captions that Taiwanese guys are really tall.  (Girls too!)  Not only is that just awesome in itself (I'm 5'9" in heels), but they also don't have that cocky arrogance that other tall Asian guys have for being the only tall Asian guy in the room.

  Here is a vid of one of my favorite areas in Taipei: Xi Men Ding.

   

  Someone told me about a wholesale shopping area called Wufenpu.  I went there yesterday and wow, it was amazing.  It stretched on and on like an eternal maze, packed with shoppers.  The clothes were really cheap, but most were not the greatest quality, and there were tons of shirts that looked great from afar but up close you realize the stitching is crooked and the English on them is all jacked up.  You have to search in order to find good stuff.  There was so much to look at everywhere, my neck got sore from my swiveling head. 

  On Saturday night I went to the clubbing area around Taipei 101, did some people-watching but didn't really feel like going into the clubs, so I went into the movie theater and watched Benjamin Button with Chinese subtitles.  It was cool, but since most of the people were reading the subtitles, they would all laugh at the jokes a few seconds before the actors would reach the punch line.  It was like a warning to me that something funny was coming.  And then when I got out of the movie at nearly 4am, all the clubgoers were stumbling around outside, red-faced and bleary eyed, talking loudly, heads resting on their knees, laying across benches, puking.   It was quite the change of scenery from earlier.

  Off to Tokyo!