Taiwan - my favorite place on earth!

Squid - delicious flavor - the feeling of tenticles was just a bit odd, but I got over it! :)

Taiwan - I stayed with one of my great friends Rachel and her wonderful family - her mom (Abbo ) and dad (Abba) who I affectionatly refered to by their taiwanese terms for mother and father! It was fun to have special names for them! They were great hosts - fed us way too much food, worried about me getting around on the subway, and kept us entertained by trying to say my name - it came out more Eleezuuhberr... :) They don't speak any English so it was a good time for me to be forced to use my limited mandarin - and wish that I had more!

Our friend Tiffany from SMIC was there too, so we hung out all together a bunch too! Happy reading! (Oh by the way - right now it's a rainy sunday afternoon - just finished 10 things I hate about you, munching on fresh oatmeal cookies and popcorn, and wishing that I don't have to teach tomorrow... but I get to get a massage in just 3 hours, so life is good - and i'm not counting! :) )))

My favorite - fresh sugar cane juice!

Yi Ling yi - Taipei 101!!! :) 3rd tallest building in the world!

Delicious Rice noodles ! only 40 NT - like $ 1.50 US

Everyone stands around and eats their noodles - and it was crowded! Everyone knows about this place - it was in Ximen - a popular shopping area.

Do jang - Fresh warm soy milk! It was on the street corner everwhere - and so delicious !Taiwan has the best little breakfast places - and most of them are open all day long.

So now i have the scooter bug... i keep thinking about getting one.. they are so amazingly fun to ride on! :) Abba(RAchel's dad) took me on his to get breakfast and back from the MT one day! :) I was in heaven! Her parents were so hospitable and fed us way too much food. IF i ever go back, i need to run every day if I don't want to gain 50 pounds! :)

amazing huh??

Taipei - huge city! :)

Shin Ling - the best and largest night market! :)
So how I describe night markets are as follows.. first you go and get a snack at a stand - say squid - then you decide I'm full so you buy some stuff or look through a few shops until you're hungry again, and then you eat more, and it just keeps going - shopping, eating, shopping, eating. and the food is all so amazing - you just can't believe it. I believe heaven will ahve food like Taiwan... or maybe Taiwan is heaven... hm.... My fav. foods were - delicious fruit-strawberries and pineapple - quail eggs - squid - watermelon juice - and grapefruit/pineapple/pear juice and all the homecooked meals at Rachel's relatives! Oh, and the SEAFOOD!!! yum yum!!!

Tofu peanut stuff... it was OK - supposed to have some sugar stuff, but i had to get it without, so it was a little lacking...

My first time KTVing - Chinese version of Karoke- in a room by yourself! Rachel's cousin worked here and let us play around with his system! Surround sound... ina sound proof room ... lovely! :)

I don't get it... but let me know ifyou do! :)

So these were quail eggs - they fried them in little holes in a griddle and were really yummy - they put them on a stick for you.

Rachel and I enjoying the sunset! :)

My first street market in Taiwan - it was brilliant!

We spent two days in Go Shang - a harbor city with Rachel's friends. It was on the south west coast of Taiwan. We got there by high speed train - only 1 1/2 hour trip for almost the whole island top to bottom! :) It was beautiful and I got to see the other side of the Pacific for the first time! :) Couldn't find all those bottle message you all sent me though... :(

OK - so we went to this art museum and saw this beautiful lake - and there were all these signs around the lake - they were a little odd...
NO Feeding the animals...

No Hurdling... becuase that's what I want to do by a lake...

No worshiping...becuase I always worship my altars in this position... :)

And the climax... make sure that you don't get too close to the edge - and if you're not sure, this is a visual of what could happen! :)

Thanks for reading !I feel like i should give you a quiz to see if you made it this far! :) Blessings! We'll see what the next adventure has in store for us.. It feels good knowing that I have my pics posted though! Traveling is lots of work... as is the aftermath of bloging and facebooking... the trials I have to struggle through in life, good thing I have the grace of Gd to get me through! :)