ilha formosa and beyond

at bk, the architects, guest house. all the walls slide open so the inside becomes the outside and vice versa. SO cool! sabrina is obsessed and here captured enjoying what might be the best day of her life.


sabrina and ivy looking like farmers before we went on a wee, but gorgeous, boat cruise down a tree covered waterway.



road ragers!

tiny cute street in lugang, a historic town.



night market in taipei



this is the guy we bought betel nut from. betel nut is some kind of thing off of a palm like tree that when you chew it, it makes you feel all hot and flushed. truck drivers chew it and usually it is sold on the side of the road by busty babes in scandalous outfits who might be monetarily convinced to also give you a "massage." mom, i know you wanted pictures of a babe, but this is all we could come up with.



this is me and sabrina, just outside of kenting, which is a town inthe south everyone goes to for the beach. we are SO excited to be on the beach, alive. because we had just arrived via rented scooters. which was mostly fun because you were actually scared death was imminent and then glad when it wasn't.


this is me and musee and nubby, the ever present stuffed animal, infront of a huge buddha being asian tourists. we've opted for the bunny ear peace sign, and not the regular kind. we think its more authentic.


group shot outside a museum in taichong, sabrinas home town. we're lookin' fly!



SINK IN A TREE TRUNK!
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**pictures came first this time because i couldn't figure out how to make them come last. so, maybe look at them, read the post, and then look again?**
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hi everyone! i figured that for the few more days i have a computer completely at my disposal, i should update the blog and put up some pictures. i am still in taiwan with musee, a friend of the girls and mine from lawrenceville. she is living in taipei and i have been lucky enough to stay with her and her family in their awesome home for the last few weeks. taiwan is and has been so great. i wholly recomend coming if you get the chance. i might even say that you should go out of your way to get here. the people are helpful and accomodating and the food might even be consistently the best that i've had on the trip. so my time in taiwan has been spent mostly eating, but also doing some sight seeing, taichi with mrs wu, getting to know taipei and musees fab friends, and taking an AWESOME road trip with musee and her friend sabrina (and ivy too, for a bit). we were on the road for a week and went around the whole island, starting in taipei, and then working our way south on the west coast (taichong, yunlin, tainan) and around the bottom (kenting) and then back up the east side (dulan). taiwan is really diverse and tropical (we stood on the tropic of cancer!) and has mountains and beaches (sometimes right next to eachother), fruit and coffee trees, temples and the tallest building in the world. the people are also really diverse, with many groups of indegenous people, and various histroical migrations of mainland chinese and japanese. the island is unique to mainland china, and has a really prosperous economy. on the road trip the things that stood out most to me were this: 1. excelent food. in many place here, there are night food markets, like a carnival of food everynight for dinner. here you can get all kinds of delicous noodles, pancakes, puddings, meats on sticks, fruits and veggies and juices, stuff in wraps, soups and dried food. lots of people go for dinner and we do too. sabrina, in particular, is fond of squid. ivy likes these little sweet cakes, i like this spring roll thing, and musee was really into the stinky tofu. so, there are many options, as you can see. 2. the gorgeous and inventive architecture. everywhere we went (including a fabulously fated visit to the home of an architect) the interior spaces were visiually pleasing, thoughtfully arranged/constructed, and so unusually smart. often, we would go into a gallery or a book store or a bar or a restaurant, and there would be a floor or wall smashed out to make a door or a ceiling. i would NEVER have been so bold to think to do that and it usually always look raw and great, really opening the space. 3. i might actually like pop music. sabrina and musee made some delightful mixes for the trip and i have to say, i didn't hate them. so, hopefully the pictures explain what i have been up to for the last little bit. i've been having a wonderful time and will truly be sad to leave here on monday, but excited for the next bit of the adventure - japan! i fly to osaka on monday and will be in japan for two or so weeks. it will be excellent and i am the MOST excited. being in asia is way cooler than i thought it would be and in life, i hope that i am fortunate enough to come back many times. i hope everyone at home is great and i miss miss miss you all!

love katy