Hanging out with my friend, Ivy : D

 Today I went to hang out with a friend I made online while I was in America. I had to take the MRT train to the "technology building station". I was so nervous I have never taken a train by myself before. But I was going to get over my fears and get on the train. It was a 10 minute car ride to DongHu station. There my host father showed me how to buy a ticket and read the MRT line map. I was going to take the "brown line" heading toward Taipei zoo for 14 stops. It was going to be a 35 minute train ride. So I bought the ticket and got a small coin that said "one ride coin" and past through the gate upstairs to the platform.
When I got on the train I was surprised by how little people there were on board. I then started to look around and notice that this train car is filled with women. I though,"oh no!!! I got on the train car that is only for women". I knew in Japan they had train cars for women. But in the next stop men got on the train car also so I relaxed.
Even though when I got on there was only maybe 9 people on my car about half way to my stop there must have been 40 people crammed into this train. It was so weird being so close to everyone. I finally heard the announcements for my stop. I am so glad almost everything in Taipei is writing in English under the Chinese. Even the announcements are in English. I had to push my way through a wall of people saying "bu hao yi si" till I got out of the train. I followed everyone down the stairs and put my coin inside the gate which opened and let me through. I walked to the front entrance of the station and waited for my friend Ivy to come.
I waited for a little while and then I saw Ivy. Today was very hot in Taipei and she went to change her jacket.

We walked through the campus of National Taiwan University. It was a beautiful campus. I liked how there weren't any scooters driving around.










There was a big event today at the school. They had like a Anime convention there and so many people were cosplaying. They looked like professional costumes too. There were people taking pictures with expensive cameras. We decided not to go to the convention we kept walking till we got back into the city. It was fun walking through the city I am so use to driving everywhere this was a new feeling.

We walked for a big till we got to this old looking buildings where people use to live. Now people do art in these houses. I think the temple with this tree looked beautiful. After looking at these buildings we walked around and go a little lost but found the MRT station. Ivy and me tryed
to find out where we should go next.







Ivy and me. Some how with all our walking we ended up in the red line. So we decided to take a 40 minuitte train ride to Tamsui the last stop on the red line. I bough a train card with 100NTD pre-paid in it and we were off. It was a long train and we had to stand through most of it because there were so many people on the train. I enjoyed talking to Ivy which made the train ride better.

When we got out of the train stations there were soooo many people. We walked around till Ivy turned around and said, "I am lost". haha. We asked a parking person where the river was and we walked to it. There were so many small shops selling everything you could think of.

 I really like Taiwanese sausage. I have eaten a lot of it in the South of Taiwan and have gotten use to the taste.

 Soooo many people. We went to Tamsui the most busiest day every! They have shops with Turkish men in them selling ice cream. But they make it a show by when they go to give you the ice cream he tosses it to his other hand and keeps tricking you while you try to snatch the ice cream from his hand.

This was some kind of egg snack. It tasted so good!! I want to eat more!! It only cost 35 NTD so it was super cheap.










When we were done looking at the sun setting we walked around more and I saw this random Christmas tree. It was getting late so everywhere else that we wanted to go was closing.















This is Ivy and me as the sun is going down. Everyone else was taking pictures of it. I don't blame them it was such a beautiful sight.











That is a small Island that you can take a ferry too. You can see the top of the mountain and the beautiful sky as the sun sets.

 The sun disappearing. It was so beautiful. I want to go again to see it.

We walked up a hill trying to get into some building that was built by the Spanish when they first landed in Taiwan but it was closed.












And of course food!! We ate at a hot pot restaurant. It was pretty good food. Very cheap for all the food we got. When we got done we took the "red line" all the way down and connected with the "blue line" to Grand Taipei station. Here, I borrowed Ivy's phone and called my mother to pick me up when I got to DongHu. Ivy and me said our goodbyes as she took the "brown line" to Taipei Zoo and I took the line going the other way. I had a great day with Ivy she was so nice and I hope I can hang out with her another day soon.