大家好 (Hello everyone)
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| A street near Elephant Mountain |
I am back with more stories to tell. I am sorry I feel like I am letting those who read my blogs down (even though I don't know if anyone even reads them, ha) because I keep saying that I will post blogs more often, but it never really happens. I am sorry for being so busy!!
But to catch you up to speed, about two weekends ago, my roommates and I threw a going away party/housewarming party for my roommate Tascha who was leaving and myself and Brittany. We invited pretty much all of the friends that we knew and since we each had different groups of friends....well you could imagine what happened. Quite a lot of people. But, hey the more the merrier....right? Anyway, a bunch of our friends came and I had the chance to meet more people and spend a quality night with great friends. While at our place, we all headed up to the rooftop that is accessible to use and spent most of our time standing under the few stars (that you could see through all the smog, hah) talking and looking over the city. Although I was a little worried that the neighbors would be bothered, we didn't have one complaint all night long...our walls must be very thick! Then the next day myself along with a couple other people decided to hike up Elephant mountain. This time I took a taxi to the entrance, because in the first couple weeks that I was here in Taiwan I decided I would go search for it on my own and got pretty lost, so I turned around and decided to go shopping instead. Typical. Elephant mountain was great, except for the fact that there were a ton of stairs. Once you walked up even mid-way, you had a exceptional view of the Taipei 101 area....it was great.
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| Vapianos |
As the week went by and I taught and went to class, the next weekend rolled around. This weekend, I knew of this restaurant that was opening right across from the Taipei 101 and I was desperately wanting to go. I wanted to go really badly, because I had eaten at the same restaurant before when I was in Australia. It is called Vapianos. It is possibly one of the the BEST Italian restaurants I have every been to (outside of Italy, of course). At this restaurant the pasta noodles are made fresh right in front of you and immediately put into the boiling water. As you enter, you are handed what looks like a credit card, because you swipe your card to get charged for what you order. You can order anything you like and choose any type of noodle you like as well. There is a line for pasta and there is a line for pizza, so Brittany and I obviously did the smart thing and split one of each, hah! We had such a great time and most of the people who worked there spoke English and the manager who was working there actually came up to us and gave both of us free desserts!! yay.
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| Sitting outside in the rain |
Now this past weekend was filled with exciting events as well. On Saturday, I woke up and walked around the Xinyi area, by the Taipei 101 with Brittany. Since it was pouring rain outside, we decided to go to a coffee shop to sit and talk and just relax. As we were sitting in the coffee shop which faced directly towards the 101, we realized there were two perfectly dry chairs outside right in front of us, because they were underneath an over hang, so we decided to sit outside in the rain and watch the people walk by and drink our coffee as the tallest building in Taiwan was just starring at us in the face. It was fantastic. After about an hour or so, we left to meet up with some more friends for dinner and we went to my favorite Pho place. YUM. Three words: CHICKEN PHO DRY....amazing. After we were done enjoying our meals, we all headed to the Taiwan Beer Factory.
Ok, I thought that I was going to see how Taiwan Beer was brewed and made and when I walked through the gates, I didn't expect what I saw. The Taiwan Beer Factory, is an old, run-down warehouse with a bunch of benches and tables scattered around the room. But, don't worry, to keep the customer's minds off of the awful bland white and cracked walls, there was complimentary music provided by two Asian singers, one male and one female. Well....let me just say, it was pretty much hilarious. Although they were very bad, watching Asian people singing American songs, just doesn't seem right...ha!! Oh and don't forget about the Asian people dancing to the music as well. It was like they were "waving their hands in the air, like they just don't care." As the night went on and we drank more Taiwan Beer, the singing and dancing became a lot more enjoyable and funny. After a couple hours of that, we decided it was time to head home.
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| My teacher and I |
The next day, I woke up and looked out my window and saw this thing called....sun....oh and blue skys. It has been raining constantly for the past 2 weeks that I had to get outside once I saw it was nice out. So myself as well as 5 other people headed to Da'an Park right in Taipei. I can't believe that I haven't been to this park before. It is beautiful, it has so many trees and small areas of fresh water everywhere. So we all hung out there for a while and lounged in the sun, listening to music and watching all of the little Asian kids play together. They are so cute, when you aren't teaching them, hah.
After that I was so excited, because Jordan and I were heading to meet Pei and her friend to see Twilight!!! Ah, Team Edward. This was the first movie I saw in Taiwan and it was excellent. It is very funny though at the movies here in Taiwan, because you would think that the movies would be dubbed in Chinese, but NO they are all left in English and just subtitled in Chinese. Therefore, no problems and Twilight=Amazing.
So there you have it. That is pretty much what has been going on with me for the past 3 weekends or so. I am also very excited/sad, because my first semester of Chinese will be ending this Thursday! I can't believe that I have already been taking 3 months of Chinese here, but I will be really sad to say goodbye to my current teacher. Hopefully I'll have her again.
Well I hope you're all are doing well and I hope you guys have a fantastic Thanksgiving.
Lots of love, Olivia
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| Asian band at Taiwan Beer Factory |
