As nobody has to work on the Monday (New Years Day) we decided to take a little scooter ride to the Shihmen Reservoir. As everybody slept in from the night before, we didn’t really take off till about 3 pm. Like home, it gets dark at about 5 pm and so after the hour scooter ride (after take a wrong turn) we only had about an hour of light before it got dark.

On the way, Amanda took a few pictures from the back of a scooter. What’s interesting is that the Taiwanese people (maybe Chinese as well) bury their dead in the side of mountains. Amanda says that once a year there’s a holiday where it is custom to go into these burial sites and clean them.

Once at the Shihmen Reservoir we took a boat ride which cost $100 NT ($3). This boat ride took you throughout the Reservoir and took about 1/2 hour. The boats they have there are pretty shady. They kind of looked like they have been doing the same tour for the past 40 years. By the time we got back it was pretty much dark already. We quickly walked up some stairs to a statue, and then grabbed some coffee’s from a local vendor (bottom right of the pic).

On the way back to the dorm, we got calls that some other people from the dorm had found a T.G.I.F.’s. I guess having been in Taiwan for so long, everybody WANTED to go there badly. To me it didn’t matter, as I could easily get that kind of food at home anytime. After a little searching, we finally found it. I had some delicious ribs while the others had fajitas.

Amanda had to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and I joined her for class on Tuesday and Thursday. On the Tuesday class we took a bus - $15 NT ($0.50) each to downtown Taoyuan. From there looked at some temples and grabbed a Starbucks and took another bus to her school. This school is kind of in a shotty neighbourhood. Well, at least I think so. Actually most of Taoyuan looks like a shotty neighbourhood if I think about it. It was fun to go watch her teach. These kids are super cute and its neat to hear them speak english. It was alot of repetition over and over again. They learn words and then repeat them. They also learn hand movements with words (it’s called something but I forget). I guess it helps them learn it?

The rest of the week was just spent hanging out at the dorm, and walking around the area. For breakfast (ok by the time we were up it was lunch already) we would walk to the local coffee shop at the corner by the dorm. There you could order egg and bacon sandwiches (which included cucumber in it..go figure), dam bing - which is kind of like an egg filled crepe (didn’t really enjoy it too much) and glorious coffee. The coffee from this shop was different. It was made with liquid sugar (fructose I think the bottle said) as well as condensed milk I think. Whatever the case, it was delicious and the coffee shop was frequented every morning.

…the adventure continues