Touring the City with Carolyn

"So what's the big plan for today?" I asked my mom as I finished my last spoonful of mango, banana, and dragon fruit smoothie with granola sprinkled on top.
"Well, I thought we would go to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial and watch the changing of the guards as well as many other things if we have time."

Just then, Shin came in and told us we would have to hurry and leave if we didn't want to miss it.
We hoped in the car and drove down to the Memorial, ran up the many steps, and waited with the throng of people. We were just in time! A few minutes later, the change of guards came slowly marching in. It was quite impressive and somewhat long. I thought it was amazing how synced they all were. Every time they stomped or hit the ground with their gun, it sounded like only one person was doing it. Smiling to myself, I noted that their marching rituals almost looked like they were dancing, haha!
It was sweltering hot under the sun and extremely bright, but we wanted pictures of the impressive Memorial afterwards. Plus, Carolyn had never been there before. (We took Carolyn back with us from the States. She's been here a few weeks and will be here for a couple more, so we have been trying to show her everything. It's a good excuse for us to go see things we haven't too!)
Afterwards, we decided to go somewhere that had been recommended by a friend the day before.
"You should really go to the cat city." Jeff had told me.
"Cat city?"
"Haha! Well, it's actually called 'Monkey City' but it's full of cats! There are cats everywhere; cat shrines, and stores full of everything cat. If you like cats, that's the place to go. I have no idea why it's called Monkey town. It has nothing to do with monkeys, and everything to do with cats." he explained.
So, we followed his suggestion.

 "Wow! This place really is full of cats!" I exclaimed as we hopped out of the car and looked around. There were many stray cats laying around. The cool thing was that they weren't really stray because the locals take care of them and tourists could buy a handful of food to feed them as well.
After walking around and buying some cat souvenirs and post cards, we headed off to our next adventure.

We drove to another town, but the road was very windy and we didn't feel too well. It wore off quickly though and we had a lot of fun. This town was known for their lanterns. They have these huge paper lanterns that you buy. You can write or paint anything you want on them, then they start the fire in the middle, and you get to watch them soar up into the sky. It was cool seeing everyone painting their lantern and sending them all off in the middle of the railroad (I'm serious, that's where they did it!)

About half way through painting and drawing on our lantern, it started to pour. Everyone scrambled for cover with their lanterns. It was perfect timing too, because as soon as everyone had cleared the track, a train came through. Thankfully, the rain let up for a few minutes and we were able to send up our lantern. As soon as we sent ours up though, it started to pour again! We had fun running through the pelting rain back to the car.

After we drove back to Taipei, we took Carolyn to the underground mall. It is a large mall under the MRT at Taipei Main Station. We took her to Krispy Kreams, bought some fresh fruit (Mango, guava, wax apples), looked at Chinese dresses and hair things, and many other shops. It was a fun-filled (and busy) day!

One afternoon, Carolyn and I decided to go to the Shilin Night Market together to look around and go to the famous Toilet Restuarant. The first time I had been there was my birthday and it was a lot of fun so, I wanted to take her there. When we got there, Carolyn ordered the poo poo ice-cream (of course!) and I ordered a strawberry Ice. The problem was, our waiter didn't know any English whatsoever! I tried to tell her "No milk," but she just tilted her head and said, "Mik?" Then, I remembered something! I remembered Shin teaching my mom how to say "no milk" in Chinese a long time ago.
"Buyow Nioni" I told the lady (That's the best I know how to spell so you know how it sounds).
"Oh, oh! ok." The lady said.
I silently thanked God that He had reminded me of that so I could eat my Ice without having to worry about having an allergic reaction.
After eating our delicious ice-cream, we walked around the night market.
These are just a few of the fun things we've been doing.