Lunch with Landy's family

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I just got back from the lunch with Landy's family. I shouldn't have worried about my clothes. I wore jeans and a t-shirt and my hair looked like an afro because of the humidity here. No one cared. They were all so sweet to me.

There were about 20 people there and everyone was speaking in Chinese. I got to try so many different kinds of traditional Chinese food- Beef tongue soup, jellyfish salad, sweet sesame dough balls, battered celery... and the final dish, peking duck. The ducks were brought out whole after they'd been cooked to show that we were being served two ducks- apparently that's a tradition.

I was so grateful to have the chance to meet Landy's family and experience the food. I was sitting at the smoking table (there were two tables side by side- one was smoking, the other non-smoking- so different from Canada!) Landy's mom offered me a cigarette, another thing I can't imagine happening in Canada.

I was a little bit nervous trying to use my chopsticks in front of everyone but I think I handled it well for the most part.

After lunch, I went to the Taipei Fine Arts museum. They had some really amazing contemporary art and photography. I also checked out the Simending shopping district. There are hundreds of stores in one small area, and everything is so cheap. I got a pair of shorts for 12 dollars.

None of the taxi drivers speak English here, so every morning I have to get Landy to write out the names of the places that I want to visit on post it notes that I hand to the cab drivers. I had to call Landy once to get her to talk to the driver. It's really easy to get around this way and it's so cheap. A 20 minute cab ride costs about 6 dollars.

I used the subway for the first time yesterday. Landy and I went to a harbour that's about 25 minutes from Taipei City. The subway system is only about 10 years old- it's way better than what we have in Toronto- and they don't allow food on the trains, it's incredibly clean.

The harbour was beautiful. We went for Japanese BBQ. I was really happy with the restaurant choice- I love BBQ! I had cow tongue for the second time in my life- twice in one day! It actually tastes pretty good if you can get over the thought that you're licking a cow's tongue while you're eating it. At 8 o'clock they make everyone in the restaurant kiss and they take Polariods, that are posted all over the walls. It was so cute. We went to a 'believe it or not!' museum afterward and walked along the harbourfront.

It was another great day! Tomorrow I'm going to check out some of the temples. I think it's supposed to get a bit cooler out. I'm so happy about that- my hair seems to be getting bigger every day...

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