It’s nearly 1am here and I am pretty tired. I got going early as this morning and we went all day. It was really hot here today, so Yi-Chen decided that we should give up on our agricultural pursuits and the peach picking plan. Instead we visited two factories (her dad’s and one of their friends). While Robin and Danelle are thinking that sounds like the most boring day ever, it was actually really fun and interesting. Yi-Chen’s was slightly more ghetto than I was expecting and the hi-tech factory we went to was way nicer than I anticipated. I have pictures of some of this that you all can see when I get home.
After the factories we went to Yi-Chen’s house. It was totally different than 99.9999999 percent of American homes. They have two dining room tables, the one they usually use and then the one that seats 20 people! (It makes your measly 14 person table look weak mom). The best part about this table is that it has the biggest lazy susan I have ever seen. The house also has a very pretty view looking over a valley and some mountains. Taiwan really is a beautiful place. The vast variety of altitudes make for some pretty cool backdrops to every day life.
The place we went for lunch was super ghetto and super good. I thought Yi-Chen may have been lost when she was leading me there. You go behind this street vendor’s spread and head down a very steep set of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs there are like 20 women working in a totally open kitchen making sushi. When you turn around and look under the stairs you see tables that probably seat 20. I believe that I was the only whitey to visit this establishment this week, month, year and maybe even ever. I have been completely surprised by how few white people I have seen. In all of our adventures today I only saw 4 others and we even spent a little time in downtown Taipei.
I think that the highlight of the day had to be this evening’s karaoke experience. It is so foreign and so hard to describe that I really don’t even know where to begin. Yi-Chen and I met up with five of her friends from high school at “Party World”. This place had to be like 100,000 sq feet. It was huge! The layout is similar to a hotel. The first floor has a large lobby type area with a bar and karaoke. The subsequent floors look hotel hallways. Like in a hotel, you sign in and get assigned a room. An escort takes you to your room and fills out your time card. Inside there is a large couch that could probably seat 10 but worked nicely for the seven of us. There is a large (probably 42”) plasma screen, some seriously loud speakers, two microphones and a computer to select the songs. The walls have two phones with direct lines to wait service for drinks and food. I had some Chinese dumplings that were very good. Once the singing started the party was on. It is amazing the seriousness with which these girls sing. I couldn’t help but laugh more than a few times and the WHOLE time I was wishing that you were there Bailey. The English library wasn’t huge but B you would be happy to know that they had A Whole New World and Beauty and the Beast, among other Disney favorites. Yi-Chen is a surprisingly good singer in Chinese but her English singing leaves something to be desired… or maybe that was me messing up how those sounded ;~> There is so much more to say about the karaoke but I will let the pictures and video… oh yes I have video… do the explaining.
The teaser photo of today is from this morning. I forgot to mention that we went to a temple with incredibly ornate and amazing architecture. We spent a little time wondering around the surrounding area of the temple and I happened to see the world’s BRAVEST man. If you don’t get it, then I will tell you the story sometime.
We are off at 6:30am (I know I may die) tomorrow morning to a new part of Taiwan. I don’t know how my Internet connectivity will be but I will do my best to write again before I return to Taipei in three days.
Katy :~>
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