A Weekend in the City

Last weekend Andrea and I took our last trip to Taipei before going home, we had many things that we wanted to fit into this visit, in the end I'm not sure that we covered all of them but it was a memorable and fun adventure.

Isn't this gorgeous? This is what we get to see every time we go to Taipei, on the way up and on the way down.

Friday when we arrived it took us a little bit of time to find our hostel (there were three buildings owned by the hostel but we went to the wrong one first), but it was still early and we didn't really want to go to bed yet. It was really strange as we were signing in we heard the owners speaking Spanish, and we were both like we understand that. It turns out that the owners (used to be married or are currently married--we weren't sure) are from Mexico, well the guy is from Mexico and she lived there for 20 years.

We decided that we would go on a walk and find something to eat. We asked if there was a movie theater nearby and discovered that there was one only like a five minute walk away, we got something to eat and decided to walk over and see what they had to offer.

We had originally planned on coming Saturday night but there was one starting right then and so we decided to watch it. We ended up watching Letter's To Juliet, it was really cute and I would highly recommend it. I haven't seen any movies lately that I have felt the urge to buy but this is one that I think that I will buy when it comes out on video.

When we got back from the movie it was about 1 o'clock, our roomies were there (we got a woman's dorm room with 4 bunk beds and a private bathroom), they were from England and have been living there for the last year as they work at an English school in Taipei. They weren't the most talkative or friendly towards us, despite Andrea's attempt to ask them questions. They had no problem walking around in their underwear or leaving them out to dry though :(

Saturday was a very long day spent with much walking, shopping, talking, eating, and just having fun. We went to see if there was any other movie that sounded good but nothing caught our attention so we decided to just go home and get ready for bed.

Sunday morning we got up and ready before the roomies were even starting to get up, we left to go back to the Temple and stake center to go to church, it was really weird to hear everything in English and even stranger to pick up the hymnal and find it feel very heavy compared to the English hymnal. After Sacrament meeting we bundled all of our stuff and headed back to the train station where we had a little bit of a wait until our time.

Walking from our hostel to the MRT there was this little park that they had lots of animals made out of stones. I'm not sure what their purpose was, but they made for great pictures :D

Our "humble abode," Andrea and I both decided that this place is not what we would pick to live in for over a year, I don't know, maybe we are spoiled with our apartment but I would not be too excited with the prospect of living out of my suitcase for a year. This is the door to our room.

Looking in from the door, that door on the right is the bathroom, with shower and toilet. The shower was really nice--a lot bigger than ours and it actually has a little thing that separates the shower floor from the rest of the bathroom floor.

Looking from the bathroom.

By the end of the trip I felt kind of like a city girl, or at least that I could live in one if I needed to. I'm still not excited by the idea but I could do it.

A Mart: An Extreme Adventure

Two field trips in two days! How crazy is that? It was so much fun though, well as fun as it can be going shopping with 50 kids :D We had our regular morning classes and then the craziness started. There were at least 10 cars lined up out front of the school and that many or more parents wandering around, talking with each other and the kids. You know how when you are getting ready to go somewhere you go through in your head like a million times what you need to take with you/do well multiply that several times and you can begin to understand what it was. Finally we would be ready and then a 3 year old was missing, or someone needed to change clothes/shoes, go to the bathroom, basically anything that you can think of.

Finally we started to get in the cars, I was in the first one to leave. I got to ride with Elaine's Mom and 6 bouncy 3 year olds :D

It's amazing how much faster you can get somewhere when going in a car. We were all dropped off at the curb and then the parents went and all parked their cars.

Before going inside, each teacher took a group of 10 kids (except me, I was the lucky one with a microphone and got to be the "tour guide"). We walked in and everyone quickly started grabbing carts, I got the microphone out but wasn't really sure what Yuling wanted me to do with it, after a few minutes we quickly decided that it would be easier just for each teacher to be a tour guide for their groups. We started out all together but that quickly changed and were soon spread out through the store.

We had two hours to explore the store with our groups (I used it as a chance to buy some of the more heavier stuff that we needed but didn't really want to bike back with. AKA- Rice). The kids had tons of fun looking at things and picking out what they were going to buy (each one had been sent with $50-$150 or so). Minds were changed many times, especially on making sure that they had enough money.

I went on several runs with kids to find stickers or tattoos that they saw someone else have and they wanted.

When it came time to check-out they opened two check stands just for us, so we wouldn't block other customers and hopefully not frustrate everyone in the store.

When going shopping with 50 kids you would expect to have someone wander off on their own, that happened but it wasn't one of the kids. Yuling disappeared with her group and we didn't see them until the very end when we were getting in line to check out.
It was a long day and everyone was very tired when we were heading home, the kids had fun and loved buying lots and lots of candy (of course that is what most of them bought :D).
Elaine's Mom was nice and bought snacks for everyone in our car to eat on the way back and some how our 6 3 year olds had become 9, all sitting in the back together- with no seat belts :(