Rock Climbing, Chinese Dresses & Sengoku Basara!!!

Friday April 26^th, 2013

Awoken and heading for school twenty minutes earlier (a tired twenty minutes earlier), my efforts were rewarded by participating in a class trip. Seemingly associated with military class, we took a bus to “Zhishan Junior High School” located close by the National Palace Museum. There was only one reason for coming here…a fantastic, exciting reason that is. For the feat of rock climbing! :D The school had a small rock climbing wall outside that we all could give a shot. From the Chinese I understood, I think a man talked about how expensive this activity could be so therefore it is good to try it today when it’s free. That’s my best guess anyway and a probable one at that.

The wall could be divided into two sections, the left for guys and the right for girls. This is so because the left is a harder level than the right’s lower difficulty. Therefore girls (and anyone really chubby) were automatically categorized to the right while guys were assigned for the more difficult side. Yeah there’s some slight sexism in that but it’s not unusual in Taiwan. So some classmates tried and conquered the wall while others just sat it out, skipping the opportunity. For me, there was no way I would turn down this chance! The only memory I have of rock climbing walls was during an elementary school field day where I had an absolute fail of an attempt to scale a wall. Seriously, it was pathetically bad according to my memory. So I wanted to try and redeem with a hopefully better stab at it today. Maybe even getting to the top! Fingers were crossed for sure!

Every classmate was equipped with a harness but no shoes and powder were available. Some students preferred climbing barefoot because their shoes were too bulky or didn’t have a sufficient grip. I was among the barefoot climbers. In fact, I was the second chica to try the wall. At first I wanted to watch a couple people climb before me so I could learn from their triumphs and failures but when no one volunteered after the first girl finished, the workers beckoned for the foreigner to come up. So, why not? It looked simple enough though I knew the reality would come with challenges. Can Andrea make amends for her childhood failure? Only one way to find out!

Up on the wall I went! To my delight, even though this was just the beginning, I was able to climb higher than my height, which is way more than I could say for the elementary school flop. Redemption, attained!

Not only attained redemption but an overflowing success of gleeful triumph! Andrea made it all the way to the top! BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!

Victory pose! No breaks were needed in my ascent and I scaled the wall in relatively quick time. I was more than happy. I was ecstatic! Goal achieved and surpassed!

With my feet back on solid ground, my eyes couldn’t help but drift to the left side of the wall. A craving to test my strength against its supposedly harder difficulty hit me forcefully and didn’t let up. But first I waited for all the dudes to have a turn before I requested mine. Since many people (about half the class) didn’t want to rock climb, it provided plenty of time before the bus arrived to take us back to high school.

The chance for the tough wall did roll around and I eagerly leapt for it. Think I had the needed muscle to reach the top? Time to see! *in a deep wrestling announcer’s voice* Rock Climbing Wall Battle: Round 2! FIGHT! (Side note: don’t you love our school’s uniform? I do! I totally do! ;D)

The start was just fine but half way through I sure was feeling the challenge in my arms.  When they were becoming a bit too weak for my comfort, I took a small break in the middle to recover some strength, something that was allowed and commonly down among the hard wall climbers. Soon it was back to work, eyes on the prize!

With a slower pace and careful placement of hands and feet, I crawled my way higher and higher. To the top, baby! BOOMSHAKALAKA part 2!

ULTIMATE VICTORY POSE! (with wind blowing my hair so awesomely ;P) I DID IT BRO-SEPH! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That is seriously an accomplishment! And the best part, I FLUFFIN’ LOVE ROCK CLIMBING!!! I think I just found a new activity I really, really enjoy! Guess what I’m looking up when back in Texas. ;)

Something noticeable is that I was the only girl to attempt (and obviously scale) the challenging wall. Heck, I was the only girl to climb a second time. AMERICAN POWER!!! >:D There were a couple dudes who climbed a second time for fun or redemption. I’m not sure if these facts reflect a cultural difference or not but I thought to just point it out.

The entire trip with transportation, teaching period and climbing went from 8:00 to 12:00. It landed us back at Tatung in time for lunch. With the morning’s nice little workout, lunch was more satisfying even with my relatively simple selection. The chicken wasn’t too flavorful and had less meat with more bone from what I expected. Stinky tofu, cabbage and eggs were delicious though!

Chinese high school class was fine but the rock climbing experience could surely be felt in my arms. XD That and some tiredness caused me to snooze out the ten minute break periods. Thankfully it wasn’t anything detrimental because I had an engagement following right after school ended and energy was needed.

At the well-known Ximending shopping area, I met up with Chen father (temporary host father) to go Chinese dress shopping! He invited me last Wednesday saying that he knew of a good place to buy “qi pao” (Chinese dresses). So we met up and he guided me to a somewhat hidden location with a TON of dresses from show dancing, formal and of course, traditional Chinese ones.

What happened next occurred quite quickly, so quickly that thoughts could barely register in my brain. We entered one small shop and immediately tried on a long green dress with a golden phoenix pattern. Though it was tight on the hips, everything else looked very lovely. All of a sudden a lady, who I assumed to be Chen father’s friend, showed up and conversed with the storeowner. Then I was encouraged to try on a black and pink dress that was bigger but needed some adjusting to fit my curves better. Then it followed with a very Chinese looking red one also a tad too small in the hip area.

Wondering how much these would cost me each, knowing I probably could only afford one even though all were beautiful, I inquired about the prices. Whoosh! Off Chen father, his friend and the shop lady went bargaining away! I caught bits of fast Chinese regarding bundling, discount for students, recommending to other exchange students, etc. Not knowing what to do I just stood back and waited.

The result…they scored a deal for all three dresses with alterations, only $3000NT ($100US). Not only that but Chen father paid for all three. …Woah. Woah! WOAH! THAT’S AMAZING AND SO INCREDIBLY KIND OF HIM! It may not be much but he’ll definitely get a written thank you card from me! Our time there, like I said, was so fast and speedy. This rapid pace went too fast for the idea of getting three new and gorgeous dresses set in my mind. I just kept spitting out a whole bunch of “thank you”s over and over again. Chen father really is so generous and thoughtful! I really appreciate his kindness and can’t wait to get the finished dresses! :D

Though the lighting is a little misleading, this is the general outlook of the green dress. It has some interesting color fades in several places and of course stunning phoenixes.

The black and pink dress with other colors like yellow and purple speckled amongst the flower pattern.

Chen father and I as I model the red dress. Not a bad look huh? No, tis lovely!

Before heading home I sidetracked to the anime store at Ximen, I’ve been wanting to visit it before I return to America and since I was already there with time to spare, why not stop by? I went in happy…came out even happier. Absolutely delighted! Why? Two reasons: A laugh out loud bag and a cup to drool over.

This perfectly highlights one of the first moments when I began falling in love with Sengoku Basara. The energy overflow, fierce form of encouragement mentor and student exchange with their embarrassed ninja on the side. SUCH A FANTASTIC MOMENT(s) IN THE SERIES! The bag being made of a good material was also an excellent plus! Total love!

And then this. Total love multiplied by umpteenth times! A MOTOCHIKA MUG CUP!!! OH MY LORDIE I’VE BEEN SO WANTING ONE!!! I’ve had my eye on the lookout for months for something like this. And viola it appeared quite unsuspected! Not only do I love the design but also another fantastic quality is that it’s light! Even though it’s a mug it’s not heavy and therefore not a problem when it comes to luggage weight capacity. SUPER UBER DUBER SCORE!!! LOVE!

Mika, my Japanese friend, will have to help me translate all the written stuff. Though I already have an idea what it says, that is, if it’s famous character quotes. :P

In conclusion, today was SHA-MAZING! Rock climbing discovery fun, three attractive long Chinese dresses and wonderful Sengoku Basara stuff. Twas a good day for sure! Hope y’all have a good one yourselves! Peace out! :D