Another week down of my Taiwan adventure. I’m now getting more comfortable and adjusted enough to start exploring and getting out more when I’m not at school teaching. I think most of this post will be about my Saturday in Taipei.
I decided I would try to leave my city for the day since I was invited to a social in Taipei Saturday night. I had never left my city yet, but I knew that I could either take a bus or the train-I was thinking this was going to be the most difficult part of my journey since it would be hard for me to communicate with anyone at the bus station or the train station. (I wasn’t really worried about what would happen in Taipei since most people speak some English there.) However, I was lucky enough to get guided to Taipei by another English teacher from school since he was traveling to Taipei for the weekend as well.
Once we got to Taipei, we went our separate ways since it was several hours until the social. I looked at the MRT map and decided I would go to one of the most “touristy” places in Taipei, Taipei 101. It was until recently the tallest building in the world according to what I read, and it does have the fastest elevator in the world. It only took a matter of seconds (less than a minute) to ride the elevator from the 5th floor to the 89th floor. The elevator is pressurized like a plane cabin to help ensure passenger comfort. Once at the top you can see 360 degree views of Taipei. It’s amazing to see the mountains outside of Taipei. There is also a really huge wind damper inside. It helps with the earthquakes and shock absorption since it is such a large building. (Which reminds me—I awoke to my bed shaking Saturday morning—an earthquake woke me up very early that morning.) After having some mango ice and stepping outside at the outdoor observation deck on the 91st floor, I went on to the Sun Yat-sen memorial hall. It is in a very beautiful area, surrounded by a park and trees in an otherwise crowded city. There were many families there with kids playing and kites flying—such a nice, beautiful day. Later on, I finally made it to the social and met some more English teachers in Taiwan. To end my night, I was able to navigate back to my city by myself—finding the right train and all that jazz. However, the taxi driver I got to take me back home had a difficult time finding where I lived—after midnight I did not feel like a mile long walk home. This guy just kept driving and going past my apartment. I tried pointing to turn around and of course, I just get answers in Chinese—but I eventually just got him to turn around and drop me off at a McDonalds close by. After that I really was ready to go to bed.
I am not ready for Monday to roll around yet, but overall my weekend went well and I think I will have Pizza Hut tonight. I will get pictures posted soon, I promise!
