First weekend

Omg my roommate is just too nice. She brought me some pineapple and it was the sweetest pineapple ever. Looked/tasted like it was candied. Seriously crazy good fruit that this here island grows.
She also took me along to this dinner that she had with two of her students. We had Beijing Kao Ya (Roast Duck) which was such a fun experience with all the different things that you do with the duck and stuff. My roommate also took me to this mall near us, which was super cool and I saw that Japanese Ikea like store. Except it had just like really boring colors. Not as interesting as Ikea, I guess. They have some very bizarre baths and creams here - to make you whiter and also that supposedly sucks the fat out of your body. Except it has pepper, which makes me think that it must not be very comfortable. And there was this little fountain for cats that had water that circulates. Cute.
And then I turned in early for the night to get some sleep.
Woke up and went to the market with my roommate. I got all this fruit and some tomatoes.
And liang2mian4, which is like cold noodles with this sesame sauce on top. Delicious.
Then I went running with Ann, which was fun times. Also sweaty sweaty times. Taipei is the sweatiest city I've ever been in, by far. And I put on sunblock every day because the sun is just too intense. And I bought a dictionary! Yay for knowing what words mean!
Ann and I wanted to go to a movie.
But then fate intervened.
We were starving from having exercised and whatnot, so she got a bun and I passed by this place that sold eggs. And I was like mm I could totally use some protein right now. So I went in and bought an egg but called it a pi2dan4 by mistake (thanks Ann) and the owner was (very joyfully) like Oh are you not from around here? And we told him that we were American students learning Chinese. Which led to about 2 hours of tea, smoked swan, duck intestines,
pork and beef, and lots of Chinglish conversation with the owner, his friend, one of their sons (we couldn't figure out which one was the real owner, because both modestly deferred to the other) named Audi. (By the way, his sister's names are Benz and Jag. That's right.) He spoke great English - almost accentless. It was a really interesting way to practice Chinese.

And then we saw Prince Caspian. Which was really good, even though I haven't seen the first movie or read the books.
In the last post, I forgot to mention the epic search for a purse at Shilin that ended in fail. I wanted a bag big enough to hold my books, but had none with me. So after the movie, Ann and I went in search of one. I got goggles, too, for swimming.
And a huge, orange bag.

ok just one picture, because this is too good to miss.
So yea that was Sunday. Classes on Monday! Oh no! Scary scary.