What is ya'll in Chinese

Arriving at the HSR station

I don't know if this is just true for the US and Taiwan, or if this statement can be applied to everywhere, but based on personal experience, things are so much better down south.  We all know in America there  might not be as much to do in the south compared to the north, but life is run at a slower pace and people are MUCH friendlier.  After spending this past weekend in Taipei (in the north of Taiwan) I have come to realize the same is true for here as well.

Taipei 101

Picking up the goods

Larissa, Lori, Keith, Bruce and I went on an adventure up to Taipei this Saturday.  Larissa's boyfriend teaches at the Taipei American School and was having a party, so what better reason to head up there and do a little sight seeing/partying?!?!  We got on the high speed rail Saturday morning to begin our hour and a half trip up there.  The train was really nice, kinda made you feel like you were flying.  Once we arrived we had lunch, went shopping for beer and decided to do some exploring.  We ended up at Taipei 101 (the world's 2nd tallest building).  Since we were in this major city, Lori and I of course wanted to go shopping, so we let Keith and Bruce head off on their own and we were in search of the Japanese version of Old Navy called Uniqlo.  What a disappointment.  Not only was it so hard to find, all they had in the store were jackets...seriously...it does not get below 60 here, why would you need a jacket?  Not only that, is was SO crowded, I was miserable.  We did find a bunch of cool sites to look at, like the street performers, it was just not the same as Kaohsiung.  We left the store, met back up with the guys, and headed a little disappointed to the party.

Street preformer

Upon arriving at the party, there were already teachers from Taipei American School there.  We tried to be the southern friendly people that we are, after all we are just one big happy family at our school...we even have family game night together.

Clue on family game night

The people here were just different.  Now I know that everyone is supposed to be different, that is what makes the world go round, but they were just not friendly.  Most of them did not know each other and they teach together!  People there thought we were teachers at TAS.  I am not used to situations like that.

The fast pace of the city, not the nicest people, and an environment where people are more worried about themselves than building relationships really makes me appreciate living in the south once again.  There is something to be said for the good ol southern hospitality which you can not get anywhere else.

I wonder if there is a Chinese word for ya'll?