Brief, wet, and wonderful

Up till now, our weekends in Taipei have been WEEKENDS: we get there Friday afternoon and leave Sunday evening. This weekend, by contrast, was quite short: we got there Friday evening and left Saturday afternoon. Which leaves me in the unique and oddly comforting position of being back home in Kaohsiung on Saturday night, with a full day of adventures behind me and a full day of rest ahead of me. It's a nice feeling.

This morning came too early, but I was able to drag myself out of bed with the promise of our freaking amazing hotel shower--which had 6 shower heads. Perhaps it's odd how much I've talked about the bathroom at this hotel, but perhaps it's entirely normal once you've been living for a few months with a so-so shower with so-so water pressure and a so-so temperature gauge. I don't know. All I know is, to quote my brother Scott (who is in turn quoting the movie Hot Rod): "The bathrooms here are NUTS!"

Seriously, though, it's hard to AVOID commenting on this thing...

Also, there was a cat asleep on the ledge outside our window this morning.

Anyway, after breakfast, we split up--Karina had to go back to Kaohsiung early for a wedding, and I joined forces with Fonda, Emily, Rachel and Samia and set out on one of the most weather-uncooperative trips we've had so far, right up there with Kenting. (Honestly, I have yet to be proven wrong on my 'personal rain cloud' theory...maybe there's something there!)

When we left Taipei it was warm; I immediately regretted wearing jeans and a light scarf and jacket (still wishful thinking about Taipei weather), and we ended up walking for a good 40 minutes before we found our bus stop--only to have the bus loop around and go directly past one of the first places we saw. Sigh.

The drive to 九份 (Jiufen) was an adventure in itself, along a windy mountain road in a massive bus and fog banks closing in around us and others. In the brief interludes between clouds, we could see parts of the ocean where it joined the green mountains we were in. When we finally reached the top, it was beautiful.

Also, there was an English sheepdog there. He was getting about as much attention as the view.

 Also, it then began pouring rain. And I do mean pouring. We went down the main shopping alleyway, which was sporadically covered or partially covered with various roofs, but without fail these would give way to an open sky pouring water down on everyone. It became a jostling war of umbrellas, in which I learned that being *slightly* taller than everyone is a terrible thing: when your umbrella goes over theirs, a stream of water inevitably finds some dry portion of your clothing to soak.

And here I re-discovered what I've always known about long pants and rain: they're a terrible combination. By halfway through our journey, my jeans were soaked to the knees and my shoes, like everyone else's, were squelchingly full of water.

All that to say, though, it was a blast! Rain notwithstanding, we got some great pictures (on Fonda's camera), saw a hilarious kung-fu parody rehearsal in the old movie theater, ate some yummy grilled onion jelly stuff and (for Rachel and I) marinated meat rice, then ate some traditional yam-and-taro-and-sticky-rice-in-sauce concoction, and then some traditional Taiwanese ice cream with shaved peanuts wrapped in some sort of crepe. After all, if you don't eat traditional food somewhere, you didn't really visit! I wasn't a huge fan of the taro/yam stuff, but everything else was scrumptious.

I'm just gonna have to go back sometime when it's not raining.

The ride back and journey home was less than pleasant, with rain still pouring and clothes still soaked as we walked from our hotel to the MRT station, but I wouldn't have traded the experience for a "perfect" one. It was an adventure! And now, sitting warm and cozy in my apartment in Kaohsiung this weekend, it's nice to have an adventure already under my belt.