On Friday I had classes, then went with my grrlfriend to a club to meet bunches of foreigners. It was a lot of fun because I met lots of people and had my fair share of alcohol. I'm told that I become British when I get drunk. Also there was a dancing pole and I managed to hang upside down from it briefly! I expect the pictures to be up on Facebook soon. Then when I apply for jobs I will regretfully untag them.
Saturday was a lazy day. I slept in really late and stayed in my room much of the day. It wasn't that I had a hangover (I drink so much water and soda that I am never dehydrated or hung over), just that going out to bars is rather draining and I was sore from the pole dancing. I had my first Taiwanese ramen. It was just as good as mainland Chinese ramen!
On Sunday I went to a movie with a couple of the other Americans and one of the Taiwanese "ambassadors" in a theatre near Taipei 101. I didn't realise that the movie we were going to was a football movie :-\ but it wasn't too bad for all that. After the movie I was ravenous (having not eaten yet), and I actually managed to find gyros/kabobs! They were amazing, especially since I had been craving them for the past week. Then, well fed, we went to a tea shop in Taipei 101's mall. It was really nice and I got many opportunities to practice my Chinese.
The past two days have been so-so. My class is still rather too easy for me, but soon there is a free Taiwanese (Min-nan) language class, so I'm excited about that!
Oh also regarding food: yesterday the grrlfriend and I ate at a hot-pot place called Shabu-shabu. It's pretty much the most amazing thing ever. Hot pot is already delicious, but at this place you pay a mere $8 or $9 USD (290 NT) and you get all-you-can-eat meat, veggie/mushroom/noodle/other add-ins and sauces, Haagen-daaz ice cream, and access to a soda fountain. So pretty fantastic. Then today the group ate at a Thai restaurant for a "Chinese language dinner", where everyone was supposed to only speak Chinese. The food was good, but our table didn't get to order enough so a couple of us went to another restaurant afterwards which has really good fried noodles.
Hopefully there will be more excitement to come, and possibly more updates on this post!
Taipei 101 during the day. It was cloudy, so the top of the tower is not visible.
The Falun Gong marching. I don't know much about the Falun Gong, mainly because this religion is banned in mainland China (where I spent my last semester). But anyway, there was a long parade of people dressed in yellow, holding signs and playing drums.
Taipei 101 at night. The lights are purple, since we visited on a Sunday. The tower changes the color of its lights depending on the day of the week (ROYGBIV starting on Monday).
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