Three Whole Years!

Feb. 7th was mine and Lee's 3 year anniversary (gasp!) and the day was just too insane not to share it with all of you! So it started off with a little sweet gift exchange and then we quickly left for Taipei, where we had a full day of fun and adventure planned out ahead of us. As usual, it went a little off the beaten path! On the train ride there, we were trying to call a Traditional Chinese Medical Clinic to go and explore the foreign world of acupuncture! This is supposed to be a very succesful treatment towards Lee's allergies (and I was just getting it for fun!) Meanwhile, we had no such luck communicating with this place, but luckily for us a young woman overheard us and offered her help; turns out she personally went to acupuncture on a regular basis and made us an appointment at her clinic, and then she generously gave up her afternoon and escorted us there!! This place does not have any English-speaking employees, nor is it on the train line, so we would have had no way of getting there if it weren't for our new friend (named Power!!). We cabbed there and she stayed while Lee and I got treated: Lee on his face, me for my back. It was an exciting and unusual experience!! It didn't really hurt, just pinched, and we laid in relaxation for 15 minutes with needles stiking out from all parts of us! We both felt weird and tingly after, but not for very long. Power then escorted us to the nearest train station where we treated her to some Starbucks and just chilled for an hour :o)
Next on our list was something that Lee has been CRAVING ever since we left Canada; you guessed it, ice skating! We (eventually) found the one and only ice rink in Taipei and it was the funniest sight I have ever seen!! First of all, when we walked in they informed us of their mandatory glove-wearing law - weird, but okay - and their requirement of us to wear HELMETS!! I knew this was going to be funny... We both refused and had to sign a waever, stating that we understood our 'impeding danger' :o) When we walked into the arena, before my eyes was appr. 300 Chinese people awkwardly skating round wearing knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards and helmets! All bumping into each other, falling to the ground, hanging onto one another for dear life and screaming as each one dropped to the ground over and over again! You can only imagine how hilarious this seemed to us, 2 Canadians who grew up ice skating, 1 who was practically born wearing a hockey uniform! The next hour and a half provided a life time's worth of hysterical memories! My only regret is not having taken a camera :o(
Around 6pm we left and walked around the city for a while before going to this highly recommended restaurant, The Cafe Onion, for dinner. Lee and I shared delicious 5-course meals for very cheap; yogurt fruit salad, chowder, garlic bread, salmon, rizotto, I got mushroom chicken and Lee had boneless ribs, with a drink and chocolate mousse cake for dessert - we couldn't walk by the end of it! Everything was delicious and the service was so fancy, I had a great time!
The rest of the evening we walked around the city exploring different areas and shopping before heading home round 11. The whole day was like a puzzle that just fit together for us; each thing we wanted to do was magically timed out perfectly, we barely made both of our train rides, we had random, kind strangers helping us with directions all day, the weather was 20 and sunny and we got to see and do everything we had wanted to! It was an awesome day and a perfect way to celebrate 3 years :o)