A Family Affair in Asia!

What a fantastic holiday season! I can't believe that we're already into 2012 - time just keeps moving. It was the first time I haven't been home for Christmas, but it was worth it because my parents came to visit me in Taipei! We had a wonderful time, despite the travel disasters at the beginning - their flight out of Denver was delayed and THEN they got stuck in Tokyo for a night! So 40 hours after their expected arrival time, they got here. We hit the ground running because of the loss of time, and managed to fit in more sightseeing than I've done the whole time I've lived here. We visited the tea plantations, Chiang Kai Sheik Memorial Hall, the night market, the National Palace Museum, and even the Taiwanese movies :) We even managed to make the traditional Kuisle Christmas breakfast casserole in my little apartment oven. It was great!

Mom and Dad ready for their first ride on the MRT!

Successful ride up to the tea plantations and ready for our first legit Taiwanese tea ceremony.

Family pic at the Chiang Kai Sheik Memorial Hall!

Posing with the dragon :)

Of course we had to take a pic with the Japanese cut-out man at the ramen place!

So glad he survived all those delays to make it to Asia!

Fancy Christmas Eve dinner at the W hotel!

Done with dinner and ready to go home and make our breakfast casserole for xmas morning!

The day after Christmas, Dad headed home and Mom and I headed to Vietnam! I have always wanted to visit Hanoi, and I was jumping at the chance to get to go this Christmas. We head a fabulous time in the city staying at the fancy Hilton Opera (executive floor = free drinks...ballin!) and going shopping. We also made it to Ha Long Bay (one of the coolest places I've ever visited) and spent a night on a Junk - really cool! I definitely would recommend it to anyone who wants to go. The other thing we did that was amazing was a bike tour through the countryside outside of Hanoi. We had a really cute little tour guide, Hue, who took us all over the local national park and some cool old towns. It was super fun, but I'll admit that both of us were happy when the van picked us up and we didn't have to bike home! We got back to Taipei just in time to watch Taipei 101 explode with fireworks on NYE. What a great end to the crazy year of 2011!

Hoan Kiem Lake - please take notice of the excellent photo skills.

Ready for our first Hanoi museum! Pretty ghetto to tell the truth.

Yummy Vietnamese food!

We crashed the Metropole Sofitel Hotel  for some photo opps. We loved our hotel, but definitely could have stayed at this one...

First afternoon in Ha Long Bay - ready for some kayak action!

Mom paddled while I was in charge of taking pictures...I guess I'm the lazy one :)

Breezy day pic in our life jackets!

How awesome is this backdrop?!?

Indochina Sails! Our trusty ship.

Caving! Creepy and cool at the same time.

Ready for some bike action! I can't even remember the last time I wore a helmet like this.

Another picture taking victory courtesy of my new, fancy camera! 

Hue probably got tired of taking our picture.

Couldn't help capturing this shot!

Can't believe we're actually in Vietnam! Such a cool bike ride.

Visiting the Temple of Literature in Hanoi.

We got accosted on the street by a banana selling lady who suddenly put all of her props on Mom.

And managed to put them on me as well! I was not very pleased about the hat.

Trying to capture the essence of traffic in Hanoi - fancy camera style.

Past Two Months in Review...

Well I was right in my last post...it's been awhile since I've been able to write. I just didn't think it would take me two months to update my blog! There has been a TON going on, and now all of a sudden I am done with my first semester here. Therefore, to commemorate successfully completing half of my first year, I am writing a "two months in review" post as a photo montage. Enjoy!

First Trip to the Taipei Zoo (gorgeous October day...and great zoo!)

Posing in front of the Taipei Zoo!

Giraffe love! So cute.

Bahaha so hilarious.

Self-pic success! And even some cool lighting, too!

First Taiwanese Halloween! (group rainbow costume)

Totally rainbow colors...and some extra costume add-ons!

Bowling Birthday Party (Zach's bday party at the bowling alley that literally looked straight out of the 70s)

Preparing for our first Asian bowling experience.

Totally the Dream Team of the bowling party.

I had forgotten how much I dislike the look of bowling shoes.

Ready to throw a strike!

Thanksgiving in Hong Kong (Got out of Taiwan for the 4 day weekend and shopped till we dropped!)

We took the gondola up to the famous Big Buddha...very cool! 

Posing with the Buddha :)

Group pic after a delicious meal! 

Cool (and slightly cheesy) laser light show over the Victoria Harbor.

Travel buddies!

I got to meet up with Stella for lunch! Great way to end a wonderful trip.

Livin' it up in Macau!

Disclaimer: The next few weeks are going to be really busy so I won't have much time to post! (Not that I've been very good about it anyways...but it's just been a crazy whirlwind of a life these past few months).

BUT for now, here's a post about my first visitor (yay Lauren!) and our trip last weekend to Macau. Lauren got here last Thursday late night and I was SO FREAKING excited!!! I didn't realize how much I've been needing to see someone familiar. Sadly I had to go to school on Friday, but since Lauren is an expert Asian traveler, she managed to site-see all around Taipei all by herself - and saw more things than I have the whole time I've been here! The school day felt like it took ages, and when 3 pm finally rolled around, Lauren arrived right on time at the front gate to get the full tour of TAS. We also managed to fit in a visit to the night market before our early pick-up to Macau the next morning.

Ready for our 6 am pick up!

Passports at the ready!

We went to Macau with Georgina, Lori and Cory and stayed in the snazzy Venetian (same one as in Vegas, just way bigger!). It was so nice to get a break from work and from Taipei...as soon as we landed in Macau I was pumped! We had huge rooms, fancy dinners, and great pool time. Lauren brought all the fun clothes and the bathing suit I ordered with her, so I was totally ready to hit the town...and the pool :) We also managed to take the ferry over to Hong Kong on Monday, so now my passport has even more stamps! Score.

Four days did feel awfully short though. And Lauren had to leave on Wednesday morning, which made the re-entry doubly rough. I'm already thinking about the next vacation! Just 6 weeks of lots of work to weed through before then...

Poolside and ready to relax. 

Getting ready to watch the Cirque show (although we never really understood the plot line...).

Looking good for a night out on the town!

Time for a stroll amongst the mix of Portuguese/Asian streets!

Total Asian tourists.

Visit to the Macau Tower...some crazy people like to bungee jump off of it. Not us!

Yummy dim sum in the dim sum capitol of the world...Hong Kong!