Oops Too Long Since I've Last Written

Hello everyone!
I must apologize that this post took me three weeks to write... I've been so ridiculously busy lately that I haven't had time to do almost anything!!
In any case... the last two weekends I was in Taipei, first to visit friends, and second for our Fulbright Orientation!
First place me and Patrick went when i arrived in Taipei was 101, the tallest building in Taiwan! This is a small part of the mall inside:

It is almost ridiculously nice inside, everything is designer stores and way too expensive for me to afford! 

Then Patrick had to go to work so I walked to the botanical gardens, which are beautiful and full of palm trees and European/Asian plants. Also lots of bamboo. 

So beautiful!! I took lots of pictures because everything was so green and different from the city around it.
Next, I entered the National Museum of History, which was next door, and really about the history of Chinese art and not history in general. I had fun reading as many signs as I could in Chinese!
This is the facade:

The architecture was very traditionally Chinese on the outside, but western on the inside, as with a lot of buildings in Taiwan and China. 

Next, after Patrick got off work, we went to the Miramar Dream Mall, which has the 2nd largest ferris wheel in the world! We had chuabing, which is shaved ice with fruit (in this case, mango) and sugar sauce poured over it all. Way too good for its own good. Also the waiter at the chuabing counter was extremely cute. Too bad he doesn't live in Gaoxiong :) 

Patrick and the chuabing

The huge ferris wheel all lit up

Saturday we went to Shilin, the huge night market in Taipei, and also Ximending, the huge shopping area, but I went there lots and lots of times last year so I didn't take any pictures. I'm sure I'll go back again this year too, so if anyone wants me to take pictures of these places, just tell me :) They're pretty awesome, maybe I'll do a special post on them sometime in the future. 

SUNDAY we went to Yangmingshan National Park, the mountain north of Taipei, and hiked around a bit. Mountain is a misnomer, it's actually a volcano, which is made quite evident by the sulfur spewing from its side. 

Look it's me and the sulfur!!

So pretty! And then it rained....

Anyway I'm about to die of exhaustion, so you'll have to wait a couple more days for installment 2 of my Taipei weekend trips! 

Signing outtttttttttt

:)