What A Relief!

Day 3
That was pretty much an all travel day. Mountain roads + very confident driver + not being able to see out the front= 0 contents in Chelsea's stomach. That was embarrassing. Then Jason, being the asshole he always is, made fun of me for it. He's a real sweetheart sometimes. We arrived in Hualien and I was, of course, grumpy and not really in the mood to walk around but Curtis said that I should at least get a lay of the land. I'm pretty sure that our tour guide was on something because he couldn't walk in a straight line and was really strange the entire trip. Being tired and irritable, I got phenomenally frustrated with following someone who would wander about 30 yards in achieving a forward gain of 10. As soon as Curtis said we were on our own, I went back to the hotel. I took a shower and felt considerably better. Since I didn't have deodorant I was sweaty and stinky along with having the remnant scent of eau de spew. The shower was particularly amazing because we had a tub and a shower curtain. I fell asleep hard and fast.

Day 4
Last day of the trip! I was tired and sick of being on a bus 10 hours a day as was everyone else. We went to Toroko Gorge. It was so beautiful there. We walked around in the park area and on the old road that was dug by the Army during the 50's. In the gorge, there were so many swallows zooming around. The curves of the gorge cause the wind to double back on itself so they were making these super tight high speed turns. It was a little shot of adrenaline just watching them. More driving. No more throwing up. Then we arrived at this little town that is famous for it's freshwater shrimp. They also had a ton of paddleboats out on the lake that the shrimp come from so we putzed around on those for a little bit. Then we were onto the shrimp...or the shrimp were onto us. It turns out the local specialty is drunken shrimp. The shrimp are thrown into rice wine and spices where they die. They don't die for a couple minutes so they are still alive when they get put on the table and still twitching when you eat them. It was definitely an experience. More driving and then we were back at Shi Da. It's strange how quickly a dorm room can feel like home. It was nice to be able to fall asleep in the same, although plywood-esque, bed.

The day after we got back to Taipei a group of us went to Taipei 101. The world's tallest building and home of the world's fastest passenger elevator. The elevators reach a top speed of more than a kilometer a minute, rising 89 floors in 37 seconds. The view was spectacular but it was definitely a touristy kind of thing. It cost 320 kuai for the student price to go up and then another 100 to go to the outdoor observation deck. I wore my brown knee length skirt. That was not the smartest attire for standing over 500 meters up. Think Marilyn Monroe x 10. Tomorrow classes are starting so I'm pretty hyped. I'm starting at chapter 11 and most of the other first years are starting at chapter 6. I've already read through the chapter and I don't think it's anything I can't handle. I'll let you know after I have class though. Wish me luck (and by luck, I mean a hot, single, straight guy with an accent)!