Happy Chinese New Year everybody!!!! I spent New Year Eve through Second Day with my mom :3
Hope your year started out on a positive note! Even if you did not, that just means we can only go up from here, right? ( ´･･)ﾉ(._.`)
On Tuesday I had gone to the market with my mom to get some supplies for new year cooking, but when I arrived in the late morning/around noon on Thursday, she'd gotten a LOT more things and had been preparing for a couple days already because my older sister originally said she was having some foreigners over, but that got cancelled right before dinner (///￣皿￣)○～ so that is the reason we have such a large spread for... two people
This isn't even everything my mom prepared originally! (I only helped)
We had lots of yummy food and I brought a lot back to my place because we obviously can't eat this all haha!
On the first day of the new year, Friday, we went to IKEA in a mall and had yummy food. I bought some basic needs for myself at the mall shops, and in the evening we did a video chat with my younger sister in the USA. They are still in lockdown, so she can only cook for herself and her boyfriend on her own. Also Luca (her rescue dog) apparently might have dog autism, but he's such a good boy anyway and he's doing his best!
Taiwan Teddy introducing IKEA lunch
Then on Saturday, my mom and I got up early to walk a mountain path/hiking with her hiking class! It drizzled the whole time, so that was a bit miserable, but not so much so that it really ruined the experience or anything! Just have to be careful because the stone paths are slippery!!
Misty Peaks
We put our extra stuff (snacks and such) at a restaurant in the mountain that we would lunch at. They had two dogs and two cats and a bunch of carp!
In the following picture, you can see the type of stone steps that the mountain walking trails are made of. Really have to be careful on rainy days because the water and the leaves/flowers will make them very slippery! It is difficult for ambulance to find you in the mountain (in one of my mom's previous hikes, they had to call 119 for somebody who had heart pains) so take extra care.
The dog at the front door of the restaurant was stinky and old but very friendly!!
The hike lasted a few hours and it wasn't terribly difficult, but the slopes sometimes got a bit steep for slippery roads so we went slowly. We also too so many photos!
The rain had beaten many flowers onto the path, and that made for some nice photos!
There are often tea farms in the mountains, so the tea at the restaurants are nice! We also passed by some other flowers next to the tea farm. I'm sure this must be some type of edible plant or they would not have grown it like a crop, but it is just very pretty and there was photo places set up for tourists to take photos! Of course, Teddy had to take photos too!
We took a break at a small shop just as the rain suddenly increased, and had some oranges and snacks (青草粿) while waiting for the rain to subside again. They have a decorative hive that they extracted from somewhere. Based on the size of the holes for the babies, I think these must have been VERY large hornets/bees!!!
After making it back to the restaurant, we sat around and ate snacks we brought until the food arrived. They were very busy and full both inside and outside as well as both floors. They had a couple white cats, one of which was very cute and vocal!
This cat hopped up onto a table where the owners' leftovers were and snagged itself a fish head from the soup!
No food photos because too many people eating too fast! haha
How was your weekend? Hope you all had fun times~ I pushed my Twitch Community Game Day to Sunday and played Overcooked 2 on Steam which was very fun! Very chaotic for sure, but fun ^u^v
