day 4

i added in pictures from our visit in kaohsiung, so you should scroll down and catch up on those, too.
well yesterday steve and i made our way to central park and then we found somewhere to eat lunch downtown. (that sign says 'not in service for energy saving'. there were 4 escalators and only 2 were in use since there weren't that many people going through. way to go, taiwan.)the train station at central park had a really pretty stained glass ceiling in the middle. i think their station was only completed in 2008. they have 2 lines and it's around .75 to go anywhere in the city.

we had pizza that was relatively yummy by taiwanese standards. hung out there for an hour or so and then we found a nice little coffee shop on a side street. we played gin rummy and i whipped steve, which isn't usually how it goes when we play cards. then we played speed and i won. then we played war and i won. it just wasn't steve's day with the cards.
the area around central park is called the wedding dress district so there are dresses in all of the windows.

around 4, we met up with bobo and we went to a woman named judy's home in kaohsiung. she's bobo's mom's husband's sister. bobo had never met her either, but she offered to take us to dinner. she had just moved back to taiwan after living in america for the last 30 years. her husband stayed there to work, and her daughters are in college. we had an easy time because her daughters are essentially just like me.she gave steve and i red envelopes for chinese new year with $1000NT ($30US) which was really generous of her. we had a great time. we played mahjong (which is the game traditionally played during chinese new year holidays) with judy, her brother chris, and jack.i've never seen it before, but it was pretty interesting. it's like gin rummy with tiles, sort of.
steve did pretty well. i caught on after a bit. it was amazing to watch how quickly they could set up their tiles.
bobo looking cute while the rest of us played mahjong.

after mahjong, we went out to smoking joe's where we went for dinner the other night. i had roll-your-own tacos with real flour tortillas and real chips and salsa. it's the little things. at dinner, i was admiring the lace collar judy had over her dress and she insisted we go to the night market to try to find one, and we did. i hope i can find a way to wear it that looks stylish.. we'll see how that goes. the night market was much better than taoyuan's. there were people everywhere. it was just rows and rows of shops and stands. blurry squid on a stick.

we exchanged phone numbers with judy and steve and i headed back to the bus station to take the swanky bus home. 5 hours later, we were greeted by chilly, wet weather in the middle of the night. and that was our vacation!

dennis, thanks for the compliments on my blog and for the taiwanese perspective and information. i just like to have a name to go along with the words. glad to have you along.