Quest for Immortality

This time Jesse and I went to the exhibition of the ancient Egypt!

We saw 4 mummies in total, including a prince, a probably eight-year-old girl, an anonymous mummy whose bandage is disassembled, and an ordinary people. Other stuffs like, coffins, a simulated mausoleum and mortuary objects. We found that Egyptians are superstitious, they believe in an afterlife, they make mummies because they think that if they pass the test after they died, they could come back to this world and use the same body they used to use in this life.

In the exposition, the most memorable part to me is the video which shows how they examine the mummies and how they make sure the mummy's social position. By using today's technology, these experts could also build up the mummy's face. How amazing! In the video, they told us that if the person is died from any disease, the Egyptians would cut of the infected organs in order to let this person to be born healthily in his afterlife. They use gold in almost everything, this is because they think that gold is the element that is closest to God. When they do so, they think they would look better or have a better life in their afterlife. They are really superstitious. Below are some pictures:

The exposition is held under this building!

-The Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall-

This is one of the mummy shown in the exposition.

-The son of Ramesses II-

This mummy is an 8-year-old girl,

who is only one arm long.

We can tell that she is not from a very poor family

since she is wrapped carefully.

The cause of her death is due to some diseases in her spinal.

This is one of the coffin we saw in the exhibition.

Lastly, the Canopic jars,

they are made for the purpose of storing the organs.

Even though in the later stage,

the Egyptians tend to put the organs back to the mummy's body,

they will still be put in to the coffin.

These four jars are the most favorite exhibits to us.

Thank you for spending your time reading my post!! =)

(All pictures are taken from the Internet,

since pictures are not allowed to be taken in the exposition)

What I Did For Work: Wedding Assistant

Flowers and the wedding cake. :)

The cake looks nice but it's fake. Haha.

Last Sunday I went and work with my cousin, a wedding consultant, as her assistant. I went to two wedding that day, seemed like that day was a really nice day, I saw several wedding cars on the street. So many pretty brides were marrying.

In Taiwan, it's not like in the U.S.. The weddings are often held in hotels and both sides of the family would be invited to the wedding to have lunch or dinner with the new couples. And usually this is what a wedding consultant does: to create a best wedding for the bride and groom.

The weddings were beautiful. Well, more specifically I will say, both weddings made me really want to get married right away. I've always wished I can have a wedding like those, vivid and clean and fun and blah blah, you know, just wonderful and like those in fairy tale.

 One thing I love about weddings: they use lots and lots of flowers for decoration.

Most of the time, I went to a wedding as the bride's family or the groom's family, but this time I went as a wedding assistant, person who helps the wedding preparation and makes sure everything goes as it's planned. Although I didn't help much, since I was new and kind of not in the situation, I learned alot from my cousin.

 Working as a "server," we show the nicest faces of us. We smile as we talk to our customers, we stand straightly, and we don't drink or eat in front of everyone; we hide ourselves.

 "Always I hide from the camara." -- Jesse W.
Haha. It's true. My first job as a wedding assistant wasn't placing the wedding tables but holding the long wedding dress tale for the bride when bride and groom were walking to the table one by one for cheers. My cousin told me: "NEVER ever be taken photos with the bride and groom, the photographer would wanna kill you 'cuz they can't just cut you off especially you're standing right between the couple."
So, I was hiding hard from the camara. It was easy, just kneel a bit behind the bride then no one would even notice you, well, at least no one has noticed me.

 I was late for the first wedding which was held in the early afternoon, so my cousin took me to the second wedding so that I can see more and learn more about this job. One thing about this job I think is important, everything you do as you work is not for you, but for your customer.
Oh, I know now, it works for every job though. You do things not only for yourself but also for people around you.

The second wedding was smaller than the first one, but though it was smaller, the flowers were used more in this wedding. I didn't have any idea about how a wedding consultant prepares for a wedding. My cousin first checked eveything, the music that would be used during the wedding and pictures and slide show, with the hotel workers. Then we ran to the couple's resting room and asked them to come and rehearsal for the wedding, like when the door was opened they had to walk out pair by pair, how the bride and groom needed to do when they got on the stage, and when to walk around the room to cheers, etc.
You think that's alot to do too, right?
I was just tired standing there and watching and sometimes running inbetween the couple's resting room and the main room and maybe showing customers where the restroom was at and...
Anyway I didn't even do a "big" thing but I felt tired. Can you imagine how tired it would be for my cousin who was running all over the place and sometimes I didn't even know where to go to get her.
This job is interesting, at the same time, it's tiring as well.

I love this picture. :)

This is just a short description of my work experience with my wedding consultant cousin who is the best "server" I've ever known. I hope you enjoy this writing of mine.

By the way, this is Jesse. :)

Picasso!!!!!!!!

It's Elly here!

So last week, Jesse and I went to the Picasso gallery, and I think it's worth visiting, yet a bit disappointing. We saw a lot of his pictures, we saw his life being shown in timeline and many of his art works.

The reason why I'm disappointing is that one of his most famous works has not been exhibited, which is, the Guernica!

How I wish I could see this work in the exhibition since I have just learnt about this painting during last semester. It would be great if I can see the real one. Nevertheless, We still managed to see some works which represented his painting style in each stage, for example, cubism.

Le Sculpteur

This is Jesse's favorite.

And here goes my favorite,

Femme assise dans un fauteuil rouge

I like this painting, because it is not only simple but also easy to understand. We can easily tell that it is painting about a woman sitting on a red chair. The painting "Le Sculpteur" is describing about a sculptor, who falls in love with his sculpture and wants the goddess to give his sculpture life, thinks that this sculpture is the most perfect woman in the world where he forgets his model.

There is another painting that makes me really excited, which is "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe d'après Manet". Even though I have not seen the real painting of this painting by Manet, I have seen it on the Internet and in some books that talks about art history, so I know how it looks like. After seeing Picasso's "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe", I was surprised, it is totally a different style. It looks like it is painted by a child, and not painted realistically. Below are both the "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe " painted by Picasso and Manet.

I could still remember when I first learnt about "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" painting by Manet, my teacher told me that everyone is shocked, as during that century, it is not moral to see a nude woman. So I wonder, what if Picasso's "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" was shown to the world first? Will the citizens still be shocked or will they accept it? However, I think that if Manet did not shock people by this painting first, Picasso will not put any attention to it and this painting will not be painted in a different style by Picasso.

I have learnt a lot form this exhibition, hope those who visited this exhibition would feel the same as me! :)

(All pictures are taken from the Internet.)

Rabbits! 2011 World Bunny Expo!

This is Jesse again!

Today we went to the 2011 World Bunny Expo.

Like the name of the Expo, it's all about rabbits. CUTE rabbits.

The ticket is NT$160 for students and NT$ 200 for adults. On Saturdays and Sundays there are shows in the Expo. Today is Tuesday, so obviously we missed the show. :(

But the rabbits were interesting enough for our trip today. :)) We learned quite a bit at the Expo.

The World Bunny Expo was held at the Taipei Youth Activity Center where you can do lots of fun activities. The Expo was on the second floor. The people who were selling the tickets were nice though. :)

He was the first rabbit Elly and I saw in the Expo. I'm sorry about the unclearness of the picture, but it was hard to take pictures of those rabbits with glass in-between. I always got myself into the picture because of the reflection in the glass. :(

I liked this one and another gray one the best. I loved how they ate and jumped and ran around their little living places. I loved them the most when they stood still to let me take their pictures! 

Like this one:

He actually reminded me of one of my friend. He gave me the exact same expression when I was taking a picture of him.

Isn't he adorable?? I want to take him home so bad!!

"Can you hear me?"

"Of course. I have long ears just like you! Don't you know that?"

I actually thought of Romio and Juliet when I saw them. Haha. One was begging to see the other, but the other was just resting there and wasn't even paying attention.

Elly was trying to draw some of the rabbits. But they were moving so fast that she gave up in the end.

Still, she dropped down some notes.

There were couple of people who took care of the rabbits. They were also kind and was willing to tell us knowledge about rabbits like how to take good care of them and how society was wrong about these animals.

(Thanks for Elly who took good notes about this, or else I don't think I can remember all these.)

This white rabbit is called Angora. It's a type of rabbit that exsist from the very beginning when people were still eating and using rabbits' skin and fur for clothing. Before people started to think rabbits are cute and kept them as pets in the house in the 20th Century.

By the way, the man with the microphone was one of the guide in the Expo. He was telling us about the rabbits, kind of like introducing. I don't know him though. But when I showed his picture to my mom, she sounds like she knows him and that she said he was an actor.

Anyway, he's a guide in the World Bunny Expo now.

I kept noticing this rabbit when the guide was speaking. This gray rabbit was the other one that I liked in the Expo because when the guide was introducing the Angora, this little one was nodding and standing up and doing some poses like he was dancing.

I couldn't help but kept watching him. I hoped I can take him home. Too bad I still need to go back to Falgstaff and I can't have a rabbit there in the house. 

One that was sleeping in the trough.

One thing that's important that if you are planing to have a pet rabbit:

Rabbits don't just eat carrots and they do drink water!

Some people think that rabbits don't drink, and that they only eat carrots but nothing else.

But according to Elly's notes, rabbits would die in five days if they have no water and only carrots as their food. Their stomach can't really metabolize starch.

Look! He's looking at me!!

His name is FiFi. He's the only one that I remember the name. He looked like a cat. Or perhapes a large hamster?

The guide was holding on FiFi because he was afraid that FiFi was going to run away from him. Not that he was afraid to lose FiFi, (but I'm sure he was afraid of that, too,) but was afraid that FiFi might fall on the floor and break his bones.

Rabbits have 360 digree view angle. They can't see at the 10 degree angle though, and that's why they have their noses in the front. (Who doesn't have nose in front? =  =")

And so that, rabbits only have flat version. Not like human, rabbits can't see the hight of the table. They can fall from the high table easily.

There were some people interviewing the rabbit guide. I think those people were kind of rude. They didn't offer him enough time to finish his words. And they kept interrupting him. :(

FiFi was lifted up a little bit so that people could see he is REALLY a boy. Well, the guide said that FiFi is actually a father now.

Although he lifted FiFi up. He told us not to do it because rabbits' bones are often hollow. If we accidently drop them, that could break their bones.

Sounds like rabbits are really brittle. There was even a saying that rabbits can't be washed because they would die from the water.

It wasn't that bad though. At least rabbits can be washed, just not with shower because they really can die from the moisture.

I found it interesting to just take pictures of their backs and huge bodies. :)

You know what?

Rabbits can have babies every 31 days!

If you have a pair of them, I believe you'll get 100 within one year or less.

Aw. Are you that tired?

I just found out today from Elly's notes that though some of the rabbits' eyes are red, they can't recognize the color red. In fact, they can only see blue and green. I wonder what would I look like for them when I was watching them. Perhapes them watching me?

This rabbit was as long as my arms are. He was one of the giant knid.

Most of the giant kind rabbits were sleeping while other smaller ones were spending time eating or running around. They looked lazy. I guess they're like human: the bigger you get, the lazier you are. Haha.

In the end of the Expo, there was space that you can go and touch those bunnies. I'll say don't try to catch them though, they are fast runners and they can be hurt easily. If you don't do anything, (just like me, :)) they might lay down around you like one of the white bunny did when I was trying to take photos of others.

My mom said this one looked silly. I say he's adorable. :)

This picture must be my best version of this trip.

Once again, I'm sorry if my pictures hurt your eyes. :(

Elly got one!

They were having a nice relationship there until I asked Elly to pick the rabbit up. (Oops, sorry I shouldn't ask her to do that. :P)

The rabbit peed on her hand.

We forgot to smell the pee though, so we can't really tell if that smell. But one thing I noticed was that although those people were taking good care of the rabbits, somehow there was still a little bit smell in the Expo. Maybe rabbits do smell. Just not as strong as a dog smell when he didn't take shower for quite a long time.

Perhapes that's not true. I heard someone told me that rabbits stink. :P

The white rabbit that I said earlier that came to me when I was taking pictures.

He was calm and nicely laid there. Not for too long, as soon as a group of dating couples went in, the rabbits started jumping around again.

By the way remember I was saying that I wanna take one of those rabbits home?

You really can do that!

In the Expo they were asking people to volunteer to take rabbits home. Too bad children can't take home any. :( But their parents can. :)

If you are a rabbits lover, come to the World Bunny Expo and take a look at these lovely ones, and if you are able to, you can take one (or more?) home as a pet.

Just please take care of them. Remember they are britter and can be easily hurt.

That's all for today!

Thanks for reading along and sorry if I make you fall asleep, haha.

See you next time! :)

Love & Peace: the Polar Expo!!

This is Jesse. As you see, today is my turn to write about the exhibition we went.

I'm not that good at writing, but I'll try my best to tell you everything that I learned from places we went.

Let's get started now. :)

Yesterday Elly and I went to the Polar Expo with our friend, Anastasia.

At the outside of the Polar Expo, we saw many statues designed by Vicent J. F. Huang who is famous about his environmental friendly artwork.

There were many aluminum robots. Some were making wierd faces and some were having interesting poses. There was a table with five little aluminum robots on it which interested me. One of them was riding a motocycle, another one was feeding the aluminum dogs, and others were doing something else like carrying stuff.

I have to say that they look silly to me, or maybe I should say that they are cute?

Anyway, they made me laugh when I was looking at them. By the way those metal dogs really looked like suasages. Haha.

It was  about -8 celcius inside the building. People needed to get a jacket in the front door so that they wouldn't catch a cold. Elly was wearing shorts, she said she couldn't even feel her legs in the end of the Expo. I was fine with the low temperature in there because I've been staying in Falgstaff, Arizona for one and a half year, and snow and cold weather like that were pretty common there. I wasn't feeling cold until 10 minutes later. 

There was snow on the ground and there were couples of Eskimo houses. There wasn't much in the house, only a few ice chairs. I was knid of disappointed when I saw the Expo because I thought it would be like the Body World, showing how it will be in Arctic and how the heat would affect the polar ice cap. But the Expo was actually more likely to be a place where you can experience how it is in Arctic, which is extremely cold.

This is a slide which was made of ice. It's cool and nice to slide down from it. (Just be careful you don't slide too many times or you might get your pants wet. :P) There was a camara in the middle of the slide so that you can buy your picture of yourself sliding down the ice slide after you get out from the Expo. There were also ice castles in the Expo. They were really big and nice and colorful. Too bad I didn't take a picture of the castle, it was pretty.

Elly was lifting the ice cube :)

There were many ice artworks ine the Expo. Like the castle I was telling about earlier. There were ice penguins, polar bears, an ice bar, and even a big carriage with a big ice horse!

I was hoping to be able to clinb up onto the horse's back, but the horse was slippery and there was no way that I can climb it. =  ="

This is the tea that they were having inside the Expo. You can use your ticket to exchange a cup of tea, it was tasty, but it was freezing as well. I thought it was hot so I was so excited to exchange my drink, but it ended up being so cold. :( It was fine though, I think it's knid of fun to have cold drink in Arctic. Haha.

By the way the ticket was NT$200 for students and NT$250 for adults. NT$30 for the jacket. I kinda feel unfair about the prizes, it was that much but the Expo wasn't what I thought it would be.

But I thnik I would take my niece and nephew to this Expo. It's a great oppurtunity for kids to learn the coldness in Arctic, and the Expo was like a big part that I think kids would have lots of fun there. :)

My favorite of the ice artworks was the one called "Statue of Liberty."

It wasn't the only one that had a meaning with, but the only one that really showed what it meant.

The Statue of Liberty was kneeling inside the ice castle, or I think it was more like a prison. Looked like the Statue of Liberty was being sorry about the heat making the ice cap melting. I think this artwork was telling that we should be responsable to the Global Warming. We should all be sorry and stop producing so many greenhouse gases.

I think this was also the meaning of this Polar Expo--to let us notice how bad we were destroying our Earth.

So, let's do this together, cut down our use of unrecyclable products and, like the title today, save the ice cap; save the polar bears. :)

(picture comes from google.com)

So CUTE :))

Last, I wanna say:

Love & Peace

2011  Polar Expo!!!

(Loving Elly and Anastasia)