Sometimes, a Vague Plan is the Best Plan

Alaina and I had a fabulous weekend in Taipei and checked lots of activities off our must see/do list....but also did some extras that we hadn't planned for.

Friday night, we went to Shilin Night Market. EVERYONE has told us "You must get to Shilin," ever since we've arrived. it is the largest night market in Taipei. We took the metro and when we arrived, we were amused/surpised at what we found. The night market is best described as county fair meets clearance shopping meets flea market meets mass chaos. The first section we meandered through was in a big warehouse type building. There were numerous food stands, mostly with desserts and fried foods, but sit-down restaurants too. Also, there were game booths (carnival style) and shopping stall upton stall. Some little shops were selling touristy items, while others were very specialized. There were pet stores! shoe stores! book stores! ....everything and anything seemed to be sold there. However, after winding through all of the maze of stalls, it seemed like that just couldn't be it after all the hype the night market had gotten. So, we left the building and went out to the street and, realized how ridiculous we were to think it was all over, because there was literally ally upon ally of shopping and food available.
So we continued for a few more hours. Surprisingly, we didn't buy anything even though we really wanted to practice our bargaining in chinese. But I did try green tea shaved ice, which was very tasty!

Saturday, I slept in for the second time in 8 or 9 weeks. It was WONDERFUL....once Alaina and I got ready, we headed out on an adventure to the MRT stop where we had show tickets for later that night. Once again, we were surprised to find the environment completely different. It looked very Savannah, with the iron gates and trees down the middle of the roads. Big buildings with high-end shopping and hotels occupied most of the main stretch, though. These areas are comforting to me and help ease homesickness, so we enjoyed the walk. Then, we came to a small tea shop, where the owner invited us in to sample a cup of tea. We sat down at the table with him and he boiled some water and showed us how to make REAL tea. We loved it, sooo delicious! He was clearly enjoying his chance to practice his English, so we chatted for quite awhile. It was a hilarious conversation and probably my favorite part of the whole day, so then I bought some tea from him! He sad, "come back any time to drink tea with me!"

So, we decided to find a place for dinner. We walked along until we came to a restaurant that looked pretty good. It was called "Mr. Onion." We went inside and were led upstairs to a quaint loft overlooking the lit city streets. Sooo nice. And, we decided if we weren't going to be adventurous with Taiwanese foods on the streets we'd be adventurous in other ways. So, we decided to have a seven course meal! I had:
-Green Salad with Japanese Vinaigrette
-Escargots in garlic butter sauce and grilled mushrooms in cream sauce (We shared)
-Garlic Break
-French Onion Soup and Creamed Pumpkin Soup (We shared these, too)
-Spicy Clam Pasta with Bacon in Cream Sauce
-Tiramisu
-Ice Tangerine and Plum Juice Lemonade

This was our first time trying both clams and escargots. I liked both, surprisingly. This was also our first sit-down dinner, so it was verrrry nice for a change. Not bad either, only $350 each........................
Taiwanese. In American, it was only $12!! Can't beat that =)

After dinner we headed to TaipeiEYE, the show we had reserved tickets for the day before. It was a cultural experience that included Taiwanese puppets, singing, dance, and instrumental music. Not at all what we expected.....but still very interesting. It was supposed to have opera in it, but "opera" has a different meaning here than what we're used to. It wasn't as much singing as it was dancing and acrobatic moves, etc....still very cool!! We even got to try on some costumes...

Sunday, after we slept in again! we took the MRT to Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world. Clearly, too foggy to pay to go all the way to the top (see below) since the view would be ruined by all the fog. It has floor upon floor of high end shopping with all the big designers all over the world represented. Wayyyy out of our price range but fun to look. Again, made me feel like I was in America. Then, we went to the SOGO Department Store, which was a similar experience. Expensive shopping, but not quite as much so. I'm a little over shopping for awhile, if that is even possible, but glad we went to see them, at least.

Now it's time for another school week! It's getting busier and busier as I pick up classes. I am teaching all 8th grade classes again this week. Getting my pacing down has really been a challenge. I tend to include wayyy too many activities for the time period. I am used to having eight billion different things going on in the American classroom, and these ELL just can't handle that. So, that makes lesson planning harder in a sense, but also easier, because I need to come up with fewer activities for the kids to do. I'm feeling less like an alien walking the halls now that some of the kids know who we are and why we're there, and I can say hello to them. Still working on names, but getting most of hem. It's funny because they can either choose their own American name, or their parents choose for them. It's very clear who chooses their own (Strawberry, Dora) verse having their parents select one for them.

Well, still have some planning left so I better get going on that!