tao yen

went to the zoo today! it was just cool enough to be bearable walking around outside from 3-5. guess what it costs to go to the zoo. [that's one of the dresses i bought in song shan yesterday. it's watermelon chic and it was $10.. who needs dresses?]
SIXTY NT. that's two dollars. do you know how much it is to go to the san diego zoo these days? $35. although, we grew up in san diego so we went to the zoo/wild animal park quite a few times, and it's a much better zoo. the animals are in giant enclosures or on this big rolling savannah. at the taipei zoo, they're in teeny little cages that are just painted concrete with some rocks.
but look how close they let you get to the pandas!
allen took all of these pictures with his camera phone so i'm not going to barrage you with lots of slightly blurry animal photos, but this was our favorite. a llama that had just passed out in the full sun while all of the others cowered in the shade.

after the zoo, we went back to our fav shaved ice place in ximending to conquer the boat ice.
that thing is not messing around. it's mango and strawberry ice cream on top of a bazillion cut up strawberries, kiwi and mango, on top of shaved ice, on top of [what else but] pearls.
this is the halfway point. doing well.
this is when i realized there were pearls in the bottom. kind of creepy digging around for strawberries and coming up with little black circles.

success! i don't know if you can see how blue my lips were at that point.. but i was freezing.

this evening when i came home, there was a passionfruit green tea hanging on my doorknob. i can't figure out who it was. mystery..

p.s. i added a link to jerry's new brainchild, taiwan english. it's on its way to becoming the most comprehensive taiwan teachers guide out there. i'm writing a bunch of stuff for it in the next couple of days, in time for jimmie's arrival on friday! getting excited.