Day One Cont., Part II (fRight day)

still getting a hang of this blobbing thing- so my last entry was cut short. picking up 756 meals after i left off during our flight, we have:

two words. pork. belly.

even better- it was for my congee. get ready for the congee bonanza! i love congee almost as much as i love taco bell. almost. that was "second dinner" or "early breakfast" or "afternoon tea"....really, at that point i had lost track. also, they were interspersed throughout a few stops. like taipei.

china is mostly what i envisioned. fashion forward, tech-savvy, and screaming hello kitty from every korner (*typo- keeping it). the hello kitty was just too expected and fantastical, therefore leaving the other aesthetic details of the taipei airport to the wayside:

sorry taipei toiletway entries. you are voted off the island by a pussy.....(i know that was stupid but i'm leaving it too).

the EVA airways lounge in taipei was pretty ridiculous. equipped with the traditional chinese fewds and drink, which of course included my aforementioned favorite:

+

=

brandon, camilo, and fellow late-night offendees- i swear i won't put this in a plastic bag, lug it across international borders, and make you eat it out of a coffee cup. all the jimjams in the first image include dried pork fibers, hard-boiled eggs (NOT thousand year old eggs, which is my preference), seaweed salad, boiled peanuts, and something unidentifiable and mushy. the end result is all that shit in a bowl and an uncomfortable ride from taipei to hong kong for me. and for the record- despite its ample, free availability, i did not drink this:

i believe at the newark airport, the only available hooch was box wine and bud. just kidding. sort of.

they also had an xbox room in the lounge. which prompted me to ask dad if i could bring the dreamcast back to boston when i came home. i have yet to receive an answer (*hint, hint, nudge, nudge*). let's blow this popsicle stand! here's our plane bitches!

BOOM- roasted! li out!

"You look like you work here!" (Dad)

my first blob! contrary to a portion of kicking and screaming had, i am very much excited to go to the kong. because really, who doesn't like not working for 2 weeks and eating copious amounts of food that send you to the john every other hour? let's get right to it. 

this post will be exuberantly laden with pictures (someone got a new itouch, and someone can't stop playing with it...hold your comments perverts). also, the "first day" really was a 26-hour period of time that included 1 bus ride to new york, a train ride to newark international airport, and 3 connecting flights to HK. and yes- i actually made all call times promptly.

so, for those of you that don't know, mom and dad are ballers and treated yours truly to a first class experience. my first first class experience being- picking up a ladyfinger in the EVA premium lounge and my father telling me that "it looks like you work here!". this being the newark airport- it paled in comparison the taipei's lounge. those chinamen know what they're doing.

mama li sent me my several menu options to choose from a couple weeks ago. so i somewhat knew what i was getting into- but this is meal no.1 of 2,437. so i chose "Noodle with Beef Sliced in Oyster Sauce" for dinner. it was accompanied with a sesame cucumber salad and a shredded chicken with bamboo pith soup (this thing was loaded with cilantro and abalone- it was retarded gewd). an overall excellent meal of many- i only wish that there was sriracha on hand. why don't they sell that stuff in travel-size packets like taco bell???

a sidenote...the theme of this flight is "Jess Li is an alcoholic who can speak Chinese". at least 20 minutes before they served my meal they asked me what beer, wine, or cocktail i wanted with my dinner. oddly, i wasn't prepared for this so i told them red wine was fine. my mother noted that i'm the only one they asked. a keen observation. not so keen- (upon entering our first plane to anchorage, alaska) the stewardess immediately starts speaking mandarin to me as i board. i'm seating myself next to my mother and i note that this might be an ongoing nonissue throughout the trip. 

mom: oh nah, everyone speaks english to you here- you'll be fine.

me: except that i don't look like i speak english to them.

mom: oh. i forgot you're not white.

me too, mom.

next song.