Anyways, since coming out of rural Taiwan, there have been a few nice changes. We are now giddy Americans running around Taipei, being on the whole, jovial, English-speaking, a bit on the rowdy side, and doing more than our fair share of a-weem-bow-wahing as we take a lot of pictures and time loitering from place to place. This is our hotel where we get to sleep in real beds for the first time in over 2 weeks! As well as enjoy some respite from the heat and humidity. The bugs though are still very very real -_- ...unless you're Timothy Lu...he seems to be a living bug repellent.
At the hotel, there is a continental breakfast that is a cross between American and Taiwanese styles. After this, we got ready to go to church, which began at 11am. Oh by the way, Jenny Aiyi and Shih-lien Shushu have been checking us in, taking LOTS of group pictures and teaching us how to get from place to place here in Taipei.
Outside the hotel is a really pretty waterlily pond/garden. Andrew almost fell in, haha, just kidding, Ben obviously was there to pull him back to safety. Speaking of which, Andrew has been having a lot of problems not climbing on things he's not supposed to...
"Rules are meant to be broken."
-Andrew Geng
No one needs to be concerned....
We just encountered that pond as we were walking to the train station. We are taking public transportation everywhere! Here is a nice picture of one of the many escalators that leads to train platforms. In particular, we were going to church!
We were super early in leaving for church, so Jenny Aiyi and Shih-Lien Shushu had us stop in an underground mall with many many touristy and cutesy things to buy. We didn't really have that much time to look around though and kind of just got a feel of the place before continuing on to church.
Okay, so I don't exactly know what everyone else was expecting, but I was expecting more Chinese. Well, actually I think they were expecting more Chinese, because we were all quite shocked at the number of...um... *cough* non-Chinese looking people there? And then everyone started leading in English, and it was like 0.o WHAT?! I can actually understand everything that's going on?? But yes, that was an unexpected surprise. Oh! Also, on the way, we met up with some of our Taiwan coworkers, Irene, Wendy, Elly, Dorcas, and Jamin from Baozhong :D It was really good to see them again (: Thanks for coming out guys!
After church, we went out to get some of the famous Taiwanese cuisine. A traditional Taiwanese snack that Irene calls "Taiwanese hamburgers" haha and a famous boba (that's bubble tea folks, in case you haven't made the correlation) place, which was reeeaallly good! And the Taiwanese coworkers unexpectedly paid for us. Thanks guys! Since ya'll said you were hosting, we expect you to make a trip out to America so we can take a turn! :D
More public transportation ensues. The selfie extravaganza doesn't stop. As we make our way to Mao Kong. We had to transfer three times. Thank goodness Mr. Lu was there. We all just followed his lead.
When we got off at the zoo, we walked over to the gondolas that would bring us to Mao Kong. Along the way, we found many a cute kid. This one has a superman cup. Pretty darn awesome.
I also may or may not be tired.
But all tiredness fades as we finally get through the lines and onto the gondola! The views were quite amazing. We all had a good time riding in the hello-kitty ridden gondolas, talking, joking, singing and such. Hello kitty really was quite annoying though. We wanted to rip them off.
The gondolas pass through several stations. At these stations, paying customers can also get on. One of our gondolas was singing the accursed in the jungle song... And some white people waiting in line started singing along. All in all, it was a massive face-palm.
Then, on the way back down to the zoo, we got to see the sunset. It produced some pretty amazing pictures.
 |
| I couldn't decide which I liked best, so I posted all of them :D |
Riding back to Taipei 101, we sat in the very front. Everyone was energized from being at Mao Kong and seeing the wonderful sights.
And finally we make it to the 101! It's quite pretty at night and pictures don't really do it justice. It also looks like a bunch of purple lightsabers
Of course, with a trip to the 101, we had to take a bunch of touristy pictures with all the landmarks there. Unfortunately, the love sign was accompanied by a do not touch the artwork sign ): This is where Andrew played devil's advocate....for himself and it took Timmy restraining him to keep him off of it. I should also note that I may or may not have climbed it -__- In my haste to get on, I most definitely did not read the sign...haha.
Nightitme cities also make for the best long exposure shots. with so many buses and taxi cabs passing by, we got a pretty nice shot of Taipei.
The selfies continue. Everyone at Taipei 101!
 |
| the funky chicken! and Solenne makes it out to join us at the night market. |
 |
| Mango shave ice! :D We like mangoes... |
Prayer requests:
1) Safe travels! We're going to be doing a lot of it and technically have no "adult" making sure we get there alive, so that the team would stay together and make it home safely!
2) Jetlag for when we arrive. There is a significant time difference between here and home. We're trying to adjust by doing an all-nighter tonight...but it's only 3:30am and I'm pretty sleepy... A lot of us have many things to do when we get back, so quickly adjusting would be ideal!
3) Saying good-bye to the coworkers again ): We really get withdrawal from these guys... Just ask Arthur and Andrew hehe (;
4) Arthur seems to have a horrible bugbite/possible infection on his leg. Please pray for his health as he is staying here and may need to see a doctor.
No comments:
Post a Comment