And Christmas seemed so far away! (AKA holy photo bomb BATMAN!)

6 weeks until I leave…. That’s five weekends (not counting this one since its half over) until I leave Taiwan and return to the United States. I have an interesting mix of feelings about this, I feel a little sad to be leaving, I’m excited to return home to see my family and get back involved with my clubs back at my home university (got lots of plans XD), I know I’ll miss Taiwan, but I miss home a little too. It’s a little mixed up, but it’s an okay thing, I think.

Last weekend I went to Taipei Main Station to its underground mall with Kaitlin, Cassidy (Hong Kong), Jenny (Hong Kong) and Xin qi Ju (Korea). It was so great, I’ve never seen anything like it. So different products sold in one place… you can literally walk to the next MRT station through it. There was a maid café and a host club (waitresses and waiters dress up in costumes like cat ears, vampires and anime characters to serve you). We went to the electronics district which boasted a huge selection of anime things. There was a lot of One Piece (it’s a pirate anime not one of my favorites -_-) and many stores selling the mostly naked, sexy posed anime girl figurines. I feel like the anime crowd here is kind of one-sided (assuming that most anime fans are boys into the afore mentioned figurines). They did have a really nice Griffith figurine (Berserk) but I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend that much on him when I would rather have Guts (the hero of the series).

 

The other thing I realized that Taiwan doesn’t really sell DVD’s of their own TV series, mostly just Korean (many many Korean) and Japanese dramas… I looked everywhere for Mars… no luck. It was a series made in 2003 and was so popular it actually aired on cable in America. I am told its too old find here. Oh well. Most Taiwanese just rent movies, almost never buy (at least students anyway).

There was a really awesome and super cheap vendor there that sold “Taiwan” like touristy type things. I bought some gifts for my family and friends there. I bought a necklace and a pair of shoes while I was there for me. Speaking of which, Kaitlyn who normally can’t find shoes in her size her, found not one but TWO pairs of shoes, yay Kaitlyn!!

 

 

 

 

 

On to Today….

Today was just Kaitlin and I. Most of our Taiwan friends have midterms that started like Wednesday or Thursday and go through this week so they were really busy. Blake and Jordan already had plans. So Kaitlyn and I did Taipei Zoo and the Maokong Gondola today (right next to each other).

The Zoo was great, all the animals are used to hot days so unlike the Detroit zoo where most of the animals were sleeping or in hiding during an 80 or 90 degree day, many of the animals were lively. I have some great pictures!! Especially the Bengal Tiger he was a big ham, posing and coming closer. He was one of my favorites along with the elephants and the bears (love bears).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got a decently early start, we boarded the bus at like 11 and we finished all but the bird house by like 3:30 pm. Then it was on to the Maokong Gondola.

 

 

 

That was great, we went all the way to the top of the mountain. It took a while and it was like three stops on the Gondola up. Once at the top we looked for the famous tea that all of our Taiwanese friends talk about. There were a few shops, but we picked one across from the Gandola, secluded up a hill.

 

We’re not sure it was the famous place that everyone talks about, but it doesn’t matter. It was a better experience than a big tea shop (pictures like Starbucks). We bought a Taiwanese tea and the shop owner was so patient with my broken Chinese (I am so thankful for that) and showed us how to make the tea (it was literally a bag of tea… that we had to make). We sat at this little stone table and began to make the tea, it was a little frustrating (it looked like just water at first) and then we got the hang of it. It felt like a very authentic sort of experience, you know? Especially when the owner brought the little tray with a little bit of incense on it.  I don’t think we could have had that little quiet experience anywhere else.

 

 

I leave you this evening with a nerdy quote…

“Wherever you go, the sky is the sky and people are people” Kaitlyn thought this was a pretty depressing quote. I don’t think so. Wherever go there are people that are understanding, willing, and interesting. We all share the same sky. I think this is a good thing. It came to me on the bus this morning while riding to the zoo. An elderly woman was telling a dad how good his two little boys were, and telling them how they should be good to their parents. She also told him that he had a beautiful wife, to which he smiled shyly. It reminded me of people like this at home, it was just a warm feeling I guess.