Early Saturday morning (at about 5am to be exact) I woke up, I was pretty sure that I wouldn't wake up but was pretty proud (and surprised) of waking up right when my alarm went off. I got dressed (with 3 pairs of socks, two pairs of shorts, two shirts, one sweatshirt, one jacket, and one pair of gloves on...oh yeah and I was wearing my Taiwanese mask (can't forget that :D)) and cut up a couple of oranges and headed off at 5:20. I hadn't really thought about it much before I left but it was still dark when I got up and dark when I left and just a little cold. I left with a prayer, hoping that I would have any difficulties with my bike (for the last week or so my bike hasn't been working, when I am pedaling it doesn't do anything- if I were going to be here longer I would actually consider buying a new bike it has been so annoying but I will just have to bear it for 2 more weeks). I actually got there with extra time (which I was concerned about and that is why I left so early), so I stopped at McDonalds to grab some breakfast. I then went to the train station adn ate my breakfast while I waited for Stephanie and Eliza to arrive. I didn't have very long to wait, we quickly got in line and found our seats. Because we had ordered our tickets at different times our seats were not together, but I went with Stephanie and sat down behind them, we had barely sat down when the guy came that the seat actually belonged to, Stephanie asked if he would be willing to switch, he was willing and so I got to sit with Stephanie and Eliza rather than in another car. Stephanie went to sleep very quickly and Eliza was listening to music, it took me awhile to get everything adjusted and for me to get comfortable but when I finally was comfortable and looked up I realized that the sun was rising! I quickly searched for my camera and batteries and took a couple of pictures, the pictures don't even begin to show how beautiful looked... I'm not a morning person but sometimes seeing things like that make it totally worth having gotten up at 5am, biked for 30 minutes and it being freezing cold. Soon after that I fell asleep and did not wake up until we were pulling up to the Main Station in Taipei.
We walked outside and found that rather than it being cold (which many people had warned us that it would be and that we should wear lots of layers) the sun was shining high overhead and it was hotter than hot chocolate (:D) and we started pulling off layers, Stephanie walked forward and grabbed us a taxi and we were off to the temple. We were a little early for Stephanie's session and she still needed to change so we went to the stake center and were in the bathroom for awhile while Stephanie changed and then we picked the relief society room for our headquarters for the day. Eliza played the piano for awhile and I ate some oranges, then they left to go next door and get some breakfast while I played the piano. I enjoyed playing the piano but for some reason I was losing my voice so every time I would try and start singing a little bit higher my voice would squeak and not get any higher.
Stephanie left to go to the temple and asked if I would be willing to keep an eye on Eliza until her sister came and picked her up, I was ok with that and pretty much just kept on playing the piano for awhile. At one point Eliza came in and started playing it while I was so I just moved so that she could play instead. I was kind of bored so I started looking through the cupboards (the few that were open), in one of them there was a bucket of animal crackers, Eliza really wanted one but I told her that we couldn't have any, so instead I told her we could go to the 7-Eleven that was just down the street from the temple and stake center. We had just began walking when we met up with a boy from our branch and he decided to join us (I guess because he continued all the way down there with us and stayed with us), he couldn't speak any English so I didn't really talk with him much. When we got to the 7 I told them to go pick out a snack (even though I hadn't really invited him I thought that it would have been rude to not get him anything so they both got to pick snacks), they asked if they could get a drink and then share something and I told them that yes they could, I quickly picked what I wanted and then we left.
As soon as we got back to the stake center Eliza and the boy went off somewhere else to eat their snack, it wasn't very long though until Eliza came back and was just sitting with me, I asked her if she she had gotten any of the chips, she told me that she had, had one and then he finished the rest really fast. I was a little disappointed as I had mostly bought the stuff for Eliza and just because he was tagging along did I buy it for him also.
Eliza started playing the piano again and so I told her that I was going to go downstairs to distribution and that I would be right back. While I was down there I saw President Chen buying somethings. Everywhere you go in Taiwan, if it is an LDS home, car, book or anything you will see these little stickers that say "No Success can Compensate for Failure in the Home," now I guess that mom said a Prophet said that, I wasn't aware of it but it is very popular in Taiwan, I am glad that they find that a high priority. Anyway they have these stickers and we found out that we could get them for free from distribution, so I went to get some of those, I also got a couple of more Liahona's and the Conference issue of the Ensign. As I was flipping through the Ensign I was looking at the pictures (I always love the photography from Conference), when there was a picture of MTC men's choir, and right on the right side was a guy from my ward last year, I got so excited and happy when I saw that.
After I had been reading for awhile I thought that I would run across the street and look inside Bountiful Living, the first thing that I noticed when I walked in the door was that there were probably 20-30 nativty sets (which is kind of funny because whenever I had been asking people about them they had no clue what I was talking about), I looked around a little more but thought that I would have a chance to come back with Stephanie so didn't really stress about getting anything at that moment. I went back to the stake center and we hadn't been waiting for much longer when Stephanie came out of the temple, her sister was there and President Chen was ready to go but I asked if we could go quickly back to Bountiful Living, so Stephanie went with me while the others went to grab the car. I bought a nativity set for mom (don't worry, I am terrible at keeping secrets especially from mom so she already knows that I bought it :D), a pair of the most adorable baby girl shoes (I couldn't resist so Joel and Becky I guess they are the first thing for your baby!), a case for my scriptures and a miniture Taiwan flag pin. *When Natalie went there she bought a t-shirt, that we later found out was designed by Elder Pendleton, I will be going back this Saturday if anyone is interested in a Chinese LDS shirt (I bought one ealier that says CTR in Chinese).
Then we were off to the material market, Stephanie's sister dropped Stephanie, President Chen and I off and then she and Eliza went somewhere else. Sadly when we got out of the car quickly I forgot to grab my camera so I didn't get any pictures of all the material. And when I say lots, I mean LOTS! There were tons of "outside" stores but we didn't go to any of those as Stephanie said that the stuff inside would be cheaper and better material. We first bought the material for the branch (they are making Angel costumes for everyone when they go caroling) so that President Chen could pay for it and take it with him (he wanted to get home). Then we went and looked for my material, we just stayed to the front couple of stores as Stephanie said that it is really easy to get lost in there (at one point I went to one wall and looked down the aisle, it probably went back as far as a Wal Mart store and had tons of off aisles). There was so many different kinds of material, Stephanie started handing me these sample books and I was like how do I even begin to deside, but when I was into my 4th or 5th book one material jumped out at me, it was beautiful, the pattern was extremly loud but it was enough to show Chinese design. I knew immediately that it was the one that I wanted. While they were cutting the material for that I started looking for the material for the other two dresses (Erin and Jamie had asked if I would get them a dress made also), I found out that real silk was only like $30NT dollars more per a yard and found two that I thought were equally beautiful so ended up getting them real silk while mine was fake (:D), all in all though I thought that it was an amazing purchase, I bought material for 3 dresses for less than $45US and a big chunk of it was real silk.
When we were done we went outside and Stephanie's sister and Eliza pulled up and picked us up, they asked if we were hungry and by this time I was really starting to get hungry so we decided to go and get lunch. They picked subway (which I wasn't going to complain), as we were walking up to the doors the smell of fresh baked bread was so powering, it smelled wonderful. I decided to try something new so ordered terriyaki chicken, I guess while we were ordering Stephanie's sister paid for all of our food, I was so grateful, a person that I don't even knew had just paid for my food (I guess like sister, like sister- that is just something that Stephanie would do). Though I couldn't understand what they were saying it was fun to watch Stephanie and her sister interact, because her sister lives in Taipei and she lives in Hualien they do not get to see each other all the time and so they were talking really fast and happily to see each other.
When we were done with lunch Stephanie's sister had a meeting that she had to be at, so they dropped me off at a MRT stop, I had a little time and so decided to take the MRT out to Danshue (I think that I have talked a little bit about it before, it is where the Danshue river pours into the ocean- Christina had told Natalie and I that we should go there but we never had), it was gorgeous, I tried to get some pictures of the sun going down (interesting how I got to see both parts of that), but my camera was being stuburn. They had a dunkin donuts and so I got a couple and some juice and just sat down to watch people. There was a girl that had her headphones on
and was drawing, I wish that I had the talent to just be able to draw what I see.
If you don't know me very well I stress about time and so decided that I should probably head back towards the train station (even though I had close to 2 hours still before I was leaving :D), it worked out ok though, at the Taipei Main Station there is like 3 different malls underground and so I just went to one of those- I found these cute Chinese coin purses that were only like $15NT (the only other place that I had seen them was at Bountiful Living and they were like $40NT or $50NT), I was also able to buy some dinner and then had a few minutes before I had to catch my train- I prefer not to feel completely stressed if I can manage it.
I slept almost the whole train ride back to Hualien, and was a little surprised how quickly it seemed to come. When we got to Hualien I looked around for Natalie (we were supposed to be coming back on the same train), but could not seem to find her anywhere so I decided to just head home (I passed her bike locked up still on my way out). Because my bike has been having major issues lately and because I was more than a little tired I walked my bike part of the time home. I was very happy to get home, I took a shower, talked to Natalie a little bit when she got home, watched like 20 minutes of Anne of Avonlea and then headed to bed.
Unfortunately I didn't take as many pictures as I normally like to because my camera was being stupid but here are the few that I did take. Enjoy!
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| Thanksgiving Taipei Trip |
~Betherd~
P.S. Ahh I can't believe that I almost forgot the best part when I was biking to the train station at like 5:45 in the morning I passed the library and there was a group of people doing Tai Chi or something like that, I kind of wish that I had stopped to take a picture but it was really cold and I just wanted to keep moving until I got to the train station.
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