-windy words-: taipei time

I didn't really do much yesterday. I tried to get a haircut, but had to go meet up with someone with my mom soon after, so we didn't have time. I also did not bring my camera out, so no pictures unfortunately. I went with my mom to her friend's place and was left to surf the internet while my mom and her college friend sorted through old pictures from her college years. The classmate gave me a whole bag of CDs that were donated for Cambodia, but he couldn't take all of them, so he told me to choose some if I wanted. Too bad I couldn't listen to all of them to see which ones I liked. We had dinner there then went on home. See? Not much.

Today was more eventful. I actually got my hair cut this time! I don't really know if it looks good or bad - I chopped a lot off. I went to some street vendors and got some oyster omelettes [蚵仔煎 - o a jian], and some BUBBLE TEA for NT$25 (which is like, 80¢!) yum yum!

can't really see my haircut here...

mmm... green bean flavored and passionfruit flavored

I then went to the 2/28 Peace Park [二二八和平公園] as recommended by my sister, and was not disappointed =). On the way...

Taipei train station

a typical street: there's a small section reserved for the scooters that can stop up front

a typical bus stop

It was very pretty with all the monuments and trees. My mom loved the big old trees and their interwoven roots and such.

me and a water buffalo with one of those interwoven-roots trees in the back

The squirrels here are fatter and darker-furred than the ones in America. The ones in America usually don't let humans close to them at all, but the ones here probably love food too much to stay away haha.

hehe i'm close to a squirrel! It's eating rice.

There was also a nice calm pond with some koi swimming around, and five gazebos that were erected in honor of the 2/28 event. and these "wine bottle palm trees".

a koi swimming around

lily pads

me with some gazebos

wine-bottle palm trees

see "Taipei" in the back?

some kind of bell

My mom went to go visit another friend of hers and I went to visit the museum about the 2/28 disaster. I guess every place has a little tragedy of their own.. History lesson! Basically what happened was that it was a cultural clash between the Taiwanese who were recently freed from 50 years of Japanese control and the Chinese mainlanders due to the long-term separation. The incident itself was caused by the attempted arrest of a woman who was selling illegal cigarettes. An innocent bystander was killed and that started a whole chain of executions and wrongful imprisonments of locals and officials.

the Taiwanese welcoming back the Chinese

the scene of the initial shootings on 2/28

sculpture depicting the hurt families

The main attraction of the park I would say is the monument in the middle of the park that honors those who lost their lives in the 2/28 violence. My mom commented on the fact that if this was America, there would be lots of coins thrown in the water from the tourists haha.

no coins!

cool pathway

hi!

who will be my other half? HAHA

Afterwards, I attended my mom's college church group reunion (my mom was sorting pictures for this event before). The food was amazing!! Hahahaha, that was all I was there for! Saw some familiar faces, and met some new people as well.