Taipei Weekend

Woke up soooo early. I originally packed my cute Michael Kors travel bag and then realized that would be hard to lug around for the weekend and would have to bring an extra bag with. So I just tried condensing everything into one bag which was kind of stupid because I started to take things out that I didn’t think I’d need but I really did need. It’s not my fault, brains don’t function at 5 am, I think that’s a scientific fact. Lien and I hopped into a taxi, luckily there were some outside of the Hotel by my apartment, and we went to the train. I got some potstickers, my first time eating what they consider breakfast, for breakfast. Me and Lien wanted to get to a Starbucks once we got there and our bus tickets count as a buy one get one free coupon for Starbucks, even though it doesn’t say that anywhere on the ticket. The bus ride took about 2 and a half hours, maybe a little less. I actually fell asleep. It was a cozy bus and every seat had a tv and I watched that movie, Life as We Know It. I really dislike Katherine Heigl but Josh Duhamel is in it and he’s nice to look at..and my other choice was Harry Potter..soo obviously I chose the first one. The movie reminded me of when me and Casey watched it and drank Moscato and ate free California Pizza Kitchen. Good times.

Once we got to Taipei, I instantly felt a different vibe from the city. It was very up and coming and a lot of young people. Almost everyone we talked to spoke at least a little bit of English. It’s very different then Taichung and has that Chicago feel which I love. It also has their version of an L and it’s the MRT. That takes you everywhere for so cheap. I wish traveling in Taichung was more like that. We walked out of the bus station and it felt pretty empty and quiet outside. I thought it was going to be chaotic because of the holiday, but it was the opposite. Nothing opened until 11 so we decided to go to a Hostel first to try and see if a room was available. It was my first hostel experience. Definitely creepy on the outside but ok on the inside. It was in a tiny ally and the sign didn’t really distinguish it from the rest of the shops. At first the girl at the front desk said there weren’t any rooms and then we sat in the main area with the T.V. and computers and tried mapping out a plan for the day. About 30 minutes later there was a room available. It wasn’t one of the bunk rooms where you share with others, which I was kind of relieved about, but I’m still curious as to what those are like. The room was about 20 times better than the Fuh Chun hotel. We put our stuff in our rooms and changed into day trip clothes and set out for Taipei 101. Walking through the MRT everything was still closed. Starbucks weren’t even open!! So sad. I had a bad headache too, but I couldn’t tell if it was from not having coffee, having only 4 hours of sleep, or actually drinking a good amount of beer the night before. I’m going to go ahead and say it was a combination of all of the above. 

Taipei 101 was huge and awesome looking and the mall was another 10 level mall. The day was absolutely perfect. Taipei is supposed to be the rainiest city and it rains about 200 days out of the year!! I still think I'd rather have rain than snow..but remember, this rain is "poisonous rain." If I lived in Taipei my skin would probably chemically melt away after a few months. We brought our umbrellas which were kind of annoying to carry since it didn't even rain the whole day, but people use them for the sun too..(not me because I want to keep some sort of tan that will last me through winter, bring on the UV rays) We saw a cute proposal at the mall. It was a giant gift box and it was the guys birthday, so all of his friends some how tricked his girlfriend into standing in this box to be his "birthday gift" but when she popped out he was proposing. It was pretty cute.. We did a lot of window shopping, I didn't bring a lot on me to shop like crazy. I'm proud of myself.

MRT Station

That's a tiny Diana right there in front of Taipei 101

Taipei 101

The Mall

Chicken dinner for two!

A Popular Boy Band- Shinee

The line to buy tickets for Shinee

Proposal in a box

He must work out..

The next stop for us was Chiang Ka-shek Memorial which was sooo pretty. Lien was right, it just screamed Asia. Like, when you're like me and know nothing about the rest of the world and think of Asia as a kid, you picture like a Disney Mulan setting, and that was this memorial. It also had a Taiwanese version of the Lincoln Memorial, it was so funny. I felt like i was in Washington D.C. It was kind of windy there though and I was wearing a skirt, that was the only bad part of the day. We got some good coffee at a little cafe and walked through the gift shops. After that, we were too tired to go to the zoo. Lien wasn't feel well either so we decided to call it a day and head back to the hostel.

Cute Turtle swimming with the Koi Fish

On our way back we got kind of lost and walked around for about an hour and a half in this MRT underground tunnel. Every map in that place was different and facing different direction and its hard enough trying to make sense of the words/symbols sooo ya we got super lost. We were both starving too. We both agreed that we would go to the first restaurant we saw because our feet were killing us and we were starving. We went to this Rock Sauce place and it was crappy food. I was brave and ordered a burger. The waitress looked scared shitless to have to take our orders as it was and then I attempted to tell her how I wanted my burger cooked, and she like, got all weird and nervous.. why I tried that? I don't know. She was like.."no no no I don't know." The food was strange, not good and it was expensive :( Lien and I headed back to the hostel to put our stuff away and then decided to go shopping at the cheap shops in the MRT station. I had to buy flip flops, my feet were dying. I got two cute tops for like $4 each. We talked about going out and trying to find a chill bar but the people at the hostel said that we would need to take the MRT to a club. We were just searching things on the internet in the main lobby and other people were there too. Some watching T.V. and some on the computer. All foreigners. So Lien asked this one guy who was watching TV what he was watching and it was "Yes, Man.." with Jim Carrey (From the 10 seconds I watched, it seemed like the same exact plot of Liar, Liar..the last movie I saw with Jim Carry was Mr. Popper's Penguins with the nanny boys and I'm pretty sure I never want to see another movie with him again. He had his moments when I was about 9, and that means he's probably in his mid 50's now, making poop and fart jokes. I had no desire to watch the movie and Lien didn't feel like going out because her throat was hurting and she was getting sicker as the night progressed, but this guy, Drew, gave us a suggestion of a place and then he just said he was sitting in and drinking his cocktail, which was a bottle of coke with liquor in it..My first thought: this foreigner is cool I want to be his friend.

The 3 of us walked to 711 and me and Drew bought some beers just to drink in the Lobby. He's from a small town in Texas but loves Chicago sports and is a huge Cub's fan (but has never been to Chicago which I thought was funny) Last year, he was teaching in Turkey and loved the area but not the school and this year he's in South Korea and doesn't like the area, but likes the school. He can't see himself staying there another year and is looking in to South America. That's so cool to me that people can just pick up and leave for years in different countries. I'm like..counting the days I've been here and freaking out, how do people stay over a year! Everyone keeps telling me that not many people stay for just one year, they usually stick around for more. I can't see it. I think my only draw back from going back home is the fact that I still won't have a teaching job. Before Lien went up to bed, the 3 of us made plans to meet up at 9:30 am and go to this music festival that Drew knew about and maybe do some site seeing. This music festival sounded like a blast.)

When we met up, we decided to try and find a breakfast place first which we thought would be impossible because nothing was open the day before at that time, and this day was a Sunday so things reallyyy won't be open. This time, we walked into the mall that crappy Rock Sauce was attached too and there was a breakfast place! It looked and smelled awesome and it was a 30 minute wait so we put our name in and then got our buy one get one free Starbucks while we waited. I got scrambled eggs with bacon, onion, and cheese and french toast and potatoes. Not too bad. The french toast was good, I miss french toast. Can't wait to get a fridge so I can buy some eggs and cook. The music festival didn't start until 1pm and we had some time to kill, but taking the MRT out to site see would take too long and the festival was a 15 minute walk away. We decided to just walk towards the park where it was being held and I'm glad we did because it was a really artsy place that had really cool gift shops. I got this purse that I'm obsessed with. Great purchase. The music fest was called "Daniel Pearl Day of Music" and it was dedicated to the reporter that was killed about 10 years ago. They have it every year and I think in numerous countries. The place was filled with foreigners, in fact I barely saw any Asian people. Really weird..There was a blues/folk stage and then a rock stage and we sat by the blues one where there was more shade (really hot day, but no rain which is good.) Drew and me got some beers. They were about $3 so Drew ended up going on a beer run after we bought 2 at the fest. The first band that played was a country band and they played Johnny Cash songs and were awesome. The second band was a blues band and they were soooo good. Lead singer was white and the rest of the guys were Asian and they were great. At the end of their performance they played "Sweet Home Chicago," and I freaked out! Drew was trying to point it out and say "She's from Chicago!" The last band sang in Chinese but it was good. It was reggae (yes Chinese reggae..) and the lead singer was this funky girl who reminded me of Gwen Stefani because she danced all over stage with the rest of her band which were guys. Her voice sounded like the girl's from Evanescence. Really good.

After the music festival, we walked back to get our stuff and to head back to Taichung. The 3 of us stopped and got dinner first in the MRT station and it was ok. Just some pasta dish..I think any time you order pasta here you won't be too excited about it. The 3 of us got ice cream too from Baskin Robbins. THAT was good. I got a scoop of vanilla with caramel and a scoop of chocolate in a waffle cone. It's a holiday so I can eat as much fattening food as I want. We said our goodbyes to our buddy, Drew. He was going back to South Korea the next day, but we mentioned we could maybe do a trip out there. The bus took longer than the way in to Taipei because there was traffic. Lien and me went back to my apartment to shower and freshen up and TRY and go out, but again, everything closed at 10pm?? There was no school or work, why would things close that early? Turns out that little Thai bar by me that Sam wasn't a thai place, is open til 1am every night and it has like..3 choices of beer. We stopped there and got a small snack and I got a beer and we watched these guys play darts and they were crazy good. Like, they would hit a bullseye EVERY TIME. Most of them had a drink in their other hand too. Jesus, the one time I tried playing darts at Avalanche pub, I was breaking the tips of the darts and throwing them at the wall. It was embarrassing..(it's probably more embarrassing to hang out at Avalanche pub.) Lien slept over because it was late and I  had some skype dates set up with people the next morning. We passed out real easily. Happy Moon Festival, the end.