Good news! I finally stopped being lazy and transferred my pictures to my computer! Bad news, I don't know if I will have time to post them because right now I'm sitting in Starbucks using their internet typing at 90wpm trying to get some words on the page before I run home. Why? Firstly because it's almost dinnertime but also because a mosquito just landed on my hand and I am terrified I will get bitten again.
AGAIN. That's right, it's the middle of winter and I have gotten numerous (well, actually counting, 13) mosquito bites. Aren't they supposed to, oh I don't know, die or something in the winter? Not that TW winter is actually cold, but aren't they seasonal or something? Dang. Last night I heard one buzzing around my head, so I buried my face under the covers, with only a tiny oxygen hole, and it managed to fly in and bite me on the forehead. Now there's a huge welt on my head, and whenever I scratch the bite I look like I'm thinking very hard.
I've also got a series of bites on my cheek that look like ugly pimples and a huge one one my neck (mosquitoes are such perverts). Apart from that, Taiwan is as wonderful as ever. Today I bought the world's most delicious cheesecake. It cost 480NT, and is probably the most expensive food item I've bought here but worth every kuai!
So the past few days have been busy again. The g-parents and I just flew back from Quemoy Tuesday night---it was an amazing trip, and Quemoy is hands-down the cleanest, quietest Asian urban place I have ever been to. The streets were mostly empty---something that doesn't happen anywhere in Asia! Of course it can't compare to the grasslands or deserts of China, but in terms of actually inhabited areas, Quemoy was incredibly spotless and peaceful.
Other curious things I've seen/done in the past few days:
Eaten teensy weensy baybay oysters. The size of my pinky nail. Though that comparison kinda seems gross. They were plump and cute and delicious.
Currently I am drinking a "Rose Fancy Tea Latte" at Starbucks. I got the smallest size and it is about the size of a venti in the US. Hence the fast typing and the occasional twitch. Though I'm not even sure this has caffeine in it. I guess the placebo effect does work.
Gotten water from a water pumping station, which looks like a gas station but cooler. The filling areas are painted to look like robots, and you put your jug down, put in 5NT, and use a pump to fill it up. You have to be quick and precise, though, because it only dispenses a set amount and if you are slow and clumsy like me, your jug does not get filled up all the way.
Buying a Hello Kitty sequin dress in Taipei...I will have to make a separate Taipei post because it was just ah-mazing.
Making New Year's Resolutions: lose the Taiwan weight, graduate college, and try to make one person's day better every day (it's going to be hard, but if you need me to cheer you up, I've heard I'm pretty good at doing that. Or at least I'm good at getting into such ridiculous situations that you'll end up laughing).
and now for some PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN:
This is the plane that we took to Quemoy. The flight was about an hour long, and I had the fortune/misfortune of sitting right near the wing. IT WAS SO LOUD, my ears kept on popping but it was so cool to see the propellers and pretend that I was a classy traveler from the 1960s. Even though the seats were thin and stiff and could not lean back and there were no window shades so it wasn't all that classy. They did give us a free baozi when we landed, though.
KSH harbour, we took a four person bike up mountain of this tiny island. I was steering, so naturally we got into a few situations where we *almost* crashed (note: but didn't!) and Katie and Samantha yelled quite a lot. Check out the humongous bug bites on my cheek, but don't check them out too closely cause they're nasty.
<3 b
