Travel around with Cassidy

09/01/18

    The day started off fairly uninteresting. I made breakfast, rice and egg combo for the win! I was awake long before any of my flatmates, and without a real plan I jut said in my room and relaxed for a while. I’m still a little jet laggy, I hope that this feeling of exhaustion will start to fade soon. Waking up tired is never fun. My one mission was to locate a better market than the first one I went to, and I found it at PXmart. I was able to buy food much cheaper there, and get a few household items. Specifically hangers to hang up my clothes.
    Once one o’clock rolled around, I headed out to meet my friend Cassidy at Main Station. Cassidy, you may recall, was my friend I met while studying in China, we lived together during that year and have been close friends for a long time. While I was waiting for her, I helped a Polish lady with some WiFi difficulties. It was amusing to watch her asses me. She stopped in front looked me up and down. Then walked away for a short while, only to return and finally ask me for some help. She was able to figure out where her friend was and by the time I had finished helping her, Cassidy had arrived. It was wonderful seeing her again. We hugged and then headed off for a late lunch.
    We ate at a famous beef noodle place by the Dongmen station called Yongkang Beef noodles. It was famous and therefore a little more expensive that is normal. But the meat was tasty. As we headed there it began to pour rain. And of course I forgot my umbrella, so I had was sharing with Cassidy. The rain was so hard that most people had taken shelter underneath over hangs rather than try to brave their way through. Cassidy and I attempted to get to the station but still managed to get soaking wet. we laughed our way through the whole thing. Next time I will bring my umbrella, even if it’s sunny outside.
    We took the train out to the IKEA, which was the goal of our little meet up. Once there it was a mater of locating priorities. For me that was a mattress topper, french press, and  a light blanket. IKEA is not a store you can move quickly through and in Taiwan it’s even more traffic jammed(hello, extreme population density). All in all we made it through in about two hours grabbing everything we needed. I managed to keep my costs under 100 USD and got everything I needed(moving to a new place is always so darn expensive!!). We hauled all that stuff back to my apartment, dropping it off quickly, before heading back out for dinner.
    It turned out Cassidy is actually very familiar with my neighborhood. She took to me to a rather tasty rice bowl place and then we went to the night market for a wander. Taiwan’s night markets are a culture unto themselves. Food, clothes, games and sometimes random items, and no two night markets are alike. It was my first time managing to stay awake long enough to go explore(even as I type this I am resting the urge to fall asleep). Now I feel less trapped in my room, and having explored a bit more I feel more confident about traveling around. Our last stop for the evening was shaved ice shop. We got condensed milk ice with mangos on top. Very refreshing, and delicious! After that I saw Cassidy off and went back to my home to set up what I had bought. Overall and wonderful and productive day.
    Now you may be wondering why there aren’t many pictures and to be honest I just haven’t taken yet. However tomorrow, I hope to get some shots of the neighborhood and get them up for everyone to see. I’ve just been settling in so picture taking hasn’t really been on my mind.