Start in Taipei! (12/20/12)

Hi everybody,

Greetings from Taipei! Yay! We’re here!

We have been welcomed by so many great friends! It’s so cool here!

Although the streets are kind of confusing, every way you turn you see a cool store or food stand!

Real milk tea boba! Did you know that you can order it "panda style"? With both white and black tapioca?

Speaking of food stands – we had REAL BOBA today! There’s boba and then there’s Taiwan Boba! The tapioca was fresh and perfectly chewy, and the tea was strong but not overly sweet so you could really taste the tea. This is what “pearl milk tea” is supposed to be. I don’t know if I can have boba back home ever again.

Today we met some of David’s ALC friends for dinner! There were a lot of interesting dishes – like intestines, kidneys, and blood jelly. Sure, for an American, it’s different, but definitely good!

But perhaps my favorite dish of the night was the sweet warm red bean soup with rice cake. It’s apparently a traditional winter dish!

It was really fun because everybody got together and was all dressed up in Christmas colors as the “dress code” (except David of course because he’s oblivious to everything). I like when everybody dresses up and matches. We took pictures and shared gifts, and it was really fun!

Anyways, it has been a great start to our trip! So much fun! Stay tuned!

-Sumi