Saturday, September 29, 2007

Yes, I'm still alive...

I've been a bad, bad blogger... (I knew it would only be a matter of time!) I've been so busy in the last couple of weeks that I just haven't had a chance to sit down and write (also, the fact that I don't have a computer at home kind of limits the time I have available to be online). So, sorry about that and I will do my best to fill you in on what's been going on recently!
Last weekend Nick and I went to Hong Kong. Taiwan had a national holiday on Tuesday, so we didn't have work Monday or Tuesday and Nick needed to make the trip to get his visa. We left Saturday afternoon and returned late Tuesday night. We didn't do a lot (and unfortunately I haven't put my pictures on the computer yet, so they're not included in this post). Sunday we found a huge indoor mall and walked around. I didn't buy anything because the stores included the likes of Versace, Tiffany's, Chanel, Valentino, Prada, Gucci, Manolo Blahnik, to name a few. We did go into a few of the stores and the workers looked like we were going to rob the place, so we refrained. The lady in Tiffany's actually pretended to be cleaning the counters, following us all over the store! Anyway, after a long day of shopping (looking) we went to a movie (Chuck and Larry - hillarious) and headed back to the hotel. Monday we spent a good deal of the morning in the Taiwan Visa office, then did some more walking around in the afternoon. The skyline of Hong Kong is amazing. The city is full of skyscrapers, but mountains jut up right behind the enormous buildings (I have pictures). It's very cool. Monday night we made our way to the mainland area called "Kowloon" to do some sightseeing and check out some of the Mid-Autumn Festival goings on. We had some of the best gelato I've ever had and walked along the piers. On Tuesday we picked up Nick's visa, did a whole bunch more shopping (in a BIT less pricey mall, but still stinking expensive), then caught our flight out. I think we'll plan to go back to Hong Kong at some point, although next time hopefully armed with a travel guide and a plan!
After we got back, it was a lot of catching up on sleep and work at school.
Yesterday (Friday) was my 26th (I'm old) birthday. My friend at work gave me the best desert ever (a HUGE bowl of fresh cut-up mangoes, pineapples, bananas, and strawberries with a small scoop of chocolate ice cream on top), my boss bought me a cake (the cakes here are really elaborate and wonderful), the people Nick and I are staying with also got me a much smaller cake and sang me "Happy Birthday" in English and Chinese, and Nick gave me some speakers for my iPod. Aside from the fact that I had to meet my 11pm curfew (yes, I am 26 years old and have an 11:00 curfew - needless to say, I'm looking for my own apartment!), it was a pretty good day.
Today (Saturday) I successfully rode my new scooter into town and got a smoothie and didn't fall off or run into anything!!! : ) I was super excited! I'll be taking over the scooter and riding it full time in a few days (once I have a little more practice). Not much else to report on, except that I will start to go apartment hunting next week and hope to find a solution QUICKLY! Those of you that know me at all know that I am not handling the "curfew" thing well and that a wild animal just can't be caged! : ) I'm totally kidding about that last part.
Anyway, thanks for all of the bday wishes I've already received. I hope to be posting ALL of my Taiwan/Hong Kong pictures soon, and I hope to continue to hear from everyone! Love you all!

1 comment:

Katie said...

Sounds like yet another wonderfully fun experience. What an exciting life you are living these days -- beats Hastings I guess :-) Are you living with a host family then? What is the family like? What are the living situation like? And is Nick living close by?

Sorry this is late but happy birthday!!!! I'll try and get you a care package put together -- anything you would want in it that you can't get over there? Can I even send food overseas? I guess I'll have to look into that but any requests would be a help as to what I should include in it.