my whole sleeping pattern is out of sync so i'm still awake. anywho, hong kong was incredibly humid, and toss in tons of people on the streets, and it makes for a not so comfortable outting each day. but i got to go to street market things and buy cheap, but often somewhat useless stuff. i got cell phone faceplates, vcds, and a cute paul frank monkey bag. i did indulge in yummy dim sum and other good chinese food. oh, and i went to this peninsula place - it's not a real peninsula but a buildling/complex named the peninsula plaza or something like that. anyway, it's this plaza that has designer stores like chanel, salvatore ferragamo, and minolo blahnik, etc and the dining area has afternoon tea in the british tradition. so my dad and i had afternoon tea. haha...it reminded me of when gene hackman and gwyneth paltrow go and have a tea party in the royal tenenbaums, except without the hostility. :)

after a couple of days, we went to taipei and spent the rest of the week there. it included more shopping at the many night markets and stuff. the area where we stayed was right around where my parents went to college...so i heard a lot of "in college this is where mom and i went...blah blah blah" from my dad. we also had dinner with some of his friends and stuff, and that was alright. i spent the evening sitting quietly hoping no one would ask me anything. they kept calling me "mei mei" and the term for "little friend" which pretty much means child/kid. yea...the whole time i was there i felt like i was 6 years old. ah well.

clothes shopping was interesting. apparently all their "normal" sizes are like the petite/massively small sizes here. plus, apparently they like to wear their pants butt-tight - so bottoms were out, but the shirts and tops were ok. they still have esprit there and they were having an end of season sale so i picked up 2 skirts and 2 shirts for under $9! the bummer was that shoes over there don't fit me. my monstrously huge feet can't fit the biggest size shoe they have. one lady tried to convince me that the shoe will stretch out - my toes were curled up at the toe of the shoe and didn't have room to flatten out at all. she really wanted me the buy the shoes.

so aside from being accosted at the night markets by the overwhelming amount of shoppers and vendors vehemently trying to sell their wares, shopping was a bucket of fun.