Day 1 (Monday): While my aunt went to get an appointment for her consultation, my mom and I dropped off my stuff in the dorm room and began walking around.
This was oyster and tripe noodles. And since I'm clearly not a fan of oyster and tripe noodles, I gave all the "goodies" to my mom and just had...noodles.
We waited for my aunt to get back from the hospital and then made our way to Din Tai Fung for dinner. They must make thousands of dumplings every day.
My absolute favorite 小菜 (appetizer): pickled cucumbers with garlic&peppers
I didn't eat this, but I'm assuming it's dried tofu skin something
The super cute steamer man! They used these as the table number holders
Fried pork chop
My aunt and me.
Their famous dumplings
When you take a bite, a little pool of soup comes into your spoon :)
So on Day 2 (Tuesday), I had my Chinese placement test as National Taiwan University (NTU) in the International Chinese Language Program (ICLP) building. Since I overestimated the size of the campus, and have a major lack of directional ability, I was the only one late to the 9:30 start time. And so I was forced to stay later to make up what I missed. I did find out later that while I was the only one late, there were at least 10 people who missed it completely (due to various reasons). So the saying "better late than never" was certainly true in this case.
After that, I only had 3 hours until my oral appointment with the teachers, so I tried to meet up with my mom and aunt, but with a dead cell phone, I ended up eating in ShiDa night market. This ended in tragedy when all of the baozi juice spilled all over my jacket and scarf. Following my interview, I was able to meet up with my mom and aunt, and we went to the Taipei Main Station for dinner. Since my aunt had forgotten something back in the hotel room, my mom and I ate beef noodles without her.
So delicious! The broth wasn't at all oily.
Days 3 and 4 have no pictures at all. On Day 3 (Wednesday), we took a subway and a bus ride to go visit my mom's old neighbor who lives in Nangang. She was waitressing at a restaurant, so we ate while visiting with her at the same time. She later took us to a place called Diet 365, which had healthy juices with various benefits. I drank the Beauty one: strawberries, apples, tomatoes, and yogurt. Not the best tasting drink, but I did notice that I looked fantastic afterward ;) My aunt went to her consultation after, and so my mom took me shopping at Sogo, the Breeze Center, and other shops near the Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station. I stocked up on heat pouches at Cosmed, and we left early to get foot massages near her rental. For dinner, we stayed nearby and had porridge. Fermented eggs and tripe in theirs, and chicken, egg, and mushroom in mine. My aunt and I also went to get crepes for dessert in the ShiDa night market.
Day 4 (Thursday) was my first orientation. It was the EAP UC student orientation. This, of course, wasn't that exciting, but I did get a chance to meet up with some of the students, especially during the 10 course buffet we had for lunch. We had hamburgers, pizza, quesadillas, salad, soup, spaghetti, and the usual type of things Taiwanese people think we like. My mom and aunt were waiting my dorm lobby when I got back, and we went to Wu Fen Pu, a shopping alley that's known for their cheap clothes. My aunt got several tops and I found a jacket for 500NT. We ate a place known for their minced meat rice, and my mom and aunt got a variety of animal innards at a local stand. Then they packed up and went on the high speed train.
The entire time was fast-paced and tiring, so by the time I was done with my ICLP orientation on Friday (aka Day 5), I was exhausted. But I forced myself to stay awake until at least dinner time so my schedule wouldn't be entirely off. Unfortunately, I slept until 12:30pm, so I'll try again another night :)
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