Pig Bunnies in Xinmen yeshi (West Door Night Market)

Today and this whole week have been free for exploring the city and interacting with the culture of Taipei or as I just found out Taibei. There have been many counters with locals already since there really don't exist many tourists at the moment. They appear once in a blue moon and I love it. The people seem to like the idea of practicing English but will also be impressed with some Chinese and respond in their language. My impressions are all good except for the spurts of city smells that aren't so great.

I choose to put up a picture of the Chiang Kai Shek memorial and the matching mascot that appears with every attraction. While there I got to see the changing of the guard and then a small celebration made in honor of new city buses. The buses are pink and purple! I've never seen so much pink before in my life and seen so many guys that are completely comfortable around it.

One of the strangest things I saw was at the mall located next to the Main Taipei station. There was somebody getting a message but they had a blanket over their back and the ma-sues was banging big cooking/meat knifes on their back. Not something I would look for in a massage.

After the Flight

I decided to make this blog and update it at least once a week. I will send it to anyone interested in keeping in touch with what I'll be doing here. At the moment it is 7:32 am here and 12 hours behind at home. Today is my first morning and I woke up at 6:30? I set my alarm for 9am believing my exhaustion would keep me asleep for awhile longer after 17.5 hours of flying and 45min drive to where I am now. Surprisingly, I'm wide awake and woke up needing my inhaler for the first time in a long time. I don't think that will happen again because I left the slider to the outside walk out open.

The temperature is about 33 degrees Celsius but the air is heavy. I'm on an island lying over the tropic of cancer after all. I'm very close to the same longitude as Hawaii.

Well that's all for now. I am going to finish getting ready to head out into the city to the Normal University and Mandarin Training Center to register for my classes. Afterwards, I hope to expect an internet friend I made this summer to arrive after 12, also on this program. I plan on buying a bowl, mug, and shower shoes because there is no kitchenware and hardly a kitchen for that matter. I see the influence of what people eat here is limited in the extreme to cup of noodles and tea so there is a hot water fountain, fridge, and microwave. Wow.