Day?

We have been doing a lot of traveling lately, mostly day trips in and around Taipei. Today was the zoo, yesterday a national park & The National Palace Museum, the day before Tian Mu and the day before that Maokong.

There is a serious flaw in how they label the streets here and it is taking its toll on my feet. I won't even try to explain how the system works but street sections, lanes and alleys are all involved. We may get out of Taipei in the coming week sometime and go to the countryside, islands, coastlines etc. I have tons of pictures but I'm too lazy to get up and get the adapter right now due to the heat so I'll throw some up later.

Some things I've seen but couldn't photograph:

One infant(1 yr.) riding on the foot board of a scooter, mother driving
One Alaskan huskie doing the same as above mentioned infant


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PALIN.... REALLY?

Day Something

It poured all day yesterday. I'm guessing the typhoon brought all the rain. Someone said it is supposed to rain for the next two weeks but it is sunny, hot, and humid right now so I'm not so sure sure the weathermen are to be trusted here either. The plan today is to take the Maokong gondola across the city and into the tea tree covered mountains. Hopefully we can score a big bag of good stuff there.... aka oolong tea. I'm yet to get an official job but I do have a business woman that I'm going to be teaching English thrice a week. We now have a camera so pictures will be coming soon.

Day Something

I have already lost count of the days that I have been here. There is an overwhelming number of things to do here. The public transportation system is excellent. I can go pretty much anywhere in the city and back for about a dollar. The people seem to eat and wear colors no westerner would ever dare. I keep running across restaurants selling what I have begun to call blue chicken. They smell horrible and look equally as bad. I imagine the preparation process involves beating a the chicken then letting it sit at room temperature for a number of hours.

We have been all over the city in the past couple of days. The Taipei 101 is pretty high and there are some insanely ornate temples and monuments around as well. If I had a camera I would post but I don't so at a later date I will... We ate at the modern toilet restaurant for dinner tonight Our food came in miniature toilets, we sat on toilets and the dessert was poop shaped ice cream in a mini squat toilet. Again pictures would be nice but still no camera. The end.

Day Two

Meredith and I made it to Taipei in one piece yesterday at 5:30 am local time... Malaysia airlines are great if anybody out there is considering making a similar trip... We are staying at Taipei Hostel right now while we get acquainted with the city. We just now got back from Taipei 101, the worlds tallest building, just before it began raining. It gets extremely hot and humid before the rain... I nice little indicator. The people are nice and very well dressed. The food is both cheap and good. Mandarin makes no sense whatsoever but we are nonetheless trying ... for the most part. Most understand a little English so it may take longer to learn the language with such a convenient crutch. I don't have a camera yet so there won't be any pictures for a while. Until then you should all take my word and make the trip some time.