Staying in New Taipei City

I'm a foreign exchange student from Texas staying in Taiwan for about a month!

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Day 5 Zoo Day!  oops, forgot to post food lol  had onigiri with shredded pork inside  & soup...seasame oil, chicken, cabbage & noodles that we made from day 2 :D 

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Day 6 Memorial Hall  Foods eaten :D  Pig bun...literally keke had ramen for lunch (not photographed) lol  Had wheel cake as a snack later...tried cream, taro, & red bean (photographed: taro)  & curry for dinner :) 

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Day 5 Zoo Day!  Met Valerie's High school friends  Saw a panda & many penguins :D 

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Day 4 Random funsies...  Things that were purchased :D 

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Day 4 Random funsies...  Lunch...had Japanese food with Valerie & Jayla 

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Day 4 Random funsies... endless amount of stickers...so pretty~!  this is what I mean by the bookstores are heaven :D  ...too many to choose from :/ 

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Day 3 Taipei 101  too hard to choose what scenery pictures so those will be posted on fb...eventually... 

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Day 3 Taipei 101 

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Day 2 Meeting the family 

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Day 2 Scenery :D 

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Day 7

Had to wake up pretty early today & got to ride the train for the first time.  Met up with a few of Valerie's friends & we went to the town Yingge & went to the Yingge Ceramics Museum. After that we went to a pottery place & I tried pottery for the first time...I really really suck... it was really fun...but i'll probably never do that again just so I can avoid embarrassment lol   One of the workers ended up shaping it for me & then I decorated it lol  After that we headed home...completely exhausted 

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Day 6

We went to the National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall & went through an Imperial Rome exhibition.  But before that we went to a music store :D Got two albums & it came with a free poster yay~   The Memorial Hall was really pretty & we watched a switching of guards ceremony type thingy...don't really know the name for it but it was really cool. So there is a statue of Taiwan's first president and on each side there is a guard who stands still for an hour...every hour they do a ceremony type thing & a different pair of guards come.  After watching that we went to the exhibition about Rome...Valerie needed to go to it for school. It felt pretty nostalgic looking & reading things about Rome lol  oh yeah...also upon arriving at the Memorial Hall on the side I saw percussion kids warming up :D that was also really nostalgic & really awesome because that meant there was some sort of marching band thing going on. On our way back to the MRT station I saw a bunch of kids with instruments about to have band practice I think but there were only brass instruments blahh...it made me kinda of miss it...weird thinking that I'm not going to have band practice once I come back from Taiwan...  Pretty chill & nostalgic day :) 

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Day 5

Started off the day meeting Valerie's classmates...  We all went to her Chinese teacher's house & met her baby...so cute XD Also met their English teachers...Patrick's (their male teacher) English pronunciation was really good despite being Taiwanese.  I found it really surprising that they are allowed to go to the teacher's house and interact with their teachers outside of school...also they are allowed to call their teacher by their first name instead of the Chinese equivalent of mr. or ms./mrs.  It was really cool because it gives the students & teachers a chance to become closer with each other while still maintaining a student teacher relationship. It was all really fascinating to be able to see how Taiwanese high schoolers act & such.  The students also had a meeting about the upcoming year's play.  It was really cool & interesting to be able to see how they interacted with each other & how organized they were at getting things done without the constant presence of their teacher.  After that we headed off to the zoo :D  It was really fun because it was basically like a school field trip which I didn't get to experience in middle or high school for some reason...  Even though I've seen most of the animals it was fun socializing with Valerie's friends & seeing how they socialize with each other.  Awesome thing about the zoo was that they had 2 pandas~!  We were only able to see one of them but it was so cute~! :D  That day was a really good experience :) 

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Day 4

Went to another bookstore & ended up buying basically a zillion packets of star paper & a glass container :D Bookstores here are basically heaven for me lol  We ate at a japanese restaurant for lunch  Met Valerie's friend Jayla & the 3 of us went to the National Palace Museum It was pretty interesting to be able to learn about Taiwan's history & artifacts.

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Day 3

First day to use public transportation & the MRT  Had lunch with Uncle Ben and Valerie in Taipei 101...  Then Valerie & I went to a really big book store...much cooler than any barnes & noble lol  It had lots of stationary and cute stuff ^^  After spending a good few hours there we went back to Taipei 101 to go up to the observatory level :D  The view is quite breath-taking...to be able to see such a busy, full of life city at such a distance...really amazing  Many photos shall be uploaded of the view...(eventually, in case you couldn't tell I'm really bad at updating...)  We were also able to go up even higher & go outside~!  It was a little bit hard to see because of the bars and stuffus but it was still really cool to be up so high & outside.  We then went back down to the normal viewing area and just sat around & chatted while waiting for the sun to start setting & for the city lights to appear.  It took a while but it was worth it...the view was so pretty :D  I think the coolest part was how you could see the city and the mountains and how different yet beautiful they both are.  After a long day Valerie's parents picked us up & we had dinner :) 

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got a little bit lazy...will update the past 3 days now lol

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Day 2

Tried dan-bing for breakfast like Akiko told me to try & it was pretty good :) And instead of drinking milk we had soy milk.  Then we were off to make noodles...I think at a famous place in the countryside up in the mountains...the drive was about an hour and 30 mins to two hours...the scenery was beautiful though. Attempted to take pictures but a lot of the time trees were in the way.  Once we got to the place I met Valerie's mother's brother and his wife and kids...Uncle Ben, Aunt Emily, Benson, and Ariel. They were very nice :) Later one that day found out that Ariel listens to k-pop woo~  First Benson & Ariel made the noodles...or not really make, more like stretched the noodles. Then Valerie & I tried...it was harder than it looks lol We both had two tries so the second time was much more successful & we got to take home the noodles we stretched :D & also tried the noodles.  After that we went to a famous tofu place...We had a tofu dessert thing which was quite refreshing & I also tried stinky tofu :D ...but it wasn't that stinky...there was a reason for it but I don't remember merp :/  Then we walked around for a while and went to a stream type place & also where the highest bridge in Taiwan is...I think...lol There were many yellow butterflies there & dragon flies.  To take a break from outside we went inside this building and it had wonderful air conditioning LOL...it felt very nice. I was then told we were going to visit a lake...we saw it from and upper view but it was absolutely amazing...so pretty :D  After that I was told that we were going to my welcoming party~  I was able to meet the rest of Valerie's relatives :D  They were all so nice & welcoming...I received gifts from all of them and I felt very thankful. The food was also very delicious...I noticed that taiwanese food was a little bit more salty than foods back home but it's okay...that's not really a big deal. By the end of the night I was stuffed! It felt like the whole day was eating haha but everything was really good, so no complaints :)  I was so exhausted that I think I fell alseep as soon as the car started moving lol...which I guess isn't really a surprise since I do that all the time back home lol  It almost 10pm here & I'm already so tired...I think this is the first time in a very long time I will be sleeping before 12...