Day Trip to JiuFen!

Finally a day out of Taipei! My friend Lucia and I decided to check out JiuFen, an old city north of Taipei because our teacher told us about the old streets and good food (of course, what else would motivate me to move??) there.

40 minutes on the train and a short (but crowded) bus ride later, we were there! At the top of a hill, where the old streets are. As soon as we entered the old streets, it was like food left and right, and all kinds of yummy things to eat! Noodles, wontons, buns, tofu, desserts, drinks, everything everywhere!

Before the masses of people showed up

SNAILS. Yes, someone eats this stuff. Who, I have no idea... but apparently someone does.

So of course, we started eating right away, and the day passed as basically a "gastronomical adventure" as Lu called it. We just sampled and shared our way through the whole market. Continuously eating and "window" shopping (minus the windows...) It was like a maze in there, the old streets were fairly narrow, and all looked the same. As it got later in the day, more and more people started showing up, until it was super crowded (yes, you guessed it: more tour groups. kill me.)

The day started out so beautiful: a sunny day with clear skies and a perfectly cool but not too cool breeze, but in about 15 minutes at around 2:30 PM, the weather changed completely! All of a sudden the fog rolled in and it was SO windy, like a freaking monsoon! So we ducked into a small coffee shop and had afternoon tea!

When we started our return journey home, I ran over to the bus stop to ask the driver which bus we were looking for and he snapped at me in his answer! I asked again just to make sure, which number we were looking for? And he YELLED at me: just go over by the 7-11!!! I was in total shock, I've never been yelled at by a stranger before!

Anyway, in the end, we found a bus that took us directly back to Taipei, so we hopped on and listened to Chinese music and slept the whole way back :) What a yummy day!

National Palace Museum

So this week I've been on vacation from classes, because the school gives us a week and a half's worth of break before the next quarter starts! I can't believe I'll already be starting my second quarter of class, and I can't believe I've been here three months now! Time flies...

Anyway, after vegging and being a hermit in my apartment for a few days, I decided to finally get my butt out and check out the National Palace Museum. The collection is pretty big and it's one of the tourist destinations in Taipei!

It was really fun, actually, even though I went by myself! My favorite exhibit was one that showed these curio boxes, they're basically like keepsake boxes, except they have a ton of little drawers and pull-outs and hidden compartments. Apparently, the kings used to like keeping their most precious knick knacks in these boxes, so the whole process of looking at their treasures was a cool thing in itself!

There was also another exhibit that showed precious stones carved into weird things... like a chinese cabbage, or a piece of meat. Sounds weird, but.. actually, it was weird. haha

The only damper on my day was in this weird stone exhibit. The tour groups (god, I hate them, gives me bad memories of all the museums we went to in Europe...). Need I say more?? Except, and I hate to come down on my people like this, but they were Asian tour groups, which is possibly worse. This old Chinese lady literally shoved me against the wall in order to get to the front and see the meat-looking rock. And then once she pushed me out of the way, all the other old people in her tour group seemed to think it was ok too, because next thing I know, I'm pushed up against the wall with a bunch of 5-foot tall Asian elderly folk pushing their way past me to see the meat rock.

True story. What is my life coming to?? Being shoved up against a wall by an 80+ year old woman?? Sad sad day.

Anyways, after wandering around the museum I decided to check out the "traditional chinese gardens" on site as well. But sadly some of the ponds had been drained of their water! So it didn't feel very traditional or authentic at all :( it was still really pretty though, and peaceful and serene..

I will say, however, that I don't know what they're feeding the fish there because I have never seen bigger koi fish in my ENTIRE. LIFE. It could probably eat a small child. Actually it definitely could.

see?? Wouldn't you be frightened? They should put up signs that say "Please watch your children" as a safety precaution. really.

Hot Hot Heat in November... Am I Still in LA???

Yeah, who woulda thunk.

31C in November. What the Hell.

31 may not seem that hot, but given the fact that a) it's November and b) it's not just hot in Taipei, but HUMID as well... well, it sucks.

I was just starting to get excited about wearing jeans, closed-toed shoes, and shirts with sleeves again, and then wham bam! The heat wave hits. And this is right after 2 earthquakes in one day. (side note: I was so deliriously tired when the first earthquake hit that I was sitting in my chair and I thought I was going crazy... until I looked at my closet and saw all my clothes shaking.. then I wondered if I should move under my doorway or not... and decided I was going to be fine. Oh, and I entirely didn't know there was a second one. haha)

What is this world coming to?!?! An end, that's what I think.

This is not normal. I'm convinced.

Just another reason why we need to take care of Mother Earth people! Please start recycling, turning off lights, stop wasting water and littering, and go plant a freaking tree because I can't handle fitting both my summer and winter clothes into this tiny closet.

On another note, I miss In-n-Out.