Taiwan adventures

So I feel a lot less tired now which is really great. Jet lag is not super fun. I have really been enjoying my time in taiwan and it has actually been extremely relaxing. This may be the most I have felt relaxed all year. I have been going to bed around 9 or 10 and waking up around 6... which sounds early but is a good 8 hours of sleep. I wake up, go get breakfast, take a shower, read a little, check e-mail, maybe talk to justin a little through skype and then by around 9 or 9:30 Jenna wakes up. Its such a relaxing way to start my day. I then get to spend all afternoon with jenna walking around taiwan. Jenna goes to work around 3 or 5 depending on the day and is gone until 9:30. I get to explore taiwan alone all afternoon. I have not had this much alone time in...well... i cant remember. I forgot how refreshing it feels. I usually fill my time with people but since im here I cant really do that. I have lots of time to explore, read, nap, whatever I want to do! I really want to sit by "love river" and read but its so incredibly hot that I need to wait for the sun to go down. Its definitely in the mid 90's. In america I shower every other day. Here, you get dirty so fast! I dont know if its the heat or air pollution but my hair gets greasy half way through the day and im breaking out from all the heat and sweating so much. I never really feel clean. Thats the only thing I have found that I really dont like here. Everything else is pretty fun :)

So I went to the night market last night and walked around which was a lot of fun, not to mention hilarious. They LOVE anything that is really "cute" and sparkly, like really crazy sparkly jewelry or little cartoons and animae. They attempt to write english on things but its so broken and most of the time does not make any sense. Its hilarious! My favorite thing to do is to read all of the t-shirts. Its fabulous entertainment. 

I had to use the bathroom in a department store the yesterday. It was a "squatter" toilet which means it is basically an oval in the ground and you stand over it and pee. There was a sign in the stall that said "line up to keep it fresh" haha. I laughed so hard. 

Out of all of my adventures so far the most amazing of all was my asian message. I have had a head ache since I got to taiwan because my back was so tense from traveling. I tend to get tension head aches a lot but from being on a plane for 23 and a half hours and carrying my giant back packing bag on my shoulders I was hurting. I passed a little store front message parlor and saw that an hour long message was only about 20 U.S. Dollars. I decided that I would get one while jenna was at work tonight. I had NO idea what I was in for. This tiny little innocent looking asian woman with beast hands gave me my message. Now I like my messages pretty hard but I have never experienced anything like this. I was honestly in pain. She was so rough! I kept telling her softer which at first she didnt understand but i kept saying "ouch!!!" and I think that is pretty universal. She finally got it and would be a tiny bit more gentle for a minute or two and the regress to her more brutal state within minutes. Some of the things I was not accustomed to when compared to previous messages was 1. having her message me with her feet while walking on my back. (she would dig her toes into my butt which actually hurt a lot haha) 2. smacking my back with open palms extremely hard (I felt like I was being beaten!) 3. having her take a towel, wrap it around my neck and then, holding the ends of the towel, yank the towel twisting my head violently to the side which cracked my neck a million times (i was afraid i was going to end up paralyzed) 4. stretching my legs to the point I was almost folded in half with my nose touching my knee ready to cry. (I kept saying ouch and she just laughed and smiled at me haha). and 5. cracking my fingers 6 different times through out the message, which, by the way I HATE when people crack my fingers. All of that to say, it was quite the experience. I do have to say that upon leaving my head ache was gone and my back actually felt a lot better. It was very painful but apparently helped a lot. I feel great right now but im not sure its an experience I would want to go through just to "relax". I feel like she should have been wearing black leather and hand cuffed me to the message table she was so rough haha. Well... it was definitely an adventure! 

I think im going to nap for half an hour and then go to the river to read and maybe get some gan mien (dry noodles) because its all I know how to order here. All I seem to eat here are noodles, which I love, but they start to feel like a giant brick in your stomach after eating them constantly. I am actually starting to crave fruit and veggies... which i normally dont like all that much. Starch gets a little old after a while and its only been three days! I think there may be a serious possibility of me turning into a noodle!