Eduardo Melendres - Jottings

Jan. 5, 2013

It was New Year's Eve when we finally arrived in Taipei. Our friendly tour guide picked us up at the airport and took us to the Hotel Santos. We quickly got settled in our hotel and decided to explore the city. Exiting the hotel to the right I saw the first Seven Eleven. I had done my power presentation on Seven Eleven so I was really excited to finally experience the store for myself. The Seven Eleven was exactly like I imagined. I had the chime I remember from the video when you walk into the store. The food and drink selection was super. I will be definitely getting some gifts to take with me home.

Once leaving the Seven Eleven Anthony, Leroy, and I proceeded to walk down the street and look at the shops. We found a shoe store that had really cheap Nikes. I was hoping to buy shoes in Taipei because I heard they would be cheaper and possibly have different styles of shoes.

We got hungry and decided to go looking for some local food stands to try the food. We found a stand to sold sausages that looked delicious. Anthony bought three and we each got one to try. One interesting thing was that the gentleman that was serving the sausages had a bloody mouth when he smiled which was quite disgusting.

Being that the sausage was not enough food to fill our bellys so we found a local street vendor who sold some amazing and delicious soup. I'm not sure what kind the soup we ate but it was so hot and delicious that I didn't leave a single drop. Prior to order our soup, a gentleman who saw us struggling to order came over to help us. He spoke good English and helped us order our soup. After helping us order he introduced himself as Lou. He was an English major and 19 years old. Lou stood by us the whole time while we ate and spoke to us about his school and asked us questions about where we were from. Lou was surprisingly very friendly and genuine. Subsequently, we finished our soup he walked us to his house were his family had built a temple. The temple was very unique and beautiful. Lou went on to tell us about the temple and how people would leave food to be blessed and come back in a couple of days to pick it back up. We even picked up a souvenir after we gave a small donation. After we decided to go back to the hotel and get some rest and Lou gladly accompanied us to our hotel where we went our separate ways.

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Last updated or reviewed on 1/15/13