Vail 2010

What I like about Vail is the vastness of the place, especially when it's a weekday and there's a lot less crowds. This was the one and only "west" ski trip this year (with new skis!) so had to make the most of it.

Weather was beautiful, but unfortunately Fay got himself injured on the first day. Jumps never work out well...


So I ended up skiing mostly by myself. I did take a "mountain tour" where some advanced ski instructor took me and another person around the mountain. In essence it was a quasi-ski lesson, at around 1/5th of the cost! I thought I was decent, but there are some people that are just awesome at this sport.

Of course, by the last day, I had to attempt some jumps. For some reason there is always the urge, but the fear factor is so high. I think the thing is that as a kid I never got to do this and so my body has never actually gotten comfortable with the whole concept of "air-with-skis-on".

After some initial success....




...came some failures.



I blame the poor camerawork by Fay! What could have be gloriously Warren Miller-style films turned out to be only just youtube worthy.

I'll miss Vail, I hope to come again sometime.


Might have to go to Japan again...

Taiwanese Dramas

As part of my ongoing Mandarin learning, I thought I would try to watch some Taiwanese drama. Get immersed in it, hear it spoken around me. I could never understand, though, why my ex would follow it like some form of addiction. Having experienced Asian drama on the periphery, I should have known.

The one I got recommended was "Fated To Love You". (Fact: This series broke all TV watching records, garnering 10% of the Taiwanese population for one of its episodes). I was hooked. I watched multiple episodes in one sitting. I had originally planned to watch each episode twice to catch the words, but that went out the window after Episode 2.

Things that I have learned from watching Taiwanese dramas:
1. What RC said in the comments from that Korean movie post: "Persistence...is a necessary part of the dating process, to push yourself past what would normally be 'comfortable' by Western dating standards." This definitely holds true.

2. There is excessive "drama for the sake of drama" in this series. Some of the scenes, though, were indeed quite touching and I would admit that I welled up a bit during the first mom-daughter chat when she was leaving the household to live with her new family.

3. When you are a director of a vast family business, you don't have many day-to-day responsibilities, and can enjoy the luxury of time to do daily ceramic classes to woo back your girl.

4. The "instant replay" mode of dramatic scenes is heavily utilised for added effect. I think I heard one phrase repeated 7 times, from seven different angles.

5. No one has the ability to say what they really want to say or feel. The true feelings are always found out in some excruciatingly roundabout way, possibly via some recording (video/voice/letter).

6. Even the "not hot underdog girl" is quite hot.

I had a great time watching this series. As they say with many things, the first time is the most memorable. I still have the theme song in my head playing on repeat.

Judging from these shows, I think my approach to women has to definitely change if I'm going to Asia!