Le Ble d'Or

turns out i was wrong. the name of the place is "Le Ble d'Or". went there with a couple of other expats there last night. the lager is good. i'll need to return to try their hefeweisse and dunkel. at least i now know that taiwan can produce good beer :)  took some pics with the iphone

they won some gold medal in a japanese beer fest

explaining the bavarian purity law

prices for the lager

prices for the hefeweisse

prices for the dunkel

and this is what a 1L pitcher looks like

the parents visit and gluttony ensues

my parents visited taipei the past couple of days, and it's been non-stop eating. my mom thinks the beef noodle place i took her to is the best in the world. my dad's ipad is awesome. cant wait to get one for myself. the only thing missing is the ability to write traditional chinese. i have that capability on my iphone. hoping that it will be put back when the device is released in taiwan in june.

indulgences

tuesday it started raining again. i had plans to meet a friend for lunch, and hoped that it would stop by then. it did.

in the morning, i went to starbucks at miramar, which is the shopping center with the largest imax screen in asia. worked there for a couple of hours on the presentation i'll be giving next week. my friend showed up around 1pm and we went for lunch at the food court there. got ramen, which i love. but it was different. the soup and the ingredients were very taiwanese in flavor. not sure if i like that. afterwards we went to watch "how to train your dragon" it feels wierd having chinese subtitles. but i enjoyed the movie. it was heartfelt, and the action sequences were quite good. the 3d could have been better-- seemed off focus at times. but maybe it was the calibration of the projector?

at night, i went back to my favorite stinky tofu place. yum. also had a plate of yam leaves. i used to not like them, but now, it's great. and a bowl of pigs blood soup. there's nothing like hot steamy comfort food on a rainy night.

upcoming pomsets talk

to be given at Taiwan's National Center for High Performance Computing (NCHC). it was actually scheduled a couple of weeks ago, but i just saw the official announcement today.
announcement

an eventful weekend and a lost battle

friday night was a grand milonga at the american club. one of the instructors here had invited a couple from argentina to come and teach, and this milonga, for which you had to register, was in their honor. the place is supposed to be one of the best in taiwan, but it having been around for a while, has a feel of an old ballroom, and not one of the more modern ones. it was a good milonga, with lots of people (over 200).

after it ended, i was very fortunate to catch the night bus home. most bus lines had shut down, so everyone else had to take the cab. that's one of the problems with taiwan-- public transport ends at midnight for the most part, and then you're left taking the cab. which ultimately, isn't too expensive. cross town is only about NT$350 (just over US$10), but it's a lot for this city.

saturday was spent dancing too. ya-ting had asked me to help her with some steps, so i went to the practica in the afternoon. she is an amazingly fast learner. then i went to the class being taught by the visiting instructors. and after a quick dinner, to the milonga. finally get home around 1am.

woke up at 5:30am, to take the first train to taichung. got on the metro at 6:03am, made it to the station ticket window at 6:35am, right when the doors to the 6:36am train closed. i was trying to make that train, because there's a significant discount on them. not really a big deal, i caught the 7am train instead.

once there, i learned that the place in the mountains for grilling chickens had closed. if only someone had told me earlier, then i wouldnt have had to go down so early. anyway, a day spent with the relatives.

sunday night spent at my aunt's place. this time, i was so tired by the time we got home i just went to bed. and woke up a couple hours later with lots of mosquito bites. even in places that were covered by the comforter. sneaky. tried to deal with it, but finally pulled myself out of bed at 4am. i worked on my laptop while keeping an eye out. and killed a bunch. so, while i did damage, i think i lost this battle.

monday i got back to taipei and took another class with the visiting instructors. this one supposedly on milonga traspie, but it wasn't. nevertheless, it was good and i learned a couple more steps. got home at around 11pm and passed out