Where is Thursday??

We made it!

Wednesday ::

[DISCLAIMER : THE LACK OF PICTURES FOR WEDNESDAY IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT I WAS AFRAID TO UNPACK MY DSLR BECAUSE I THOUGHT I MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO FIT IT BACK INTO MY BAGS, BUT HAVE NO FEAR, THEY ARE COMING] Wednesday morning, my family and I woke up and ate breakfast (well, one piece of french toast each because we got too full) at Edgar's as planned and then I bought a new watch and finished packing up everything for the trip. We arrived at the Atlanta airport around 5 (6 eastern) and waited and waited to check in bags and go through security. My last meal in the US was a pretty good Club Sandwich from a pretty crabby cashier (DON'T ask the sandwich shop what your choices of sides are.)


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We boarded the plane and began our trip to San Fran. Movies weren't free and games weren't free and the headphones are no longer complementary, but that was ok because I was just going to sleep,right? NOPE. The entire five hour flight I MIGHT have slept 3 minutes.

Thursday, is somewhere in here ::

We stopped real quick in San Francisco and then boarded a plane with MUCH squishier, comfortable chairs with built-in don't-kill-your-neck-while-you-sleep things. Upon take-off I transformed into my mother and got incredibly motion sick and, having been offered it earlier, begged for the sleeping pill from Kenney and passed out within minutes. The 14 hour flight was then turned into a 2 hour flight because I was knocked out for 12 hours. (Good thing we didn't crash!) In my 12-hour slumber I missed dinner (even though classmates tried to wake me up for it) and missed the free headphones distribution. I woke up as a breakfast of omelet, sausage, orange juice, and bread was being served. And then TADAH! we were in Taipei, Taiwan.

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[Here, the cute clerk lady in her adorable outfit pointed us in the direction of our gate.] We were there just long enough for most everyone order their first food/drink in Chinese from a cafe called IRIS. I got a lemon slushie and for the life of me cannot recall how to say it. Our last flight lasted about twenty minutes; just long enough to take off, get free juice, and land in Kaohsiung. [Pictured below is the Kaohsiung airport as we were walking to exchange our US dollar for NT dollar] We then boarded our bus that took us thirty minutes to the hotel in Kaohsiung City.

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While on the bus, we witnessed the scooters. They are just zooming EVERYWHERE and there are SO many of them! I am kind of glad that Tin-Man said we can't ride any while we're here - I think I'd be scared to. My favorite instance of a scooter: A girl was driving one and her poodle was "surfing" on the floorboard with its head sticking out the side watching everything zoom past him.

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We arrived at the hotel, hurried to our rooms and showered and met back in the lobby for a lunch excursion. TinMan took us to lunch at the same restaurant he's taken every group (and apparently they're closing after this year, so we're the last ones!) The lunch was REALLY good. TinMan and his wife ordered us THIRTEEN plates filled with vegetables and different meats and seafoods. I tried pork liver. The outside of it was fine, but then when you bit into the middle it tasted the way the stuff in the sewage ditch back home smells. Gross. Moving on.

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After eating, TinMan wanted to take us to the Koahsiung History Museum so we walked, and walked, and walked, and walked and it was sauna-esque outside. But that's alright! We were just workin' off that huge lunch! While walking, we made many pit stops at little stores and checked out the subway and the big river. On our walk back, we stopped at the Night Market where we learned that clothes in Taiwan don't quite fit us. I didn't see a girls' item of clothing over 10 US dollars, but none of it fit correctly. I did buy one overall-ish dress though. =]

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One thing we've noticed is that the graphic t-shirts with English writing make NO sense (which makes us assume that our American shirts with Chinese writing make no sense either). But the best we've seen thus far was a store called Golden Life. Their tagline was THE GOLDEN WANTS TO CHANGE YOU TO WEARDRESS TASTY THOROUGHLY. Haha.

After the night market we got dinner from 711, which I wasn't too excited about until we found a Feng Li Stand (pineapple...you're impressed, right?) right outside the 711. They have this powder you put on your pineapple, kind of like how we put salt on watermelon sometimes, and it's like a salty spice sugar. I was skeptical but GOD was it good. After "dinner" we walked back to the hotel where I attempted to edit pictures and post this blog, but basically passed out instead. I'll leave you with a photo of the crosswalk aid located on the median of the road.