twirl you all around the floor

leila, dawn and i went on an awesome field trip to wu lai today. it's a town about an hour outside of taipei and the big draw is this river with natural hot springs along the edges.
the taiwanese people were fully clothed and then all of the foreigners were in bathing suits. i kind of found a happy medium with a tank top and my bathing suit bottoms (which have ruffles. could you have guessed?)
it was really interesting because they had built these little pools with loose stones to keep the hot water from the hot springs contained, but it was sooo boiling hot that you had to try to find a spot where you could splash some cold water in if you needed to.
in that picture, i was sitting with boiling hot water on my right and cold water on my left. it was funny because we all sounded like a bunch of monkeys saying 'oooh! ooh!' as the scalding water crept up on us.
it was a beautiful day though. warm in the sun and cool in the shade with a nice breeze.
there were lots of shops with hats. i'm not sure what that was all about. taiwanese people really like to keep covered up from the sun.

we stuffed ourselves silly. i ate: 2 morning fruit, peanut m&ms, green tea, guava juice, ..what the heck did i eat in the early afternoon.. ice cream, bbq'd shishkabobs with pork and onions and then mushrooms wrapped in bacon and grilled (maybe the best thing i've eaten in this country), then we had middle eastern food in taipei main station.

we rode a rickety old train that would remind you of the zilker zephyr up the mountain side a little where there was a pretty waterfall and some little shops.
the coooolest thing i've done in taiwan so far: we went to this 'fish spa' where you basically sat on the edge of a giant bathtub/aquarium full of these tiny goldfish looking fish who ate the dead skin off of your feet. (my feet are on the right of dawn's pale, pale english feet)
at first i couldn't stop making a fuss about how funny it felt, but after a while it just felt like you had pins and needles. it just freaked you out to look down and see a swarm of fish all attached to your feet. $150NT ($5 US) for half an hour was well worth the adventure.
fun day! i think we might visit again during chinese new year.