When the sun finally decided to come out, the first thing we did was get on a bikes. Bixi is the coolest bike sharing system ever. $5/day gets you access to as many bikes as you need to get around. You can pick up a bike at one station and drop it off at another. I wish NY had a system like this, but I don’t think our residents are responsible enough to maintain it.

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I’m so Asian. I actually hate having photos taken of me, and the peace sign is a nervous twitch that makes awkward photo ops even more awkward.

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Cruising along the canal.

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I’ve always enjoyed off-season travel. Because I live in New York, the thought of going on a crowded vacation gives me flashbacks to all the times I’ve foolishly ventured into Trader Joe’s on a Sunday morning. (Literally lines out the door.) Vic and I decided to visit Montreal in May figuring the weather would be nice and the crowds would be smaller.

When I landed in Montreal (only a 1.5 hour flight from NYC!), my first thought was, “Where the heck is everyone?” Never have I seen such a clean, empty airport. With an hour to kill before Vic’s flight came in, I roamed around and captured the unprecedented stillness.

My second thought was, “Wow, it’s really French here.” For some reason I was under the impression that half of the population spoke mostly English but when we arrived, almost all conversations were carried in French. I read somewhere that 85% of Montrealers speak French at home, yet almost everyone we met spoke English fluently as well. I was blown away by the flawless bilingualism so now I must learn French. Willing to barter design services for French lessons. Email me :)

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My mom and I went to visit my grandmother in Taipei, Taiwan. This was my first time in Taiwan as an adult and as a whole, it was a great trip full of family time, foliage, fruit, and fake eyelashes.

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There isn’t actually an “Old Taiwan” but the contrast between old and new is very striking. There aren’t that many places that were old in a charming, historic kind of way. Most of the old things were just OLD and needed to be replaced, fixed, or cleaned, but no one seemed the least bit bothered by it. Which I suppose is charming in and of itself.

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The face masks were still a big thing in Taipei. I guess they were hit pretty hard with swine flu. My mom and I met up with her friend’s son who is a quasi-famous pop singer and he said that he rocks the face mask when he’s hiding from screaming teenage girls.

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