HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!
okay that's all. we're going to go party now.
see you in 2007!
Sunday, December 31, 2006
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.
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.
day 13
So this is the day we were supposed to go see Longshan Temple and the National Palace Museum....BUT. We overslept.
SO...after a late start, we decded to skip the temple and just go to the museum. We didn't have anybody to take us there, however, but we figured we could find it on our own. 2 and a half hours, two rides on the MRT, a taxi ride, a bus ride, and much confusion later we got there.
and only because we followed some college guys going to the same place. pathetic.
so we finally got there and marveled at the size.. entered, bought tickets, and went to see some exhibits. sadly for me, almost all the ones i thought looked interesting were not even open yet, like the ancient treasures of the forbidden city and the furniture from the something dynasty.
We did still see some cool stuff. Like Ju wares, ceramic pots that are very rare and known as very beautiful because of the light blue, somewhat transparent glaze used on them. We also saw an exhibit on calligraphy and wall paintings, a Tibetan exhibit, and also the evolution of pottery etc. There were some amazing jade carvings too, so intricate that you had to look through a magnifying glass to see all the details.
seeing everything took a lot longer than we expected, so we scurried down to the gift shops. (the museum closes at five) a lot of the scrolls for sale were really pretty, but also really expensive, but we did end up with a few cool things. which you guys will have to wait to find out about.
ah yes. then it was very cold, and the traffic was very bad (rush hour). we had to catch bus 255 to get back to shilin mrt station, so we could get back to the main taipei station, so we could get back to fuzhong station in banciao. there were many problems.
first, the buses were mucho full and we couldn't get on the first one that came by.
then, we had to wait in the cold.
next, we finally got on bus 255 which was also tres full and loud
even more, the bus was very jerky and we were crashing into people. (on the bus, not road)
once, the bus stopped very abruptly, and all the standing passengers (us) almost fell over.
after that, we finally got off but didn't know how to get to shilin, so we followed a bunch of schoolkids.
finally, we made it. (after getting to taipei main station, we're good to go)
The museum was worth all the trouble...I guess...but we were incredibly tired once we got back to Banciao. I fell asleep right away to be prodded awake by Steph an hour later so that we could go walk around. I fell back asleep. She then took my blankets. Bleh.
So we very sleepily (in my case) walked around Banciao, went into a couple of shops, and then walked back.
i was afraid people would think i was kidnapping kari and then mugging her or something because she was stumbling around. yikes.
So anyway, it was kind of a low-key evening after such a hectic day.
SO...after a late start, we decded to skip the temple and just go to the museum. We didn't have anybody to take us there, however, but we figured we could find it on our own. 2 and a half hours, two rides on the MRT, a taxi ride, a bus ride, and much confusion later we got there.
and only because we followed some college guys going to the same place. pathetic.
so we finally got there and marveled at the size.. entered, bought tickets, and went to see some exhibits. sadly for me, almost all the ones i thought looked interesting were not even open yet, like the ancient treasures of the forbidden city and the furniture from the something dynasty.
We did still see some cool stuff. Like Ju wares, ceramic pots that are very rare and known as very beautiful because of the light blue, somewhat transparent glaze used on them. We also saw an exhibit on calligraphy and wall paintings, a Tibetan exhibit, and also the evolution of pottery etc. There were some amazing jade carvings too, so intricate that you had to look through a magnifying glass to see all the details.
seeing everything took a lot longer than we expected, so we scurried down to the gift shops. (the museum closes at five) a lot of the scrolls for sale were really pretty, but also really expensive, but we did end up with a few cool things. which you guys will have to wait to find out about.
ah yes. then it was very cold, and the traffic was very bad (rush hour). we had to catch bus 255 to get back to shilin mrt station, so we could get back to the main taipei station, so we could get back to fuzhong station in banciao. there were many problems.
first, the buses were mucho full and we couldn't get on the first one that came by.
then, we had to wait in the cold.
next, we finally got on bus 255 which was also tres full and loud
even more, the bus was very jerky and we were crashing into people. (on the bus, not road)
once, the bus stopped very abruptly, and all the standing passengers (us) almost fell over.
after that, we finally got off but didn't know how to get to shilin, so we followed a bunch of schoolkids.
finally, we made it. (after getting to taipei main station, we're good to go)
The museum was worth all the trouble...I guess...but we were incredibly tired once we got back to Banciao. I fell asleep right away to be prodded awake by Steph an hour later so that we could go walk around. I fell back asleep. She then took my blankets. Bleh.
So we very sleepily (in my case) walked around Banciao, went into a couple of shops, and then walked back.
i was afraid people would think i was kidnapping kari and then mugging her or something because she was stumbling around. yikes.
So anyway, it was kind of a low-key evening after such a hectic day.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
day 12
slept in again. it's become habit. karen arrived around 1 p.m. to take us to a vegetarian buffet.
oh. my. god. food again. AHHHHHHHHHH (though very good food)
so we tried a lot of different things and steamed buns etc that all tasted yummy. next? CAKES. we sampled 6 different types of cakes and then each ate a piece of our favorites. awful! then we tried different flavors of ice creams, too. afterwards, we felt super unhealthy so ate some healthy stuff like fruit and salad. my aunt brewed me a "slimming tea." you know you're getting fat when your AUNT brews you a SLIMMING TEA.
We also drank some of the almond tea again. It's so amazing, not kidding. It smells so good, like cherries, and we both bought some to take home.
A lot of today was riding in the car, and walking around Taipei in the rain. We went through Da'an park, which would have been really nice if it hadn't been such a gray day. And we also visited a supermarket, oogled the bread selection (looked yummy) and took pictures of strange foods. Like pig's heart.
And that's really been it..right now we're at Steph's Aunt Karen's, and we've been updating for the last couple of hours.
for your viewing pleasure.
tomorrow we're going to go to the National Palace Museum and Longshan Temple, so hopefully the weather is good!
all right. catch you all later.
oh. my. god. food again. AHHHHHHHHHH (though very good food)
so we tried a lot of different things and steamed buns etc that all tasted yummy. next? CAKES. we sampled 6 different types of cakes and then each ate a piece of our favorites. awful! then we tried different flavors of ice creams, too. afterwards, we felt super unhealthy so ate some healthy stuff like fruit and salad. my aunt brewed me a "slimming tea." you know you're getting fat when your AUNT brews you a SLIMMING TEA.
We also drank some of the almond tea again. It's so amazing, not kidding. It smells so good, like cherries, and we both bought some to take home.
A lot of today was riding in the car, and walking around Taipei in the rain. We went through Da'an park, which would have been really nice if it hadn't been such a gray day. And we also visited a supermarket, oogled the bread selection (looked yummy) and took pictures of strange foods. Like pig's heart.
And that's really been it..right now we're at Steph's Aunt Karen's, and we've been updating for the last couple of hours.
for your viewing pleasure.
tomorrow we're going to go to the National Palace Museum and Longshan Temple, so hopefully the weather is good!
all right. catch you all later.
day 11
after waking up late.. again, my nanny brought me and k to see her husband. it was really nice to visit, especially since he has cancer so i might not see him again next time. before that though, my nanny dragged me to see a few different people who knew me as a two-year-old. i didn't really recognize them, but that's okay. apparently i was a really fussy baby.
there is a bakery right next door to where my nanny lives that makes these HEAVENLY pineapple cakes. we bought some fresh out of the oven and they were SO SCRUMPTIOUS (i'm running out of synonyms for delicious).
While at Steph's nanny's apartment, she showed us lots of pictures of Steph as a toddler. (CUTE. although Steph doesn't think so) and then her nanny took us to the Lin Family Mansion and Gardens, right in Banciao, which we've been meaning to visit for a while. It was pretty amazing, all these huge buildings and ponds and trees right in the middle of the city. It was built 150 years ago, and it's routinely restored, so all the paintings and carvings on the walls seemed pretty fresh. Everything was so intricate: the lamps, the doors, the windows, all wood and beautifully carved.
I LOOK LIKE A BALL NOT A PERSON IN MY BABY PICTURES. SO EMBARRASSING!!
anyhow the Lin Family Mansion and Gardens is really pretty, and i pretended that it was my house (since my last name is lin. it was fun) k took a lot of pictures and i recorded a lot of footage. we even got some pictures with college students in traditional chinese dress. they were making a movie for a class or something like that.
then we came back, had some fried dumplings for dinner. once again, STUFFED.
Afterwards, since it wasn't too late yet, we went on a quest for jeans. Steph's mom wants her to buy a lot here, since you can get them hemmed for free and she can't often find good jeans back home. Enough to last her through college apparently. So anyway, that's what we were looking for this time in the shops in Banciao. We finally found a couple of pairs that fit her (yay!) and we're supposed to pick them up the next day after they're hemmed.
Each day is passing so quickly, because they're always pretty full. We've been lucky with the weather so far. 2 full weeks of rain were predicted, and it's only poured about 2 days, so we've been able to do a lot more than we could have otherwise, and Steph's relatives seem to have made it their mission to take us to as many different cool places as possible. So that's been awesome. Anyway, I guess that's about it for this day.
there is a bakery right next door to where my nanny lives that makes these HEAVENLY pineapple cakes. we bought some fresh out of the oven and they were SO SCRUMPTIOUS (i'm running out of synonyms for delicious).
While at Steph's nanny's apartment, she showed us lots of pictures of Steph as a toddler. (CUTE. although Steph doesn't think so) and then her nanny took us to the Lin Family Mansion and Gardens, right in Banciao, which we've been meaning to visit for a while. It was pretty amazing, all these huge buildings and ponds and trees right in the middle of the city. It was built 150 years ago, and it's routinely restored, so all the paintings and carvings on the walls seemed pretty fresh. Everything was so intricate: the lamps, the doors, the windows, all wood and beautifully carved.
I LOOK LIKE A BALL NOT A PERSON IN MY BABY PICTURES. SO EMBARRASSING!!
anyhow the Lin Family Mansion and Gardens is really pretty, and i pretended that it was my house (since my last name is lin. it was fun) k took a lot of pictures and i recorded a lot of footage. we even got some pictures with college students in traditional chinese dress. they were making a movie for a class or something like that.
then we came back, had some fried dumplings for dinner. once again, STUFFED.
Afterwards, since it wasn't too late yet, we went on a quest for jeans. Steph's mom wants her to buy a lot here, since you can get them hemmed for free and she can't often find good jeans back home. Enough to last her through college apparently. So anyway, that's what we were looking for this time in the shops in Banciao. We finally found a couple of pairs that fit her (yay!) and we're supposed to pick them up the next day after they're hemmed.
Each day is passing so quickly, because they're always pretty full. We've been lucky with the weather so far. 2 full weeks of rain were predicted, and it's only poured about 2 days, so we've been able to do a lot more than we could have otherwise, and Steph's relatives seem to have made it their mission to take us to as many different cool places as possible. So that's been awesome. Anyway, I guess that's about it for this day.
day 10
we woke up super late again. around 11. then we had some late breakfast at my cousin's then i talked with my old grandma a bit. she's 93! and very, very cute. she only speaks taiwanese though, and my taiwanese is sort of nonexistant, but i managed to say a few things and we laughed a bit etc. however it was time to go to tucheng to meet my aunt karen and uncle.. king. (his last name is wang, which means king in chinese, so he calls himself king. hehe)
mm we took the MRT (getting pretty good at it, actually) and rode to meet my relatives, then went to eat teppanyaki, which um.. sort of hard to describe. there's a really large stove (?) where meat and stuff is cooked right in front of you. sort of like benihana's. it was also very good. there's almost nothing that doesn't taste good here except for odd things like tripe and pig tongue.
Yeah, to be honest I've liked almost everything I've had here. Only few exceptions are things that that are mostly made of glutin...not too crazy about that. And this Japanese fishball thing (narutos?). Yuck. But really, most everything is good.
After that they took us by car to the Hot Springs at Wulai. There was a resort sort of place where we rented two rooms by the river with the hot baths in them. One for Steph's aunt and uncle and one for Steph and I. There was a big tub in the center of the room, and three walls surrounding it. The third had a railing since we were pretty high up, and it opened out to the river so we could look at the view. We filled up the bath, and you could see the steam coming off the water it was so hot. (at least I thought it was hot...like PAINFULLY hot. Steph informs me otherwise.)
kari has a very low pain threshold. her hot is not hot and her cold is not cold. the lukewarm water to me was hot to her. the cold water to her was on the lower end of lukeworm. so unfortunately, i dipped myself in a warm bath and for kari it was super hot.
I DO NOT. Steph just has an unreasonablely high pain threshold. Seriously, the water was boiling. STEAM was coming off of it.
IF IT'S NOT STEAMING, ITS NOT HOT. DUH. IT'S SUPPOSED TO HAVE STEAM.
so yeah. at hot springs you don't go in with anything on. you have to be naked and all you have to cover you is a teeny towel. so kari was kind of iffy about it (i was used to it because i went to japan 2 years ago and went to their hot springs). but it didn't end up being awkward, except for the part where her hot was not hot.
I left my bathing suit in Banciao anyway, since we went straight from Taipei to Wulai. And Steph didn't have a bathing suit. But it was really ok. And the water felt really good once it cooled down a little bit. We got an hour in the room, because that's all we rented it for, and then we got out all pink. (red, in my case. actually quite red)
We then drank tea and coffee (I'm actually getting to quite like tea. Although coffee is still ick.) and Steph's aunt and uncle took our bags back to Banciao while we headed off to the Shilin Night Market by MRT.
it was really busy and full of food, jewelry, and just every imaginable vendor. kari got a cool pair of sunglasses (my pickkkk- i am so trendy. heehee) and we looked at more earrings and clothes. we had some really delicious almond drink, and a strawberry stick thing coated with sugar/honey hardened syrup. umm we also had sweet potato cooked a special way- i really liked this. yum. so basically, a lot more shopping. i saw a shaved ice restaurant, and kari has never tried it before, so i dragged her in. shaved ice is super good. it was flavored with condensed milk then over it we put red beans and peanuts.
then there was another portion that was just filled with tiny restaurants. MORE FOOD. GAH. i can't handle it anymore! there were some small gift shops too where we bought some presents for friends etc.
Finally we took the subway back and went to bed.
mm we took the MRT (getting pretty good at it, actually) and rode to meet my relatives, then went to eat teppanyaki, which um.. sort of hard to describe. there's a really large stove (?) where meat and stuff is cooked right in front of you. sort of like benihana's. it was also very good. there's almost nothing that doesn't taste good here except for odd things like tripe and pig tongue.
Yeah, to be honest I've liked almost everything I've had here. Only few exceptions are things that that are mostly made of glutin...not too crazy about that. And this Japanese fishball thing (narutos?). Yuck. But really, most everything is good.
After that they took us by car to the Hot Springs at Wulai. There was a resort sort of place where we rented two rooms by the river with the hot baths in them. One for Steph's aunt and uncle and one for Steph and I. There was a big tub in the center of the room, and three walls surrounding it. The third had a railing since we were pretty high up, and it opened out to the river so we could look at the view. We filled up the bath, and you could see the steam coming off the water it was so hot. (at least I thought it was hot...like PAINFULLY hot. Steph informs me otherwise.)
kari has a very low pain threshold. her hot is not hot and her cold is not cold. the lukewarm water to me was hot to her. the cold water to her was on the lower end of lukeworm. so unfortunately, i dipped myself in a warm bath and for kari it was super hot.
I DO NOT. Steph just has an unreasonablely high pain threshold. Seriously, the water was boiling. STEAM was coming off of it.
IF IT'S NOT STEAMING, ITS NOT HOT. DUH. IT'S SUPPOSED TO HAVE STEAM.
so yeah. at hot springs you don't go in with anything on. you have to be naked and all you have to cover you is a teeny towel. so kari was kind of iffy about it (i was used to it because i went to japan 2 years ago and went to their hot springs). but it didn't end up being awkward, except for the part where her hot was not hot.
I left my bathing suit in Banciao anyway, since we went straight from Taipei to Wulai. And Steph didn't have a bathing suit. But it was really ok. And the water felt really good once it cooled down a little bit. We got an hour in the room, because that's all we rented it for, and then we got out all pink. (red, in my case. actually quite red)
We then drank tea and coffee (I'm actually getting to quite like tea. Although coffee is still ick.) and Steph's aunt and uncle took our bags back to Banciao while we headed off to the Shilin Night Market by MRT.
it was really busy and full of food, jewelry, and just every imaginable vendor. kari got a cool pair of sunglasses (my pickkkk- i am so trendy. heehee) and we looked at more earrings and clothes. we had some really delicious almond drink, and a strawberry stick thing coated with sugar/honey hardened syrup. umm we also had sweet potato cooked a special way- i really liked this. yum. so basically, a lot more shopping. i saw a shaved ice restaurant, and kari has never tried it before, so i dragged her in. shaved ice is super good. it was flavored with condensed milk then over it we put red beans and peanuts.
then there was another portion that was just filled with tiny restaurants. MORE FOOD. GAH. i can't handle it anymore! there were some small gift shops too where we bought some presents for friends etc.
Finally we took the subway back and went to bed.
day 9
Christmas Day! Although it didn't feel like it. No snow etc. We wandered around Banciao for a bit, discovering that a christmas tree had appeared overnight by the Hi-Mart, and early that afternoon we took the MRT into Taipei.
when we arrived in taipei, i had this glorious plan to drop off our bags at my dentist cousin's office before going to the taipei 101, but.... plans were ruined after an experience with this asshole taxi driver. so we got in and i said to go to "jie long lu" (jie long road) at the crossroad with the night market. however, my chinese isn't THAT good, so i didn't know how to say everything with all the roads and whatnot. believe it or not, this dumbass yelled at me! i'm the CUSTOMER. a PAYING customer! AND A FOREIGNER. AND A TEENAGER. jeez. so he said "hey, it's not like all taxi drivers know every single road." for pete's sake you are a TAXI DRIVER. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THE ROADS. so yeah i offered for him to just take us to jie long road and we'd search ourselves, and in a very bad tone he replied "it's like 6 km long, you're going to search for it yourself?" so i got really pissed off and just said "fine. just take us to the frickin taipei 101." so he did and we left without saying goodbye. GOOD RIDDANCE.
Ok. So yeah, then we went into the Taipei 101...the tallest building in the world. It's filled with the most expensive designer stores... Prada, Gucci, Dolche and Gabbana...you get the picture. We didn't really go into much, because obviously we don't have that much money (sadly). Although we did have fun looking at the jewelry at Tiffany's. Then we went up to the observatory via the fastest elevator in the world, 101 meters per minute, up to the 89th floor. It was a bit cloudy, so we couldn't see all that far, but you could still look over the entirety of Taipei. We took the listening tour, and when it got dark the whole city was lit up and it looked really cool.
my favorite is watching the little teeny cars. anyway, we decided it was time to eat dinner so we went down to the basement where the food court is. it's HUGE. i've never seen a larger selection of foods in one food court. we walked around in a circle about 2.5 times before settling on what to eat. kari had a japanese thing.. something-don. anyhow i sampled some and it tasted really good. it was a rice bowl (well like cauldron) with fried eggs and onions, then over that was chicken. it came with a soup hotpot. and mine? EVEN LARGER. holy crap, okay. i had a sizzling plate of spicy pepper beef with onions and bean sprouts with some tofu and egg on the side, then a bowl of rice, a bowl of veggies, and a bowl of soup. it was so good, but way too big.
Side note: All the places in the food court have plastic representations of the food they serve...so bowls of plastic shrimp, chicken, etc. in glass cases. Which I thought was kind of funny. Ok back to Steph.
i always get really thirsty here, because instead of a drink to quench your thirst, everyone has hot soup. and i'm just not used to it, i need something cold to wash down my meals. so right behind me was a fruit smoothie shop that looked so delish, so we got a papaya milkshake. SO GOOD. it was seriously, so so good. afterwards i looked at kari and then we decided to get another drink. hehehe. so then we got a kiwi slushie, which was also really amazing. i love fruit!!
By the way, we're splitting almost everything here because the portions are so huge. It's rare when we don't. But it's STILL so much food...we both still end up really full.
After leaving the Taipei 101, we met up with Steph's dentist cousin and he took us to his apartment, where we were to spend the night. After hot showers, we went down to the movie theater in his basement to watch Pirates 2..which Steph hadn't seen yet and I've seen twice. Haha. So we finished watching at about 3 in the morning, and went to bed. Merry Christmas.
when we arrived in taipei, i had this glorious plan to drop off our bags at my dentist cousin's office before going to the taipei 101, but.... plans were ruined after an experience with this asshole taxi driver. so we got in and i said to go to "jie long lu" (jie long road) at the crossroad with the night market. however, my chinese isn't THAT good, so i didn't know how to say everything with all the roads and whatnot. believe it or not, this dumbass yelled at me! i'm the CUSTOMER. a PAYING customer! AND A FOREIGNER. AND A TEENAGER. jeez. so he said "hey, it's not like all taxi drivers know every single road." for pete's sake you are a TAXI DRIVER. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THE ROADS. so yeah i offered for him to just take us to jie long road and we'd search ourselves, and in a very bad tone he replied "it's like 6 km long, you're going to search for it yourself?" so i got really pissed off and just said "fine. just take us to the frickin taipei 101." so he did and we left without saying goodbye. GOOD RIDDANCE.
Ok. So yeah, then we went into the Taipei 101...the tallest building in the world. It's filled with the most expensive designer stores... Prada, Gucci, Dolche and Gabbana...you get the picture. We didn't really go into much, because obviously we don't have that much money (sadly). Although we did have fun looking at the jewelry at Tiffany's. Then we went up to the observatory via the fastest elevator in the world, 101 meters per minute, up to the 89th floor. It was a bit cloudy, so we couldn't see all that far, but you could still look over the entirety of Taipei. We took the listening tour, and when it got dark the whole city was lit up and it looked really cool.
my favorite is watching the little teeny cars. anyway, we decided it was time to eat dinner so we went down to the basement where the food court is. it's HUGE. i've never seen a larger selection of foods in one food court. we walked around in a circle about 2.5 times before settling on what to eat. kari had a japanese thing.. something-don. anyhow i sampled some and it tasted really good. it was a rice bowl (well like cauldron) with fried eggs and onions, then over that was chicken. it came with a soup hotpot. and mine? EVEN LARGER. holy crap, okay. i had a sizzling plate of spicy pepper beef with onions and bean sprouts with some tofu and egg on the side, then a bowl of rice, a bowl of veggies, and a bowl of soup. it was so good, but way too big.
Side note: All the places in the food court have plastic representations of the food they serve...so bowls of plastic shrimp, chicken, etc. in glass cases. Which I thought was kind of funny. Ok back to Steph.
i always get really thirsty here, because instead of a drink to quench your thirst, everyone has hot soup. and i'm just not used to it, i need something cold to wash down my meals. so right behind me was a fruit smoothie shop that looked so delish, so we got a papaya milkshake. SO GOOD. it was seriously, so so good. afterwards i looked at kari and then we decided to get another drink. hehehe. so then we got a kiwi slushie, which was also really amazing. i love fruit!!
By the way, we're splitting almost everything here because the portions are so huge. It's rare when we don't. But it's STILL so much food...we both still end up really full.
After leaving the Taipei 101, we met up with Steph's dentist cousin and he took us to his apartment, where we were to spend the night. After hot showers, we went down to the movie theater in his basement to watch Pirates 2..which Steph hadn't seen yet and I've seen twice. Haha. So we finished watching at about 3 in the morning, and went to bed. Merry Christmas.
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