Finding fun in Taipei

Soooo we probably shouldn’t have gone to HK right before Taipei…because it completely puts Taipei to shame ha ha The city is just like Tainan except there’s one huge building jutting up into the sky…Taipei 101. But that’s about it. We have two full days here and only about 3 things on our to do list, so we’ve had a hard time coming up with things to take up our time. Matt wasn’t exaggerating when he said he was bored to death….

This morning we slept in for a bit. Sophia and I went to breakfast. When we stopped at a shop a man came up to me and tapped my shoulder and asked if I spoke English! When I said yes he beamed! Lol He said that he saw white skin and HAD to ask us. He’s kind of in the same boat as Matt, he’s been here for a bit and he has NOTHING to do and he never sees anyone that speaks English so he’s desperate. I can’t even imagine being here by myself. It would be so hard. We don’t even notice it because we’re surrounded by the other girls and we get to speak English all the time but being alone would be miserable. We hung out with him for a bit and took it easy.

We then met up with the other girls to go to the temple. The temple wasn’t the prettiest but it was still fun and a great experience. It’s really small and has a weird design. It's kinda funny though cuz it’s set right next to a gas station....so when you first walk up to it, this is all you see lol.

We wanted to do baptisms but they only do them on Saturdays. They’re going to try and call the temple president to see if they can set up a special session for us tomorrow. While at the temple we met a member. She was absolutely adorable. She was at the temple praying for an opportunity to help someone. Then we showed up! It was really touching because she’s been a member for a while and for the past 9 years she’s been praying every day that her husband would get baptized. He just finally agreed! So they will be sealed in 2 months. After the temple the woman took us to get this famous Taiwanese dish. I can’t remember the name but it was spicy noodles with pig intestine and oysters…it sounds gross but it was soo good! Then she got us Taipei’s famous fry bread with bean milk from a 60 year old shop. The milk kind of tasted like crap…but the bread was good. We then went to the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial. Chiang Kai-Shek was an important political and military leader here in Taiwan. People either hate him or love him. His memorial was beautiful and they have the “changing of the guard” like they do in Arlington in D.C. It was pretty much the same thing but the one in D.C. is way more uniform and professional.
We then went home to take a nap (I only got like 3 hours of sleep last night) and when we got there Matt left a note saying that he had switched hostels (he wanted one that was closer downtown) but that he was going to meet up with us that night to hang out. It’s just funny that he’s a party guy from So Cal but he wants to hang out with a bunch of young mormon girls ha ha It’s really nice of him. Mike was home too (Harvard guy) so I hung out with him for a bit.

For dinner we all went out to “The Modern Toilet”. Ha ha It’s a restaurant that is restroom themed. The tables are bathtubs and all of the food is served in toilets. Their special is curry in a toilet (so it looks like diarrhea). The ice cream is served in squatters. It was so much fun! I got the curry and it was actually super good! The last picture is of the sink in the bathroom lol

After dinner, Kris, Katelyn, Tara, & Rainy went home and the rest of us went out on the town. We just shopped around and explored to find stuff to do. We met lots of fun new random people…..and found fun shirts with funny translations. They crack me up!We met these two Australian exchange students that hate it here..lol so they hung out with us for while. We found this American restaurant and thought it was pretty funny. It's called "Cola Forest".

This is the ugliest backpack in the entire world....the little red heart has little elmos and aliens from toy story....asians are so random!Now we’re in for the night waiting for Matt to show up. We’re going out to a bar with him and Mike! (supposedly there are non-alcoholic drinks there….)

P.S. Mom & Dad: You never look at e-mails or facebook so I'll just tell you on here. I fly in on Friday at 7:15pm so you can pick me up then. I'll call you when I fly into LA to straighten out all the details...but just so you know....