Chinese New Years and my new peeps!!!

Its Chinese New years here in Taiwan! My new friends and I all headed out to Taipei, which is the biggest city in Taiwan to check out the scene. I met up with some really great girls who are also teaching at the same camp as me in a couple days over in Tainan. We stayed at a really great hostel, JV's hostel where we met people from all over the world. We made friends with some great Swedish guys, met a handsome French guy, some other folks from Australia, England, Korea, etc.

Over our five days off...we were constantly on our feet eager to make sure we squeezed in as many activities as we could. We went to the hotsprings and the boardwalk on the beach which is north Taipei, went to the zoo (which was the best zoo I have ever scene!!) and also took the Maokong Gondola to explore the tea plantations. One of the pictures shows the view (its dark!) from where we sat and chatted over tea. It was stunning...you catch the gondola which is about 30 minutes straight up...it drops you off on one of the highest peaks in Taipei, so you feel as though you can see the entire city.

Sadly, on the 3rd day of our vacation, I caught a pretty bad cold. I was concerned it may be due to the pollution...my throat burned, my body had aches and chills, and I felt completely out of it. On the 4th day I pretty much stayed in the hostel and slept trying to recoup. Still, two days later...I am still very ill. I cant stop coughing, I am very stuffed up...and have lost my appetite. Tomorrow we all head back down to Tainan by bus..which is a 6 hour drive. I am foreseeing a long nap!!