Happy Birthday Bo & Bro!!

Life has been very busy the last several days. Lot's of school work, sight-seeing and socializing. This past weekend was my roommate Bo's birthday and also my brother Rob's. Happy Birthday to you both! We had a great time celebrating here in Taipei with Bo. Luckily Rob was out of town celebrating and not in Chicago. The hardest part of living far from home is hearing about family get-togethers. Selfishly I'm glad not to endure hearing about a birthday dinner at the parent's house with the family and Mom's cooking...

Here are pictures from this past weekend...

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. It was my third visit there, but we found out a lot more about Chaing Kai-shek this time around. Turns out he was pretty ruthless and was responsible for killing thousands of "suspected" communists. There is apparently talk of renaming the memorial and removing Chaing Kai-shek's statue.

Kate at the changing of the guards at CKS Memorial Hall

Memorial Hall

Memorial Hall

Taipei 2-28 Memorial Museum. It's funny the museum is across the street from CKS Memorial Hall; you get two very different pictures of who Chaing Kai-Shek was. In 1947 there was a government crackdown on black market items such as tobacco and alcohol. There was an incident on 2-28 where a woman selling black market cigarettes was beaten by a government official. A man trying to protect her was then shot. The incident triggered protests all over Taiwan. The government responded to the protests by torturing and killing thousands of Taiwanese, some estimate 30,000 were killed. The victims were mostly intellectuals and political activists.

Sergio in front of the noodle place where we had lunch. A Taiwanese guy saw us floundering in the park and took us to lunch. Probably the best meal I've had so far in Taiwan.

Noodles with pork, soup and pork dumplings.

Yummers...

The "massage" walkway in Peace Park.

Celebrating Bo's birthday at Roxy Rocker

Bo and Me. We had the best night...

After a few beers... We really liked this bar. There's a room in back that's filled with records. You pick through the albums and listen to whatever you want.

On Sunday we went to Fulong Beach. Beautiful...

Kate and Mario