New Year's day

Hey everyone! I hope you had a fun, safe new years eve!
We got back to our hotel around 1-1:30am after the fireworks. We were fortunate that we were able to make it to the subway station quickly after the fireworks ended, and that not many people were taking the train the same direction we were. Dr. Huang was very nice and let us sleep in.
Our first activity of the day was a tour of the Presidential Palace. This was a beautiful building and we were lucky we visited the day we did because about once a month they open the building's front entrance for visitors to tour. It was interesting going around and learning not only about the building, but also about how Taiwan came to be the democracy it is today.
After the tour we went to TGI Fridays for lunch. It was nice to get a good American cheeseburger, but it was a little more expensive than it is back home. This is because it is more "exotic" food to them, as sushi would be to us.
Following lunch, we went to this huge tourist store. It was four floors full of souvenirs, many of of them handmade. I can't wait to head back before I leave Taiwan to pick some stuff up.
We had free time in the evening. I was planning on packing for the trip to Pingtung, but that didn't happen. It was nice to just spend some time relaxing before the next leg of our journey.

Pictures- Presidential Palace; Fridays receipt