Day Twelve

Yang and Roske in motorcycle gear.

It feels like we've been here forever! in a good way. Taipei is super fun; public transportation is awesome and easy, so we can do whatever we want, whenever.
Before all this, though, check it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U
It is a must-see. You will probably melt with warm heartfelt feelings of goo.

Anyway, today we woke up feeling like shit (swimming=using muscles) because we didn't sleep very well. We ate some lunch, drove to the jade market and the temple, where we asked for our fortunes.

It's not exactly fortune telling, but it's a fortune of sorts. What you have to do is take incense and introduce yourself to this god, Win Tsu Gong-- let him know your name, when/what time you were born, who was your father... where you live. Then you take these cashew looking toys, that if you put them together they look like a whole cashew? and they're each flat on one side. So you're suppoed to take these cashew things and ask him a specific question-- you ask him whether or not he can give you advice on something specific-- whether or not your boyfriend is a guy you want to be with, or if you should take risks in finance, etc-- and when you throw the pair of cashew halves down, there are three possibilities: if the cashews are the same side facing up, that means you have to ask again, and the answer is not clear. If the cashews are the same side facing down, same difference. If they are different-- one facing up, and the other one facing down, then that means a positive confirmation. After that, you draw a stick from a tub of numbered sticks, and you do the same process over again, this time asking if that is the correct numbered stick. If he answers negatively (cashews facing the same way), then you choose another one, until you throw the cashews and they come up facing opposite ways. Once that happens, you take the fortune labelled by the number stick you drew and he confirmed.
IT's crazy.
Both me and Sarah did it-- I had to re-do Sarah's because her ancestors and spirit aren't in tune with the Asian gods as much-- "communication problem", as my dad said-- but they were pretty interesting answers, considering what we asked. It was one of those things that made you think really hard, and second guess your own motives or decisions. Mind boggling.

After temple, we went home and chilled before we headed out to the waterfront. The metro was packed, because it was a Saturday, and everyone was out and about. Especially where we were going-- it's the popular waterfront park/nightmarket in north Taiwan, just north of Taipei-- Danshui, which means "clear water". Once we got there, we walked around, ate dinner, and then me and Sarah went shopping at the Shilin nightmarket again. Because it was the weekend, it was impossibly packed-- human traffic jams in the streets! We saw a bunch of white people and scowled at them.

After that, we were exhausted and headed home, but then we got super hungry. My dad had been waiting for us outside the apartment complex (as I predicted!) because we had returned pretty late. After hearing us whine about our pooooorrr empty stomachs we went out to eat. What a wonderful day...

Some cool dancing kids we saw at Danshui; those poor bastards were sweating like crazy! But they were awesome, in an Asian choreography kind of way. And they were sweating hard for complete strangers.

Beatie Boys have come onto my iTunes, so I'm off to chillax!!!

Over and out, chirren!!!

R&Y

ps: holla out to goth pagan witch, I miss u dearly!!!!