Some final thoughts on Taiwan

The countdown is down to just two weeks. I can hardly believe it!! I've done two touristy things in the past week and a half that I promised myself I would do before I left. The first was visiting the National Palace Museum again. I went there back in December when Charlie was here, but didn't see all that I wanted to. So I went back and saw a lot. It's nearly impossible to do the whole thing because it's huge. The museum holds the largest collection of Chinese art in the world and is on the same scale as the Louvre and British Museum for European art. But, I saw a good bit of stuff, mainly paintings, religious figures, some ceramics I hadn't seen when I was there the first time. The second thing I did was Yangmingshan National Park just north of Taipei. I saw the famous Flower Clock which is a huge, circular flower bed and is actually a working clock. I also saw the Siaoyoukeng geyser which, of course, reminded me of Old Faithful and all the geysers I saw in Yellowstone National Park. I'm glad I finally got to the place everyone's been telling me to get to. You can see my pictures from that adventure here.

Some final thoughts on Taiwan:

I'll miss....
-Convenience (As in always being able to run for milk at any hour or get money out of the ATM anywhere)
-Inexpensive and delicious fresh fruit and juices (perks of living on an island)
-Being able to eat out so cheaply and never having to cook

I won't miss...
-Relying on public transportation (I'll probably take this back after my first visit to a gas station at home.)
-Air pollution
-Crowds

Well, that's it for now. You'll probably get one more post from me while I'm here!