Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Lolita Online!

Sorry for a lack of updates recently! I am still getting settled, but have actually been spending a LOT of time online. So I am here today to share some things I have found online. This is really only relevant if you understand Chinese, though, because they are all Chinese sites.

Taiwan BBS Lolita Board
a sub board on the Taiwan BBS forums. It has quite a bit of advertisement and random links everywhere that I don't like :/ The layout makes it rather hard to follow, too in my opinion. This is the board I have been on for the past few months, trying to figure out how Taiwanese lolita fashion is, and if it is different from what I am used to in America
The sidebar provides links to the other sub boards like punk, cosplay, general life boards, etc.

Lolita Online
This forum is Chinese-based but not Taiwan specific. The layout is much better and easier to follow in my opinion (also no adverts everywhere!), and there is a "British English" language option. Most of the posts are in Chinese, though occasionally there are posters who type mainly in English. I only joined a couple days ago, but it seems a nice forum so far :)

Those are the two main forums I could find!

Another website of interest is a teahouse that the Taipei lolitas are planning a meetup at. Unfortunately... I cannot attend because I will be at language camp.

Christina
Very beautiful website! Unfortunately it is a fairly expensive place...
It has French style afternoon tea and the site has lots of photos to browse even if you can't read the writings :) I really hope that I can visit here sometime!

Well, it is 3AM and I have been awake for 4 hours. Jet lag is a terrible, terrible thing and has resulted in much Pokemon being played.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

The Eagle Has Landed!

Or should I say, the Butterfly has landed? I do not feel very fierce like an eagle!

I landed in Taiwan at 9:30 PM yesterday (Taipei time) and am pretty tired! The trip was fairly uneventful. Flight attendants on the MN to Tokyo leg of the trip were rather less friendly than I expected :/ And the food was awful. The sandwich we were given as a snack had a VERY strong chemical odor to it, and left a chemical aftertaste in my mouth for about an hour after eating it.

The fact that about 2 days before leaving I saw a news report about airline food safety violations did not help ease my worries at all. On the positive side, I do not eat meat so I pretty much just ate rice, salad, and bread for every meal :) Hopefully that reduces my chance of food poisoning? I know for a fact that airlines and airports have pretty poor sanitation. I worked for 2 years at the Minneapolis St.Paul International Airport, and yes, I have seen mice there. The one that scurries around the backroom of our store is named Charlie. While it is true that Duty Free does not serve food, Chili's happens to be right next door. And Charlie often paid a visit there. Perhaps we should all bring our own sandwiches and snacks from home in the future...

The service from Tokyo to Taipei was much, much better. Flight attendants were much more polite and did not run into things with their carts. They also did not tell people to serve themselves (that actually happened on the way over to Tokyo - I was pretty shocked!)

I did not get any photos from any of the airports I was in because the connection was too tight at the Tokyo airport (I would have loved to get photos there!) and I was so tired when finally landing at Taipei. Our flight was slightly delayed from MN to Tokyo so as soon as we landed I had to get to the gate and boarding began right away! I also did not get any photos of my outfit! I wore a casual lolita dress that did not fit in my suitcase. It was the white Alice JSK that I made for NakamaCon. Very good for traveling because the A-line shape looks fine without a petticoat and can pass for a regular sundress when worn without a blouse. I did bring a thin cardi to wear over it for the cold airplane rides, but removed it as soon as I landed because Taiwan is so hot and muggy right now! My hair was kept in simple braided pigtails and the only jewelry I wore was my BABY ribbon lace-up ring that I always wear :)

In about a week I will be attending a language immersion camp for a month! I hope to have some fun photos to share by then :)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Last Post in America!

This is a fairly pointless post just to say that I am leaving for Taiwan today! But of course... first I must go to the Mall of America to pick up my free truffle from Godiva ^^; I joined the Godiva Rewards Club last year and have gotten a free truffle every month! No way I can leave the country without one last one!

Well, I am off now! My next post will be from Taiwan!