Hello Taiwan

We arrived in Taipei last night around 9:30 pm. Poor Ivy had to wait in the non-citizen immigration line (she was born in Florida) which was insanely long. Oooh, by the way, I fell in love with the snacks they gave us on China Airlines:

Much tastier than peanuts. So good that Ivy and I went to 7-eleven today to buy some. We woke up bright and early the next morning and went down to our complimentary breakfast at the hotel:

Peanuts, cucumbers, salty egg, veggies, steamed pork bun & soupy rice

Afterwards, we went with my parents to do a TON of paperwork stuff (health insurance, national ID cards, immigration, bank accounts). We spent all morning waiting in lines, but stopped for lunch at this uber fancy seafood restaurant with my dad's friend Iris.... it was a 9 course meal for lunch... and they gave us hot towels in between every course. Not kidding. I didn't like the food that much...I think it was too fancy. Wish Chris was there .. he would've eaten all the weird stuff. Here's some photos:

Cooked salmon roe, raw salmon roe, and a snail

Soup with mushrooms, scallops and black chicken

Jumbo shrimp baked with eggs and I think mayonnaise (this was the best dish)

After lunch we finished up paperwork and walked around some department stores and then met my mom's friend Patrick and his family for dinner. I was still stuffed from lunch but managed to eat 2 Peking duck burritos... VERY tasty:

After dinner we went to a night market to walk off all the food we ate. It was fun. The market sold just about everything and was open really late. Not sure what time they closed but it was still crowded at midnight when we left. We bought shoes ($11) and hair clips ($1) and my parents bought arm length gloves ($3) so that their arms don't get sun-tanned when they do their gardening. Night market pic:

Oh, and Lynette was right. It's hot here. Unbelievably hot and humid... though I think I'm faring better than Ivy and my parents... they've been spoiled by Cali's dry heat, and I, unfortunately, have survived two nasty Boston summers.