day 3

i woke up early to go walking with my ah gong (grandpa; i don't know pinyin so the spelling is probably totally off.) i came back and was running late, so washed my hair and woke kari up, and we raced to the bakery amid funny looks. the bakery, called yamazaki, is located in the underground of the Banciao train station. we passed by the first day while exploring and it smelled and looked so good, that we decided to get some in the future. both of us bought a piece of walnut bread, which tasted kind of like a croissant with walnuts in it. we were both craving milk, except there is no such thing as skim milk here! just whole and lowfat. so.. i got lowfat and kari tried tropical milk, which is actually pretty delicious. then we raced back to the apartment in record time. the whole trip took only about 15 min. then like.. a minute later, my aunt arrived to take us to taipei for our photoshoot.

It was raining, so once we got to a place that her aunt could park the car, we took a taxi to the right building. Upon arrival, Steph and her aunt bargained with the people there and got the price knocked down by a bit. (In Taiwan you bargain with everyone). We each agreed on four outfits each and 34 pictures in a book for each of us. Then ...it began.

in taiwan, when you get professional pictures done, they do everything for you. hair, makeup, accesories, etc. the makeup was pretty shocking at first because it has to be really heavy so it will show up under the bright lights/pictures. mine unfortunately, was not heavy enough, but whatever.

So we each got dressed and made up. Then we were separated to get the pictures taken. I obviously didn't know what the photographer was telling me to do, but I was able to follow her hand motions fairly well. The next three outfits, we had some pictures of both of us together that turned out really well. The whole process pretty much took the entire day because the hairdos and makeup were really elaborate. We ate mcdonalds chicken nuggets and some bread around noon and went right back to shooting. It was really fun, though. It felt like being a model for a day.

kari is the cutest thing ever. they makeup ladies kept oohing and aahing over her eyes and hair and well.. everything. she seriously looks like a model from vanity fair or something in the pictures. i'm mucho jealous. me and my aunt (karen) agreed that she looks kind of like brooke shields in some of the pictures.

anyhow, the entire process is really tiring. and we have to leave right now to go visit some relatives on my dad's side. so we'll try to catch up later!

PICTURES ARE COMING! LOVE YOU ALL! :-D

s and k