Rain and Wandering

Well another few days passed and few things have happened. Saturday was mostly going out and exploring the city. We went to famous walking area, call Ximen Ding. It’s looks a little bit like Harujuku in Japan. So it’s a famous shopping district with a bunch of little shops. We wandered around there, just looking around and people watching bit. It’s also a famous historical area as the Japanese colonial rule, there were several buildings built during that time. I went to the most famous one call the Red house. It used to have a Shinto shrine around it, but I think that had been down after WWII. Wandering around took most of the afternoon. Which was a lovely way to pass the time.
    Then that evening we all went out as house for drinks. It was fun, most of the time I was helping everyone figure out what cocktails were what. It was a nice bonding evening for everyone. I am starting to get to know all of my roommates a bit better which makes living in the house even more fun. Our plans were almost canceled when the rains were so bad, we could barely hear anyone speaking over the sound of the water hitting the house. I guess we are entering the last little bit of the rain season. In the end though, the rains let up and we were able to go out.

Trinh, Josh, myself hanging out in our living room

    Today was little bit interesting. Most the day was spent inside due to the heavy rains sweeping through the area. I called and spoke with a few people back at home. Then there was a bit of an issue with my sim card. I had to go back to the provider in order to get it fixed, which lead me to dragging poor Nick, one of my Taiwanese roommates, along with me. While I feel like I might have done the encounter by myself, everyone was put at ease with the presence of a person playing a translator role.  On the way, I slipped on the slick sidewalks and fell really hard. Even as I write this some hours later it still hurts. I have a rather spectacular bruise on my leg. But I was able to get my sim card sorted without issue. I now have a permanent number in Taiwan that I can pay as I go.    I headed out again into the rain in order to meet yet another Taiwanese friend. I invited Josh along because he was bored out of his mind sitting inside all day. We went to a large book store that had multiple stories. We went to the little food court at the bottom and got some Taiwanese food. It was yummy, we then spent the next hour roaming around the bookstore. We popped out to go to a cute little french pastries. It was really delicious. It was wonderful seeing Amanda again and she really seemed interested in going around and traveling with me when she had time. We headed home where Nelson, another Taiwanese roommate, had left donuts for all of us with a really sweet note. So far, I think everything is going really well.

Notice the misspelling of 'Nelson'

Amanda

Josh

yuuuuum