Firsts...

After a good night's sleep on a rock hard bed, and now an exhausting day of traveling I am going to share some of the "firsts" of this trip!

First....

Time I stayed up 24 hours straight!

Time I went to Japan!

Encounter with an eastern style toilet, boy that throws you for a loop. (Just FYI I haven't actually used one yet, just taken the silly picture below, after we all took pictures with it we decided we could wait to use the loo)

Time speaking Chinese! I've only learned a few words, and so far it's really weird.

time I had seaweed and rice for breakfast! I at these funny little "sushi sandwiches" (that's just what I'm calling them) for breakfast today. One had some kind of fish in the middle with veggies, another one had egg and veggies, and another one was like ham and cheese! They were very good, I might just have to get them again!

time becoming a "metro rider"! We traveled to downtown Taipei and bought these metro cards! You pay any amount and then you swipe them on the sensors at the subway stations and when you get off the bus. The girl on the right is Liann, she is our Host Professors TA and is helping us get around and plan a lot of trips. She has a fun sticker on her card, they sell them everywhere and we didn't know what they were for until we saw her card and now we really want to get some!

time I drank Calpis... yeah it sounds gross, but it's really not! I should have taken a picture, but I didn't :( I will next time I have it because it was so good! It's this white, watery drink, that's very crisp and sweet. It's almost like a fresca sort of thing, but no carbonation. I ordered it after hearing about how good it was from another asian student, Joanne.

I'm sure there were like a billion other "firsts" today, but those are the only ones I can gather right now off the top of my head. Today was so long! We wandered around forever and ever it felt like. First we had a tour of the campus, then we went downtown to get metro cards, then to this major mall, then to this huge costco like store, and then Camille (she went to Southridge and graduated the class before me! Crazy coincidence, she recognized Isaac when she saw him at the airport!) and I finally escaped and managed to get back home on the bus!

We've seen, heard, and done a lot of new things and we're worn out, but it's so fun! Tonight we will probably wander around the night market for a while. We were supposed to have an early morning tomorrow to go to Hualien for three days, but the trip has been cancelled because a major typhoon is about to hit the coast! So that's a bummer... but now we have a little bit more downtime and some freedom to explore. I'm hoping to go to Taipei 101 and IKEA tomorrow!