7/4

Today we are meeting up with my college friend, Ellen, and her husband, Hans, and her 4-year-old daughter, QQ. Ellen and I have known each other for 30 years!!! She went back to Taiwan around 2003 or 2004 and we've met up maybe 3 times between then and now.

Ellen is treating us to hibachi at Brother Hotel.

The food was of course amazing!

Unlike other hibachi places, this hibachi makes their dessert from scratch! And they make you popcorn if it is your birthday month. QQ, Bogdan, and I all have our birthdays in July!

Then Ellen called an Uber to take us to Breeze Nang Shan for our i-Ride experience. Hans works for i-Ride so he got us VIP tickets to experience 2 shows. We experienced "Fly High over Taiwan" first and there were many places that we've visited during this trip: Taipei 101, Tainan Anping, Tai Tung, etc. It was pretty cool. We also got to "dived" in the ocean for a little bit. The second show we experienced was "Changan Above: A Soaring Journey through the Great Tang." It was beautiful! But this one didn't include English subtitles, and it was reciting lots of ancient poems, I don't think any of the teens understood what the show was about. The view was amazing though!

Since it was still pretty early, we walked to "North Tobacco Factory" which was converted into a pop-up market. But the Taipei Dome next door was hosting one of the most popular pop group, Mayday's concert, so we felt like the whole Taiwan was at the same place. With that many people and the humidity from the overcasting clouds above, we decided to head home instead of walking around more.

I thought the i-Ride experience was pretty cool, but the 2 teens thought obtaining the sparkling soda of Attack on Titan was the highlight of the day, then I have to add the regular flavor of BTS Orea cookie!