Time flies..when you're busy. And trying to make up work for school like crazy.
SO...Summary of trip:
AMAZING. AWESOME. CANT EVEN DESCRIBE IT.
Anyway, now I can eat with chopsticks. And I know about 30 Chinese words/phrases.
and she likes hot asian guys.
Well...her cousin Yusin is pretty cute. And only 22 ;-).
Oh, and neither of us gained any weight. Go figure.
It's been two weeks, and we're still missing Taiwan. VERY MUCH.
northville is very boring. practically nothing to do. it's very flat in michigan. it's very rural in michigan. it's very blah in michigan.
taiwan, we will be back in five years.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Going Home
The night before, we had set out alarm for 5:30...because the taxi was supposed to come at 6 to take us to the airport.
4:30, Steph's grandma wakes us up.
grandma: "an-an it's 5:30, get up!!"
stephanie: "grandma ..... *looks at clock groggily* it's 4:30!"
kari also groggily points at clock
grandma: "no your clock is slow! go check the one outside!"
i go and check. it says 4:30
cleaning lady: "ah ma! it's 4:30!"
grandma: "oh goshh sorry. AH GONG (grandpa) YOU SAID IT WAS 5:30!!!"
Sooo..we went back to sleep. And woke up at 5:30. For real this time.
After a hurried breakfast, we said goodbye to Steph's grandpa and the cleaning lady, and the taxi took us to the airport along with Aunt Karen and her grandma.
i nearly cried, i was so sad.
Me too...it felt awful to be leaving.
At the airport, after standing in the wrong line for half an hour, and finding that one of the suitcases was overweight (fortunately Steph's aunt has connections..so we didn't have to pay extra), we said our final goodbyes and got on the plane.
and flew for a long time. but it felt much shorter b/c the audio was working this time.
the end. we got back.
dad's car almost got towed :-/
My parents flipped over my hair. Not really. But they were surprised.
my dad flipped over my fatness. really. but he was not suprised.
;)
the end!
4:30, Steph's grandma wakes us up.
grandma: "an-an it's 5:30, get up!!"
stephanie: "grandma ..... *looks at clock groggily* it's 4:30!"
kari also groggily points at clock
grandma: "no your clock is slow! go check the one outside!"
i go and check. it says 4:30
cleaning lady: "ah ma! it's 4:30!"
grandma: "oh goshh sorry. AH GONG (grandpa) YOU SAID IT WAS 5:30!!!"
Sooo..we went back to sleep. And woke up at 5:30. For real this time.
After a hurried breakfast, we said goodbye to Steph's grandpa and the cleaning lady, and the taxi took us to the airport along with Aunt Karen and her grandma.
i nearly cried, i was so sad.
Me too...it felt awful to be leaving.
At the airport, after standing in the wrong line for half an hour, and finding that one of the suitcases was overweight (fortunately Steph's aunt has connections..so we didn't have to pay extra), we said our final goodbyes and got on the plane.
and flew for a long time. but it felt much shorter b/c the audio was working this time.
the end. we got back.
dad's car almost got towed :-/
My parents flipped over my hair. Not really. But they were surprised.
my dad flipped over my fatness. really. but he was not suprised.
;)
the end!
Last Full Day
We woke up around 10..11?...so we didn't get much sleep, considering how late we'd been out. After a small breakfast (about half a red bean bun each) Steph's two older cousins arrived. We had some time to kill while waiting for the adults before going out for lunch, so we lazed around in the movie theater room.
We were obviously quite exhausted.
the next thing we did was go visit my deceased grandpa at his um.. shrine, i guess you could call it. the place is really high on a mountaintop, so we drove up and when we got out, the sun was literally beating down on us. we walked in and the interior is decorated with lots of gold and pictures of different deities etc. it looked pretty intricate. so then we rode the elevator up to the floor where my grandpa is buried. first we had to wash different fruits as an offering to the gods, then we burned incense sticks and prayed to the gods (it was slightly awkward because i am agnostic). people are all cremated for the most part, because of lack of space, and so the place was filled with a bunch of compartments to house the remains. stickers on the compartments represented if the person was male/female, dead/alive, or no one had yet purchased the box. picking the box is a tricky thing because you have to follow fung shui rules: the ones in the best, most harmonious spots cost the most, etc.
I obviously did not participate in this. Steph, her two cousins, and her uncles did, and I watched. It was really interesting.
okay. that's all for that. we left and went to eat lunch at a superfancy italian restaurant owned by a japanese guy. but the food was delicious.
Steph's dentist cousin took us, and ordered everything for us. It didn't taste exactly like Italian back in the States...but it was still really good.
Afterwards we said goodbye to her cousins and her dad's side of the family (SO SAD. WE MISS THEM. A LOT.) and then went back to her grandparents' apartment. Where we proceeded to put off packing.
we put off packing for a very long time.. until it was time to eat dinner. so we ate a GINORMOUS dinner with my mutti's side of the family. it was all very good but i was so very full.
Last delicious meal in Taiwan. :-(
Then...it was time to pack. Frantically. Unbelievable how much stuff we accumulated...Steph's aunt brought us this huge extendable suitcase so that we'd be able to fit everything in, and our four bags were stuffed to the max.
i got a huge workout hauling the bags to figure out how heavy they were. i am now buff.
Then we went to bed....
We were obviously quite exhausted.
the next thing we did was go visit my deceased grandpa at his um.. shrine, i guess you could call it. the place is really high on a mountaintop, so we drove up and when we got out, the sun was literally beating down on us. we walked in and the interior is decorated with lots of gold and pictures of different deities etc. it looked pretty intricate. so then we rode the elevator up to the floor where my grandpa is buried. first we had to wash different fruits as an offering to the gods, then we burned incense sticks and prayed to the gods (it was slightly awkward because i am agnostic). people are all cremated for the most part, because of lack of space, and so the place was filled with a bunch of compartments to house the remains. stickers on the compartments represented if the person was male/female, dead/alive, or no one had yet purchased the box. picking the box is a tricky thing because you have to follow fung shui rules: the ones in the best, most harmonious spots cost the most, etc.
I obviously did not participate in this. Steph, her two cousins, and her uncles did, and I watched. It was really interesting.
okay. that's all for that. we left and went to eat lunch at a superfancy italian restaurant owned by a japanese guy. but the food was delicious.
Steph's dentist cousin took us, and ordered everything for us. It didn't taste exactly like Italian back in the States...but it was still really good.
Afterwards we said goodbye to her cousins and her dad's side of the family (SO SAD. WE MISS THEM. A LOT.) and then went back to her grandparents' apartment. Where we proceeded to put off packing.
we put off packing for a very long time.. until it was time to eat dinner. so we ate a GINORMOUS dinner with my mutti's side of the family. it was all very good but i was so very full.
Last delicious meal in Taiwan. :-(
Then...it was time to pack. Frantically. Unbelievable how much stuff we accumulated...Steph's aunt brought us this huge extendable suitcase so that we'd be able to fit everything in, and our four bags were stuffed to the max.
i got a huge workout hauling the bags to figure out how heavy they were. i am now buff.
Then we went to bed....
what really happened on new years eve
So that morning, Steph's uncle on her mom's side took us to Leofoo Amusement Park. Her aunt was supposed to come too, but couldn't, so her grandma came. Steph was less than thrilled.
(not about my grandma coming, the fact that we were going to an amusement park.)
It was about a two hour drive there, during which we napped. When we got there, the first thing we saw was a Christmas parade, complete with fake snow and people dressed up as gingerbread men etc. We also saw dogs that Stephanie swore looked fake. Hmm.
they looked like teddy bears turned into dogs or something. it was REALLY bizzare.
So of course the first ride we go on was a WATER RIDE. Her uncle and grandma wanted to go, and no amount of "it's too cold!" would persuade them otherwise.
we got very wet. the end.
Steph's grandma was not too happy about getting wet, after she had been the one who was all enthusiastic.
quote "these are wool pants, wool doesn't DRY!" kari and i were in jeans. those don't dry either.
Next was passed "the screaming condor," the fastest roller coaster ride in the park. I looked at Steph to see if she wanted to go and she vigorously shook her head no. I then looked at her uncle and grandma. And they didn't want to go either. Basically nobody but me wanted to go. And I didn't want to go alone, so I didn't get to. But that was ok.
IT LOOKED SO SCARY. KARI IS CRAZY.
It looked exciting...to me, anyway. ANYWAY-
- it was like asking for a death wish-
anyhow, it was about lunchtime, so we decided to get bentos which were less than stellar (pretty much the only bad food we've had the entire trip). i saw a vendor that was selling PRETZELS and i adore pretzels, so i eagerly went to buy one. the price was a rip-off, but whatever, how could pretzels go wrong?
they were wrong. there was CHEESE inside. who puts cheese inside pretzelsssss?? so i tried to trade it back but apparently there is no such thing as pretzels without cheese. so i wasted money. blahh. k and i both don't like cheese, so no one was going to eat it. my grandma ate some and asked me why i wasn't eating it. i said i don't like cheese. she asked why kari wasn't eating it. i said she didn't like cheese either. my grandma went, "you guys are americans and don't like cheese? americans love cheese! how do you live in america and not like cheese?"
i don't know grandma, i don't know.
After lunch we wandered into the South Pacific themed part of the park, and then the Aladdin part. Where we saw pyramids and sphinxes mixed into the decor (?!?). But we went on a couple of rides, and they were pretty fun. One was supposed to be like a jeep ride through caverns underneath the sultan's palace, and we agreed that that one was the best. We were disappointed by another...like a mini roller coaster but the seats spin, called Tornado. But ours didn't spin. Huh. We rode another mini roller coaster, too.
Our reactions:
Next was the zoo portion.
so we saw this thing called the monkey ride or whatever, where you basically ride a suspended two person bike around the park. so it was fun and we got to see all these really funny monkeys. i got really excited when we neared the flamingos b/c they are pink and interesting looking. so we pedal closer
and i go "kari! flamingos!"
then i go "ugh they smell bad! PEDAL FASTER!!"
so we jetted out of there. who knew flamingos smelled so bad?
We also took a bus tour/safari and saw lions, bears, hippos, baboons, and other exotic animals. So that was pretty cool. Although all through the zoo part we felt bad for the animals...especially this one camel who was giving rides to kids. It looked so tired.
At this point we'd seen pretty much everything. And done pretty much everything. EXCEPT that roller coaster. But nobody wanted to do it still, so we got ice cream and left.
ice cream. yummm.
it took another two hours-ish to drive back, so kari and i quickly got ready to go to my uncle's house for a new year's dinner.
I was NOT too happy. I took a shower...and then found out we had to leave in about ten minutes. So I still had wet hair, was makeup-less, and quite frazzled by the time we got on the MRT. Which was absolutely PACKED. People shoulder to shoulder, bumping into each other whenever the train swayed. It was so crazy that day, it would randomly stop and messages would come up saying sorry for the wait and then it would start up again. It took us twice as long to get to Taipei as it normally did.
after a long MRT ride, we finally made it. my cousin, eric, came to pick us up and we had to walk back to their apartment. so we arrived ladadada and ate a pretty delicious dinner. EXCEPT k and i were tricked into eating ......
......
..........
COW STOMACH.
GAAAGGG. it was not very good, and the texture was sort of rubbery. bleh.
You could tell there was kind of the outer stomach and the inner lining part....Steph's aunt refused to tell us what it was and insisted we eat it. And then she told us and we both turned green.
yeah. gross. then we primped and got ready to go to the Taipei City Hall, close to the Taipei 101. There was a huge concert going on and the place was packed with over 100,000 people. It's sort of like Times Square in NY, so we had to squeeze our way in and out. we formed sort of a conga line ahahah. (me, kari, eric, and yusin- my two older cousins took us there.) when we finally settled on a place to sit down, a couple of famous bands came to play like Mayday. There was this other group that was absolutely AWFUL, i kept wincing. just too chipper and boy band. however, overall it was really sweet and there were small fireworks going off randomly and confetti etc.
then it came time for the countdown to the fireworks going off on the 101. i recorded it but uh.. counted wrongly haahha. what a doof. anyhow, it still looks really cool, though a bit like the 101 is exploding. the fireworks were quite pretty, and everyone oohed and ahhed and lasted about 4 minutes or so. it was really exciting to be there, packed in with thousands of people, all screaming and cheering. it was fantastic.
Yeah, it was pretty amazing. Normally I'd be sitting at home in front of the TV with my family watching the countdown. This year, we were actually there. It was awesome.
Afterwards it was almost as bad as a mosh pit...so many people going in different directions. We saw someone faint, and we had to all hold on to each other to avoid being separated. We didn't actually manage to get out of the huge mob until about 1. We got to a department store to try to find a bathroom...and there was a ginormous line for the ladies'. So we tried a different place, and there was still a huge line. So we said screw this, and Eric and Yusin led us to the men's bathroom. Which was slightly awkward, but we weren't the only girls in there.
the most awk part was that the urinals were right across from the sinks, so we couldn't really look in the mirror.
While there, we got ice cream (AGAIN) and then we set out to find a good place to play with our sparklers. Me and Steph had bought them from a lady on a corner on Christmas Day, and had hoped we'd get a chance to use them.
sparklers kick ass. it was sort of magical to play with them on new years eve, in the dark, with other random people, just waving them around and "painting" pretty pictures and whatnot. i had the best time. it was like i was 6 again. :)
It was a struggle to light them at first, but once we got them going it was great. And yeah, other people randomly joined in and it was just so much fun. We all just stood in the middle of a parking lot (by the way, the streets looked like a hurricane had hit. Garbage etc. everywhere) and waved them around.
After that...we hung out some more. And got home quite late. But it was a really great day.
(not about my grandma coming, the fact that we were going to an amusement park.)
It was about a two hour drive there, during which we napped. When we got there, the first thing we saw was a Christmas parade, complete with fake snow and people dressed up as gingerbread men etc. We also saw dogs that Stephanie swore looked fake. Hmm.
they looked like teddy bears turned into dogs or something. it was REALLY bizzare.
So of course the first ride we go on was a WATER RIDE. Her uncle and grandma wanted to go, and no amount of "it's too cold!" would persuade them otherwise.
we got very wet. the end.
Steph's grandma was not too happy about getting wet, after she had been the one who was all enthusiastic.
quote "these are wool pants, wool doesn't DRY!" kari and i were in jeans. those don't dry either.
Next was passed "the screaming condor," the fastest roller coaster ride in the park. I looked at Steph to see if she wanted to go and she vigorously shook her head no. I then looked at her uncle and grandma. And they didn't want to go either. Basically nobody but me wanted to go. And I didn't want to go alone, so I didn't get to. But that was ok.
IT LOOKED SO SCARY. KARI IS CRAZY.
It looked exciting...to me, anyway. ANYWAY-
- it was like asking for a death wish-
anyhow, it was about lunchtime, so we decided to get bentos which were less than stellar (pretty much the only bad food we've had the entire trip). i saw a vendor that was selling PRETZELS and i adore pretzels, so i eagerly went to buy one. the price was a rip-off, but whatever, how could pretzels go wrong?
they were wrong. there was CHEESE inside. who puts cheese inside pretzelsssss?? so i tried to trade it back but apparently there is no such thing as pretzels without cheese. so i wasted money. blahh. k and i both don't like cheese, so no one was going to eat it. my grandma ate some and asked me why i wasn't eating it. i said i don't like cheese. she asked why kari wasn't eating it. i said she didn't like cheese either. my grandma went, "you guys are americans and don't like cheese? americans love cheese! how do you live in america and not like cheese?"
i don't know grandma, i don't know.
After lunch we wandered into the South Pacific themed part of the park, and then the Aladdin part. Where we saw pyramids and sphinxes mixed into the decor (?!?). But we went on a couple of rides, and they were pretty fun. One was supposed to be like a jeep ride through caverns underneath the sultan's palace, and we agreed that that one was the best. We were disappointed by another...like a mini roller coaster but the seats spin, called Tornado. But ours didn't spin. Huh. We rode another mini roller coaster, too.
Our reactions:
Next was the zoo portion.
so we saw this thing called the monkey ride or whatever, where you basically ride a suspended two person bike around the park. so it was fun and we got to see all these really funny monkeys. i got really excited when we neared the flamingos b/c they are pink and interesting looking. so we pedal closer
and i go "kari! flamingos!"
then i go "ugh they smell bad! PEDAL FASTER!!"
so we jetted out of there. who knew flamingos smelled so bad?
We also took a bus tour/safari and saw lions, bears, hippos, baboons, and other exotic animals. So that was pretty cool. Although all through the zoo part we felt bad for the animals...especially this one camel who was giving rides to kids. It looked so tired.
At this point we'd seen pretty much everything. And done pretty much everything. EXCEPT that roller coaster. But nobody wanted to do it still, so we got ice cream and left.
ice cream. yummm.
it took another two hours-ish to drive back, so kari and i quickly got ready to go to my uncle's house for a new year's dinner.
I was NOT too happy. I took a shower...and then found out we had to leave in about ten minutes. So I still had wet hair, was makeup-less, and quite frazzled by the time we got on the MRT. Which was absolutely PACKED. People shoulder to shoulder, bumping into each other whenever the train swayed. It was so crazy that day, it would randomly stop and messages would come up saying sorry for the wait and then it would start up again. It took us twice as long to get to Taipei as it normally did.
after a long MRT ride, we finally made it. my cousin, eric, came to pick us up and we had to walk back to their apartment. so we arrived ladadada and ate a pretty delicious dinner. EXCEPT k and i were tricked into eating ......
......
..........
COW STOMACH.
GAAAGGG. it was not very good, and the texture was sort of rubbery. bleh.
You could tell there was kind of the outer stomach and the inner lining part....Steph's aunt refused to tell us what it was and insisted we eat it. And then she told us and we both turned green.
yeah. gross. then we primped and got ready to go to the Taipei City Hall, close to the Taipei 101. There was a huge concert going on and the place was packed with over 100,000 people. It's sort of like Times Square in NY, so we had to squeeze our way in and out. we formed sort of a conga line ahahah. (me, kari, eric, and yusin- my two older cousins took us there.) when we finally settled on a place to sit down, a couple of famous bands came to play like Mayday. There was this other group that was absolutely AWFUL, i kept wincing. just too chipper and boy band. however, overall it was really sweet and there were small fireworks going off randomly and confetti etc.
then it came time for the countdown to the fireworks going off on the 101. i recorded it but uh.. counted wrongly haahha. what a doof. anyhow, it still looks really cool, though a bit like the 101 is exploding. the fireworks were quite pretty, and everyone oohed and ahhed and lasted about 4 minutes or so. it was really exciting to be there, packed in with thousands of people, all screaming and cheering. it was fantastic.
Yeah, it was pretty amazing. Normally I'd be sitting at home in front of the TV with my family watching the countdown. This year, we were actually there. It was awesome.
Afterwards it was almost as bad as a mosh pit...so many people going in different directions. We saw someone faint, and we had to all hold on to each other to avoid being separated. We didn't actually manage to get out of the huge mob until about 1. We got to a department store to try to find a bathroom...and there was a ginormous line for the ladies'. So we tried a different place, and there was still a huge line. So we said screw this, and Eric and Yusin led us to the men's bathroom. Which was slightly awkward, but we weren't the only girls in there.
the most awk part was that the urinals were right across from the sinks, so we couldn't really look in the mirror.
While there, we got ice cream (AGAIN) and then we set out to find a good place to play with our sparklers. Me and Steph had bought them from a lady on a corner on Christmas Day, and had hoped we'd get a chance to use them.
sparklers kick ass. it was sort of magical to play with them on new years eve, in the dark, with other random people, just waving them around and "painting" pretty pictures and whatnot. i had the best time. it was like i was 6 again. :)
It was a struggle to light them at first, but once we got them going it was great. And yeah, other people randomly joined in and it was just so much fun. We all just stood in the middle of a parking lot (by the way, the streets looked like a hurricane had hit. Garbage etc. everywhere) and waved them around.
After that...we hung out some more. And got home quite late. But it was a really great day.
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