We got to be asian princesses

SO, its now wednesday in taipei and you know what that means..... BATMAN the movie comes out tomorrow! i am seriously so excited. We went to a taiwan waterpark on monday, it was super fun and I got three great big large mosquito bites to take home:) We went on pretty much every ride, minus the super steep one that only kristen and yuwen had the guts for. I think that by far the coolest thing we did at the waterpark would have to be the pond of fish which supposedly "massaged" and "ate" our dead skin cells. It was seriously a interesting experience having roughly thirty fish sucking at random places along your legs. I especially could not get over the "between the toes" action that the fish seemed to enjoy. To get through it both me and kristen had to pretend we were sticking our legs into a pool of 7UP, and that the tingly sensations were just carbonation. After the water park we were taken to a restaurant that was quite large and extremely empty. It was supposedly a seafood restaurant but it was both out of water and out of different types of seafood. Another new experience was the plate of black chicken. It is literally chunks of black coal-ish looking meat that once bitten into looks like purple chicken.... tasted relatively the same but extremely difficult to stick in the mouth, especially since the head and legs were also tossed into the bowl...
Tuesday, yesterday, was also really fun. We began the day late and didnt really do anything till we went to cts at 1:30, we watched a little bit of taping and the show was actually pretty interesting because it was centered on asians speaking english. at night we went out with isabella and her husband and we had dim sum, that was pretty yummy.
Eileen

We are at our internship, CTS, right now, waiting to go to lunch with Isabella. She is so sweet and super caring. This morning she arranged for us to dress up as Asian princesses from different Chinese dynastys. We got our hair, makeup, and wardrobe done. It was super entertaining. They stuck fake pieces of hair onto our head to make the hats we had to wear not hurt as much. We took pictures in front of a chinese curtain thing. It was super fun.
Yesterday we went to Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall after work, it's right next to our work so we walked over and bought gifts at the gift shop. When you walk inside there is a huge statue of him, just like Lincoln's at his memorial, and a little sign that says "salute please." So we looked at each other and then saluted. Anyways, we are off to lunch now, I miss everyone tons and tons and cant wait to come back next week!
Zai-jian, xoxo, Kristen

I went to a Buddhist temple!

Last night we went to Danshui- which is a fisherman's wharf in Taipei. It smelled just like the bay/fisherman's wharf at home! Go figure : ) There were tons of shops lined up and down the bay. They had a huge white bridge built across the bay from wharf to wharf that we took pictures on. We ate dinner at a restaurant as well as street vendors. Eileen tried birds egg (and loved it), pigs blood (didn't particularly enjoyed it, said it tasted like rice but she prefers just eating rice). I tried a sort of dried plum tea that I immediately spit out by accident, because it tasted like the smell of old asian people's houses (to some people that made a lot of sense). We also had a soft serve cone that was about a foot in length. We played balloon darts and I hit 2! As a group we won two plastic blow up hammers that Eileen is going to give to the kids she babysits ( I kept hitting her with it, it makes a squeaky noise). I bought really cool wooden postcards that have images on them, they can actually be mailed! Before we went to Danshui we went to a mall that was shaped like a huge ball. It is the largest ball-shaped mall in the world. It is actually really cool and I bought an awesome sword there!
Today we went to Longshan temple which is Buddhist. Everyone was burning incense and walking around with it and praying. There were seperate statues at different places and each statue was for a different purpose. One was for education, and there were others but the most crowded statue was the one you pray to to find your soulmate :) We arrived at the temple during a mass time so everyone was chanting/singing/praying and kneeling. Eileen and I played a game in the temple which is where you have two red crescent shaped pieces of wood. You put them together, make a wish, and then drop them. If they land a certain way then your wish comes true. I got it on the first try! Eileen didn't. : ) haha, later we went to a museum of sorts called "Taiwan Storyland." Its an underground museum built to show the way Taiwan looked about sixty years ago (when Japan still ruled it). There were old shops, old toys, classrooms, an old movie theater, and old games they used to play. We played a game of darts, ring toss, and one where you pull a string with toys attached (the strings look all tangled), and you get the toy at the bottom of the string you pull. I kept winning dried fish and it looked gross so I gave it back and got candy instead : ) After the museum we went to the Shilin nightmarket. It is the first and biggest night market in Taiwan. They have tons of shops, food, and tons of people! It was super crowded. Afterwards we went to get mango shaved ice (our favorite), and I rode on the back of her cousins scooter thing. We went about 25 mph, it wasn't that scary because everyone else in the city was on one too! Now we are at her cousin's house about to go to bed. Tommorow we are going to an outdoor waterpark.
Zai-jian! Love, Kristen : )

It is 8 am US time and Im about to go to sleep

Today we had work from 2-6 pm. We sat in the audience of a variety show. It was extremely long (4 hours) and we couldn't move because we were in the audience. Along with that I can't understand the majority of what they say. So I was mostly staring at the lights and video cameras. After work we went with Eileen's aunt and cousins to the hot springs. It was very soothing. The water felt like it was infused with Aloe. The hot springs were about 20 minutes away by car in the mountains. Tomorrow we work from 3:30-6pm, then Saturday we are going to a water park with her cousins, then Sunday we are going to Danshui- it is like a fisherman's wharf with boats and bike riding, very touristy, I am really excited to go to it! : )

Zai-jian! Kristen 

Rainy day!

So, we woke up at a decent hour today... like seven ish as opposed to our usual four a.m. Today was extremely relaxed, began with the usual knock on the door followed by the four course breakfast meal. Being consistent with her sneaky ways, Kristen totally pulled a quick one and shoved her cucumbers on my plate :) Around tenish we went to Aiya and Yuwen's house, it was really really exciting going by ourselves, we tried taking a picture in the subway but the little boy and the old man we asked were both petrified and disgusted by us for some random reason. We went to the palace museum today!!! i am obsessed with cabbage, you have no idea what they can make cute in this town, EVERYTHING is all cutsie and pink, or shiny... I love it :) There is this super famous cabbage thing that is made from jade, super ancient, super expensive. Pretty Cool... Also, we went to eat mango shaved ice, DOODE i think... darn it, i forgot... BOo... Well, we are watching ocean's thirteen right now, in heaven (AKA air conditioned location)! Blog you soon! (AKA when kristen forces me to again... Just kidding:)) love, eileenn (Eileen loves it, shes just in denial.)

Yesterday was the first day of our internship-- eileen forgot about it already because shes asian. We basically are just following around the chief director and he explains everything he does (in Chinese). He watches over the program director, floor director, video people, audio people, graphic designers, etc. We basically just watched the making of a talk show yesterday, they had a special guest who was a chinese supermodel. My sister's best friend was the reason we got this internship because her aunt is a director there. We had lunch with her and some of the other directors at this Italian restaurant (because I'm american : ) ). It is a lot of fun to be behind the scenes of these shows, the sets are awesome! The control rooms have tons of tvs and buttons that light up, they showed us what it all did which was pretty cool. After work we went to dinner with her cousin, aunt and uncle, at a famous international Japanese restaurant called Din tai Fung-- they had awesome shrimp fried rice and amazing service. One of our asian waiters spoke amazing english, he actually goes to college in Tennessee! After dinner we were taking the subway back to her cousin's and a white guy was on the subway (extremely rare) and asked where I was from. It turns out he is originally from Utah but lives in Shanghai and sings and acts in Chinese. He does Chinese soap operas and reality shows. Totally random. Even more random was that today we went to the National Palace Museum, which is about forty minutes from her cousin's, and walked right by him in one of the exhibitions, wierd huh?! I bought really cool gifts at the gift store of the musuem. On the way back from the museum we went to a little place that her cousins love with the BEST mango shaved ice! We are going back tonight for more, the mango is the best I've ever had! Anyways we are off to eat : )
Zai-jian, Kristen : )

Yesterday we definitely had afros

So yesterday morning at 5:30 am I woke up to Eileen's grandmother's face. She was telling Eileen how she wanted to take us to a pretty place to take pictures and to get up so we could go. We looked at each other like... sweet, haha. We thought that the outlets were the same as American ones, but her grandmothers weren't so we had to go outside with fros. It was awesome. Because Eileen told her grandmother that I don't speak Chinese, she only speaks to me in Japanese. I just nod and smile. We took the bus to this beautiful river surrounded by forests. The metro system is really great-- the metro and bus's both have the same card-- think mastercard paypass-- just beep it through--very efficient. We walked along the river and there were people doing exercises and swimming in the river. I asked if there were any animals in the river. Her grandmother said there were two huge snakes. We were both like ewww. Then she went on to say, they have been in there for hundreds of years. And I was like.. oh, like the lochness? And Eileen laughed. Later in the day we took the metro with her two cousins, chichi and aiya to a outdoor place called new york, new york. It reminded us a lot of Hollywood. We saw the movie, "Get Smart" and ate at a super cute "french" cafe. I had shrimp and curry pizza and it was amazing! It was fun seeing a movie-- it was super packed, when you bought a ticket you actually had a seat with a number, so they were all like reserved. It was the most english I've heard in a while so when it was over I was confused to see that I wasn't in the US (the movies are all english with Chinese subtitles). There were even jokes about President Bush in the movie that no one got except me : ) Now it is 7:45 am and we are getting ready to go to our first day of our internship! I'm interested to see what Ill be doing that requires no knowledge of Chinese!
Zai-jian! Kristen

So its about 8 pm here and we are lying in bed completely exhausted. We took the metro with Eileen's Aunt and cousin to a big department store mall, Ximending Circle (a big outside mall), Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and our first night market. In the metro station we went to a 7-11 (there are tons here) and they have a pot of tea eggs (it just looks like boiled eggs sitting in a pot) for people to buy. At the vendor stalls Eileen saw belts and got excited because that is one of my favorite words to say in chinese... it sounds like "pee-die"... : )  Ximending Circle is "where the young people hang out" according to Eileen's aunt. It's a mix of japanese, western, and korean culture and fashion. The Memorial Hall had really gorgeous buildings, it reminded us a lot of the Lincoln memorial, it even has a huge sitting statue of Chiang Kai-Shek (who was Taiwan's first president). Time for bed! 

Zai-jian! Kristen

Hello!

I am EXTREMELY exhausted. I have never been force-fed so much in my life and i loved it. I think i could make a living off eating off the street. I enjoy getting kristen to eat wierd things. for the record she so ate stinky tofu! Good times tomorrow. NITENITE:)

Eileen

Official Day One

Its 12:30 pm in Taiwan and we just finished eating an intense meal (as always). The 14 hour flight was kind of rough but sudoku, music, and bejeweled passed the time well. Once we arrived Eileen's aunt and cousin took us to her grandparents apartment in Taipei (the airport is just outside of the city). It is just like an asian movie/rush hour, with the alleyways lined with apartments with clothes hanging. There is no elevator to the apartment so we carried our huge suitcases up 4 flights of stairs, we were dripping with sweat by the time we got up! We went to bed at one and woke up at five am. At 7 we went walking through the streets with her grandma. We are told (through translation from eileen of course): girls should never walk by themselves, do not gamble, eat every grain of rice in your bowl or you will get a pimple for every one left, do not wear makeup or nice clothes because no one will care. There are motorscooters everywhere and they tend to get close enough to clip our bags at like 20 mph. There is fresh fruit and vegetables up and down every street, as well as fresh cut meat. We ate lychee (a type of small fruit)- its very sweet! The guy said it was 50 TWD, and her grandma gave 30.. shes a very good bargainer. I feel like we are just in Chinatown San Fran-- it hasn't really settled in yet. Our pillows are made out of beans. Its kind of hard to put my face in it. We are about to go shopping with her aunt and cousin. 

Zaijian! Kristen  :)

So... everything kristen said, and really just that my chinese is gonna get GREAT! hahaha, i am officially a walking talking dictionary/interpretor, i should make a career out of it! I can't eat anymore, Kristen fails to mention that what she cant finish she either A) throws it into my plate; B) shove it into somewhere unconventional; C) or straight up switch plates once i finish mine already. Get ready for FAT eileen to come home! hahaha, i love the food though, its pretty amazing! other than that we haven't really been anywhere. DAY2 begins today!!!.... whenever my cousins get here :)

Eileen~