Happy 4th of July everyone!

Last Saturday I visited Santa Barbara and Solvang with my family. We left for Santa Barbara around 10 a.m., and it took us almost 4 hours to get there because of the heavy traffic.

The weather there was cool and sunny, and the air smelled like the ocean. We first ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant called Mesa Verde. My parents each ordered a brunch bowl (which they didn't like too much), and I ordered a burger made from mushrooms and had butternut cheese. It tasted pretty good, but I made a mess while eating it because it was so tall.

After lunch we drove to a nearby park and walked around for a bit, enjoying the ocean view. Then we went to the Santa Barbara Public Library to browse around. Afterwards we went to the County Courthouse, which is very decorated very beautifully. We climbed up the observation tower and were able to see the town and ocean.

Next we visited the Santa Barbara Mission Church. When we got there mass was in session, but we waited around for a couple of minutes and were able to enter. We were planning to visit UC Santa Barbara but we ran out of time because of all the traffic on the freeway.

Our last stop was Solvang, Little Denmark. We rented a multi-person bike and rode around the town for about an hour (it was tiring but really fun). Afterwards we ate at the Bit O' Denmark restaurant; I ordered the vegetarian primavera with no cheese, which was very oily. Finally we headed back home ( thankfully not too much traffic).

I was really thankful to be able to spend time with my family although we got annoyed with each other after spending hours locked in the car together, haha. I wish we had taken Gremlin with us, but she gets carsick very easily so we decided not to take her.

If you plan to visit Santa Barbara I definitely recommend checking out these places. Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone!

Before I traveled to Taiwan, I was very worried about what I would eat there. I tried to do as much research as I could, finding out what I could eat as a vegan. After I spent a couple of days in Taiwan, I realized that eating as a vegan was not too difficult as there are actually quite a lot of people eating a vegetarian/vegan diet due to religion.

Today I'll be going over veganism in Taiwan and the foods I ate while I stayed there.

Eating vegetarian in Mandarin Chinese is called 素 (pronounced sù). Besides pastries and desserts, Taiwanese cooking doesn't contain a lot of dairy. As for eggs, most of the time, I was asked if I could eat eggs or I just told the waiter that I couldn't eat eggs.

Some things to keep in mind:

• some restaurants use animal fat or boil broth from animal bones (you should tell the staff you are vegan if you are planning to order something fried or with soup)
• some restaurants will not consider their dishes vegetarian/vegan because the pots/pans/grills have touched meat in the past
• vegetarianism/veganism is often associated with Buddhist cuisine which considers strong smelling plants such as onion, scallion, and leek not 素

抓餅 scallion pancake

For breakfast I often ate this pancake with scallion (抓餅 // zhuā bǐng). Sometimes it could be cooked with egg or other non vegan ingredients so make sure you specify what you want.

便當 Taiwanese bento (contains mushroom, tofu, rice, veggies, noodles)

We were often traveling using high speed railways, so it was convenient to buy these Taiwanese lunch boxes (便當 // biàn dang) to eat on the train. At the train stations I was at, they all had vegan options.

便當 (contains fried mushroom, veggies, rice)

a type of seaweed that only blooms on rainy days

(contains tofu, mushroom, veggies, rice)

The dish above is similar to the lunch box, with the various different veggies and side of rice.

noodles with peanut sauce

veggies + stinky tofu

There are a lot of street foods in Taiwan that are vegan; personally, my favorite is fried stinky tofu. Usually the stinky tofu is deep fried in vegetable oils.


At the night markets there are lots of stands selling fruits like the one above (not quite sure what it is). Fruit is can be quite expensive in Taiwan, depending on the fruit.

炒麵 fried noodles with veggies

Hi everyone!

The third and last stop on my Taiwan trip was to the capital, Taipei.

After being in the rural areas for so long, it was refreshing to finally be in the big city. I loved all the cities that we spent time in, but Taipei was very different from the others.

I have to say, the subway system was so efficient and handy, and our hotel was right next to a station.

Seeing all the students on the subway made me think about how my life would be like if I went to school in Taiwan or China. I always wonder how I and my life would be different as a result.

On the first day, we went to a memorial and the 401 night market. The second day, we went to Taipei 101, a musuem, and the night market once again (for dinner). On the third day we only spent half a day in Taipei shopping before heading to China.

I really enjoyed my trip in Taiwan; there are actually quite a few vegans living in Taiwna, which made eating pretty easy for me. I did eat some non vegan bread a couple of times since I had nothing to eat at the places my family were eating at (traveling with meat eaters ;_;). I'll be making a blog post about the vegan foods I ate in Taiwan very soon.

I hope to visit Taiwan again soon; it was a beautiful country with many different attributes. ^^

Thank you for reading!

Hi everyone,

Today's blog post will be about the second place I visited in Taiwan, Yuchi Township.

The first place I visited within Yuchi Township was the Sun Moon Lake. It was extremely beautiful; the water was very clean and blue. The weather here was also a bit cooler compared to Kenting.

Right after we got off of the bus, a boat company's spokesperson approached, telling us their amazing deal for riding their boat. We bought the tickets but ended up regretting it, as we later saw a deal for boat rides for a third of the price. If you visit Taiwan, be aware that there will be people who target tourists, trying to make money.

We spent most of the day traveling from Kenting to the lake. We spent the rest of the day and half of the next day near the lake. The first day we walked around the lake and the town we were staying in. The next day, we visited various attractions around the lake.

Later that day, we set out to drive to Hualien. We passed through mountains that reach up to over 3000 meters. I actually got very carsick at the top of the mountains.

Driving through the mountains was a little terrifying, since sometimes you can't see other cars approaching due to the very swift curves. However, the mountains are really beautiful and the temperature is nice and cool.

Driving from the Sun Moon Lake to Hualien took us about 8 hours (including the many times we stopped to take pictures). We spent a night in Hualien then set off for Taipei, which will be featured in my next blog post.

Thank you for reading!

Hi everyone!

I got back from my trip to Asia a couple days ago so the blog posts about my travels are starting. The first place we went was Kenting ( 墾丁) Nation Park in Taiwan.

After the 12 hour flight, my dad and I landed in Taoyuan airport, which is the largest international airport in Taiwan. We met up with my grandpa and spent a night there at a nearby hotel. The next day we took the high speed railway and a bus to Kenting, which is at the southern end of Taiwan.

The weather was extremely hot and humid; I constantly felt sticky. On the first day in Kenting, we went to the beach nearby and took a couple of photos then ate dinner. We spent most of the day getting there, so we didn't do much.

The second day, we took a tour of all the popular attractions in Kenting. The large rock in the third picture above is named after Nixon because it apparently looks like his face. As we drove, we stopped at scenic places to take pictures. It was extremely windy at the top of the hills we were at. Though I didn't take any pictures of it, we visited the Eluanbi Lighthouse and also rode in a boat that was halfway submerged in water to look at the marine wildlife. The second to last stop was another scenic spot, featuring a rock that looks like a cat with open jaws (not in the pictures above). The final stop was near another beach, and we relaxed by drinking coffee and smoothies.

So that covers the first three days that I spent in Taiwan. Stay tuned for the next few blog posts about the rest of my trip. :)

Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone,

First off, I'm sorry I wasn't able to put up a blog post on Monday. I just came back from my trip from Asia so from here on out, I'll have many blog posts about my trip.

I wanted to address the recent events that occurred in Florida. I am not personally connected to any of the victims but my heart is broken. The pain the families of the victims must feel is unimaginable to me.

What frustrates me the most is the lack of gun control in our country. I personally support a ban on guns, but I know many people would argue vehemently against that. I understand that criminals will get their hands on guns, even if there is a ban. However, it would be ideal if obtaining a gun was more difficult.

The man who murdered 50 people at the nightclub in Orlando had been under FBI investigation in the past for ties to terrorism. However, he was still able to obtain a gun. This fact infuriates me to no end. I cannot understand how this is possible. Many of the people who claim to only want to keep out terrorists also support arming people with terrorist links, simply with a little bit of bribing from the NRA.

Of course, the lack of gun control is not the only factor. The shooter must have been extremely messed up, to say the least, to wish to end other lives. People he didn't even know. The stigma around mental health needs to end and proper care for mental health needs to be available to all.

Those victims could've been us. Everyone is at risk. We need a change. Call or email your senator today to voice your dissatisfaction. Text 'Disarm hate' to the number 64433 and you will be directed to your senator's message box.

Although it doesn't change what has happened, my heart goes out to the victims' families.