So I woke up today determined not to waste the day. Yesterday I had gotten to late of a start to make it all the way to 象山(Xiangshan or elephant mountain). But this morning I had enough pep in my step, so decided to get up and get on with it. Though to be honest, I was having a bit of lazy morning anyway. So I get up, get dressed in my hiking clothes and head on out. I took the subway to the last stop and began walking. The stop is well within walking distance, but I was worried about over heating before I got there. Next time I might just suck it up… Anyway so I get there and I am mentally preparing myself for this hike. It’s stairs all the way to the top. I remember the struggle of it when I climbed up there in 2013.So I get started on the climb, and immediately the sweating started. I am instantly soaked in my own water. Not that people around me were doing much better, but I was passing a bunch of people, who were commenting on my red face and sweaty self. At the first landing I stopped for a picture, and there was an American guy there, we exchange phones for picture and I continued on (remember this person, he will become important later on). I keep on climbing, stopping at different landing. Suddenly, I am at the top, I was shocked. For all the memories I have of climbing this trail, it was over in less than twenty minutes. Then I remember it’d had been five years since I had done this trail and I took a moment to think about the difference of me in Taiwan then and me in Taiwan now. Many of my goals, lifestyle, and personal beliefs have changed. So having reached the top, I was unsure what to do, so I figured I would just walk back to home to get in the exercise I wanted. I turned around and headed back down.
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| Aron took this picture before we knew we'd be friends... |
As I was heading down, I ran into the American again. He was having a breather about half way up, so I stopped to chat. After a moment, I kinda invited myself along on his upward journey. His name is turned out as Aron, from Hawaii, though he was currently living in Japan. We ended up wandering around the different paths in the mountain. We managed to find on of the many Daoist temples on the mountain. Then we wandered our back down taking a path I had never been on before. We were also being followed by butterflies, which I sorta of loved. Butterflies are believed to be either ancestors or the are a sign of fate. I was followed by one all the way through the mountain (at least I liked to believe it was the same one). Aron and I chatted the whole talking about why we were in Taiwan and what we were up to. It was really fun. After about an hour of wandering we made it off the mountain.
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| Temples!! |
It was lunch time and he wanted a rice bowl, there is place right down the way from my house so I took him there. Again just chatting and enjoying ourselves. We then wandered around the night market during the day. I was hoping that Ice World would be open but it wasn’t. So I walked Aron back to the subway and said good bye. It was really lovely meeting someone and spending a few hours making friends. Travel is such a wonderful thing!
I then headed home for more water and a much needed shower. Then I spent a good long while in my room just reading and relaxing for bit. When I got up to make dinner, one of the helpers for the house came by announcing that we would be getting a new fridge. And then suddenly I met all my roommates. I met Yoko, who has once more proven to me that I can still understand Japanese even if I can’t speak it. She hasn’t started studying Chinese yet, so apparently speaks Japanese, Korean, a little English, and not Chinese. My Vietnamese roommate(Gin, I have learned), I have now learned through the help of Yoko explained to me Gin speaks Korean, but just started with Chinese. Now we understand one another much better and I am really freaking happy. We spent a good hour talking to one another with our different languages, trying to figure it out. I chatted with Nick too, and he gave me a hard time about my spoken Chinese, which is fair, I super rusty when it comes to speaking. I then proceed to tease him a bunch about his English, but it was all in good fun. I end the day feeling much better about my living situation. I have already made plans to go with Gin and Yoko to Wufenpu, a shopping district. All in all, I’d say it wasn’t a wasted day.
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