Flying To Taiwan

The flight was forever long - 16 hours - and my tailbone was so sore afterwards. However, I survived and the food was actually quite good. We flew 12 hours and had a 45 minute layover in Bangkok, Thailand, then another 4 hours to Taipei, Taiwan. I collected my stuff, had to get a visitor's pass since my Taiwanese passport had expired and my American passport would only allow me to stay for 30 days, and made my out of the airport.

I was kind of afraid that no one would recognize me but my cousin Ray had no problem. It took both of us a second to recognize the other but recognize each other we did. We made our way back to my aunts' house, stopping to get some Taiwanese fried chicken (mm mmm), and my mom called about 5 minutes after I got in.

After eating, I sent out a bunch of emails and crawled into bed.

The next day, Tuesday, was a national holiday - National Day, funnily enough - so most people had it off from work and school. One of my younger, closest cousins, Yi Ming (she's my brother's age and we were playmates when I lived here) came out to lunch with the rest of the family. We went to a rather popular buffet restaurant nearby that served a lot of seafood. Mmm seafood! It's so expensive in England. We totally stuffed ourselves mad; we weren't even hungry for dinner!

Afterwards, we hung out at the house for a bit and I showed Yi Ming some of my pictures. She highly approved of Raven (If you're reading this, Raven, pat yourself on the back. But then again, I always told you I have really good taste.) and said he's better looking than Niko. *Snicker snicker* Y'see, Yi Ming's like me, though she does prefer German guys in general. I told her that she is to save up money and get herself out to Germany. She said she's going to come visit me in England and just make a short detour; I told her I'd take her around Germany myself and we'd ogle guys together. I mean, what are sisters for anyway, right? Exactly.

I'm finding it very weird speaking 100% Chinese and Taiwanese but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Give me a month and I'll be as comfortable speaking it as I am with English. Luckily, I can speak a very mild form of Chinglish with my younger cousins, including Yi Ming. They know a lot of simple English words so I'm not totally lost. When I'm speaking and falter on some words, they're usually able to fill in the blanks for me. We had fun trying to figure out asparagus, too.

That night, Ray took me and Yi Ming to Shilin Night Market, the most popular night market in Taiwan. We had to totally avoid Taipei city centre because of the demonstrators. Shilin's become quite touristy now; I saw several foreigners there. We walked around, looking at the shops and stalls and I've noticed one thing for sure: Taiwanese clothes and shoes, the style in general, is quite froofy and very embellished. Not really my style as I go for simple designs but I'll get used to it. It'll just discourage me from buying more clothes and shoes because God knows I don't need anymore of either. However, I did spend a bit of time looking at trainers. They had so many different styles of Chuck's Converse All-Stars! I especially liked this red plaid one but I don't need another pair of Chucks even if plaid is all the rage this season. I don't really need a new pair of trainers since I have a pair of Pumas at my parents' house...but it is in the States while I'm here in Taiwan...

Anyway, after breezing through the shops, Ray got hungry so we went to the food side of the market. He had some noodles, we shared some stinky tofu, and Yi Ming and I had pearl tea. I love Taiwanese food; there's nothing like it on Earth and you can't really get it (right) anywhere but in Taiwan.

I also met Shing Shing and Jung Jung, my baby second cousins. Gaa, they call me auntie! Makes me sound old. They're so cute, both of them, but Shing Shing refused to talk to me because she's totally shy at first and Jung Jung doesn't even speak yet.

Today, Wednesday, I slept in until almost noon. I don't know how I slept so late but I guess it's jetlag. After lunch, I spent hours online, responding to and writing more emails, and blogging of course. I had days to catch up on and a lot to write. Obviously, I'm not even done yet! My aunt came to fetch me around 5 to go to the hairdressers. I didn't need a haircut, really, just a trim but I did want to get my hair washed. Going to the hairdressers in Taiwan is unlike going to the hairdressers in the US or UK. Here, they give you a total scalp, neck, shoulder and arm massage and, boy, does it feel good! It's, like, orgasmic. No, seriously, it is. If any of y'all visit me while I'm here, I'm so taking you down to a hairdressers and showing you. I even got a pedicure thrown in, too! It was fairly cheap, too, despite getting a 10 or 15% discount. It was just over NT$2000 (that's about £35 or $62) for both my aunt and me; she got her hair dyed, cut and blow-dried, a manicure and a pedicure, too.

Then we came home, had dinner and I finished my emailing and blogging. And now I need the loo.