day 28! zhongxiaodunhua, zhongxiaoxinsheng

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Just wanted to apologize real quickly for falling behind on these posts, as many of you have heard I've been a bit under the weather lately, and it has served to exacerbate my inherent laziness. Never fear, I do intend to catch up and keep up the blog, as I'm sure one day I'll enjoy being able to come back and see what I did on this trip. :)

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So having just got back from Nantou, sick, bloodied, and bruised we would really have liked to take a break for a day. I'd developed 3 brilliant sunburns (a pretty bad farmer's tan burn on my left arm, a mild burn on my right arm, and the worst is on the left side of my neck), which funnily enough are uneven because throughout the hike the mountain was to the right of us, which left our left sides much more exposed to the sun. Anyway when I get sunburned I always feel feverish, and since I had somewhat of a fever to begin with.......let's just say I wanted a day to rest. :(

Unfortunately though it was Michael's last day, and the last day I had before leaving HK (not as big of a deal since I'll be back) so we did have things to do.

We had plans to meet up with my cousin for lunch, near her office at zhongxiao dunhua station area. Unbeknownst to us, though, our aunt (our cousin's mom) and another ahyee (the one married to the cool uncle) were also joining us. We went to this dim sum place that they'd brought me and Jennifer to the last time we were in Taiwan.

I didn't take too many pics of the food because the atmosphere was too tense. I was trying to communicate and not have it be a boring lunch, but didn't have much to say, and so instead (in retribution??) they shoveled food down our throats. My stomach was still a bit delicate so I picked around, but the food was all really good.

Afterwards, our cousin was conscripted into showing us around and making sure we had fun. But of course when we're asked what we want to do, we have no idea either. But we'd talked at lunch about how Michael likes to play the claw machines, so she brought us to an arcade with claw machines.

Really cute! Milk tea plushies!!! Michael tried one but the shape isn't too good for grabbing.

If only games in the US were this cute...mashimaro gopher game??

Haha my cousin and I actually faced off in this one. :) You stand at either side, and each person has a gun. Inside that pit thing there's a little canister that you're trying to make into the other person's goal. You use the gun to shoot these little triggers under the canister, and if you hit one the platform under the canister launches up and pushes the canister in that direction. It's hard to explain. Also hard to play! She beat me 2 - 0, easy. :(

Afterwards we went to get milk tea. This is actually a 'tea' place (they sell tea) so their milk tea is a little more expensive cuz it's more like, healthy/natural/whatever. It's like buying food at whole foods or something. :p I got a mung bean milk tea and it tasted pretty weird :S :S The mung beans were like blended into this mush or something. I dunno! This is what you get for trying to be healthy.

Went back to my cousin's office to hang out for a bit. She works at her dad's company, and I thought there would be a lot of people there but actually her coworkers in the office are all family. :) My aunt is in the very back, and the other ah yee is in the middle.

We stayed for a while and chatted because we didn't want to seem like dine-n-dashers. Had quite a few discussions about the logistics for the next day (rides to/from the airport) as well as apartment stuff, since our aunt was the one that helped us rent/stock the apartment.

We eventually got going, and went to a lan cafe near my grandmother's apartment. Our internet had been down that morning as well, and I was starting to feel panicked that I'd be stranded in Taiwan with no internet....

To curb the withdrawal, and also cuz we'd said we wanted to try it, we went to the internet cafe.

It. was. so. cool. o.o

OMG!! The monitors (small tvs??) were HUGE, the chairs were comfy, there were people playing computer games everywhere, they serve you food and drinks, and it's like $1/hr!!!!!!!!!!! Omg. Seriously, where have you been all my life. I really really really enjoyed our two hours there. Didn't play any games (no hon installed that I could see, but every other computer had a guy play lol :( boo) but did some research for my HK trip, checked mail and the like.

We dropped my grandmother's house to say hi and hang out for a bit. Then, Michael had plans to meet up with Justin and Terry, but they were both a bit tied up so we decided to drop by home first and eat.

We went to the congyoubing (green onion pancake) place right across from our apartment, but this time instead of picking up a congyoubing to eat, we sat inside and ordered food.

I had one of these, a little shenbing. My dad makes them! I think my dad's are better.

Also a juanbing (which means a rolled pancake?) They put green onions, cilantro, meat and some sauce and roll it up. It's that popular dish they serve at Mama Liang's. :)

Michael had some steamed dumplings.

We went back to the apartment, and all I wanted to do was nap. Michael ended up going back out to meet Terry, but I didn't want to go cuz it had started pouring (like pouring buckets) and they were just gonna meet up at Taipei Central station to play more claw games. I told them to call me if they went to do something else, and they ended up going to Raohe night market. I was gonna go meet them but...laundry...rain....<insert other excuses> oh and also I just didn't want to. :p and good thing, cuz when they got there a lot of the stands were closed due to the rain.

By the time Michael got back, it was getting relatively late. He brought home another arsenal of gloomy bear paraphernalia that he had just won and had to pack. So we got ready for our trips, Michael packed for home and I packed for Hong Kong. Which sounds like a simple enough thing but midnight rolled around...then 1...then 2...! And still we weren't done getting things ready.

So we went to 7-11 for snacks. :)

By the time we were done, at around 3 or 4am, we were in that giddy euphoric stage where everything is hilarious and you are just really. fucking. tired. I wasn't even looking forward to HK at that point cuz I was just so tired and sick and wanted to sleep. :p

And so we napped for about 6 hours, warring over room temperature/humidity as usual. I do not think Michael and I should ever be roommates in the future.