One Week Left

Only one week left in Taiwan and the evenings are already planned out.

Monday: dinner with the school
Tuesday: Last run to Shilin Night Market for shopping
Wednesday: Barbie Cafe
Thursday: Xinzhuang area for cheap eats, hair washing, and the hands-down best bubble tea I've ever had. (So sad it's only in that area.) A few of us that were at the other school two years ago were nostalgic for the area so we had to go back for a visit!
Friday: Last night! Pack up the classroom, pack up the luggage. Last chance for hotpot!
Saturday: Maybe go somewhere in the morning since our flight is in the evening.

This week has been uneventful but here are some pictures anyways!

Interesting fact: Father's Day in Taiwan is happening on August 8, 2013. There are ads everywhere for Father's Day cards, men's clothing, and cakes! So many cakes! Here's an awesome one with a chocolate teapot. It looks so real!

Our school is right next to the National Palace Museum. People kept saying to hold off on going because the school might take us there. It turns out there's a restaurant in there and the school is treating us to dinner at the restaurant but we realized that we weren't actually going to see the museum. Admission was kind of expensive too so a bunch of us did the next best thing: we visited the gift shop for free! The gift shop has miniatures of all the best things in the museum. They were also featuring a Renoir exhibit. Somehow I was too much in awe of the museum to remember to take a picture of it. But I'm sure my friends did and I can get some from them.

Entrance to the museum

View from the museum.
The left building is our school.
The right building (castle) is a primary school!

THEY HAD A PENNY MACHINE! YEAH!

Also had a photo booth. Not as exciting since I don't know Renoir.

For the weekend, I finally got to go to Jiufen, Shifen, and Pingxi. These were the places I originally was going to go with Aunt Alice to on our last day but couldn't because of the typhoon. Then last weekend my colleagues and I were going to go to Shifen and Pingxi but got lost and then gave up due to time issues. This weekend everyone had other plans so I went on my own and did a lot better. My colleagues are not very good travel partners, I find. They freak out and give up very easily and are a little impatient. I did not mind waiting an hour for the train. I had all day! So my trip went a lot better.

I wanted to go to Jiufen because it was the inspiration for the movie Spirited Away.

 Except I went in the day time. Still ok! It was a nice place but not something I'd go back to. It was just a shopping street. First I had to get to Ruifang (which is where we did not get to last weekend).

Made it!

Then I took a bus to Jiufen. The road was windy and the view was lovely.

Another one, yeah!

Now on the way back down!

A really big school!

After I got back to Ruifang, I then bought a day pass for unlimited rides on the Pingxi line. This way, I could get to Shifen, then Pingxi, then back to Ruifang. Everyone had those sorts of tickets. I think you could only buy those types of tickets on the weekend. No one checked for tickets on the buses. Kind of weird...

I went to Shifen first. Shifen is one of the places that you can release the lanterns. I considered releasing one. But after more consideration I decided not to. It's a really big lantern for one person and after I watched them come down, it didn't seem worth it. But it was fun to watch. 

^_^ V

They also had wishing bamboos.

I decided to walk over to see the famous Shifen Waterfall which has been called the Niagara Falls of Taiwan. Um...no, not even close. There wasn't a lot of water I guess.

You could toss coins and try to get money or love.

 

Poor three-legged dog....

There goes the lanterns, falling from the sky. A little sad really but it answers my question of where they go.

Afterwards, I saw some little kid run and grab it off the tracks. 

Then I went to Pingxi, the lantern place that my coworkers wanted to go to last weekend. It was a lot like Shifen but there was more food. I joined the really long line-ups for that. They also allowed people to walk along the train tracks. Terrifying!

Hurray!

Ice cream with peanut candy in a wrap. 

 Interestingly enough, while I was waiting for my peanut ice cream the man asked me if I wanted to add something. I didn't understand what but since all the people in front of me said yes, I said yes too. It ended up being cilantro. Eww! Who wants cilantro in their peanut ice cream?

Here are some crazy people who were walking the track. When the train came, someone would yell loudly, "火車來了!" Then they would have to quickly scuttle to the side. The train would come slowly since it knew there would be crazy people. But it would be sooooo close!

Lining up for...

Sausages! They were ok...the ones at Dansui are better.

Since the trains only came once an hour, I had to be diligent with my time. Time to go home!

That was Saturday.

On Sunday I went with a coworker to a computer expo that my principal recommended. I should know by now not to take her suggestions. She always says things are fantastic when they aren't at all. She told us that there was a lot of cool stuff and free giveaways. Apparently there was a free shuttle and but we went on the regular bus instead by mistake. Anyhoo, we went there and everything was regular stuff that I can find at home cheaper. And those free giveaways? They were flyers...lots of flyers...and the good stuff you couldn't get for free unless you answered their survey or signed up for something. We left fairly shortly after that and went to the tech market. There wasn't really anything I was looking for because it's cheaper at home but I checked some prices to make sure. Then we went shopping so no pictures.

Time to start the last week of work!