last weekend--i'm a little bit behind with my updates!

over the weekend i hung out with some of the girls--a birthday celebration for one of them. it was great to get to know them better and they're all very sweet... this is me and the birthday girl at "peace cafe."


on sunday i went to Taipei for a yoga class. i decided that i don't really like my yoga studio as well as i thought i did (the honeymoon's over, Pure Yoga!) i'm beginning to see that beyond the slick exterior and ultra-serene-urban-oasis and super-stylish yogis in their $200 yoga outfits is... a slick interior and super-stylish yogis and not a lot of heart. it makes me sad because yoga should be FULL of heart and life and emotion. when you fall out of a pose, you should laugh and let others laugh with you--not get flustered as everyone in the room glares at you. it should be an exploration. my yoga-spirit feels squashed there. so i guess i'll have to pay the cancellation fee. and come up with an explanation for Ping, my membership assistant. >:-|

after yoga, i set off on a quest to find a vegetarian restaurant that i found online. i had copied down the characters for the address in hopes that a cab driver would understand! it was near the MRT stop by the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, so i took a quick look at that and snapped one picture, but my rumbling stomach made me hail the first taxi i could find! he understood my chinese handwriting and dropped me off at the front door of the little restaurant! unfortunately, they didn't have an english menu, so i told the waiter to pick something for me. it was a nourishing, comforting meal of squash soup and a creamy rice dish with mushrooms and other baked vegetables. i finished with a delicious cup of tea and then got another taxi to go back to the Memorial Hall and MRT. i found out that "Chiang Kai Shek" is pronounced differently in English than whatever his name is in Chinese, because my cab driver had absolutely no idea where i wanted to go. i finally remembered that i'd taken a picture, applauded my inner genius, and whipped out my camera to show him this:

...a gate-like structure in front of the CKS Memorial. of course, he knew exactly where it was and took me right there! then i had time to stroll around the enormous park. it was beautiful, quiet (how i miss the sound of silence!), still, and even smelled a bit like grass and dirt. ahhh. i climbed the 84 steps to the top of the memorial (CKS was 84 when he died), but because it was dark, they had shut the door on the building housing the large seated statue--that looks similar to our Lincoln Memorial.


so cool! i'll have to go back again when the doors are open! and after i've done a bit of reading up on Chiang Kai Shek--i thought he was some sort of dictator here so i'm a bit confused about the enormous memorial. i'll keep you posted!