Sick Days in Tai Pei Peis

*Written August 18, 2012*

Yesterday and today I've been super sick. Yesterday was worse than today, when all I did was eat light noodle soups and bread during the day.

Last night we managed to venture over to Taipei 101 just to take a peek - we didn't go up because we were in a rush to get over to meet some folks at a different metro stop. Taipei 101 is the second tallest building in the world (was the first from 2004-2010, when Dubai's Burj Khalifa took over). 

I didn't bring my camera, so here is Taipei 101 courtesy of my iPhone camera + Instagram

We then went over to Longshan Temple's night market - called "Snake Alley" because they sell snake products - to meet up with Dylan and Ellery (one of Tim's friends from Beijing who now teaches English in Taipei). I was too sick to eat anything. Torture.

From the night market, Tim, Dylan, and I went to Ximen's Red House area yet again for some drinks (I stuck with plain old Coca-Cola). We were joined by Sebastian and Oscar for a bit before we went and joined one of Dylan's friend's going away party. There I met Laredo (a hilarious and very blunt Taiwanese guy) and Darien (a Taiwanese guy who studied in Australia and works for Manhunt). The party was fun, but I would've enjoyed it more had I not been so sick.

Me and Dylan. Rockin' the red eye look. Also courtesy of my iPhone and Instagram.

Today I tried introducing dumplings back into my diet, thinking that I needed something other than noodles and bread. We wandered around looking for dumplings, but didn't find any so we settled for noodle soup. We did wind up finding dumplings on the way back, so we had to stop. We ordered two of every kind of dumpling, a dumpling Noah's Ark of sorts. 

After that we came back to Tim's place and planned out the rest of my time in Taiwan before Dylan came over. We played Loaded Questions, which is an awesomely inappropriate board game that Tim brought from the States. 

Later in the evening we met up with Sebastian, Ellery, Ellery's friend Maya (an awesome Taiwanese chick), and Navan (Dylan's South African friend). We got a ton of shared dishes and beer. Perhaps not the best thing to do while sick, but hey, I've been feeling a bit better.

Taiwan Beer

Sashimi 

Some sort of beef dish that was delicious 

Shrimp - om nom nom 

Maya 

Navan 

Ellery 

Tim 

Cabbage 

Egg and shrimp 

Chicken, peanuts, and dried chilli. SO GOOD 

Sebastian acting goofy 

Shenanigans  

"So famous in Taiwan"

Dinner was followed by a Language Exchange - where people meet up in a small restaurant, get drinks, and chat in whatever language they want to practice! I met Belen and Alejandro, two awesome Mexicans studying Chinese here, and Vicky, a Taiwanese girl studying English. Alejandro, Vicky, and I chatted for awhile about East Asian-Latin American Relations, politics and culture in our countries, and a few other things. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought.

From there, Dylan, Tim, Ellery, Navan, Laredo, and I made our way to Twiice, a gay club under a church. The club reminded me a little of DC's Apex (may it rest in peace). They played a lot of K-Pop, C-Pop, Taiwanese pop, and American pop. I noticed a lot of guys were dressed in indigenous clothes made to look gay, which I thought was a bit odd. It wasn't until they began playing indigenous-house remixes that I realized it was indigenous night. Hands down one of the coolest club experiences of my life.

Despite being sick, I've managed to have lots of fun the last two days - mostly because of the people I've met. I'm so grateful for the friends I've made!