day 14

We actually woke up early (for once) to go pick up our professional pictures from the studio in Taipei. Aunt Karen and Uncle King (that name still cracks me up) drove us, and then they dropped us off at Steph's other aunt and uncle's apartment (the ones on her dad's side).

Steph's two older cousins were home for the weekend, and we got to talk a bit...sort of, in my case...because their English isn't that great. The older one is 26, and his English name is Eric. The younger one is 22 and I guess he doesn't have an English name? So I still don't know what to call him.

Anyway, the two of them, Steph's aunt and uncle, her grandma, and us went to go eat lunch together. Where I was tricked into eating eel. Although to be honest it just tasted like fish and if they hadn't told me what it was I wouldn't have known.

oh yeah, after lunch we went to the sun yat sen memorial hall and looked around for a bit. there was an anti-aids gathering going on. there was singing, and a few teen dancing groups.

my cousins are really funny. later they took us by SCOOTER (YESSSS) to a flower market. it was so very fun. we had to wear helmets that look like they came from speed racer. haaha. very unattractive. but the scootering was great. i love zooming around on them.

Steph's ridden on scooters before, but I haven't. So this was all new to me. But it was fun, and it feels like you're going fast because of the wind in your face. Although remember Taiwan's speed limits are not very high, so we weren't actually going very quickly. So don't worry mom and dad, they're pretty safe. Scooters seat two, so each of us went with one of her cousins and then switched on the way back from the flower market.

At the flower market, we basically wandered around and looked at a bunch of the plants. There were some really sweet bonsais and lots of orchids, etc. Steph loved the miniature cactuses, but sadly we can't bring any plants back to the U.S. with us. I bought an orchid to give to Steph's grandparents to thank them for letting us stay with us, and she bought a plate and some carved wooden pigs (haha).

so after our wonderful flower experience, it was time to go eat dinner with my girl cousin (forgot her english name). it's weird to call her my cousin because she's around 45 or something like that. unfortunately.. dinner was at a very renowned.. SEAFOOD PLACE.

i really really do not like seafood. i ate a lot of pickles. and drank a LOT of juice.

I ended up eating eel (again) and shrimp..and fish..and crab..and I don't remember exactly what else. But it was good, and very fresh.

After dinner we to Steph's cousin's apartment (the big one, that he owns himself) to karaoke...quite the entertaining experience. The adults sang Chinese songs, and Steph and I sang Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Billie Jean, and a couple other English songs.

it was really fun. but the highlight for me was watching my two cousins sing jay chou. hehehee. they can't sing AT ALL. but they still valiantly ploughed on. :D it was great.

time passed VERY quickly, it was already 11:20 pm when we finished our little KTV experience and headed back. k and i were extremely tired and pretty much fell asleep immediately.