Sunday, July 03, 2011
Yesterday was left pretty much up to us to decide what to do. We slept in (until 5 am), and then all of us (in my room) were pretty much awake. I don't know how bad we wanted to be awake, but sometimes you just have to accept that something has happened.
After dinking around for a few hours, everybody headed out the door. Most of the group decided that they were going to ride their bikes down to Starbucks, but Christina and I decided to go to Sogo (the department store) instead. We found it pretty easily, but when we got there (it was about 10:30), they still weren't open yet. Rather than just waiting around for 30 minutes, we decided to explore some of the nearby streets and see if we could find anything else interesting.
As we were walking around, we saw this cute little dog sleeping (we sort of woke it up). I, of course, wanted to pet it, but I didn't. There was another little dog running round the same area, but it went inside before I was able to take a picture of it.
We ended up seeing this one store that had people inside, so we figured it must be open (and it was!). It looked adorable on the outside, too, which was also pretty enticing. Neither one of us can remember what it is called, though, except that it starts with a "P." I guess this means we will have to go back! The store kind of reminded me of the Kmart back home, except I don't think they had any clothes (other than socks). They had all kinds of fun hair accessories, beauty products (that we didn't really look at except to notice that they were present), and stationary supplies. There were also snacks and miscellaneous household items upstairs. I ended up buying a bar of Pop Rocks Chocolate (only they call it "Jumping Candy" here instead of "Pop Rocks") and a new journal (the one I brought with me is already more than halfway full, and I've only been using it for a month! This new one is a lot larger). It didn't cost me near as much as I thought it should, so I'm not sure if the girl didn't charge me for everything or what, but I also didn't know how to communicate with her so that she could understand. Maybe there was something on sale...? We were at Adorable Store for close to an hour, and then we walked back to Sogo. At Sogo we were getting on one of the escalators when a Chinese man got on behind us. I think he only got on to talk to us. "Hello!" he said. "Where you come from?" I told him "America" and he said, "America? Are you sure?" I don't even know what that is supposed to mean, but I am pretty sure I know where I came from! He kind of looked a little perplexed when I told him I was "quite sure!" Then he asked us "How you doing?" We told him "good," and he asked us again how we were doing. It was almost like he was practicing his text book dialogue and we weren't following it correctly, so he didn't know how to respond. I finally asked him how he was doing and he said, "Fine! Good good good."
Then, last night, Destiny and Kiri took us to the Night Market in Taichung (the same city where we have church). Kiri showed us how the bus system works, where to get off at to go to church, and then how to get to the church building. We also met up with the teacher from the school in Changhua (there are more teachers there, but she is the only one that is going to be coming to our branch), and a couple other ladies from Relief Society.
Before really starting our browsing of Night Market, we stopped at Modern Toilet for dinner, which I hear is a very popular place to eat here in Taiwan, but I think mostly because of the atmosphere.
Jessica and I sitting on our toilet seats at the sinks (table)
Kaylee enjoying her drink. We were all disgusted watching her (because of what it came in), but she said it tasted pretty good.
(If you want to see more pictures of Modern Toilet, you can visit
Christina's blog.)
Night Market was busy. I didn't buy anything because I am basically dirt poor until we start getting paid and I'd already bought a pair of sandals and a new pillow this week (not to mention the items I purchased yesterday).
A busy street at night Market. That American you see? Heather.
We were told to meet up at the department store by the bus station and to pose like the man in the window if we got lost. We didn't get lost, but we Christina decided to pose, anyway.
Well, it sounds like I am being summoned for some dinner. Also, this post took way too long to type up (I keep getting distracted!) Tomorrow training for reals starts up, and then we start teaching on Friday.
I'd love to hear from everyone!
Labels: Taiwan
