hello family, friends, and whoever else might be reading this!
we are not dead! my grandparents don't have a computer, and my uncle's laptop is broken (i used it last summer as my source of internet). so our updates will probably be sporadic. we are disappointed too.
umm... we also meant to update with pictures but kari left her usb cord at home and i forgot to pack mine in my purse, so it's at my grandparents. sorry!
here's the adventure so far:
our flight was delayed for 2 hours in detroit. we hadn't even flown yet and i was feeling uncomfortable. and kari, too. then the flight from detroit to osaka was approximately 14 hours. we couldn't even pass the time watching movies (usually 3) because the audio wasn't working. kari and i were kind of mad. and very, very bored. so we talked to the girl next to us. she's indian but her parents live in japan, which we thought was quite interesting. anyhow the airplane food was not the greatest- my favorite was the mid-flight snack. our breakfast was gross. reheated teriyaki pork (did not taste like pork) and fried rice. i think we ate four times in 17 hours, so both of us felt pretty bloated. i peed like 11 times total. something about airplanes make me thirsty? who knows. osaka to taipei was about a 3 hour flight. poor kari was sad she spent only a total of 5 minutes in japan because we had to run to catch our flight.
finally we arrived in taipei at exactly 10 p.m. there was a guy there that was holding mine and k's name on a sign and i felt pretty special because that usually only happens to businessmen.
After being speeded through the customs (Steph's aunt knows somebody who works there who helped us out) we met Stephanie's grandmother, aunt, and uncle and they were alarmed at the amount of luggage we had. Steph's uncle took our four ginormous suitcases in his car to Banciao, where her grandparents live, while Steph's aunt took us there on a bus since we couldn't fit in the car. We called Steph's parents around then to say that we had arrived and that's when Steph found out that she'd gotten into JHU. (I think the people on the bus must have thought she was crazy because there was quite a lot of happy yelling). After the half hour ride, where we counted at least 6 seven eleven's, we arrived at her grandparents' apartment. We received a room with a double bed and dragged our luggage into it. Then I called my parents to say hi, and they told me I got into U of M (FINALLY) so I was pretty happy. And then we showered and pretty much immediately went to bed. Which, by the way, is a blanket over hard wood. Although now I'm used to it, the first night was a bit uncomfortable.
day 1
The next day Steph woke up early to go walking with her grandfather, and then we went into Banciao to explore. The weather was really nice, although colder than we thought it would be. Neither of us packed enough fall/winter clothing. Unfortunately, it was too early and everything was pretty much closed except for convenience stores and street vendors, but eventually we went into the FE21 mall to look around. It was very posh, and I made my first purchase: starbucks hot chocolate. Then we went into the grocery store in the basement where we saw the biggest apples we'd ever seen in our lives. About as big as a melon. Not kidding. So we took a picture of it for proof, but got yelled at (?). Steph tried to pretend she didn't understand chinese, but we didn't realize that there was a sign clearly showing that cameras were not allowed. Oops.
around noon my nanny came by to see me
nanny: oh you are so beautiful! your friend is so beautiful! you guys are pretty tall!
me: er, what? (????????????)
nevertheless, i was supremely happy to see her. she took care of me from the age of.. newborn to around 2. around the same time my uncle came and we all headed off to Danshui/Tansui, about an hour away by car. but that's because they drive SLOW here on the highways or just normally. maybe 40 mph; 60 mph at most. in the city it's around 25 mph.. and NO ONE follows traffic rules. k and i have almost been run over about 3 times. so we have yet to come home in one piece. (rayner family, don't worry. i protect kari so i'll get hit first.)
Danshui was just gorgeous. we arrived early afternoon and the place was thriving. first we walked through a little crowded street market (taiwan is basically just an open air shopping place) where i got a scarf to shield me from the suprising chill. it's pretty funny though, everyone here is really bundled up in winter jackets and keep asking us why we aren't cold. but the weather was pretty much perfect that day. lots of blue sky and a bit of wind. kari got a jade bracelet that is really beautiful- a deep, green color which is lucky. then we went crazy with trying food. first there was bubble tea. i've had but kari hadn't. her reaction? "pretty good!" then we had fried pork things/skewers with fried dough? it was REALLY good. like REALLY. kari ate guava for the first time- 2 types.
AND I tried squid. Steph's nanny offered it to me and I didn't want to say no, so I ate it. And it wasn't actually that bad, just the texture was kind of funny. But then she took another one and dipped it in a sauce and said try this one too! And I was like AAH NOO. Steph ran away at the mention of seafood. Lucky girl. (Really though I guess it wasn't that bad). Later we tried taro root in crackers (good) and the best doughnuts EVER. really fresh and hot and covered in sugar.
and we really wanted to try these two-foot long ice creams. seriously. when we walked by there were these guys holding them in a position that basically pantomimed sticking a sword up one's ass. it was pretty funny. however, we had to catch the boat to Bali, which is right across the Danshui River. before that though, we visited Fort San Domingo which was originally operated by the spanish, who were then kicked out by the dutch. the english came next. it was really interesting and we saw encaustic tiles (humanities moment!) and took a lot of pictures of the gorgeous sunset. we also got yelled at again for taking pictures inside the fort. dang.
next we passed by the school that asian superstar Jay Chou went to. hehehe. also, there was a preserved aboriginal house, which i have never seen before, and obviously k hasn't either. we both found it really interesting. there was a slight problem though: neither of us can read chinese! so we couldn't understand any of the signs. i could only pick out a few words.. shame shame.
So after arriving in Bali we looked at the crafts and sat by the sea. We went into a photo booth too, where we could take pictures that turn into stickers. The problem was that it didn't give us enough time between pictures to get into poses, so they turned out pretty awful. And we couldn't read what the screen to edit them said, so the backgrounds we picked turned out kind of garish. But they're still really funny. By this time the sun had pretty much set and it was getting really dark and chilly, so we headed back to Danshui, and then took the MRT (subway) back to Banciao. It was quite a long ride, and we stood for most of it, grabbing onto the handholds hanging from the ceiling because the train swayed back and forth quite a bit. Looking into other cars, you can see them bending, and it's kind of scary, but the subway is the best way to travel long distances for us. Once we got back, we were really exhausted, and went straight to bed.
to be continued.. we are posting now so the computer doesn't crash.
we are not dead! my grandparents don't have a computer, and my uncle's laptop is broken (i used it last summer as my source of internet). so our updates will probably be sporadic. we are disappointed too.
umm... we also meant to update with pictures but kari left her usb cord at home and i forgot to pack mine in my purse, so it's at my grandparents. sorry!
here's the adventure so far:
our flight was delayed for 2 hours in detroit. we hadn't even flown yet and i was feeling uncomfortable. and kari, too. then the flight from detroit to osaka was approximately 14 hours. we couldn't even pass the time watching movies (usually 3) because the audio wasn't working. kari and i were kind of mad. and very, very bored. so we talked to the girl next to us. she's indian but her parents live in japan, which we thought was quite interesting. anyhow the airplane food was not the greatest- my favorite was the mid-flight snack. our breakfast was gross. reheated teriyaki pork (did not taste like pork) and fried rice. i think we ate four times in 17 hours, so both of us felt pretty bloated. i peed like 11 times total. something about airplanes make me thirsty? who knows. osaka to taipei was about a 3 hour flight. poor kari was sad she spent only a total of 5 minutes in japan because we had to run to catch our flight.
finally we arrived in taipei at exactly 10 p.m. there was a guy there that was holding mine and k's name on a sign and i felt pretty special because that usually only happens to businessmen.
After being speeded through the customs (Steph's aunt knows somebody who works there who helped us out) we met Stephanie's grandmother, aunt, and uncle and they were alarmed at the amount of luggage we had. Steph's uncle took our four ginormous suitcases in his car to Banciao, where her grandparents live, while Steph's aunt took us there on a bus since we couldn't fit in the car. We called Steph's parents around then to say that we had arrived and that's when Steph found out that she'd gotten into JHU. (I think the people on the bus must have thought she was crazy because there was quite a lot of happy yelling). After the half hour ride, where we counted at least 6 seven eleven's, we arrived at her grandparents' apartment. We received a room with a double bed and dragged our luggage into it. Then I called my parents to say hi, and they told me I got into U of M (FINALLY) so I was pretty happy. And then we showered and pretty much immediately went to bed. Which, by the way, is a blanket over hard wood. Although now I'm used to it, the first night was a bit uncomfortable.
day 1
The next day Steph woke up early to go walking with her grandfather, and then we went into Banciao to explore. The weather was really nice, although colder than we thought it would be. Neither of us packed enough fall/winter clothing. Unfortunately, it was too early and everything was pretty much closed except for convenience stores and street vendors, but eventually we went into the FE21 mall to look around. It was very posh, and I made my first purchase: starbucks hot chocolate. Then we went into the grocery store in the basement where we saw the biggest apples we'd ever seen in our lives. About as big as a melon. Not kidding. So we took a picture of it for proof, but got yelled at (?). Steph tried to pretend she didn't understand chinese, but we didn't realize that there was a sign clearly showing that cameras were not allowed. Oops.
around noon my nanny came by to see me
nanny: oh you are so beautiful! your friend is so beautiful! you guys are pretty tall!
me: er, what? (????????????)
nevertheless, i was supremely happy to see her. she took care of me from the age of.. newborn to around 2. around the same time my uncle came and we all headed off to Danshui/Tansui, about an hour away by car. but that's because they drive SLOW here on the highways or just normally. maybe 40 mph; 60 mph at most. in the city it's around 25 mph.. and NO ONE follows traffic rules. k and i have almost been run over about 3 times. so we have yet to come home in one piece. (rayner family, don't worry. i protect kari so i'll get hit first.)
Danshui was just gorgeous. we arrived early afternoon and the place was thriving. first we walked through a little crowded street market (taiwan is basically just an open air shopping place) where i got a scarf to shield me from the suprising chill. it's pretty funny though, everyone here is really bundled up in winter jackets and keep asking us why we aren't cold. but the weather was pretty much perfect that day. lots of blue sky and a bit of wind. kari got a jade bracelet that is really beautiful- a deep, green color which is lucky. then we went crazy with trying food. first there was bubble tea. i've had but kari hadn't. her reaction? "pretty good!" then we had fried pork things/skewers with fried dough? it was REALLY good. like REALLY. kari ate guava for the first time- 2 types.
AND I tried squid. Steph's nanny offered it to me and I didn't want to say no, so I ate it. And it wasn't actually that bad, just the texture was kind of funny. But then she took another one and dipped it in a sauce and said try this one too! And I was like AAH NOO. Steph ran away at the mention of seafood. Lucky girl. (Really though I guess it wasn't that bad). Later we tried taro root in crackers (good) and the best doughnuts EVER. really fresh and hot and covered in sugar.
and we really wanted to try these two-foot long ice creams. seriously. when we walked by there were these guys holding them in a position that basically pantomimed sticking a sword up one's ass. it was pretty funny. however, we had to catch the boat to Bali, which is right across the Danshui River. before that though, we visited Fort San Domingo which was originally operated by the spanish, who were then kicked out by the dutch. the english came next. it was really interesting and we saw encaustic tiles (humanities moment!) and took a lot of pictures of the gorgeous sunset. we also got yelled at again for taking pictures inside the fort. dang.
next we passed by the school that asian superstar Jay Chou went to. hehehe. also, there was a preserved aboriginal house, which i have never seen before, and obviously k hasn't either. we both found it really interesting. there was a slight problem though: neither of us can read chinese! so we couldn't understand any of the signs. i could only pick out a few words.. shame shame.
So after arriving in Bali we looked at the crafts and sat by the sea. We went into a photo booth too, where we could take pictures that turn into stickers. The problem was that it didn't give us enough time between pictures to get into poses, so they turned out pretty awful. And we couldn't read what the screen to edit them said, so the backgrounds we picked turned out kind of garish. But they're still really funny. By this time the sun had pretty much set and it was getting really dark and chilly, so we headed back to Danshui, and then took the MRT (subway) back to Banciao. It was quite a long ride, and we stood for most of it, grabbing onto the handholds hanging from the ceiling because the train swayed back and forth quite a bit. Looking into other cars, you can see them bending, and it's kind of scary, but the subway is the best way to travel long distances for us. Once we got back, we were really exhausted, and went straight to bed.
to be continued.. we are posting now so the computer doesn't crash.
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