Winter break in review

Behold the Corona snowman! Found only in the sweetest of pubs in Taiwan, I suppose. This was at Saints & Sinners, during a Christmas dinner Mark and I had courtesy of my aunt. Thanks 大姨!!


One of many animals pasted on the walls of the Taipei Zoo MRT. He just makes you want to say, "Hyuk!" for him.


The only real hiking we got to do over break was to 象山 again. It was another grey, cloudy day, which made for good hiking. Unfortunately, there was a dearth of wildlife that day. Gone were the giant snails and even stray cats I remember from over the summer.


My second uncle enjoying his dinner with a glass of whiskey. He's a great guy, really hilarious when he starts to drink. He says some pretty ridiculous stuff. Here's to your health and long life, uncle! Cheers.

Happy 2008.

Elephants? In Taiwan?

By a most fortuitous coincidence, I got to traverse the beginning of the Elephant Mountain trail (象山) with an uncle of mine. I had stayed overnight at another aunt's house after eating out with a good chunk of my very extensive family, to celebrate the arrival of some more relatives coming back from America. In the morning, my uncle invited me to go hiking with him and his buddies, something he likes to do on weekends. His buddies canceled on him due to the brief bout of rain that morning, and it looked like I would be hitting up the Mah-Jong table with my aunts that afternoon instead.

But, after some more discussion, we decided to go anyway, since the rain had stopped after lunch. So I got my hike, and a treasure trove of amateur-naturalist delights.

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The alternative title to this post would have been "Snail Photo Shoot," given how many pictures I took of these critters

I love natural selection. Who wants to eat bird feces anyway?