through the eyes of the a70

As you probably have noticed, autumn is here in Vancouver. With the temperature dropping a few degrees, the whole landscape of the city changes, going from the crisp green colours of the leaves to becoming multi-coloured.

As I am at UBC for more than half my day, and classes spanning almost the entire campus, I can take those short five minutes in between classes to capture the beauty of the campus, stopping at various locations along the way.

This past week, the weather has been extremely cooperative – everyday, almost without a single cloud in the sky. Too bad the weather is not lasting – it started to rain today…

These were sceneries spanning from the 22nd to 28th, today. You might have not stopped long enough to notice these :-)

This was the week after my dad had left Taiwan for Vancouver, leaving my sister, my mom, and I to explore on our own.

I actually only went out sightseeing three days this entire week, as I had been placed an intern job at an internet co-location company where my aunt works. I had been working from Monday to Wednesday in the company, till the week before I left Taiwan.

The Sunday, we went to Taipei 101 once again, but this time, we explored the mall that was underneath the tallest building in the world. There were fashion, jewelry, book, sportswear stores, most of which was really high-classed, but it was good for our purpose of “window shopping.”

On the Thursday I was off work, we took a trip to Juming Museum with my aunt, to look at the sculptures made by the famous artist. It wasn’t your typical museum under-the-roof. It was a full garden display of his works, from metal artworks, to his most famous stone sculptures. It was amazing to see what you can actually create with rocks and stones. Good thing the day was cloudy too (no rain, no sun-bake).

On Friday, me and my sister took a tour of Taipei Medical school, where one of our friend was studying. No pictures from there, though.

We were just finishing up our island tour, hitting Taichung, our last destination before heading back to Taipei. Afterwards, we were back to Hsinchu to visit more relatives and friends. Good times. Also got to see the newly built “Windance” gigantic mall in Hsinchu. I can’t remember if it was 8 or 10 floors, and with 5 or so basement parking floors.

Back in Taipei, we visited the botanical garden, and then also the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. It has a huge plaza that takes a good 15 minutes just to walk from the entrance to the bottom of the memorial stairs. A site not to be missed by tourists.

Other highlights were visits to National Taiwan University (where my parents attended), eating out at this exquisite teppanyaki restaurant, and visiting the National Palace Museum with a friend. Most of these places I haven’t visited in four years, or some even eight (the last-last time I was back).

Looking back at these pictures once more, and the memories seem just like yesterday when I was back in Taiwan. I guess this is the advantage of pictures, they let us reminisce about the good (and bad) times of the past. Too bad I didn’t have digital before two years ago, then I can fill the hole in my short-term memory mind.

This past Saturday, September 10, I was over at the Vancouver Public Library Central branch for the Canada Taiwan Bird Fair. While sitting at one of the booths, I realized that I have never taken pictures of the Roman-Coliseum-mock structure.

The place looked great from every angle, and I mean, from all possible point-of-view. Click, click, click. The camera kept snapping.

Not much story I can make out of it, just… a beautiful beautiful building.

A short pause in my recap of the trip to Taiwan.

The past weekend, right before school started back again, I went on the last trip of the summer – to Mount St. Helens – for three days. It’s a volcanic monument that is located in southern Washington state.

The volcano’s latest big eruption was back on May 18, 1980. The whole mountaintop was blasted off, and has looked different ever since. It is still a very active volcano, as its last activity was back in February. It has been over five years since I last visited the area. Although some areas have regained its life, some landscapes are still as eerie as ever, with the bare forests retelling the story of the day the mountain blew.