Mark and Melissa's visit

It's amazing what can happen in one week. I feel like I have so much to write about! The pictures above were taken during Mark and Melissa's visit. For those who aren't familiar: M & M are friends of ours from Laurier. April, Melissa, and I lived together with another chick Sarah during 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year. M&M have been in South Korea teaching English for one year and plan to stay for another six months.

It was great to see them again! It's been over one year since the three of us got together in Toronto and had brunch with my brother Chris. Their visit was awesome and I got to be a tourist for a few days in my own city.

Because April and Dan were already working, my job was to meet Mark and Melissa at the train station with written directions in Chinese to our apartment. Basically, I ended up waiting on the wrong side of the train station for an hour before finally finding someone who spoke English. I high-tailed it out of there and found M&M standing outside on the main platform. It was really great to see them again!

They were blown away by our apartment and commented that their first apartment in South Korea was the size of my bedroom! Guess we're living in luxury here. They loved the balcony and the fact that they had their own guest room. Hard to believe that we have the capacity to 'entertain' properly.

That night we just relaxed and waited to Dan and April to get home from work. After their arrival we headed for the Rooftop Restaurant. This place is beautiful, very swanky and stylish. It also has a nice view of Koahsiung from the balcony.

The next day M&M and I headed for Chinchin Beach. It was a gorgeous day, lots of nice sunshine and we especially liked the ferry ride across. There were many decorative temples on this tiny island but our favorite part was walking through the side streets where we found an incense shop. That night we headed out for dinner again once Dan and April finished work.

Friday was spent at the highest building in Taiwan (85 stories), at the Sogo shopping mall and at the surrounding markets. M&M found some good deals while I picked up jogging pants, matching hoodie, and tank top. I'm getting ready to join the World Gym in town tomorrow. At night we picked up take out Thai food and relaxed at the apartment. We pulled out my new guitar (!!!) and played some favorites. Even improvised a bit with new and improved lyrics to Harvest Moon by Neil Young. And you thought that they couldn't get any better...

I would have to say that Saturday was my favorite. Dan and April were off for the weekend so we all hung out. First, we visited Monkey Mountain and after a nice hike we found hundreds of monkeys just swinging around the boardwalk! Lots of baby monkey too, so cute! Except when they tried to reach for Dan's pack. They weren't shy at all (probably a result of so many people nearby) and would walk right past us.

After Monkey Mountain we drove to the former British Consulate which has been converted into a gallery/restaurant. It was beautiful and we hit the sunset right on time. That night we had a relaxing dinner at the Rooftop Restaurant (clearly it was so good the first time) and went to bed early. M&M had to get up before 6 am in order to catch their flight back to South Korea. We said goodbye, which is always hard, but maybe not as hard this time because I've decided to go to South Korea for nine days at Chinese New Year!!! Whooeeee!

In other news I started my training today. Everyone is very nice and I have a lead on some morning hours which will start in January. Wish me luck.

love you all,
Rach