An Afternoon in Xindian

Well it has been a little while since I have given an update, so I thought I would write a new post. This past week flew by, I can't believe it's already the weekend. This weekend, I'm actually at a former high school student/friend's house which has been so wonderful so far. Last night I went to bed to the sounds of nature rather than cars and city life. I do love getting out of Taipei sometimes. It makes me realize how much I love Vermont and the quietness and peacefulness of living in a small town. This morning I slept in a bit, although my body clock is used to getting up early so I couldn't sleep in too long. I really like getting up early though because the one thing I realize is that if you sleep in until noon, pretty much the rest of the day is wasted.

Anyways, getting back to my adventures of the week. Thursday afternoon after I took my test, I met up with Annie and Hank in an MRT and we went to Xindian, where Annie's silver jewelery studio is located. We first had a little snack at a restaurant right next to her studio. The snack consisted of delicious black cherry smoothies and Belgium waffles with ice cream, fruit, and whip cream! It was definitely one of the best waffles that I have had while I've been here in Taipei, and the smoothie was refreshing as well. After our afternoon snack we went to the silver studio where I got to begin the process of making some silver jewelery; It was a lot of fun to see her coworker in the process of making some silver earrings. After admiring all of the beautiful silver jewlerey in the shop and making a silver piece myself, we met up with Karen. We walked around the waterfront area of Xindian and then decided to take a paddle boat out on the water. It was so much fun to go on the paddle boat, and just relax and enjoy the company of such sweet people. After our outing on the paddle boats we headed back; Annie and Karen had English class and I met up with Erica, Henry, and a colleague of Erica's daughter. We all went to have Dim Sum for dinner. I wasn't actually too hungry because I had so many little snacks in the afternoon, but it was nice to catch up with Erica and Henry since I hadn't seen seen them in a while. I'm heading out for a dinner party soon, so I have to head out~ will write more later.

Photos

Photos from Weekend

More from the weekend

Well I wanted to write more yesterday, but I just had so much to share about my weekend that I didn't have a chance. Today, was a great day because I got to talk to my dear friend Emily on skype. I will be leaving for Malaysia in a little more than two weeks which is very surreal feeling. I'm both excited and sad to be leaving Taiwan.

Anyways back to my weekend! On Saturday after returning from the town of Luguang, we went to a delicious buffet restaurant which was in this beautiful building that looked like a castle. At the restaurant I actually met up with an old classmate from high school( Julia lived with my family for six weeks during the summer ESL program). We were so lucky to host such a sweet young woman from Taiwan. I was so happy to be able to meet up with her here while I was in Taichung. It was so fun getting to here about her first year of college while eating a delicious meal with her and the Huang family. I'm so grateful to the Huang family for hosting me for the weekend. They truly are an amazing family and so much fun to be around.

After our huge meal, we returned home and called it a night. I decided to read a bit and just relax before going to bed. It was so nice to not hear the sounds of the city and just hear the sound of nature while falling asleep.

On Sunday, we started off our day by having a traditional Chinese breakfast which consisted of steamed buns and some small dishes. After breakfast we took a walk around the neighborhood where we were staying. I ended up getting bitten by lots of mosquitoes, but the walk was very peaceful. We then headed out to the grape farm where we got to eat delicious grapes and see the workers harvesting the grapes. We took a walk around the grape farm area and it was absolutely beautiful! After our time at the grape farm, we had a feast of a lunch at a restaurant near by. I had no idea what to order because the menu was all in Chinese, but I ended up ordering this delicious BBQ chicken which came with about 10 other side dishes and was so so so good. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the chicken was cooked, hehehe. The man who owned the restaurant also had his own coffee plantation where he grows and roasts his own coffee. I ended up getting to try a cup of the coffee he made after our meal, which was the perfect ending to the perfect meal.

After our meal, we ended up walking back to the house which only took about 10 minutes. I got several more bug bites in that short amount of time, but it was nice to walk since I was so full.

We ended up just resting a bit; I actually fell asleep on the couch and slept for quite a while. We sadly had to leave at about 4:00 p.m. from Taichung to head back to Taipei. The weekend really went by too quickly. I was so sad to have it end, because I enjoyed it so much. I definitely realized that if I were to come back to Taiwan to live I would definitely like to live in a different area that Taipei like Taichung. It has a much nicer feel to it and in general its not so crowded. The drive back to Taipei took us about 3.5 hours. I can't believe the traffic on the highway, it is really so crowded. I definitely could never drive in that type of traffic. I get nervous just driving in Boston!

Overall I had such a lovely weekend, and am so glad that I got to leave Taipei and go to a different area of the country.

A Weekend with the Huang Family

Well this was yet another fun filled weekend! I truly am going to miss all of the people here in Taiwan. On Friday evening I left Taipei city and went to Taichung for the weekend with my former high school teacher's brother Richard. It was such a blessing to be able to leave the hot city and relax in the country side. We arrived In Taichung around 9:30 p.m. at night; the traffic was terrible leaving Taipei, I guess everyone else had the same idea of leaving Taipei for the weekend. The drive from Taipei to Taichung took us about 3 hours. When we arrived and were driving through the town to get to the Huang's house, I said to myself, well we're not in Kansas anymore. Taichung has a completely different feel than Taipei; it is more spread out and just has a lot more countryside.

Upon our arrival, we were welcomed by Mr. and Ms. Huang( they are both so kind, caring, and welcoming.) I was pretty exhausted, but also a bit hungry. She made us some soup and shortly after eating the soup, I went to bed. I was very tired and knew that I would be waking up early in the morning.

I woke up Saturday morning at about 7:30, took a nice hot shower, and then had a delicious breakfast with the Huang Family. The breakfast consisted of a variety of fruits, walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, and yogurt. It was a wonderful way to start off the day. After breakfast we headed out to a town called Luguang( I was still a bit tiered, so I ended up sleeping for a majority of the drive.) When we arrived in Luguang we met a former principle of the town that is a friend of the Huang Family. Our first stop was the Long Shan Temple; although there are several Long Shan temples in Taiwan, this temple was important because it was one of the first temples that was built in Taiwan. The town of Luguang is a very historic place as it is the town where a lot of people during the cultural revolution fled to from Mainland China. It was cool because the town has pretty much remained untouched in terms of its historic buildings. I also appreciated that it didn't have any mainstream corporate stores or restaurants like Starbucks.

The tour around the town of Luguang was really interesting; the principle was very enthusiastic about showing us everywhere! He also spoke in Chinese the entire time, so it was a lot to comprehend. I understood about 50 percent of what he said, but sometimes he spoke too quickly or used vocabulary that I didn't know.

After the visit to the temple, we went to to a coffee shop and took a break; the weather was very hot and muggy. I sweat so much in that one day and drank so much water! I was definitely needing a coffee break by then. The coffee was actually quite good; I do believe in the idea of drinking hot drinks on a hot day, so yes I had hot coffee.

After relaxing and having coffee, we went to explore the town a bit more. We walked down this street, that had all of these Japanese architecture style buildings. It was really an amazing street, because inside the buildings were craft and artisan shops. I had no idea there were so many beautiful artisan shops in Taiwan. It was so much fun to go inside each different building and see the artists at work. It was very fitting for the day, because Saturday was also the anniversary of my Uncle Josh's death, who was an amazing artist. I was so lucky to be surrounded by so many different artist's at work. I also got some lovely art, which consisted of a beautiful hand painted fan and a beautiful handmade flower pin. The flower pin is very important in that it is worn on a woman's wedding day and represents the happiness of her marriage, and the many children and grand children she will have in her future. I felt so lucky to receive this beautiful pin from Ms. Huang.

I got to try some local food in the town, which was really delicious. One of the foods however I just couldn't stomach. It was this powder like substance that was mixed with hot water. It tasted very sweet and kind of had a peanut like taste to it, but it was not appetizing to me.

I have so much more to share about the weekend, but I must go for now. I'm going to head home before it starts to rain! I wish I had internet at home, but unfortunately I only have access to it here at school. I will write more tomorrow.

Uncle Josh

I wanted to write this blog post yesterday, however due to having no access to internet I'm writing this post today.

Saturday July 24th is the day in remembrance of my amazing, loving, creative, funny, artistic, uncle. Although he was only in my life for ten years, I got to know and see the talented and loving Uncle that he was. He truly cared for his family, and would always do anything to help them. I remember when I was about 7 or 8 years old, he came to our house in New Hampshire and helped us in painting all of our bedrooms( he had our house and rooms looking brand new). He was an amazing artist and his murals and paintings will be treasured forever. I always loved hearing all of the stories about my Uncle Josh in his youth and all of the adventurous things he would do! Uncle Josh truly holds a special place in my heart and I always think of him whenever I'm in need of guidance. I would like to share a quote that I found in remembrance of my Uncle:"He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry"

To my Uncle Josh, you will always be remembered by all of your family, friends, and loved ones. We miss you and you always remain in our hearts and in our minds.

With love

New Experiences

Well let me first of all say today has been a good day. I got my Chinese quiz back that I took yesterday, which was sooooooooo difficult and thought I would have failed! I actually did well on the quiz; so I was very happy about that! I had a lot of catching up on work to do this week so that was a bit stressful, but I'm happy to say that I'm all caught up and ready for the weekend. Today, I met up with two other Mount Holyoke students for lunch which was a lot of fun; it took us a while to find a place to eat, because every restaurant closes for lunch after 2:00 p.m. We ended up eating dumplings for lunch which were delicious!

Last night, I ended up meeting Philip, a classmate from my old high school. He and his friends had went out to celebrate a friends 18th birthday so they were all pretty drunk by the time that I met them. We ended up going to KTV, also known as karaoke, which was my first time going. Its definitely something that I think I would enjoy more if I was a bit tipsy myself, but I had school the next day and couldn't afford to get back too late. It was fun to get to meet some of Philip's friends and get a taste of what karaoke is like here in Taiwan. I'm hoping to go again with both Philip and also with my friend Erica. We were going to go this weekend, but I will not be in Taipei this weekend, so we had to reschedule. This week has been kind of a low key week for me in terms of outings, but I kind of needed this time to just rest and also to catch up on my studies. I'm looking forward to this weekend, because I will be going to my former high school Chinese teacher's family's house. It should be a lot of fun; they have a schedule already planned of what we will do! I'm definitely needing the weekend right about now; this week has felt long so I'm really looking forward to an adventure filled weekend.

Oh Weekdays!

Today I woke up much later than I planned on. I woke up at about 8:05 and really wanted to sleep in more, but I had to get up for school. I kind of woke up on the wrong side of the bed as you might say, because I was not in the best of moods when I arrived at school. I have still been making up work that I missed from school and today I had to make up a test that I missed. It was not an easy test, but I'm glad to have it done and over with. Tomorrow I have another test unfortunately so I need to go home and study for that. I'm feeling pretty tired right now and could go for a nap; it started to down pour today during my test, and all I was thinking was this should be a day for staying in bed! I think I might head home early today, although I'm hesitant because I know it will be hot in my apartment. Hopefully it will have cooled down from the big rain/ thunderstorm. I'm usually not ready for the weekend on a Tuesday, but today, I'm soooo ready for the weekend! I just want a weekend right now! I'm really glad I'll be going to Malaysia and have a break from school for a while; I'm realizing how drained I feel from being in school five days a week. I have never done the whole summer school thing before so this is all a new experience for me. Right now I wish I didn't have to do the summer school and wish I could just be home, lying on the beach, tanning in the sun! Although I have to admit going to school is so much better than going to work/ waitressing during the summer, so I won't complain!

Well onto studying! Wish me luck, I have a hard test coming up tomorrow, even my teacher said that the test will not be easy!

More Photos from Sunday

The Town of Lanterns

Our Lovely Lantern that we decorated and flew into the sky.

The Cloud Gate Dance Company

I thought I would share some photos from the modern dance show that I got to see! It was truly an amazing evening of dance.

Weekend Fun!

Well I wasn't sure what to expect of the weekend, but boy oh boy was it an amazing weekend! On Friday, I was at my breaking point; I was ready to pack my bags and go home( I mean I know I couldn't, but I wanted to). After getting back from Hong Kong, arriving at 2:30 a.m. on Friday morning, getting at total of about 1 hour of sleep, I was exhausted! In addition, having to go to class on Friday made the day even worse. Not only was I grumpy, but I felt that my teacher was upset at me for missing class, which I really couldn't do anything about( I had planned to go to Hong Kong way before I even started the summer semester). Anyways on Friday, I kind of lost all my rational thinking and just collapsed. I ended up going to bed very early Friday night, after talking to my parents for a while, which helped me feel much better! I also received an amazing package from my mom, which made the day all the more better. Inside the package were some beautiful dresses she picked out for me from Garnet Hill, airborne( which is always needed), gum, and some other little accessories.

After a long night's sleep, I felt soooooo much better. I was in general in a much better mood, and realized it was the lack of sleep that made me in such a vulnerable and emotional mood. After waking up at about 9:45, I went to use the internet at the BK. Sent some e-mails, checked my Facebook, and skyped some family and friends. Later in the day, I met up with my friend Susan and her husband at a cafe. We enjoyed just talking and chatting for a while. They treated me to coffee, which was much appreciated. She also helped me to understand more of what I missed in class while I was gone in Hong Kong.

After meeting up with Susan, my friend Erica invited me to go to a modern dance performance in the park! The dance company that was performing was called the Cloud Gate Dance Company. We also met up with some other friends of Erica, who were both very sweet as well! It is always so much fun to get to meet new people, and everyone that I have met has been so kind and welcoming. The dance performance was divided into three sections, there was one famous dance called the snake dance, then another separate dance by the company, and my all time favorite was the last piece which was called the Flower Dance or as they say in Chinese 花语。 I was so thrilled to see such an amazing performance, and was also pleased that the weather was so comfortable and not too humid.

On Sunday, I went to mass in the morning. I could tell it was going to be a hot day, because when I woke up it already felt hot inside the apartment. After mass, I went to the coffee hour and ended up talking with a young woman from Guatemala who is also studying at the same university that I am here in Taiwan. It was really nice to meet her and talk to her a bit about her experiences in Taiwan.

After mass, I met Annie, Karen, Rainy, and Hank at the MRT station. From the MRT we got on a train and went to Ping Xing. It was so amazing to get outside of Taipei and see some older little towns that haven't been touched or modernized. We went to several surrounding little towns of the area. Pingxing used to be a coal mining town and it still has a lot of the materials that were once used for the coal mining. We got some delicious ice cream in the afternoon to cool ourselves down. We continued walking around the town and just enjoying each other's company. They spoke in Chinese with me the entire time, so it was a great way for me to practice my use of the language. They are all so sweet and encouraging of my slow speaking and little mistakes that I make when speaking the language.

I also got to try some little snacks in the afternoon, which I enjoyed, since it is always amazing to try the different types of food they have here in Asia.

When it was finally getting dark, we went to the lantern lighting areas of Ping Xing. We bought one big paper lantern, and we all got to write down our wishes, hopes, and dreams. Ping Xing is specifically known for being the town where you light a lantern and send your wishes to the sky so that they can be granted! I really think that it is such a neat tradition and it was so much fun to participate in. We ended up sending our lantern to the sky which was really beautiful to watch. I got to know Annie and Karen because they are Mei's student's and it was so much fun to spend time with Annie, Karen, Rainy, and Hank. They are all so enthusiastic and want to show me around all of the wonderful sights of Taiwan. We ended up leaving Ping Xing later than I expected, and didn't get on the train until about 8:15 to go back to Taipei. We ended up arriving back in Taipei at about 9:15 and we were all hungry, also a bit tired. I'm always amazed at how much the heat can really make me so exhausted. Hank has a friend who owns a Japanese Hot Pot restaurant, and so we headed to the restaurant after we arrived. I was expecting we would have to wait for the food do all of the ordering, however I was pleasantly surprised to find a huge table filled with tons of different types of food. It looked like a feast and was so beautifully presented. I was so glad that I decided to join them even though it was getting late, and I did have school the next day! It was so great to have such a wonderful feast with such great people. I was definitely exhausted after the long day, but it was such a fun filled day. I'm realizing how quickly time is going by and how much I'm going to miss all of the amazing people and friends that I have made here.

Well I hope everyone had a great weekend as well!

A Selection of Photos from Hong Kong

Back to Life in Taiwan

Well, after spending most of my night and morning at the airport, I'm finally back in the city of Taipei. I'm pretty exhausted with the lack of sleep from the very early morning flight, and the very busy week that I've had in general.

Yesterday was my last full day spent in Hong Kong. I slept in until about 8 a.m when I was waken up by the entire family. It's certainly not easy to sleep in with small kids bouncing around all over the place. After quickly getting dressed, we all went down for one special breakfast together at the hotel. It was as amazing as it was the first day; I mean having brie for breakfast really can't be beater, with all kinds of fresh breads, fruits, cereals, and chocolate croissants. Unfortunately the kids didn't enjoy it as much as I did, but I made up for everyone, since I helped myself to seconds of all the delicious foods. After breakfast, the girls were already beginning to get in arguments and have little meltdowns, so we decided to stay pretty local. We ended up going to the fish market, the flower market, and another outdoor clothing market. I didn't end up really finding anything to buy, because most of the time was spent trying to keep the girls from fighting or falling apart. We ended up taking the Sun Ferry across the island, which was fun and a nice break for everyone; the ferry only ended up taking about ten minutes. After the ferry, we took a bus to this place called the Peak Tram, which was essentially a little train that took you up to the highest peak in Hong Kong. By that point, the girls just wanted to go home( meaning back to the hotel and go swimming in the pool). Val ended up taking them back to the pool while Michael and I went up to the tope of the peak~ it was definitely a view worth seeing. It was also amazing at the difference it made with just going up with two people versus five people.

Michael and I ended up returning to the hotel at about 5:30 where we found Val and the girls swimming in the pool. I ended up soaking up the last bit of sun that there was, and then we all ended up sitting outside on the pool deck and having a delicious dinner together at the hotel. Val and I were going to try to make it to the ladies market, but we were all too tired. I ended up going back to the room after dinner and took a nice long bath. It was a relaxing way to spend my last couple of hours in Hong Kong; I just couldn't deal with anymore chaos and was needing some R+R. I ended up reading a story to the girls before they went to bed, while Michael and Val could have some bonding time.

Overall the adventure to Hong Kong was well lets just say "quite an adventure". It was definitely well worth it; and a great escape away from Taipei for a bit. I'm definitely looking forward to catching up on some sleep this weekend, as I'm pretty exhausted. It was great to see Valerie and her family in Hong Kong. Time certainly flew by this past week, and its hard to believe that it is already Friday! I definitely needed a break from school and Taipei for a bit so it was a well worth it trip. It's hard to believe that I now have less than one month left until I will be departing for Malaysia.

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer weather, and staying cool.

Photos from the Day

Oh what a day!

Well today was a day that tested my patience, and many other virtues amongst that. We ended up relaxing in the room in the morning, and then in the early afternoon, Michael and I went to use the amazing fitness center at the hotel. It reminded me of being back at Mount Holyoke's fitness center, except better because we had it all to ourselves. Valerie later brought the girls up and we went to the pool while she went to get her well deserved massage. Well, I made the mistake thinking that we would wait until she got back to have lunch, and that as a result turned into many meltdowns because the kids were all over hungry. We finally got some food in them and got headed out of the city at about 4 p.m. We went to the big buddha statue which took about 40 minutes to get to. In order to get up to the big buddha we took a gondola, which was amazing! The views were absolutely incredible. We finally ended up reaching the big buddha at about 5:20, which gave us about 35 minutes to explore the area. Michael, Elizabeth, and I ended up climbing all of the flights of steps to get up close to the big buddha. Again that was well worth it; the statue was absolutely spectacular.

It was kind of a quick trip up and then we had to turn right back around, but I was really glad to just see this amazing site.

After we got back down, it was already 6:30 and the kids were all pretty hungry. We ended up finding a place to eat that was like a food court. Well, that was the part where we could say a tornado happened, and everything started to fall apart. Anyways, I will not go into detail, because it is not worth explaining or repeating. All I can say is that it was certainly not the easiest day, and was pretty exhausting. I thought that we were going to return to the hotel much sooner, but we didn't end up getting back until about 8:40... and of course I got a phone call from my dear friend Cindy saying that she had arrived at the hotel at about 8:10. I was so upset because I had absolutely no way of reaching her, and I was so looking forward to seeing her. I couldn't stand to stay in the hotel room, so I went up and down the entire floors of the hotel lobby, walked around the food court, and still no sight of her. I was at this point crying, because I was so upset about the prospect of not getting to see her.

Well a miracles happened, I was walking through the food court once more and I spotted Cindy and ran to her. I was so happy, sad, excited, and overall emotional to see her. I again started crying out of relief of finding her. I have learned my lesson that next time, I need to set an exact time and place. I kind of had a bad feeling that she might arrive before we did, because it takes us much longer to get anywhere around here. I was so happy to see Cindy in Hong Kong nonetheless. It made my day 100 times better. Not only did I get to see Cindy, but I got to meet her mother. Both of them are the kindest people in the world. It truly made me so happy that they were about to travel all the way from Shenzhen to Hong Kong. I really wish that I could spend more time here in Hong Kong and go visit Cindy and her family in Shenzhen, but hopefully when my family comes and visits in October we can make a trip to Shenzhen. It's only too bad that Cindy will be in the US at school at that time. We ended up going to this great mango dessert place together, and after having all of the special desserts made out of mango, Cindy and her mom had to leave due to the fact that they had to catch the train back home. I was sad that the time flew by so quickly, but it also meant the world to me that I even got to see them!

Well I'm pretty exhausted after a long day, so I think I'm going to call it a night!

Photos from Ocean Park

Adventures to Ocean Park

Yesterday was our first full day in Hong Kong. In the morning we went to a delicious breakfast at the Langham Place where we are staying. It consisted of omlettes, waffles, croisants, fresh fruit, quiche, all different types of cheese, specifically brie cheese! It was so delicious and such a wonderful way to start off our first day. After breakfast we headed out to the Ocean Park. We first had to take the subway, called the MTR, and then transferred to a bus. The kids had a fun time taking the bus, because it was a double decker bus. When we arrived at Ocean Park, the weather was probably already in the mid 70s to 80's. The park had a really strange layout so we weren't sure what to do first. We decided though that the line to go up on the gondola's was too long of a wait, so we first went to see the live panda's that the park had. They were so cute to see, but they were pretty much sleeping most of the time so it wasn't very interesting in that sense. After the panda's we took this express ride up to the other side of the park on this space like exhibit. We didn't realize it was going to take us all the way to the other side of the park so we ended up going back down to the other side of the park on the gondola's. The view from the gondola's was absolutely amazing, it was so incredible to see the entire island, and have such scenic views from this ride park. After taking the gondola back up again to where the rides were located, Michael, Stephanie, and I waited to go on the dragon roller coaster. Unfortunately Stephanie wasn't tall enough to ride on most of the rides, so that made it difficult for her to enjoy the park. Michael and I ended up going on the Dragon roller coaster, which went upside down three different times. It was a lot of fun, however I'm not sure if the long wait in line was worth it. I definitely ended up getting a little burned from all of the sunshine yesterday. We ended up going on some other rides at the park, and then we went to see the Doliphin show. That was fun to see, and the kids all enjoyed it. It was also just a great break to sit down and enjoy the scenery of the park. We ended up ending our day at the park with several rides on the water log, the ride was called the raging river; I didn't get as wet as I would have liked, but it was still a fun ride for everyone and we got cooled down a bit.

I couldn't believe we lasted as long as we did, but we didn't end up leaving the park until about 7:20 p.m. which by that time everyone was saying they were ready to go back to the hotel, I know that I certainly was! I always forget how exhausting those ride parks are, especially in the 90 degree weather, with two 6 year olds, but I think everyone ended up having fun at the end of the day.

We came back at about 9:15 and all ended up crashing from heat exhaustion. I took a nice hot bath, and changed into one of the nice bathrobes that the hotel room offers. It was really heavenly and just so relaxing to fall asleep on a soft western beds and pillows. This morning I ended up sleeping in until about 9 a.m. and it was so great to get a full nights rest. I got to talk with my parents this morning on the hotel room phone, which was nice. It sounds like its still pretty hot in VT, but overall it sounds like they are doing well. I also got to talk with Megan on skype and see her new haircut!

Today, we have been just hanging out in the hotel room. Later in the day we are planning to go see the big buddha.

I'm also excited because I'm planning on seeing my good friend Cindy, who is going to meet me in Hong Kong tonight!

Photos from the Weekend

Arrival in Hong Kong and Events from the weekend

Greetings from Hong Kong! I arrived in Hong Kong today at about 5:20 and met our very dear family friend V and her three children. They have always been like family to me so it is so wonderful to get to spend the next four days with them. I'm looking forward to our adventures here in Hong Kong!

This past weekend was filled with lots of exciting events and fun! On Friday evening I went out to dinner with my friends E and H. We went to the most delicious Hot Pot restaurant ever! It was an all you can eat hot pot buffet so it was definitely a lot of food. The best part of the entire meal though was that there was a Haggan Daaz Ice cream buffet, I kid you not...I think I went a little bit too crazy over the ice cream, because by the end of the meal after stuffing myself with hot pot, I stuffed myself with the ice cream and began to feel a bit sick.It reminded me of the time when I ate way too much ice cream with my family, when we ordered the Ben and Jerry's Vermonster.. after that event I always told myself I would never eat that much ice cream again, but my mind seems to forget sometimes how my stomach felt. Anyways the Haggan Daaz was still amazing and completely worth the stomach ache, hehe. The best part of the meal though was the company that I enjoyed it with. I have been so fortunate to make so many wonderful friends here in Taiwan, and I'm definitely going to miss them all.

On Saturday E and H decided to take me to Yangming Mountain, which was one of the most beautiful sites that I have seen so far in Taiwan. E, brought along her friend R who I enjoyed meeting. I truly loved getting out of the city of Taipei and just being in the mountainous area. It made me feel like I was at home in the lovely mountains of Vermont, well I mean kind of! Overall it was so much fun to go up to the mountains. We had a traditional Taiwanese lunch, which was an experience in itself. I enjoyed the Tofu, but the chicken that we had at the meal was too much for my stomach to handle. I just couldn't get used to the flavor. I don't know why, but when I have chicken it has to be either very hot, or I just would rather not have chicken at all. I enjoyed getting to have the experience of going to a traditional lunch and going out with some great friends. I got back later in the afternoon, and kind of just called it a day. I had a bit of a headache from the heat, and was pretty exhausted.

On Sunday, I went to church in the morning. This particular Sunday was special due to the fact that the priest who was saying the mass was from Malaysia. I really enjoyed getting to be at the mass, as it always gives me a sense of being closer to home. After church, I took the MRT to meet up with my teacher and classmates at the museum of World Religions in Taipei. There was a special day for international students to explore the museum, specifically the aboriginal cultures of Taiwan. We had a traditional lunch the consisted of banana leaves with rice and banana mashed together. I can't say it tasted like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but again it was an experience that I enjoyed getting to have. After lunch, we got a tour of the museum. It was so fascinating because they had a special exhibit on each world religion. They also had several models of famous churches, mosques, temples, and places of prayer from around the world. This museum reminded me of how interested I am in world religions, and how much religion truly plays a huge part in defining cultures and values within a culture. I can definitely say that I am who I am due to how I was raised, but also the values that I grew up with by going to church and a Catholic school for the first 6 years of my life. Anyways, after our tour of the museum, we got to see some of the Aboriginal people of Taiwan's dances and costumes. They also showed us some of the traditional dances. It was truly so much fun to learn about, and I felt so fortunate to get to experience and learn more about the Taiwanese culture that I didn't know anything about. Well to sum up, I had a very culture filled weekend, with so many exciting things that I got to experience and see.

I'm really looking forward to the week in Hong Kong, I'm going to try and soak in everything for the short amount of time that I'm here. I know how quickly everything will fly by.

Hope everyone is staying cool in the summer weather. I've heard the temps in the states have also gotten quite high. Although if it makes you feel any better, what your experiencing for a couple weeks, is like this all the time in Taiwan.

Running!

So ever since I have arrived in Asia, I have not had the chance to make it to an actual gym because I have been so busy with school and settling in that I just haven't been able to get to the gym. I think in general the first month took so much energy out of me that I couldn't even think of going to the gym. However, now I finally have the energy back in me and yesterday I was so proud of myself because I made it to the school's gym. It felt so good to run on the treadmill for a solid 30 minutes. I actually wasn't sure if I was going to be able to just because its been a while since I've worked out, but sure enough I was able to persist through and run for a solid 30 minutes. Of course I was sweating like crazy after I worked out, but that is no new news! I am known for always working up a sweat whenever I go to the gym back home as well, everyone kind of makes fun of me for it, hehe. Today I decided to go to the gym again and it was a great feeling! It really gave me a lot of energy. I also just in general love the feeling after going to the gym, all of the endorphins that exercising releases is just great. Hopefully now I can keep up with the routine of going to the gym everyday or at least three times a week!

Tonight I will be going to dinner with some friends that I met this past weekend and I'm really looking forward to that! Hope everyone is staying cool in the summer heat!

Photos from the Weekend