Family Day

I had a really good time last night at Luxy clubbing with a bunch of people I just met. One of my favorite things about TTT is the opportunity to make new friends. It's harder to meet new people at school when everyone is already in tight-knit groups and hang out with the same people. I wish the freshman year introductions with strangers could be a norm throughout all of college. But anyways, I met a lot of cool people last night, some from TTT and others just friends of friends. It's great to start conversations with people you've just met and discover the differences and similarities you guys share. Finding out more about each other is definitely one of the most interesting parts about meeting new people, and it's a great feeling to stay in touch with them afterwards.

This morning I left my house at 9:00 to go to 三峽 with my grandparents, two uncles and aunt. I kind of felt bad for always going out with friends when I'm back in Taipei, so it was nice to spend a whole day with them. We went to 三峽 to visit the most famous temple in Taiwan, with more than 80 years of planning and construction. Sadly, I don't remember the name of the temple, but it had really detailed stone and wood carvings, the most detailed and culturally-infused in all Taiwan and China. Afterwards, we walked down 老街 in the scorching heat and saw the Japanese-styled and early-Taiwanese-styled houses. We got lunch at a famous 甕仔雞 restaurant. There was so much food we had to pack almost every dish back home. Next, we drove to 大溪 to visit Chiang Kai-Shek's summer vacation house and look at the view across some river. The view wasn't really breathtaking, but it was nice walking through the park and the pre-rain breeze felt comfortable. My uncle then drove to 石門水庫, but the dam wasn't releasing water and we didn't see the fancy water show. I asked him to let me drive, since I was getting bored sitting in the car; I ended up driving the rest of the night. We walked across the dam and the view from up top was pretty amazing. Beautiful skies, clear water below it, and mountains in the background. For a pit stop, we took a break at a coffee shop and had a mid-afternoon snack. Right after we just had our afternoon tea, we headed to Carrefour for dinner. I wasn't hungry at all, in fact, I was still pretty full. So at Carrefour I ate at a sushi place where you take plates off a conveyor belt, and they count how many plates you ate. I only ate four plates and I was stuffed. For the rest of the night, we shopped at Carrefour and another place similar to Carrefour. Ended up getting home at 10:00. It was an exhausting day, but had a great time hanging out with the family.

So my uncle said I can drive his car to go out and explore with friends. I don't have an international license, but the police doesn't do random checks during the day time. So maybe I'll take a day off this week and plan something. Before that, Bryan and I have to finish planning our trip to Kenting next weekend. It's definitely happening, and I'm SO excited!

Creme brulee from the coffee shop!

Fried platter.

Really needed coffee today.