Day 8: Taipei

helllloooooo!! I'm so amazed at how many people are reading this blog, not that I'm complaining like! Well today started with a journey down to Taipei as this is where we are staying until we go home. The journey involved 1 1/2 hours on the High Speed Rail which went at 296 km/h. Was quite a nice journey but it was raining when we got to Taipei. We walked to the YMCA which is where we are staying for the next 2 nights. It is quite nice, smaller than the other place and not as grand but still pleasant. The bed doesn't feel very comfy but it will be alright for 1 1/2 nights (gotta be up at 3am on Saturday). Well when we got there we went for lunch with Ben & Stephen in the restaurant in the hotel which is an American diner so I had a rice omelette with a hamburger which was yummy but bizarre. After lunch we said goodbye to Ben & Stephen which was sad as they are the two who have looked after us the most but they had to get back because there has been an earthquake this morning in Chaiyi (where we were staying). After lunch we settled into the hotel for an hour before being picked up by the General Assembly where they took us for a tour of the city. They showed us the grand hotel on the tour which was pretty impressive and had some nice views. After our tour we went back to the General Assembly Offices where we met with the General Assembly Secretary who answered any questions about the Presbyterian Church as a whole and showed us a video on the general work they do. He was quite interesting but kind of difficult to listen to as he barely moved his lips when talking so meant that he mumbled a bit. However, his English was very good and definately better than my Taiwanese. After his talk, we met Caris and Paul so that was quite good talking to other English people!! We all chatted before walking to the restaurant which was a mixture of Taiwanese and Burmese and very nice indeed! Here I had quite a long conversation with Paul and a bit of a laugh about some of the things that have happened whilst we've been here so that was good! After dinner we got the MEtro back to the hotel and said goodbye for the night. Me and Angela then finished the night with a trip to buy a new hand luggage bag thats bigger as we have no room or weight to spare and a trip to Starbucks :) Am now in the hotel room after a lot of trouble with the internet chilling out after what seems like a busy day but actually we've not really done that much!! xx