Mountain Conquering, Epic Battling, Awesome Eating.

Preface to this entry: I realize some of you reading this (namely my mom and dad) don't have access to Facebook, where I'm uploading all of my pictures. So here are the links to the albums of pictures I have uploaded there so far; there are 8 of them and I'm adding more almost every other day

Taiwan Part 一.
Taiwan Part 二.
Taiwan Part 三.
Taiwan Part 四.
Taiwan Part 五.
Taiwan Part 六.
Taiwan Part 七.
Taiwan Part 八.

Onto the past weekend! It was seriously jam packed with fun and awesomeness, so I pick up pretty much where I left off, which was on Friday. After class we went to find some Thai food for David's birthday dinner. We found a pretty good place in the Sogo district, hidden away in a pretty obscure alleyway as are most good, cheap things in Taipei. My throat was still acting up from either a) the typhoon or b) the alcohol, because the Thai food, which wasn't very spicy, was kicking my throat's ass. Regardless, the food was good, and we got a huge, huge group to come out for David's birthday.

Only one of three tables present for David's birthday dinner.

Afterwards we went bowling to celebrate David's birthday. It being Ayumi's birthday on Saturday, David "tagged out" at midnight, and then it became her birthday. We wandered back to campus where it was another night up on the roof of Guo Qing. There were more people than ever there, almost 20 or so, lying on the floor, watching the stars, guessing cloud shapes and chasing shooting stars.

Saturday was Jiu Fen with Brian, Jenny and Ted. Jiu Fen is about an hour bus ride north of Taipei. It's a mountain that overlooks a harbor, and it's got THE BEST food I have ever tasted. Seriously, the xiao chi there is so good. Here be pictures:

This is the mountain of Jiu Fen we climbed. It's pretty tall.

The start of our Jiu Fen Magical Food Tour began with Jenny's amazing spicy tofu. It was awesome.

The very, very packed alleyways of Jiu Fen.

Brian poses with mochi. This mochi was some of the best mochi I have ever eaten. The strawberry one Jenny got for me was 100% amazing, my brain was like "are you for real, mouth?" and my mouth was like "you know it, brain."

Ok, so this stuff changed my life. How I went my entire life without ever eating a single Ba Wan is beyond me but, seriously mom and dad, I need more of this every day.

This place is famous for the Yu Yan. It's located at the top of some stairs, right in front of an elementary school.

After pigging out on the street vendor food, we started our trek up to the top of Jiu Fen. The trek up takes 30-45 minutes and is pretty steep. That said, the view at the top of the mountain is totally worth it. We got to the top as a cloud was passing over, which limited our view, but watching clouds pass by up close is something special.

Jenny and I have an epic fight with swords we bought from the alleyway.

The view from the top of Jiu Fen.

Victory poses at the top of Jiu Fen.

We climbed down and took the bus back to Taipei. We were back by 8pm and most of us passed out. I went to KTV for Ayumi's birthday, and that got a little out of hand. We were placed in THE BIGGEST KTV room I have and will ever see ever in my life. I am 100% sure of this fact. It was ENORMOUS.

We booked the enormous KTV room for four hours, which was news to all of us when 4AM rolled by and us sober ones were sitting in the back corner wondering what we were still doing there. After carrying a few of the drunk ones back home, it was back to sleep.

Sunday we went back to Si Ling night market. My goal was to get full off of street vendor food that day, and I succeeded. An ou ah jien, Chinese hot dog, beef stew soup and the best shaved ice I have ever had, I was full. And when I say this shaved ice was amazing, I mean it. It felt like I was eating clouds or something, the ice was so miraculously soft, smooth and amazing.

Today was the first day of my Chinese instrument class. I am learning er hu with Tiffany (who has the same last name as me!) and even though I can't really understand the teacher, learning how to play er hu I think is going to be fun. I can't wait!

It's time to start homeworking again. Thank God this week is a short one!

Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin