Friday night was my 27th Birthday and I was blessed to celebrate that night in Taiwan! The entire week was good weather, warm and not rainy. Friday night two of my classmates from Taiwan University Language Chinese were also celebrating their birthdays. I received a FB invite and realized it was my birthday too! So we all had a big party together in the park with friends. I didn't know most of the people but it was a good, chill time to talk and laugh and share our Taiwan time together.
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| Giorgio (b-day boy), Merliu (b-day girl), Beth, Tina, Anna and Me(b-day girl)! |
Beth and Tina gave me a beautiful purple orchid that I will cherish and care for as I would a baby until my time here is done.
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| Beth and Tina brought a cute cake! |
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| Some Cat's Teachers stopped by to wish me Happy Birthday and it was great seeing them outside of school! |
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| Jessica came into Taipei that night and surprised me with a wonderful gift! A collage of photos from our year in Taiwan (thus far). They were laminated with captions in Chinese. : ) She's the best. |
The next morning, I taught my Saturday class and afterwards we headed to Wulai for some hiking and hot springs. Wulai is a beautiful place about an hour by bus from Taipei where you can hike, enjoy food that is a bit more aboriginal and go to free, 24 hour hot springs. These springs are the coolest, and better than Beitou (in my opinion) because and only because they connect right with the river and you can actually jump into the river itself in between hot deeps in the concrete pools to cool off. After the hike and dinner it was night time which only added to the tranquility. The white steam could be seen coming off the water and the air smelled of sulfur.
A make shift shake housed the "steam room" which was splashing the scalding water unto a rock quickly and repetitively to make steam. I tried my best but ended up scalding my friends' feet.
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| Wulai Bridge |
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| We encountered some obstacles on the trail from the landslide last summer. |
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| But it was too late to turn around so we triumphantly overcame. |
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| and enjoyed the sneak attack adventure. |
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| In fact, we smiled in the face of danger. |
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Until we reached the end of the hike and arrived at the beautiful waters of Wulai.
Then to dinner...
 Type of candy
 Great fish, vegetables,bamboo shoots, sticky rice, soup, greens and mushrooms on the lazy susan!
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mochi balls...hum!
Sunday night was hot pot dinner with just Nathaniel and Jess. It was great to spend some time with just them and enjoy the all you can eat vegetables and meat for 2 hrs! We got our moneys worth and saved lots of room for the chocolate fountain and all you can eat Hagen Daz ice cream at the end. 2 hrs hot pot buffet is about $15 USD, totally worth it!
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| Buffet of fish, vegetables, tofu and mochi! |
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| Jess and Nathaniel reading their congrats card signed by the entire family. |
Type of candy
Great fish, vegetables,bamboo shoots, sticky rice, soup, greens and mushrooms on the lazy susan! 
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