The first few days in Taipei.

Yesterday was a busy day. Ryan and I went up north to see Danshui and the Fisherman's Wharf. It's pretty nice, with the water and such. Then we went to the Cheng Kai Shek Memorial Hall and took a bunch of tourist pictures. We happened to see the changing of the guards. It was an interesting thing to see and I think we were lucky to have gone when we did. After that we walked around Ximending for a while. That is a shopping district with a bunch of stores and movie theaters and entertainment. 

It was a long day of walking around so we headed back to our hostel around 4pm. At 5pm I went to lay down for a nap, and Ryan set his alarm for 8pm. Yeah. I woke up at 1am. So instead of a nap, I got a full night's sleep. Then, we were awake until about 6am - and woke up again at 10am. Crazy. I'm not sure if I can really blame jet lag - maybe it was still jetlag followed by a long day of walking which resulted in a super intense nap. 

Anyway, so today: we kind of just hung around a bit. Then we went out shopping with a girl who is staying at our hostel. Shopping was followed by some more relaxing. Then around 8pm we met up with Courtney and Max (UPS students) and another guy from the hostel to go to the Shilin Night Market. The night market is full of foods and drinks and clothes and other things... ? I ate one of my favorite things for dinner, called Xiarenjian. I'm not really sure how to describe it. It's tasty. We all wandered around the market seeing all kinds of things, getting lost in the crowds, and hearing The Pussycat Dolls play from some shops/stalls. Oh yes. That's right.

Apparently there's supposed be a typhoon. I thought it was going to be today. It may come tomorrow? Or not at all. We'll see. I kind of actually really want one. Wait, Courtney said the typhoon is hitting China and missing us completely. Eh, whatevs. So I hope this was entertaining. I haven't put any pictures up. Ideally I will soon. If you want more detail and lots of pictures check out Ryan's blog at http://ryantateintaiwan.blogspot.com . Seriously. 

Arrived.

I'm here!! I had forgotten how intensely hot and humid it is. I mean, I always knew that it is - but this is ridiculous. I'm sure it won't be so bad after a few days and I'm a bit more acclimated. Also, Taiwan is why I love cold showers.

So yes. Plane ride. I was tired of being on the plane after seven hours - and I still had seven more to go. I slept a few hours but not much. Then we arrived in the airport, changed some money, went through immigration, and fortunately Ryan's and my bag both arrived. We may have been worried.

We had a small adventure finding the right bus and getting tickets. Then it was an hour from the airport to the city/our bus stop. The hostel is nice and near the metro station. There are a number of other people from the US and one or two from Finland and Ireland (?).

Anyway, it is currently 12:30am (thurs), but according to my watch it's 9:30 am (wed). I feel like I should be much more tired considering I didn't sleep more than 3 hours the past two night. So, I'm going to go try to get some sleep.

And yay for the first blog!