First Hike

Last Saturday 爸爸 and I went to my schools fair to enjoy some interesting foods. We first spoke with my English teacher and had a long conversation about how me and the other exchange students feel quite separate from our classes. Which a lot of the time we have to literally be separate from them in order to learn and we do not understand most classes so we often are separated by that as well. We first bought sandwiches from the stand my class was running and they were very delicious. Hash browns and chicken nuggets from another stand were also good. We bought a lot of deserts as well. Cheese cake, brownie, ice cream and deep fried Oreos which were surprisingly nice. Having school on a weekend means that my school has Monday off, yayyy me!! After we went and looked at the high school 爸爸 went to and checked out their sports day. Close to the high school was Confusion temple. The great Chinese ancient teacher. I learn a lot of him and what he did and how people pray at those specific temples. They usually pray for good grades. On his scooter we went to the top of a little peak where a temple is and looked at the inside of that as well as all the stands on the way up the hill. There were also many stray dogs. 
As well as Sunday, stray dogs everywhere. We went to the same mountain, Tiger Head Mountain 虎頭山 (hu tou shan) but this time we went on a hike. We ended up hiking the opposite direction from where we had planned but it was a cool adventure. We hiked to a look out over Taoyuan 桃園 where we had gone previously to see the night view of 桃園. It was a long hike but more sideways than uphill. The forests here are so much different than Canada. In Canada everything is so spiky and going directly up where as here everything has more of a round windy look to it. Alike to vines but could be any kind of plant. Not so tall also. There are stray dogs even up in the trails and signs saying don't feed them but I did see a couple spots with bowls and dog food. I would for sure be one of those people sneaking it up there to feed them. I saw a very large dog at the look out we went to and it wasn't the nicest of dogs but I felt very sorry for him because everyone was scared of him and mean to him, telling him to go away and trying to get their dogs away from him. Poor thing, every time I see a stray I just wish so much that I could help them and I would but I have no idea how.
On Monday friends and I went into Taipei 台北 and wandered around Taipei 101, the third tallest building in the world and one of the most gorgeous I have ever seen. I am not sure how many times we all got the chance to blast music on a speaker (on display) and dance while everyone would stop and stare. There was even a dancing video game in one of the hallways that we stopped and played and crowds of people would watch then eventually keep walking then another crowd would cone around. It was super fun. All the stores inside the building are only for people willing to spend a lot of cash. Michael Korrs, Tiffany&Co, Gucci, Versace, Dior, and sooo many more. My favourite though, was Jadegia. A store that sold only authentic jade items. It was beautiful. I love jade and I wish I could afford to buy so many things from that store but sadly I can't even afford one. After we left two people from the group had to go home. The other two and I stayed in Taipei and actually walked forty five minutes to a store my friend insisted on going to. We saw so many cool stores and cafes along the way. I got a really good cookies and cream donut for so cheap. We also stopped in a clothing store that we all loved and agreed that we have to go back there again to actually shop instead of just window shop. I saw Taiwans version of a snow man, a giant statue of a snowman that looked exactly like one... but made of metal of course. We finally got to the building with the many stores in it and in the first store we walked into I encountered some genuinely rude people. I think that's the first time since being in Taiwan. I mean, there are things people do here often that in Canada we would consider rude but here is normal so its not. But they were just genuinely rude people. I was kind of surprised and a little put off by it. We left that store quite quickly. We wandered the building for a while and it gave me some ideas for new headphones. I found really nice wireless ones that weren't too expensive and am considering getting them later in the year. Of course we had to end up walking back forty five minutes and were quite tired by the end of it. Both my friends were complaining their legs hurt but for me it was my back. My body is used to walking, just not in the city on flat ground. I'm used to hills. Many hills. I don't think my back likes flats all that much. We bussed home and all got home on time for curfew. That's super important here. Especially on a rotary exchange.
Then the next day I woke with an awful cold. I pushed through school but got home with a fever. I rested all last night and didn't attend school today. Well actually, I went for lunch because they had my favourite spaghetti but went home right after because I wasn't feeling well again. I rested tonight and was brought my favourite food from my favourite place by 爸爸. I now need to rest again so I hopefully will be better for school tomorrow.