The Weekend-ish

Friday :: Kaohsiung Night Market

I woke up early and had that planned danbing. I couldn't finish it because it was too greasy. :( In Chinese class, we learned some tips on ordering food (sizes and spiciness and things like that).

Studio was hectic. My group members weren't all there at the beginning of class, and they had our homework to turn in. Luckily, they appeared about thirty minutes later.

After studio, we ran to the seven and the ATM reeeeeal quick and met at four trees to catch a cab and go to the night market in Kaohsiung! (This is not the same one that I've been to already) This place was HUGE. It just went on and on and on. I think I saw MAYBE 1/3 of it? I got a lot of cute clothes :) [I got to stop by the 85 degrees Celsius cafe on the way there :) ]

Due to scary things that happened last year (an American got lost and apparently showed up at the dorm an hour later by taxi), we had to have one Taiwanese student per every two Americans. Bling was mine and Kenney's tour guide. She INSISTED on carrying our bags, which made me feel so bad!



[oh, by the way. Bling was one of the people who said this, so talking about her reminded me. They REALLY like my voice over here. It's pretty hilarious. I'll be talking and they'll just interrupt me and tell me that my voice is beautiful. *blushes*]

Kenney played Pachinko. He was excited. All he won was a tiny piece of lemon candy.



Story of this next picture:
Amanda - "Oooooh! Tempura shrimp! *Amanda walks toward the shrimp stand* Oh, I think they're....Kenney come here I think their legs are moving...Are they alive? YEAH! Their legs are mo-...their legs just stopped moving. They just...they just died." *Amanda doesn't want shrimp anymore*


In the subway, we bought a drink to wash down the night-market snacks we'd all had. We found a plastic CAN. It was like the bottom of a soda bottle with an aluminum can top. Kenney got Lychee and I got Apple.


I drank mine while kicking Kenney's butt at speed when we got back. He beat me in Rummie (spelling?) though, twice. He and Momma are the only ones who beat me, dagummit!

Saturday :: Beach Trip..?
Tin-Man had said that we could go to the beach today if it wasn't raining. We checked the beach weather last night and it said sunny. I woke up early to check to see if I had emails from him. At 10:30, there was nothing. I emailed him and he must've been waiting for it because he answered within three minutes telling me to reply with a list of people interested in going. Of course, we all wanted to go. At one o'clock, we met at four trees and departed.

Upon mentioning the beach, all of our Taiwanese classmates were like "Oh, it's so far awaaaay!" HA! I'd like to see them live in Birmingham and go to the beach. It was THIRTY FIVE minutes away. Hahaha. Our cab driver was actually very good this time.

We arrived and walked out to the beach and *GASP* THE SAND WAS BLACK! I had NO idea! It was actually pretty cool because you didn't feel the blinding need for sunglasses.


Kenney exploring the blackness of the sand.


I caught Tin-Man in a TANK TOP. He told me not to post this on Facebook, but hey..this isn't Facebook. Ha HA!

How many pictures does it take for Amanda to be ready for a picture??? Eight.

Amanda at the Taiwanese beach!

This is called modern toilet. That may not look like a toilet, but it's the squatty potty version of a toilet. They fill it with soft serve chocolate icecream. (Maria, my little cousin, saw this place on a tv show and told me to be sure and go here, and I found it today!)

This was most of mine and Kenney's dinner. We saw this guy and were like OH MY GOD I WANT THAT! It was called shue guo bing (water fruit ice) and was just a pile of sugary ice with different fruits on top. The other half of my dinner was some DELICIOUS belgian waffle-like cute little munchy things. They were in the shapes of little cartoons.


Change : we were walking around looking for shells (Daddy, I got a lot for you) and these girls came running up with a camera and I said "Kenney, they want a picture with you," because that's the daily norm here. But NO! They wanted a picture with me!! Ha HA!

Here are some panoramas that I took of the beach. Sorry if they're small.