Christmas in Taipei

Wow. 2 posts in one day...I'm a loser.

Okay, I guess I should update about my trip to Taipei before I forget more details about it. My flight was at 8 a.m on Christmas Eve and I would be meeting Debra and Yan at the airport about 11 a.m. The day before was pretty hectic. I had to bring Ellie to the vet, pack, and clean the entire apartment since Debra and Yan were coming back to Korea with me. The apartment was a total mess. TOTAL! Anyways, I arrived at the airport a little past 7 and I was cutting it close. They had last calls for check-in for my flight when I was still in line with like 50 people in front of me. I had already been in line for like 20 minutes too. I was able to skip the line and go right to the front though. I didn't have time to airport shop, which is something that I love doing. Okay, let's skip ahead. This post is getting too long already.

So I meet Debra and Yan at the airport. I really hate coming out of the gate with people waiting. I don't know, it just feels awkward to me. So it was the first time seeing each other since late August. It was nice seeing them, even without makeup. Haha, I think the phrase that was used constantly on the trip was "Makeup is a miraculous thing." We had a little trouble finding our hostel and Yan asked this lady for directions and she didn't know either, so she used her cellphone to call the hostel, then walked us there. It was a great first impression of Taiwanese people. Actually, Taiwanese people are really nice. Yan asked for directions like a billion times and each time, we were given detailed directions. I don't see that really happening with Koreans. Imagine stopping an ahjummah and asking for directions on the street. She probably would just push you aside and tell you to get out of her way. We spent our first day in Taipei.....you know, I really can't remember at all....lemme think....hmm...I'm getting really dumb with age....

Oh right, we went to Ximen, which is like Myeongdong, then we went to the Shilin Night Market. It was so nice eating Chinese food again. It's just so good and the variety is so much better than Korean food. Special shout out to Yan because without her, Debra and I wouldn't know what the heck to order. The English speaking skills of Taiwanese people are not good at all and my Mandarin speaking skills just plain sucks. I was surprised how little English people spoke even in touristy places. Well, I don't think I'll make this post too long. So, basically, we visited the 101 Building, the Taipei Zoo, Chiang Kei Shek Memorial, Xinbeitou for the hotsprings, the Palace Museum, and lots of yummy dumpling restaurants. Taipei is a great place to go if you have 4 or 5 days of vacation. The weather was pretty decent throughout the trip. It was nice spending the holidays with friends from home. Some highlights of the trip were getting our beauty treatments. We had foot massages which was pretty painful, but because of some comments from Debra's masseuse to Debra, we laughed so much that the pain was almost non-existent. I don't think I can mention those comments ever again or someone will threaten my life. We also had facials. We got special treatments for pimples, so I had all my pimples popped. It was so painful. SO SO SO painful. They used this needle type thing to pop it, then they squeeze out the puss. Thank goodness I didn't have too many pimple. Poor Debra and Yan...hahahha! We got haircuts too! I look the same, except that my hair is like 2 inches shorter. I need to do something drastic with my hair. I feel bored every time I look at it. We also took a trip to the hot springs and rented our own private room. Getting naked in front of your friends, especially Yan and Debra, is just awkward. I didn't see anyone naked though. We just closed our eyes pretty much the entire time and try to relax in our pool. However, it's hard to relax when we all felt like passing out from the heat. We had to get in and out a few times to avoid fainting. Overall, all the beauty and relaxing treatments weren't too relaxing, but the experiences will always be unforgettable.

One complaint about Taipei is the lack of bars. With so many night markets and shopping areas, you would think bars would be everywhere just like in Seoul. Nope. We never really found one. We saw a few here and there, but it's mostly restaurant type bars. We just wanted to sit down after a long day of shopping for a drink, but that didn't happen. One more complaint is that in 5 days of being in Taipei, I saw way more mice than I ever want to in my life. At the Taipei zoo, there were cages for owls and in that cage is a tray of dead mice. SICK! SICK! It disgusts me to even think about it. I got the heck away from that place in an instant. We visited Snake Alley where you can purchase snake blood because its suppose to be good for your health and skin. The snakes were in cages and there were cages for mice too. WAH! It sucks to be mice. They're always getting eaten. SO SICK!

Okay, this post is way too long. Sorry for all the Grammar mistakes and I'm sure some stuff don't make sense at all.