Random memories from Taiwan

 10 days since I left Taiwan. 10 days since I left ZhengDa (the University). 10 days since I left my friends, but most of all, 10 days since I said good bye to Jason. 

BUT at the same time its 8 days since I arrived to Sweden. 8 days since I heard "Welcome back" from my friends and family. 

This is what they call mixed emotions... right? 

Here comes some photos that I don't think that I have showed you before. 

One day close to the day I left Taiwan, I was standing on the bridge leading to the ZhengDa area. I stood there and I remember thinking that I WANTED to remember that moment, thus I took this photo. 

Another day on that same bridge, I was out walking with my friend WuXing. We had been to the Muzha Market. WuXing had bought some vegetables. I bought some kind of bread. He brought his vegetables home. I ate my bread on the spot.

At the language center where I studied Chinese, they also offered free courses. I took calligraphy and karaoke. In Taiwan they call Karaoke KTV. 

 Calligraphy is really hard. The paint doesn't end up where I intend it to. Still, it was allot of fun. So fun that I bought a set of the things needed and brought it to Sweden. 

 This was a happy day. The day I got my Taiwan resident certificate. I showed it to Jason I don't know how many times. Each time Jason said... Mmmm, and then he smiled. 

Sexual harassment and pickpocket alarm.... 

A friend of mine was playing in a play. It was all in English so I could understand it. I took a bus, a subway train and then a bus. After that I walked up and up and up.

But it was all worth it. I had a very good time.

Thank you Joseph for inviting me. 

I will soon post

Random Memories from Taiwan - The sequel. 

Stay awake. 

Love Ove

Chang Kai Shek Memorial

Saturday evening before I went back to Sweden, Jason, Esteban and I went to Chang Kai Shek Memorial to hang out. First we tried to find a place to eat around the MRT station, but we didn't find one to our liking. That's when I remembered the Mos Burger behind one of the side buildings at the Memorial. Said and done, we went there. The food was... not overwhelmingly amazing but the drinks were. They had some red and white stuff that had a slight taste of raspberries. That's the one that caught my fancy.

One thing that I really like about Taiwan is the fact that people dance everywhere. There are groups of kids and young people who practice dancing all over the place, and The Memorial is no exception. We watched them dance for a while and then we walked to the main building and sat at the top of the stairs. We sat there and talked about everything and nothing for quite some time.

Here comes a couple of photos from that evening. All except one was taken the time we spent at the top of the stairs.

After the sun came down and the moon took its place, we set course towards Ximen. Well there we found a   marked with hand made trinkets and stuff. I really liked the Batman Llama. 

Stay awake

Love Ove

MOCA - TAIPEI

Hi there. 

Some days before I went back to Sweden, my friend Esteban asked me if Jason and I would like to go to a museum together with him. I asked Jason and he was up for it, so on Friday after I had had my last class, Jason, Esteban and I went to the Museum of contemporary art. I didn't have to high hopes because I often feel like modern art is something that a kid just as well could put together. The only difference is that the kid is not famous. I bet there are people out there who disagree with me. 

Well this time I didn't feel that way. I felt inspired and these photos were taken at the entrance of the museum. 

This is my contemporary art :) 

For anyone who feel like commenting 

ove.holmstrom@gmail.com

Stay awake

Love Ove

My journey to Sweden.

Hi there. 

Most trips, I think, have something worth mentioning, and so does this one. 

I had 17 hours in Shanghai and I didn't want to spend it sitting at the airport. 

As soon as I cleared the customs there was an airport service person who hooked me up with a hotel room. (I am sure he got some provision for doing so) 

Well anyway.. 

I ended up in the hotel owners husbands car together with their 2 year old son. The kid was everywhere. Standing between the two front seats while the car speed down the road, or laying on the floor right behind the drivers seat. I was treated with some yogurt. 

10 minutes later I walked into a hotel that gave me vibes from how I think it is in the poorer quarters of a Russian suburb. Still... the room was OK. 

When I walked in through the doors, the hotel personal saw my guitar strapped to my backpack and asked if I would be preforming. I said I could sing them a song or two after I had left my bags in my room, and so I did. 

Wang Le Hom - 不知道的是

Guang Liang - Tong huali. 

Then I sang an English song, but they didn't really care for that. 

I returned my guitar to my room and went out for some late night snack. 

This is my time in China displayed in photos. 

This is where I bought some barbecued octopus and CHICKEN... I didn't think about the bird flu until way later.... 

I walked past these guys... 

 ... And soon they looked like this... Hot as fricking Hell.... I thought that I might run a fever, that's how hot it was. The restaurant people thought it really funny and laughed allot. Then later they told me that the food they gave me was not as hot as the food they usually ate. 

 At this sea food restaurant they had this... 

Its not a crayfish.... Its not a shrimp.... WHAT IS IT? 

Here they kept all the food. The sea living creatures were already dead and was kept on ice, 

and the lake or river living creatures were kept in aquariums.

 On my way back to the hotel room I bought some firecrackers... turned out they didn't have a fuse... I haven't had the courage to light one up yet.
I also passed this place.

 I just found out that its quite difficult to write a comment on here. Soo... If you do want to write me a comment, you can do so by writing to my email, and I will post it on my blog :) 

My Email... 

ove.holmstrom@gmail.com

Stay awake. 

Love Ove 

On my way home.

Leaving a place is never easy if you leave a part of you behind. I just said good bye to Jason. As was expected, I cried a little...
At the airport was also my good friend Esteban. He goes back to Mexico in some days from now. Im really grateful for the good times him and I have had.
Thank you MOXIGEREN.
As for Jason, as soon as he has left the army in August, he will join me in Sweden.
I asked him what he wanted to do while in Sweden.
His answer... He wants to go fishing. Sooo... I guess we will go fishing :-D

In september Jason and I will return to Taiwan. Im looking forward to that, cause we will live together then.

Well...
Stay awake
Love Ove.

SETTLERS

...after Jason and I came back home from Jiufen, Esteban came over for a game of Settlers. 

When Jason happily exclaimed that he had reached 10 points (after stealing the longest road card from me) I flipped up the university card and the library card to reveal that I had had more than 10 points for quite some time. Still I hadn't revealed the cards and thus don't think that I did win. They did however. So... Jason thinks that I won, and I think that Jason won. What do you think? 

Ohh... Now I have had readers from MADAGASCAR too :) 

Stay awake

Love Ove 

Spirited and away

How many of you out there have seen the Japanese cartoon "Spirited and away"? I know my little brother Marcus and my friend Esteban has. Both of them like the movie allot. I did as well when I saw it. 

Why do I bring this up? Because Jason took me to the place on the north east coast of Taiwan that inspired the maker of the film to make it - Jiufen. 

Here comes my experience of Jiufen presented by photos. 

 View from Jiufen

View of Jiufen

Jiufen has an Old street. It´s probably this street that inspired "Spirited and away"

Jason and I had some food here. I ate the best Squid Ball Soup I have ever had. 

For the people who have seen the movie.
I left before the lights were turned on... 

Traditional Chinese lanterns. 

In the midst of all the people and commotion, there were three cats... 

I love how you can see it´t tooth. 

There are no comments that can do this dog justice. 

He probably inspired some of the characters in the movie. 

Jason

And me.

I had a great time, I didn´t turn into a pig and I did leave before the lights were turned on. 

All in all a great day. 

Thank you Jason for taking me there. 

Stay awake. 

Love Ove