April Instagrams

First of all, Happy Mother's Day, Mommy! <3 

You're a wonderful mom, I love you and hope you have a great day today. :)

So, the other day I had a brilliant idea for an insta-blog-post. (Because I suck at actually sorting and processing my photos for a proper post.) Now that I have an iPhone, I actually remember to take photos with it once in a while, and with Instagram that means they're all processed and ready to go, just sitting on my phone waiting for me to make a blog post out of it! (Ok fine, I guess it's not all that original of an idea, but whatever.)

Anyway, here's a peek at how I spent the month of April in Instagrams:

My first Instagram photo ever! I'd had my iPhone for a few days but kept forgetting to take it out and use it. Only remembered in this instance because of a couple of Korean tourist taking photos of Taipei 101. :P

So because my iPhone was new and I didn't really know how to use it, I accidentally took a picture of the ground when I meant to take a picture of something else. But, uh, people seemed to like it? Hahaha.

All-you-can-eat, cook-your-own Japanese BBQ with my high school friend Annie! :) It's so much fun when my friends visit Taipei.

Hey there, Hello Kitty, what are you doing in our hot pot?? (We ended up not eating her, haha. Too full!)

Miramar Ferris wheel with Annie! It was fun, I've never been up there at night!

Hill of tombs on my way to 基隆 (Keelung). So when I took this picture, I had no idea the Taiwanese consider it a bad idea to take pictures of tombs! Apparently they think you might accidentally capture a ghost with your camera, or you might anger the dead and become haunted. When my coworkers found out about my photo they were mildly freaked out, lol. But I don't see any ghost in my photo. Do you? (Maybe I should blame my recent cold on the wrath of ghosts! But it's still worth it because I really like this photo.)

These bottles are from Rebirth Cafe, where I went for lunch with my childhood friend Phoebe, who was in Taipei for an internship. It was fun and we had a long and very intellectual conversation, haha. Also, there were cats walking around at the cafe, including this tiny adorable kitten! I didn't get too close since I'm allergic (sometimes that doesn't stop me, though) and luckily I didn't start getting itchy eyes or a runny nose.

View from 彩虹橋 (Rainbow Bridge) on our way to 饒河夜市 (Raohe Night Market) one evening after playing badminton.

地熱谷 (Thermal Valley) in 北投 (Beitou). There was a lot of steam! Went there with high school friends Annie and Isabella, who both happened to be visiting Taiwan. After walking checking out a few sights around Beitou, we soaked in the outdoor hot springs. Very relaxing, but some of those pools were super hot! My favorite was the one with the massaging jets. :)

Mossy wall and steps from what used to be a fortress around... somewhere. Sorry, forgot the name since my friend took me. It looked cool though so I snapped a photo.

Wow, that was fast and painless. Got to take more photos with my iPhone! You'd think I'd have abandoned my DLSR in favor of my phone camera by now (as it seems a lot of people have), but no, I'm still lugging my camera with me everywhere. And usually I forget to snap photos with my phone for instant sharing, but I'm trying to remember to do that more. I have to say I still like taking pictures with my camera better, though.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed your Mother's Day, especially the moms out there! :)

with love,

linda