How many times can I go to Danshui in one month?

So Saturday turned out to be a ridiculously long day.

I went to bed pretty early (relatively) Friday night but I just could not sleep. At one point around 3 a.m. I decided that I would just pull an all-nighter and I spent the next two hours talking to friends back home and looking up information on internships and TEFL.

Around 5 a.m. I decided that maybe a little bit of sleep is better than none at all so I went back at for another attempt.

It failed.

Finally 7:30 a.m. rolled around and I hadn't slept a week.

Long day indeed.

My first class I was a bit groggy and found it a bit difficult to form sentences. This is generally not a great performance for an English teacher. I perked up a bit in my second class. I like the kids in there. They're a bit more enthusiastic than my first class.

During my break I made an appointment to go get my haircut and then I hung out at home. I debated a nap and decided that if I didn't keep going full-steam ahead that I would probably lose all my momentum

It's a good thing I made that decision.

My Saturday afternoon classes are pretty rambunctious and I only barely got through them with enough energy. Luckily, they have pretty good English and they're a pretty entertaining bunch. This put me in a pretty good mood.

After the third class I decided I wasn't going to let myself go to sleep before 9 p.m. because I need to regulate my sleep pattern. So instead of going straight home and passing out after class I went to Carrefour for some dinner and then Starbucks for some passion fruit tea.

I studied Chinese for a whole hour and a half.

But it worked. When I got home I was exhausted (brain and body). I took a super hot shower and passed out in my wonderful air-conditioned bedroom. I woke up quite easily at 9:30 a.m. today. After stretching and taking my time to actually get out of bed I quickly got ready and the roommates and I headed over to the dorm.

I grabbed some good ol' dan bing for breakfast (dan bing is probably my favorite thing ever) and then we and a couple others from the dorm headed to Taipei.

A few weeks ago the plan was that we were going to rent bicycles and ride around the city taking pictures. About 15 people were interested.

Somehow the plan evolved into going somewhere random in the city and breaking up and taking pictures. My camera battery turned out to be dead. (How does one own two camera batteries and BOTH are dead?)

The concept is cool but I personally don't think it worked out as well as we had imagined. I think that might have been because we were all still a little tired and maybe we didn't pick the best location. Research would go a long way in this department, but then I suppose it would also defeat the purpose.

After failing to find anything particularly interesting at Tian Mu (I did talk to a tattoo artist in Chinese) we went over to the Shilin Night Market. It's huge but it was still pretty early so it wasn't very crowded. I found a few things that I liked but I'm such a wuss that I didn't buy any of the dresses.

I did, however, buy two scarves that claim to be 100 percent Pashmina. I sort of doubt this considering I only paid $100NT for it (ahem, $3USD for Pashmina!?!?). They're still quite pretty, though, whether they're Pashmina or not.

After traipsing around Shilin, Katie, Tess and Deena decided they were ready to head back to Taoyuan but Dawn and I weren't quite ready yet so we headed up to Danshui.

I know what you're thinking, how many times can I go to Danshui in one month?

But it is a really nice place and I like it. And we were already halfway there as far as where we were on the MRT line. It only made sense.

Besides, the best Mexican restaurant in all of Taipei is there. How can you NOT go to Danshui?

I promise I will branch out and go somewhere else.

Now, only six days until Meghan arrives in Taiwan. I can't WAIT to see my Meghan again! I also can't wait to be on vacation. Yay!

But, with Meghan here, and only having a few days in Taiwan, I have to take her around and show her as many places as I can. I'm planning a day at the hot springs (probably Beitou, but maybe Xiao Wulai) and a whole Taipei day where we do the usual touristy things (101, Wu Fen Pu, etc).

Then it's off to The Philippines for five whole days! I can't wait.

What did I just put in my mouth?

I don't think I've had a more productive day since I've been here.

I stayed home Saturday night and put it to good use just chilling out and doing nothing that was in the least bit demanding. I watched Black Hawk Down and then proceeded to "watch" all the NCAA Football I could.

I watched most of the Florida game until the UT game started at 3:30 a.m. I am determined not to waver in my status as a dedicated Texas fan. So I went to bed wearing my burnt orange with my computer in bed next to me with the Internet radio stream of the game and the CBS GameTracker on.

I was in and out a little but I got through most of the game pretty easily.

I even woke up in and out for the USC vs. Ohio State game.

I love college football.

Despite the all-night football extravaganza (which will be pretty much every Saturday night/Sunday morning for the rest of the season) I got up at 10 this morning to go to Danshui.

I met a lovely couple from Georgia recently and they invited me to go on this day trip with them.

It was certainly the best idea ever. I forgot my camera so I have to wait until I can get Joslyn and David's pictures but for now I'll just tell you about our day.

Danshui used to be the primary fishing port in Taiwan (now Keelung is) and the place has a ton of history. It happens to be on the delta where one of the major rivers meets the ocean. It's also across the river from Bali another fishing town but I think that Bali is a little more modern.

First we walked around Danshui Old Street which is essentially a big board walk. There's a bunch of street food (and seafood, and street seafood for that matter) and tons of funny carnival games and arcades.

We walked all the way down Old Street up to Fort San Domingo which was built in the early 17th century when the Spanish came to Taiwan. Soon after the Dutch took over and rebuilt the fort and it has changed hands a couple of times since then. It was eventually used as the British consulate office.

Then we walked down some other insanely busy street until we got back to the riverfront where we took the ferry down river to the Danshui Fisherman's Wharf.

Now that fishing isn't the primary economy in Danshui the Wharf is essentially a big promenade/boardwalk.

We found "waffle trees" which are basically waffles in an elongated shape so you can put them on a stick. They were pretty good.

At the wharf we staked out a spot on the pier and watched the sun go down. The Wharf is situated on the sea wall (which totally makes sense) so it was literally riverfront on one side, ocean on the other side and the big blue horizon. It's kind of awesome to watch the sun go down on the ocean. Danshui faces west so there was nothing in the way.

Then we ferried back to Old Street and ended up at the Night Market.

The Danshui Night Market is much larger than the Taoyuan Night Market. But a night market is a night market. It's all food and cheap clothes.

Speaking of food, we tried so much new street food today.

I've already mentioned the waffle tree. We also had "shrimp" eggrolls, quail eggs, this super tall ice cream cone and this big dumpling turnover thing. I'm not sure what it's called exactly but it has rice noodles, leeks and eggs in it. It was really good.

I think it's a little easier to get up the nerve to try the street food when you either have someone with you. Even if they've never had it before and can't assure of how awesome it will be, at least it's a shared experience. Though none of us got up the nerve to try the squid on a stick or the squid balls. Maybe some other day.

Danshui was 12 hours very well spent and I feel so much more enthusiastic again about being in Taiwan. I think all of you commenters were right. I just have to force myself to get out there and do things. I feel so much better now.

Hooray, Taiwan!