I had my first date with Catherine tonight...good stuff.
We met up and headed over to Alleycat's for dinner. She is from Myanmar (Burma), so I doubt that she has had too much exposure to good pizza...Alleycat's didn't disappoint. We chatted, ate some slices, and drank some red wine. It was a great dinner. We knew pretty much nothing about each other, so this was a good time to answer all the requisite questions.
After dinner, we headed over to the Lantern Festival. It was at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. The lanterns were incredible. There must have been 50,000 people there, it was packed. We made our way through the crowd and took some great pictures. Catherine's English is pretty choppy, but we did OK. She is a lot of fun...great sense of humor, likes to giggle.
After awhile, it began to rain. We hung out for about a half of hour thinking it might let up...nope, it started to pour. We quickly made our way back to the subway station. We were both soaked and decided to call it a night. While we were waiting in line at the turnstile, she mentioned that she had a great time and wanted to go out again next weekend...alrighty!
We said goodbye and headed our separate ways.
p.s. I'll be posting pics from our night out tomorrow.
The entrance into The Lantern Festival. So many people. Catherine is incredible at weaving her way through crowds. She lead the way for much of our time inside, we were able to avoid standing in many lines.
It's the year of the pig, so most of the lanterns were pigs and piglets.
Catherine was excited to get her picture taken. This is a good thing because I run from the front of a camera.
I love the colors in this one...cute piggies.
I guess this lantern was the centerpiece of the festival. You can see the entrance to the memorial in the background.
I think this was my favorite group of lanterns. The detail is great.
The big lantern from a different angle. It changed colors throughout the evening.
Catherine again. She is cute, very photogenic. This is just before the rain began to come down hard.
Inside the subway (MRT) station. Check out the guy on the right. He has, what was supposed to look like, pig's ears on. To me, they look like devil's horns. An incredible amount of people crammed into a small space. All of these people had to find their way through about 10 turnstiles. A logistical mess.
This is Gavin. He is my co-boss. Him and his wife run the show. He is a terrific guy, always has a smile on his face. One of those guys that's just fun to be around.
The Chiang Kai-Sheik subway sign. CKS is the George Washington of Taiwan. The subway stop lets you out right in front of the giant memorial.
This is class 1035. They are one of the reasons I love my job so much. An incredible bunch of kids that really inspire me. The little girl in the green and white shirt and the boy on the far right are my favorites, amazing kids.
There I am. You folks are always clamoring about not seeing me in enough of these pictures. I hate having my picture taken! This is just a random group of kids hanging out near my desk. Cindy, in the red, is brilliant! She is now in high school level English. She is just in 2nd grade in her regular school.
a coi pond located inside the memorial.
one of the buildings erected in honor of Chaing Kai-Shek.
this building is at the entrance. the design is incredible, so ornate.
this is the entrance to the memorial, that's Kelly on the left, she loves to take pics.
Me and Kel. Check out my hair, it's frightening.
The stutue of Chiang Kai-Shek is inside this building, it's really cool.
