Katy in Taiwan: Taipei 101 for New Years!

Friday, December 31st 2010 - Saturday, January 1st 2011

New Years 2011 countdown at Taipei 101 (the second tallest building in the world)!

Eight of us teachers (Laura was in the Philippians and Whitney had headed to spend Christmas with her family in America on the 24th) headed up to Taipei where we said good-bye to 3 of us who were headed to the airport. Meg who was headed home and eventually for a mission to New York - Mandarin-speaking! And Libby and Erin who were headed to Thailand/Hong-Kong/(and for Libby) Beijing! It was a tearful good-bye on the bus and the rest of the passengers must have thought us crazy! (Kristi technically took a train to meet up with her friends and then headed to Taipei, but . . .)

Our last group pic!!! :( Jai-ho ta men!!!!!!!!

Allison, Erin, Kristi, Katy, Meg, Devin, Libby, Lien

I stayed at temple housing and was able to meet up with Kristi and her friends, one of which served an LDS mission in Taiwan and knew of a great dumpling restaurant! We parted ways and I headed for the English Temple session before heading for Taipei 101.

I called Devin and he said that they were in-between Taipei 101 and the stage by some flags . . . sounds descriptive right, well I went with it. I also decided to walk from the Temple to Taipei 101 . . . I could see it down the road . . . two miles later (to be honest the subway might have taken longer due to the amount of people) I literally heard the stage (which turned out to be Mayday, a Taiwanese band I actually like!!!!!) and headed that direction. I actually saw the flags so I headed that direction, but before I got there I heard someone shout my name! Lien had spotted my crazy blond hair and I actually was able to meet up with Devin, Lien, and Allison. They had made friends with some girls and they formed a little circle in the immense crowd of people!

Taipei 101 before the countdown

I got a video of the whole countdown, but couldn't up-load it here, so here's the youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AN6vMCpwUU

It's almost 8 minutes long, but end of the countdown and the start of the fireworks is at 1:00

Taipei 101 after the chaos!

Finally, I headed to find a taxi home, this proved very difficult due to the mass of people also looking so I just headed what ever way the crowd took me. Chaos

Pic of the mass of people from a bridge I got herded up.

Eventually, I stepped in front of a taxi and got safely back to temple housing!

Saturday, I slept in, went to an afternoon session, and headed home early at 6.

Everyone loves a compare and contrast right? Look at the picture above and imagine that night, now look at the picture below and feel the peace. Saturday was truly a peaceful welcome to the new year.