Taipei, Taiwan 2007

Minnasan Konnichiwa! Senshuu Taiwan ni ikimashita...Michelle-san no tomodachi wa Taipei ni Eigo no sensei desu, dakara kanojoo no apaato ni tomarremashita. Tottemo tanoshikatta!! = Hello everyone. I went to Taiwan last week. Michelle's friend is an English teacher in Taipei so we stayed in her apartment. I had a lot of fun!!

Our adventure started on Saturday night, Tehani and I sprinted for the last train again for Tokyo. We met Michelle and because our flight to Taiwan was at 6:30am, we needed to be at Haneda airport by 5:00am so we decided to not go to sleep just to be safe. Our original plan was to find an internet cafe and stay there overnight, but we decided karaoke would be more fun!! The time flew by and soon we were leaving Tehani and on the monorail for the airport :)


sunrise view from the airport monorail

our airplane from haneda to kansai

waiting to board, and still a little drunk :P

the food was really good! haha and one thing i've learned from travelling up here is that alcohol is free when flying internationally :) don't judge me, i know it was like 10 in the morning, but the japanese lady next to me had 2 beers too!

"welcome to taiwan, let's be friends!"

the moment we stepped off the airplane, we were hit with a wave of unbelievable head and humidity. it was like arriving in japan all over again last august. sugoi! i knew it would be in the high 80's, but in my head i was like, "that's normal in hawaii, i'll be fine..." not thinking that i've spent the last 7 months freezing in iwaki...

michelle's friend rachel is teaching at an international preschool in taipei. she was there to meet us at the airport, and we went straight to her apartment.


rachel's apartment

rachel's bedroom

all kinds of animal parts...they don't waste anything in taiwan!

michelle and i on the craziest bus ride EVER, i swear we were on the sidewalk half the time haha..

michelle and rachel waiting for the MRT (taipei's metro system)

MRT tokens (instead of japan's crappy paper tickets, cool huh?)

michelle being herself :)

shilin night market (the biggest night market in taipei)

fresh fruit stand

suwapping (shave ice) stand


i forgot what these are called, but we had to wait in line to get some! and soooo goood!

stinky tofu!! ok, i can eat pretty much anything you give me, but i almost gagged trying to eat taipei's stinky tofu...it's probably one of the worst smelling edible items EVER (think of natto times 1000)

ali baba's indian wraps

more suwapping...not your ordinary shave ice

the shopping streets are endless

we brought the monsoon with us!

eggs anyone?? they sell these in every convenience store!

drinking in 7-11...when you buy beer they open it for you at the register! kampai!

brown sugar salsa club

the guy on the left is rachel's friend eric...he's from ecuador but is studying international business at columbia univ. he's in taiwan for the summer and is determined to become fluent in mandarin to get him ahead in the business world...and guess what? he's only 20 yrs old...and he can salsa! some people amaze me...

if i had three words to describe taiwan, i'd say food, humid, and MOPEDS!!! there are more mopeds than cars on the streets...EVERYONE has one.

rachel's preschool

when we stopped by the kids were having nap time so we didn't get to meet them :(

outside taipei 101


taipei 101

CHILI's!!! I haven't had real mexican food in 9 months!! I was happy, but I think Michelle was about to have a heart-attack from the excitement! :)


we ate SO much, we were there for probably over 2 hours...the staff is required to be able to speak english so we made some friends :)

after chili's it was off to danshui fishing village






ferry boat to the other side of danshui

people rent bikes and ride along the beautiful path along the water...riding a double isn't as easy as it looks haha :P


docks




dinner at ximenting (the cooler/young/hip part of taipei)

mmm passion black tea


some of the greatest times were listening to rachel trying to talk to the taxi drivers in chinese...she had to say the same thing like 4-5 times with different intonations before they could finally figure out what she was saying...this taxi driver was telling us that he loves lionel richie and was trying to sing "say you, say me..." it was hilarious!

day 3...national palace museum






famous dumpling restaurant chain...all the japanese tour groups stop here!


we had 3 orders and the waitresses thought we were done so they cleared our plates...we had already finished our dessert, but we decided that we would only be there once and ordered more...the waitress was like, "take out right?" and we were like, "ohh no, for now"...the workers were laughing at us, and they had to bring us all new settings it was too funny...

michelle thinking, "did we really just order MORE?"

dumpling maker men...my english has gone to crap

shek memorial hall




longshan temple


snake alley!

mr. snake just cruisin at the entrance of this restaurant

so crazy michelle was the first one to be like, "excuse me can i carry your snake and take a picture?..." and i was thinking, "this chick is CRAZIER than i thought!" hahahaha so we walked away to look at the other snake restaurants...but then after thinking about it, i was like, when am i ever going to be able to take a picture with a boa constrictor....so i begged and begged rachel to take one with me cause i couldn't do it by myself...it was a RUSH!!




the snake started to get "friendly" and i swear we were like face to face with it!! i freaked out and almost dropped it haha...rachel was screaming...good times!

we ran into another group of foreigners walking through snake alley that night, there weren't many people at all because it was pouring rain...these guys were in taiwan on business they represent a computer networking firm...anyway, the restaurants only kill the snakes and put on the "show" when somebody orders something...so after a lot of peer pressure we got this guy to take a shot of snake blood...it's usually mixed with alcohol, but i'm pretty sure this was straight blood.

skinning the snake

draining the blood into a shot glass (keep in mind the snake is still alive)

mmmmm yummy!!!!

this is rachel's friend jalin...she is also attending columbia univ. but is in the international social work grad program...i had no idea there was such a thing as "international social work"...cool huh? her father is a diplomat and she grew up in the middle-east and is in taiwan just for the summer...she knows people from iolani that live in new york.

hey my jamba juice and starbucks people...LOOK they use the same tables and chairs!! hahahaha...omoshiroi!

mmm nothing like some taiwan beer with your starbucks to get you going!!

wufenpu...awesome cheap shopping! we pay like triple for the same stuff in tokyo!


taipei grand hotel

our JAL plane from kansai to tokyo...cute pastel seats yah??

taiwan was amazing!! i was really happy to have met rachel she's awesome! it was like having 2 michelle's!! hehe...tomorrow begins parent observations at school (CRAP!!)...it's where the parents are in class with their child and evaluate your lesson...good times blah. :P

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!! I will call this weekend!! Love and miss everyone sooo much!!!

-andie