Only in Taiwan

Oops I procrastinated and now I have 3 days worth of adventures in Taipei to post about! This might be a long one...

On Wednesday I met up with my middle/high school friend, Jackson, who I haven't seen for maybe 6 years? It was so great to catch up! We ate, watched a movie, walked around, ate some more... Here we are in front of a christmas tree :).


This is Taipei 101, one of the world's tallest skyscrapers. We spent a lot of time walking around this area. There was tons of stuff going on... people everywhere, shops, restaurants, movie theater, you name it!

Here's another shot of Taipei 101 with some christmas lighting.

around Taipei 101...


We came across these people offering "FREE HUGS"! You can't see it in the photo, but the other side of their signs say "FREE SLAP".

We didn't slap them in the end. Jackson got a hug though :).


Here are some more random shots of Taipei:

Taipei 101 during the daytime. The building was designed to resemble a Chinese pagoda.

Wow a Paris Hilton store?!

They have lots of diagonal pedestrian crosswalks here, which I think is really efficient. I wish there were more of these in the US!

They have a special waiting zone for women in the subway. My dad told me about these when we were riding the subway in New York and I didn't really believe him until I actually saw it myself. Apparently they have video cameras so it's safer for women at night. My dad says they have entirely female subway cars in Japan! Guess I will have to go to Japan to see for myself :p.

Speaking of subways, I met a RISD alumn on the subway! I had never met her before but I saw that she was carrying a RISD bag so we got to talking. It was pretty neat bumping into a RISD person! I think we should all carry around our RISD bags after we graduate.

Friday was our last day in Taiwan. My dad had to work and my brother went to meet some friends. So I spent the morning/early afternoon with my mom. First we dropped by the Chiang Kai Shek memorial as one of my mom's friends had an exhibition going on there. Here are some photos from the memorial site...


Then we decided to go on a mini food spree since it was our last day and all.

First we ate some typical Taiwanese "xiao chi". I'm not sure how to translate "xiao chi". It literally means "small eat". So I guess they are kind of like Spanish tapas... or Cantonese dim sum. Basically "xiao chi" is food that you find on the streets of Taipei. Anyway, going clockwise (excuse the bad translations!): "Oh wah mee swang" (Taiwanese rice noodles with oysters, the kind I wrote about in my previous post!), "rou wan" (meat ball?), "dou fu gan" (dried tofu?), "lu rou fan" (pork rice), and "chou dou fu" (stinky tofu, not pictured here).

Then we went to have shaved ice with strawberries, mango jello, and mango sorbet. Mmmmmm...

Me and my muzzer.

A cool bench..

Next we went to get "dou hua", my new favorite dessert. You can pick from all of these toppings...

and these... those are legit "buo ba" (aka tapioca pearls or bubbles) on the right!

Then they add this really soft tofu and sugar water. And you have this delicious soupy dessert, served hot or cold. Not sure why the picture shows up sideways here :(.

This is where our mini (okay maybe not so mini) food spree took place. It's a street called "Yong Kang Jie". Thanks Jackson for telling me about it!

Next we went to visit the Taipei National University of the Arts. Turns out I have a distant relative (I met her at dinner the night before) who is the director of the dance program there. This is the top school for dance in Taiwan! She also used to dance with Cloud Gate Dance Company, Taiwan's premiere modern dance company. Imagine how excited I was to discover another dancer (and such an amazing one!) in the family! Anyway, she invited us to visit the university... so we went!

I couldn't help but compare the campus to RISD's. The grounds were huge! When you enter, you walk up this beautiful hill with green on both sides where there have sculpture gardens. Actually compared to College St. in Providence, I guess this hill was more like a mound :p.

This is a sign we saw as we walked up the hill-mound.

Entering the "front door"!

Some sculpture.

Interesting car sculpture...

More sculpture.

This is the walkway that leads to the dance division. I think this dog belongs to the drama division :).

Walking to see the dance building (on the right).

After we visited the university, I went to meet Putzer (fellow RUFer from Brown!) at the National Taiwan University, "Tai Da". This is where my Dad went to college.

This is the main walkway entering the university. It was lined with palm trees and very pretty!

The area around Tai Da is a huge college town. There was alleyway after alleyway of food. It was like a giant bustling night market!

Here's an alleyway.

We passed by this airplane-themed restaurant. Pretty neat!

A street with food!

Putzer and I had dinner and then we went to get "dou hua"! The same thing I had after lunch... haha. My favorite!

It was nice seeing you Putzer :). Thanks for showing me around that area!

And last but not least... here are some scenes from the airport:

A Hello Kitty Nursery!!

This... is a Hello Kitty gate! I thought it was pretty cool :).

Cute right??

Destination: Manila!

Last 5 mins... Hurry Up!!

Another view of the gate.

Hello Kitty telephone booths and world clock.

Sleeping brother!

Whew that was a ginormous post! Next time it will be shorter... Merry Christmas everyone :).