Trip to Taipei/Scooter Fun

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Hello everyone!!

I know it's been awhile since my last little update, much has happened since then. Last weekend, I went to Taipei with a coworker/friend of mine. We visited the church she attends and sings, and stayed with a really nice Malaysian family for the night. We went by High Speed Rail (HSR) which takes 50 minutes instead of the normal 2 and 1/2 hours by regular train or bus. It is a little more expensive, but worth it if you'd like to spend more time there. The HSR is much nicer than Amtrack as well. More room and no crazy people (at least none that I ran into!)

While in Taipei, I tried Peking Duck for the first time. I didn't think I'd like it, but it was actually very delicious. We ate our dinner traditional Chinese style. Essentially, there was a lazy susan in the middle (a big lazy susan) and we started off with 3 courses of appetizers, then went into the main meal, which was divided into about 4 courses (the Peking Duck was the biggest dish). I had it traditional style, what you do is first take a tortilla similar to a crepe, take a slice of the duck skin (sounds nasty but very tasty), a slice of the duck meat, a piece of green onion which was wrapped in what I thought was a tomato (which was actually a red pepper, thankfully the mother of the family we were staying with warned me!), and then top it with the "duck sauce" (no one knew what it was made from, but it also was delicious!), then you wrap it in the crepe like a burrito. Sooooo good! Afterwards, we went to the largest night market in Taiwan - Shillin Night Market. This place was like a maze! They had everything here, from dresses, to sunglasses, to food, to even puppies and kitties! (all live of course!)

The next day, we went to service and went out to eat again (another traditional Chinese meal). Afterwards, Kim and I decided to visit the sites of Taipei. We took the MRT (metro rail in Taipei) and went to see Taipei 101 with a friend of Kim's. Taipei 101 was the world's tallest building up until a couple of years ago, when the hotel in Dubai was built. Sadly, we did not make it up to the top, but we did explore the bottom a little. There's a mall on the inside that beats any mall I've ever been in, roughly 8 floors deep and endless it seems. Even tho the food court was huge, it was packed! I've never seen so many people at a mall before! After Taipei 101, Kim and I headed back on the MRT and I took the HSR back to Taichung, completing my trip to Taipei (one of many!)

This past week has just flown by for school. All the new teachers were observed, the first of 4, and given feedback on things done well and things that need improvement. It's mainly just a checkup to see if we're adjusting and everyone passed. My observation went well, the only complaint was my grading, that I need to check everything, literally, put a grade on everything, and then my signature (or stamp) on everything. Thursday was very intersting though. After suffering a migrane all day, Kelli and I left on the scooter a little early from school so I could go home and rest. Well...on the way back, we got into a little "scooter fender bender". The guy on the scooter in front of me started to go through the intersection once it turned green, but another guy was running a red perpendicular to us, so the guy in front of me slammed on his brakes. My brakes, not being so good, didn't fare as well, and I slightly crashed into him while trying to swerve off to my left to not crash into him (definetly did not succeed). While I tried to swerve to the side, I accidently gripped the accelerater and sped up a little, causing myself to go into a fast circle. I put my foot down to stop myself, scraped my foot and I think somehow ran over it (happened so fast, it's hard to remember). Kelli burnt herself on the muffler while trying to get off...it just was not our day! The guy we ran into was fine. In fact, when I went over to him to make sure he was ok, he told me in broken English "Very late." So without exchanging any information, which apparently does not happen here, he left. Kelli and I went back to the apartment and checked our injuries, from which we decided everything was fine and would heal with time. But over the weekend, my foot got a little worse, turning really nasty colors. so I called a Chinese teacher whom I met on our new teacher's doctors visit before to take me to the hospital today. I had x-rays done and a pain shot was given, and everything checked out fine. He said that I just need to rest as much as possible, and then gave me about 4 different pain killers (wow!) to take over the course of this week. So essentially, I just won't feel my foot at all...but I'm really fine. And when Kelli showed her injury to another group of foreigners, about 3 of them showed them their legs and they all had the same burn marks, they called them "Taiwanese Tattoos". Even when I went to the hospital today, the taxi driver looked at my foot and said "Hmpf, scooter right?" So apparently these things happen all the time.

Yesterday, I went for a Taiwanese massage for the first time. It definetley was not like the massage we can get in the states. Here, it's more like a beating. In fact, I'm still sore today! Let's just say, I'm going to have to go off of recommendations of the Chinese staff here rather than take chance on my own haha.

Well, I think that's enough for today. I really have to plan for tomorrow, beginning of another week. Good night (or good morning!) to you!!

Lots of love,

Mary Beth

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Photos

Taipei, Taiwan
Chang Ko-Shek Memorial Hall

Taipei, Taiwan
In front of Taipei 101 with Kim and Douglas, very nice man we met through Kim's church

Taipei, Taiwan
Inside of Taipei 101, one huge mall!