Taipei adventure...day 3

Our third day in Taiwan was the craziest of all!  Our goal was to take a train to Pingxi for the lantern festival. First, we met up with Callie for breakfast, we walked around Taipei.  We found a park that we enjoyed for a little while.  Then, we got a train ticket and we were on our way to Pingxi.  We spent a little more money on this train ticket but we got to have seats for the entire ride.  It was great!  Then, we had to get on another train...this one was not as luxurious!  We were packed onto this train like cattle.  We kept getting pushed farther and farther onto the train.  I got on the train and I thought there was nowhere else for me to go but I kept getting pushed and somehow I ended up in the middle of the train.  I'm not exactly sure how that happened.  Our first stop was at a waterfall.  Then we headed over to Pingxi.  

weird statue thing at the park.  :)

a cute little house at the park.

on the way to the waterfall. 

the waterfall was so pretty! 

us and our bus tickets...and a random person that wanted his picture taken with us.  :)

definitely packed onto the train!

  

at the night market!

our lantern.

ready to let our lantern fly!

 

there it goes!

If you knew me at all you would know that I HATE HEIGHTS!  However, I stumbled across a suspension bridge.  Yes...I literally stumbled across it.  Not only is it really high above the ground...it is also very wobbly ...not my favorite experience but I can say that i did it!

Once our adventure was done we stopped at McDonalds to eat.  Then, Trisha and Erin went to another park while Sunny and I went back to the hostel, packed our bags, and then sat on my bed and played a few games of Monopoly Deal before we went to bed.  It was definitely a good day!

Taipei adventure...day 2

It's me again!  My first day in Taipei was great.  What did day 2 have in store?  The coast...a cool Chinese cemetery...crowded buses...crazy bus drivers....a strange dinner in Keelung and two night markets!  It was another busy day!  We started on the coast.  There is a bus that goes up to Keelung and you can get on and off of it as many times as you want.  We stopped at a couple of places on the coast.  Unfortunately it was raining so it wasn't as pretty as it probably could have been.  It was still really pretty though.  At one of our stops we also explored (and got lost in) a temple.  It was pretty exciting.

The entrance to a temple that we found!  :)

the waters were so rough that they closed it down shortly after we were here.

The crematorium at this awesome cemetery!

It was very windy!

This cool rock formation on the coast.

the cemetery

there was a life-sized piano at the cemetery.  yes we were actually able to play it!

it's me!

the statue of liberty and McDonalds right next to each other.  Ironic?

Once we were done with the coast we met up with Callie at a night market.  We bought Taiwan Tshirts and we ended the day with a HUGE ice cream!  It was great!

Taipei adventure...day 1

Adventure for the day...the Taipei zoo and the Barbie restaurant!  We started off the day at 7 in the morning to catch the bus to Taipei.  We dropped our stuff off at our hostel (or should I say closet?) and we were off to the zoo!  That's right.  We went to the zoo!  This was the busiest zoo that I have ever been to.  I'm sure that is partly because it is a holiday.  There were so many people on the subway and at the zoo.  It was fun but crazy!  It was hard to even stop and enjoy the animals because it was so busy and crowded.

Do you see all of those people behind me?

and these are all of the people that were in front of me.

The zoo was SO CROWDED!

I just thought I would throw this picture in.  It's probably my favorite picture of the day. :)

and of course people asked to take pictures with us.  Such is life in Taiwan.  :)

Then, after a long day at the zoo, we searched the streets of Taipei for the Barbie restaurant but we couldn't find it anywhere.  So...we decided to eat at the Sogo Department Store instead.  I had a sandwich.  Then, as we were heading for the Subway again we found the Barbie cafe!  We made a reservation for later that night.  Since we had about 3 hours before our reservation we went and explored a night market.  Don't worry I bought a fan!  I am pretty excited about it!

This is a picture of us with the guy that painted our fans.  Definitely excited about this purchase!  :)

Then we were finally able to eat at the Barbie restaurant.  Too bad the food wasn't that great.  It was still a lot of fun!  I ordered chicken strips.  It was actually teriyaki chicken (or something like that).  That's also what Sunny got.  Erin ordered Barbie burgers.  It was basically a meatball on a mini bun (don't worry she got three of them).  My favorite was Trisha's meal.  She ordered a garlic baked potato.  It turns out that hers was a pile of garlic-flavored french fries...that definitely made us laugh.  The Barbie restaurant was a great way to end a VERY LONG day!  :)

My...chicken strips?

The menu...sorry I look so tired.  I was definitely exhausted!

the cute little chairs at the restaurant.

Trisha's garlic baked potato...YUM!  lol

Hiking to the Buddha

We had one whole week off for Chinese New Year!  It was a great break but we had to find things to do.  On the Monday of our break we went to Changhua and hiked to a big Buddha.  It was a great hike along a mountain.  We walked a ton of stairs until we got to the top.  When we got there the tourists changed their attention from the Buddha to us.  I just love being a novelty here in Taiwan.  One guy asked Sunny if he could take his picture with her.  It's so strange.  When I come back to America it is going to be weird that nobody wants to take my picture.  :)  Oh well. 

The big Buddha in Changhua.

Stairs all the way up to the Buddha.

...still hiking.  :)

the view from the Buddha. 

It was a good hike!  I enjoyed myself.

A VERY BIG LUNCH!

So...today we were invited to a "barbecue" lunch with our boss, his family and the secretaries of our school.  Why did I put the word "barbecue in quotes?  Well you will soon fine out.  This wasn't like any barbecue that I had ever been to.  First of all, we got to the location and we were just wearing jeans and a Tshirt.  But then we see all of these people and they are all in suits and ties...we felt drastically under-dressed.  Oh well...there was really nothing we could do about it now.  Then we got to our eating room.  There were nice table cloths on the tables and covers over the chairs.  Definitely fancier than I had anticipated.  Then...the "barbecue" started....I will I had kept a record of everything I ate...but I didn't.  I'm pretty sure there were about 10 different courses throughout this meal.  it started with some edamame and raw fish....and the very last dish were five little heart-shaped ice cream bars for dessert.  

What exactly did I eat?  Well....I tried raw fish, edamame, dumpling soup (I think that's what it was anyways), lobster, fried crab (shell and all), fish, pineapple, scallops, pork chops, more soup, fried rice, a spring roll, and pound cake and ice cream bars for dessert.  It was so much food!  Luckily I wasn't being too adventurous....I didn't try too much so I wasn't as full as I probably could have been.  I really enjoyed the lobster and the fish.  The pork chop was good too.  And of course...the ice cream bars were yummy too!  :)

As we were sitting at the table we would get random groups of people from other tables that would come to us and wish us a Happy New Year or Xin Nian Kuai Le.  Yes....I did learn how to say that in Chinese and we did go around to the tables and wish them a happy new year as well.  The really unfortunately thing about having to do this is that every time a group came around we would have to do a toast which meant that we would have to hold up our glasses and drink our orange juice.  Normally this wouldn't be a problem.  However, this "Minute Maid" orange juice was NOT "Minute Maid" orange juice.  It was basically orange pulp with a little bit of orange flavored water in it.  Oh well...Although it was different than what I am used to I really did enjoy myself.

all of the teachers before lunch started!  We had no idea what we were about to experience!  But it was great!  :)

 Our first course----I'm not exactly sure what is on this platter...I know there is raw fish on there...I tried that (too squishy for me) and there are squid eggs (or something like that) on there...other than that...I'm not sure.

Yes...that is me eating with chopsticks.  BE PROUD OF ME!  :)

Those are bowls of fried crab.  They are fried in their shells and you are supposed to eat everything...including their shells...I didn't get very far on this dish...I did get some of the meat out of it but I couldn't make myself eat the shell.

This is a picture of the grab close up.

Then....we got a plate of scallions and some vegetables that we had to cook in the middle of our table.  Luckily we had someone at our table that knew what she was doing.  :)

Yes...I am eating a scallion.  Actually this was probably one of my favorite things to eat.

My lobster claw.  It was very difficult to get the meat out using my chopsticks so I had to resort to using my hands instead.

LOBSTER!  Definitely wasn't expecting this to be one of the dishes that they had for us.

I got a perfect piece of meat out of my lobster...you can't really see it there but that is what I am holding.

This was one of the last dishes...soup.  I didn't eat any of this because by this time I was so full that I needed to hold back.

Dessert---round 1.  Pound cake (or something like it).  It was really good.  Those little containers on the sides of the pound cake are passion fruit flavored jellies.

Lastly, we got our ice cream.  Probably my favorite of all of them.  YUM!  As we were walking back to our room from wishing others a happy new year Angelica, our boss' daughter put one of these in each of our mouths.  Literally fed them to us.  :)  Little did we know...there would be 5 ice creams waiting for us at our table.  Oh well...I at them all anyways.

This is a group of the secretaries and some of the English teachers that were at the lunch.

The English teachers with Peggy. :)

The English teachers with Charlene (I'm not sure if I spelled her name right...).

It was definitely a good day!  Now to pack for Taipei!  :)