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.