Trip to Taiwan

Chang Kai-Shek Memorial, originally uploaded by JTRutledge.

We took at trip to Taipei, Taiwan the weekend before last (Oct 9-12). Overall, it was a good trip. We went with two friends that John works with, Meg and Kristy. They are super fun girls that are master travelers! We were very thankful to travel with them for our first excursion. The weather wasn't so cooperative, but we made the most out of it! We didn't get there until midnight on Friday b/c our plane was delayed an entire hour for 2 people to make their connecting flight. I feel like that wouldn't happen in the US...you would be left behind in a heartbeat! The Japanese are just so nice. This trip had many firsts for us...first trip out of the Tokyo airport that wasn't to the US, first trip that we stayed in a hostel, and the first trip I almost got ran over by a moped! :) The hostel experience wasn't as bad as I was expecting. John and I had a private bathroom, so we didn’t have to do the college dorm bathroom thing. I was appreciative of that! The mopeds were out of control. I have never seen so many in my life! Even in the rain, they put on their panchos and go!

On Saturday, we explored the city of Taipei. The Taiwanese people are so nice! If we ever looked lost or confused (yeah, that happened a few times), they would come up and help us. My favorite thing of the day was the Martyrs’ Shrine where we saw the changing of the guard (and it stopped raining for a few hours), which was cool. Taipei is home of the tallest building in the world (for now…Dubai is working on taking that record). We didn’t go up to the top of it since we couldn’t even see the top of it because of the clouds. We went inside it though and walked past some of the shops. Taipei is also known for it's night markets, which are basically a long hall of little stands outside. These were…interesting. They had all kinds of food, including snakes and turtles. Apparently, you could actually pick out your dinner since there were cages of snakes then a little restaurant behind them. No, thank you!! We ate at Seven Eleven on several occasions. We did eat at a great restaurant on Saturday night that is a Taiwanese-style dumpling chain called Din Tai Fung. They have one in Tokyo, too, so when we have visitors we will definitely go here!

On Sunday, we decided to go outside of Taipei to a little seaside town called, Yehliu. Getting there was interesting. We took the subway to a bus station and rode for about 45 minutes on this bus. Some very nice Taiwanese lady missed her bus to make sure we got on the right one. Thank the Lord for her! The main thing in this town was the Yehliu Geo Park. There were these crazy rock formations and a good view of the ocean, which I always love…even in the pouring rain! From there, we went to a town called Danshui, which was a little more active than Yehliu and very cute.

John and I had an early flight out on Monday. On the flight back, I sat next to a lady from North Carolina. We talked the entire 3-hour flight back about things to do in Tokyo. She had lived here since February 2008 and is leaving in December. She shared all her excitement and knowledge of Tokyo with me…I have a full page of notes! This trip was also good to give us some perspective. I realized just how spoiled we are to live in Tokyo compared to some other Asian countries. We were feeling pretty homesick, so this was helpful to sort of light the fire of excitement about living here again.

This past weekend was also fun and active! Saturday we participated with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Run for the Cure, which translates to Race for the Cure in the US to raise money for breast cancer research. From there, we rushed home to get ready for the Beyonce concert, which was fantastic! She puts on a really great show, and, of course, has an amazing voice! The concerts here start early so that people can be sure to catch the last train that runs. So, it started at 5:30 and ended around 7:45. The train ride back into Tokyo was a little insane. I couldn’t move because we were so packed into it! Oh well, it was worth the sacrifice. We had a blast!

Sunday, we hosted a brunch to accomplish two things: 1) prove to some fellow Americans that are form the North that Southern folks eat biscuits and gravy for breakfast; 2) watch the Longhorns beat the Sooners! Both things were successful…although I had my doubts about both a few times during the day! John made the biscuits and gravy from scratch, and they were very good…everyone was impressed including me! I also made a quiche with potato and spinach that turned out well. We won’t discuss the hummus that I tried to make. How do you mess something up that you’ve made several times before??? Leave it Cayce!

I’ve also been dog sitting a few times, which has been fun. I will say it’s difficult to figure out the whole potty issue. But the dogs here don’t care if there is grass…they’ll go anywhere! At least they haven’t gone in my apartment. It’s been nice to get in my dog fix in the absence of Luke and Lizzie. I know they are thankful that I didn’t try to bring them over here and they have Aunt Nicole’s big yard to run and play in!

Anyway, sorry for the long post! We have another exciting weekend coming up, so we’ll post soon. Halloween party at the PWC Partner’s house! We might look like fools going to the party in costumes a week early, but I know it will be a lot of fun!