AWESOME. WONDERFUL. and such :)

Wow! Taiwan is amazing! So I have been here since last last tuesday and let me say that is definetally not what I expected, but better. I swear.

So because of two of my friends back home (whome i adore and miss *shout out!*)I had the misconcepttion that all asians were either really short or freakishly tall. That is wrong . There are actually alot of tall people here, and I have yet to see more than maybe 5 people my age under 5 feet.

Going along with the topic of people and misconceptions, I was also under the conception that people in Taiwan would be A) none friendly and 2) none huggy. This is wayyyyyyy wrong! They are some of the nicest, funniest, and sweetest people I have met! On the MRT (subway) I end up talking for the entire ride to multiple people who start as strangers but by the end have invited me to there house and given me there card (the card thing is very popular here). Thought I have yet to be hugged by a complete stranger, (creepy?) they are very touchy-feely and totally go against my prior-Taiwan idea of the cold, quiet, non hugging people.

There are still many misconceptions I could talk about, but I am just going to skip on to why Taiwan is, in short, awesome!

Taipei 101. It is a ginourmous building (tallest in the world) that is amazing because of its gorgeous lights, awesome sorroundence (word?) by a great city, and its sweet 5 to 6 story shopping mall. This does include the underground two story food court. Yum!

The Night Market. It is a market that starts around 5 at night and is amazing because everthing is so cheap and they have it all! You can buy food, umbrella's (*#1), skooters, and so much more! And, its at night when its not as hot :)

The Heat. It, on the other hand is amazing because of how much there is. You wake up to sweat (no airconditioning), walk/swim around in sweat, take a shower, then go back to bed and the cycle starts again. The worst part is, it seems like only forigeners sweat! I mean, the Taiwanese people do to, but (quote from real mom) they 'glisten'. It is increasingly puzzeling as I continue getting offered hot tea in the middle of a 97ish degree day.

The skooters. There are so many of them! It is so mind boggeling to see all of them sworm around you as you cross the streat, or sit in a car. The weirdest thing about them (and all traffic) is that, even though the crosswalk (*#2) says you can go, they keep coming! It is just amazing how many times your life can flash before your eyes as you cross a street. The funniest yet scariest thing is when old people, who dont tend to see or care about the 'DONT CROSS!' sign cross in the middle of a croweded street. Where I am from people would yell, honk, and be shocked by this, but over here in the great land of Taiwan they just swerve around, literally on to sidewalks and such. It is quite crazy to watch. Along with this, U-turns are not illegale (to my knowledge). And that is why, I beleve, they have public transportation.

In the end, I do beleive that Taiwan is becoming my perfect place (minus the heat!)

:) enjoy

*#1 - for protection agasinst the sun, all the girls here carry umbrellas all day. When i asked my mom why she explained to me that, even now the pale skin-thing is something girls here strive for. All very interesting to someone who tries, in vain to get rid of uni and circle tans.
*#2 - the crosswalks here are the cutest! they have these little itsy-bitsy people who hold up a hand for stop and walk, then run as the seconds (theres a countdown on how many seconds you have to cross) get ddow to single didgets. Amazing!