Maritza- Second Day in Taiwan

Day two; what an amazing day! We met at the school at 8 AM and rode the bus to Taipei. It is about an hour bus ride. We went to the National Palace Museum. We learned a lot about the Taiwanese culture and traditions. The tour guide was an amazing and knowledgeable individual with a great sense of humor. Taipei is a large city with over 2 Million people (that is what Olivia told us this morning). It is hilly and surrounded by mountains. It is beautiful. The rain, the clouds and the fog made it very interesting and intriguing (at least to me). After an hour and half at the museum (I will let the students tell you more about what we saw there) we went to eat at a restaurant next to the museum. We experienced a lot of different dishes, but the main course was noodle soup that to me was excellent.
We went to the famous Taipei 101 building, which again, it was hard to appreciate due to the rain and fog. We rode the elevator to the 89th floor where the observatory is located. We took the high-speed pressurized elevator that only took 40 seconds to reach the 89th floor from the 5th floor. It was pretty impressive. Even though it was raining, we were able to see parts of the city from the observatory. Students spent a lot of time posing and taking pictures of each other but mainly learning about the second tallest building in the world. Lala and Connie, former exchange students came to see Gena and I today. It was pretty cool. Thanks girls.
The last stop of the afternoon was “The Memorial Hall and Gardens”; a dedication to the memory of Chiang Kai-shek, a former president of the Republic of China. It was built few years after the death of the president. It reminded me of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. We skipped the zoo due to the lack of time but mainly because of the rain.
We got back to Tao- Yuan after 5PM and students were picked up by their families. Hopefully the students will tell you details of what we did today.
FYI- Tao-Yuan County just reached 2 million people.