Goodbye Taipei

Oh my god I can't think of clever titles for these things.

Wait we are sitting next to this boy apparently from Vietnam, speaks perfect English and also said he's from Korea-- he is about 7 and is freaking out saying really weird things like I AM STUPID BOY and hitting his head on the desk... now he is talking about Pokemon and ok now he just ran off and ran into a chair.

Anyway... back to the last day in Taipei. We took a taxi from Claire's house all by ourselves with nooo help. We even asked the door man to call the taxi cab! Ni hao, chi chon cho? shay shay! That's all. Leslie and James picked us up and we quickly dropped our stuff off and the three of us girls went off to the best peking duck place in the city. For those who go to USC, the restaurant kind of looked like upstairs commons, so I was like eh, this might not be so good. We started with wine chicken which is a popular dish. It's kind of like leftover chicken, cold, soaked in last night's wine. Then we got some greens that Alyssa is obsessed with and another dish. Then the waitress brings out this whole freaking duck and presents it to us to say yes or no to it. We say yes since by this point we are starving and just want our damn duck. Then they bring out the skin first which we dip in plum sauce, add to this thin pancake type of wrap, add a scallion, and eat. Really freaking good. Crispy, fatty, yummy. I won't do a Yelp review don't worry. Then we still had to finish the whole rest of the duck. Most of it came out in the second dish, including the crispy head (sad but funny but sad), and the rest came in a soup that you finish the meal with. It was quite an experience and I probably won't ever get to do it again so that was cool. Leslie finally let us pay for her too!!!

Then we wandered around town, stopped at the Longshao Temple to check out mothers pryaying for sons and students praying for good grades. The rain started coming down so we walked through snake alley where everyone goes to try snake blood, etc. There were quite a few snakes and some bunnies and mice. The snakes have to eat too! We also saw some weird shellfish and turtles to eat too. Then we went underground to look at the professional fortune tellers. They all have like mini offices, decorated just like a regular office, and they even wear suits. One had his door open and was passed out asleep next to his crystal ball. That was funny. Also this weird room with 40+ year olds watching each other sing KTV (karaoke). So so funny. Oh and a woman came up to Alyssa and told her that her shirt came unbuttoned but really Alyssa is just a hoe.

Off to another department store to get out of the rain and pass the time until dinner. We had some ice cream and just relaxed a bit. Finally it was time to get to dinner to meet up with Leslie's Chinese language classmates at a traditional Taiwanese restaurant. I am glad we went because it was fun meeting all the people from different places and eating the great food. One girl was from Japan (so cute), another from Hong Kong and America, two boys from Mongolia, and a guy from Canada who already had his own Taiwanese girlfriend who looked very much like Tila Tequila. We had a million courses to share and were completely overwhelmed with food.

After dinner we jumped on the subway and headed over to the big center of town to try to make our reservation at Modern Toilet. We got a bit lost but finally found it. What a freaking weird place. The food and drinks were awful. The idea is funny but evenon the menu it says that they don't take responsibility from panic attacks or nausea from their presentation. For those who don't know about this place, they serve their food and drinks in toilet bowls, urinals, ground toilets, etc. You sit on artisty toilet bowls and eat at sinks covered in glass. The sink at the real bathroom is a toilet too. We had fun together but I would definitely never go back.

And that was that. We left way early in the morning and our lovely hosts woke up too just to drive us there. They were so nice to us. We are lucky we have such nice friends in different countries or this trip wouldn't be as much fun at all.