Taiwan from Kathryn

Hello all!
Okay okay. I'm the worst blogger of them all. I get it. I'm sorry. But I mean really, no news is good news right? Honestly the reason I haven't been blogging is because I've been having too much darn fun!
Taiwan was absolutely amazing. Really. What a hidden gem. I was taken in (thankfully) by my uncle David, his fiancé Jarlin, and his daughters Claire and Sonja. David is a professor at the National University in Zhongli, so his house was right on campus which was so cool getting to see the students and buildings.
Over the course of my 10 days there I ate way too much delicious food (spicy beef noodle soup without the beef, so many cool fruits, but most importantly
David's stirfry. Yummmm), saw some incredible temples, went to the east coast to Fulong to see the ocean, sent off a lantern in the town famous for the Lantern festival Taiwan hosts each year, got a tattoo (sorry mom and dad!), spent way too much money at the night markets (hello new Birkenstocks!), saw an incredible waterfall, made it to the 90th floor of Taipei 101 where the fastest elevator in the world is used, and got massaged from hand to foot. Most importantly I learned all about a land and a culture I knew absolutely nothing about.
Taiwan is lucky enough that it hasn't gotten too many tourists pouring in and out of it the way most Asian countries do, which was really cool to see, but unfortunately (for me) no tourists means not a lot of people are able to speak English, and my pale skin that is shocking even to Westerners combined with the blue eyes and huge feet meant lots of staring. But everyone was so nice and so ready to try to speak the only English they knew (Hello!! How are you!!), while I was able to pick up a few phrases that I'm not even going to attempt to type out, but that meant thankyou and hello!
Luckily, I had Jarlin and David who were always ready to translate for me whenever I was trying to talk to anyone or buy something. I could not have asked for a better trip. I was able to see the beauty of Taiwan, but at the same time have a bed and room to myself where I could relax every night and family around me. It was definitely a home away from home, which after 3 weeks of different beds almost every night was heaven.
I am so thankful for Jarlin and David- without them I would have laid in bed for 10 days before getting my butt to Thailand to meet the girls. They were amazing tour guides and even better hosts.
After a tearful goodbye I headed off to Bangkok where I met up with the girls and I'm sure they already have or will be blogging about our time there, as they are much better than I am at this whole thing. I will say that Bangkok was amazing! Met a great group of people, visited some amazing spots (like the Lebua sky bar where the Hangover 2 was filmed) and maybe drank a little too much Thai whiskey.

Missing you all immensely and hoping you aren't all too freezing back home! Joanna, I imagine that you already have a fire burning- though that may not be a good idea if you're trying to write papers- if you get too frustrated DO NOT throw them in the fire. Throw Willy instead :)
Love to you all!
Kathryn.