Ni Hao!

Today is the start of a new week. It's raining outside and am a bit tired from the weekend so I figured I would make it an easy day. I ate a wax apple for breakfast. They are a mix between a pear and an apple, they are sweet and have an interesting texture. They are one of the many fruits (guava, kiwi, etc.) that are available on every street you walk down. I didn't really have to do anything today but decided to do some laundry.

People out here don't have dryers. They hang their clothes outside their window. So I used the washer in our apartment and dried our clothes for about $2. It cost me 10NT or 33 cents per six minute cycle. First I had to break my dollars into change. I decided to eat lunch at a food stall close to the laundromat. Ordering food is awkward. I didn't really say anything, I just pointed. It ended up being a jumble of meat parts, mushrooms and broth topped with cilantro and green onion. The broth was good. The cilantro made the broth even better. The assortment of meat parts was, uh, interesting. I am not even sure what type of animal I ate. Dark meat, cartilege?, meat on bones, and a substance that disintegrated in my mouth instantly (which was not tasty at all). I ate a lot of the broth and decided to leave. They gestured if I wanted a to-go box, I passed on that.

Lauren: ZERO
Food Stall: 1

The city was fumigating the sewers for cockroaches at the time so just about every step I took there was a cockroach skittering or a smashed one. Gross. I'm not sure I had ever seen one before this.

Seth, my parents and I went to Din Tai Fung for lunch on Sunday. The soup dumplings were so good! We also had sweet and sour soup, fried and steamed dumplings. Seth had mentioned to us that was a "expensive meal." It was expensive for Taiwan but not the US. It all cost 798NT or $26. It is insane how cheap food is here!

After we ate we went out of the city to take a ride on the Maokong Gondola . The hills rolled on for days, the sun was setting, the jungle was infinite. I got some good shots of the sunset, totally frame-worthy.

I might go out and sightsee tomorrow since I actually know where I'm going (I know where the MRT is essentially). It's supposed to rain again too. I actually like Taipei in the rain, no blazing sun or uncomfortable humidity.

Enjoy your snow Colorado!