failure weblog

today i got up fairly late, and tim and ash and i sat around the apartment and talked for some time about various stuff. ash was giving tim and myself some time, which also gave him some time to do things he’d not been able to do since i was here, so we wondered off in search of some food. this whole week being the observance/celebration of chinese new year, it’s still hard to find places that are open. we were planning on going to the night market, but i turned too soon or too late or something, so we just kind of wandered around some other areas kind of near ash’s school. eventually we saw a sign down a side street that said “kgb”. we went over to it and it was “kiwi gourmet burgers”. we decided to eat there. i had the special for the day, which was a mango-jalapeno burger. it came with fries, and i added cheese and bacon. and a coke. man, that food was good. i sort of felt like i was cheating by eating food i’d normally eat, but i soothed my conscience by saying it was new zealand food and not u.s. 🙂 we sat in there for a pretty long time, getting free refills and talking. i later told ash about the place and he’d heard of it but never been there.
we left kgb and headed into the mrt (subway), where “true north” tim hustled us onto a departing train. headed the wrong way. i figured it out after about 5 stops without ever seeing the guting stop. we went pretty far south, but we hopped out and got on the correct train. we went topside and it was a different world. perhaps i should explain. living where ash does, i think it’s probably a pretty accurate depiction of most of taipei (and probably most of big city living in taiwan, although i don’t know that for sure). the place we were at now was the area around taipei101, a building which held the honor of being the tallest building in the world for several years (in fact, until just a month or two ago when the place in dubai opened up). the neighborhood around taipei 101 could be any big metropolitan city of the world: tokyo, new york, etc. no mopeds but cars, lots of buses and taxis, huge typical multi-story print ads for cartier, prada, or whatnot. we walked through a huge mall structure with movie theaters, burberry, dolce and gabbana, and all kinds of very expensive stores and places to eat. it wasn’t “local” at all. if i had been on business or visiting a friend who lived in that area, i would have a very different perception of taipei. i think it would be an incorrect one, and i actually felt like i shouldn’t be there. but i guess it was good to see, just so i have the experience and can compare it to what i’m normally experiencing. we went into the bottom of taipei 101, which has a multi-story mall, but we didn’t go up to the observation deck. at one point i saw a body shop and since the soap i brought was about to disappear, i went in to get a new bar since i like their soap. tim felt odd about two guys going into the body shop (which it appears he doesn’t patronize), so he said he felt like he needed to go get a beer afterward. but i really like their stuff, so i bought a bar of coconut soap. we later went to a chain place called gordon biersch (sp?), where i had a winter bock and he had a schwarzbier. we hopped back on the mrt (subway) and headed back to ash’s part of town.
we went to 45’s and met ash there. he had a couple of girls in tow. one of them spoke some english, the other one not so much. we all had a number of drinks and laughed and joked a lot. i think i had 4 or 5 white russians and a blue monday. i have a habit of tying knots in cherry stems with my mouth (something i picked up in high school i guess), so as the night wore on i had a collection of knotted stems. this is something the hrc (julia) was particularly fascinated by and appreciated. i wouldn’t say i was drunk, but i kind of ended up taking a picture of all the stems on a johnnie walker coaster written in chinese and sent it to her with the text “i’m in fscking taiwan”. which is stupid, since i haven’t talked to her in some time, and the last time i emailed her i basically told her if she couldn’t have some kind of normal relationship/friendship with me that i didn’t want her sending me anything anymore. yeah, i’m stupid. but i already knew that.

today was the first day i actually did much that was “touristy”. we started off by eating lunch at mos burger. it’s a japanese burger place. burger doesn’t necessarily mean a beef meat patty though. and although they have bread buns, they were originally served on sticky rice cakes. so i got an original style with the rice cakes. the meat was sort of like cheese steak. it was good. it’s also the first time i’ve had a soft drink since i’ve been here. i got a coke.
i should point out here that it’s been pretty chilly and raining recently. i don’t like carrying an umbrella, so i decided i would risk not carrying one. it turned out to be an unwise choice. it never poured, but it sprinkled and lightly rained pretty much the whole time we were out. the ground got very wet, there were lots of puddles, and my knit cap, shoes, pants legs, etc., all got pretty wet during the rest of the journey.
ash left tim and i to our own devices at that point. tim and i walked to the chiang kai shek memorial. the entrance is a giant gate painted white (wall with multiple archways) which opens into a huge concrete/stone courtyard area (several acres). on the right and left are huge buildings. one is the opera house i think, and i don’t recall what the other is. in front of you is the cks memorial building. there are probably 80 to 100 stairs up the front, then there is a building on top of that several stories high with a big open archway that houses a statue of cks sitting. you can’t walk up to the statue, and there are two ceremonial guards on either side. (don’t worry, i took pics of all this…i just haven’t uploaded stuff yet. but it’s not like you can’t find pics of this on the internet.) from there we went into the lower 3 stories of the building. there are a few exhibit areas, plus one telling the history of cks. we walked through that, which was interesting. we also saw a couple of exhibits of a couple of contemporary artists. one was mostly paintings of tigers. a few were funny because they had a naked woman with the tiger. the funniest (to me) was a naked woman with a white tiger. that’s funny because the term “white tiger” used for the zodiac or whatever sign is slang for a woman with no hair…uh…down there.
we left the cks memorial and started walking toward the longshan temple. or so we thought. i saw a phone store and we went in, but they didn’t sell batteries. or maybe just not for my old razr. we stopped and got some bubble tea, then we stopped and got some kind of jerky. that’s pretty much all they sold. they had pork, chicken, and beef, as well as something called “fusion” which looked sort of like bacon, but i’m thinking maybe it was pork and beef woven together. it’s sweet, but they also have some that is spicy as well as sweet. we started walking again and then we were at a park. da’an park. which is one or two miles in the wrong direction from where we were planning on going. so we turned around and walked back.
we passed the cks memorial and started heading in the right direction. we went past something we thought was the south gate, but it wasn’t. then we found it a little further down the road. except it looked exactly like what we originally thought was the south gate. kind of odd. we kept walking (man, i was tired of walking at this point) and thought we’d found the temple. but we weren’t sure. and we weren’t right. we went in and took some pictures. at this point i decided i didn’t want to walk anymore, so we went into the subway and took the subway back to ash’s part of town.
at the place we left the subway, we stopped at a dunkin’ donuts and i got a donut. i got a square one with a hole, and it had boston cream filling on one side and chocolate on the other. it was covered in an icing that was semi-sweet. ash met up topside and we went to find a place nearby to eat. we ended up eating at an italian place called grazie or something. i got some bruschetta for an appetizer. maybe it’s because i’d just walked like 7+ miles, but i think that was some of the best bruschetta i’ve ever had. i ordered some drink that was like blue caracou and something milky. then ash, tim, and i ordered pizzas and shared them: four cheese, margarita, and bacon/mashed potatoes/peas. they were all great.
once done there, we went over to 45’s. i had a couple of white russians, then tim headed for the ash’s place and ash and i went out to seek entertainment. we walked to roxy99, but they were closed. so we caught a bus to go to carnegie’s, but they were dead. so we got a taxi to take us to the brass monkey, but he thought we wanted to go somewhere else. on the way we drove by brass monkey and it appeared to be dead, so we let him take us where he thought we wanted to go. it turned out to be this place called “my other place”. there we ran into an american who was drinking at the bar. his name was lee. i had a malibu and pineapple, then he bought ash and i tequila shots. i had another malibu and pineapple, then lee bought us jager bombs (jagermeister and red bull). later, lee started talking to me all about taiwan, and asking if i wanted to experience the underbelly of taiwan. he evidently had a steady girlfriend (who was married), a side girlfriend, and two other girlfriends. and he went out all the time and knew places where, if you knew someone so you could get in, you could get a 20-22 yo girl to do whatever to/for/with you. while lee was busy hitting on some girls at the bar, ash and i slipped out.

today i got ash to go walking with me toward a river that runs somewhat near his place. he’d never walked quite in that direction. we walked over there and ended up by a big park. the street signs to the main entrance said “youth disaster prevention park”. although the rest of the signs all just said “youth park”. we went through a footpath under a highway and were at the river. there was a big open concrete area with lots of firework remains. we looked around, then left that area and went back to the park. we walked by a place where there was a guy standing guard in full military clothes and helmet with an automatic rifle. i don’t know what that place was. (there are always two or three cops at the entrances to ash’s building — evidently a politician or someone famous moved in awhile back and now there are cops stationed 24/7.) while we were at the park we saw some squirrels. the squirrels here look like squirrels, but their coat has more sheen and they are a black and dark brown (instead of the lighter brown/tan of u.s. squirrels). they don’t have big ear hair like russian squirrels though. the park was really nice. it had a skating area (wheels, not ice), tennis courts, golf driving range, baseball field, basketball courts, swimming pool, water park, plus lots of paths and trees and some ponds and such. ash said he’d never been to the park so i said “well, i’m glad i could show it to you.”
while we were walking back to house, i got ash to stop with me while i got some beetle nut. evidently this is some kind of plant/nut that some people eat here. i guess it’s sort of like chewing tobacco. i think it’s considered more rural or lower class, but you can tell where places are that sell it because they have neon fan shapes outside the building. and i’ve heard there are “beetle nut girls” that walk around and promote or sell the stuff or something, and i guess they are hot young taiwanese chicks in skimpy clothes (sort of like the girls promoting/selling beer or alcohol or whatever in bars/clubs in the u.s.). when we got back to ash’s place, i asked him if he could ask the police how you eat it or whatever. he said they would probably love that a foreigner wanted to do that. they did seem pretty happy/excited about the idea, although one of them didn’t seem as happy and told ash i shouldn’t eat it much or i’ll get cancer or basically it’s bad for you. i’m supposed to try beetle nut with one of the police later.
from ash’s place we went over to the first starbucks i went to here. i used the restroom again, but this time i was a seasoned veteran and knew what to do. we hung out there until the police at ash’s place called to say tim had shown up. we walked back to ash’s place and took tim up to ash’s apartment.
we decided to get some food, so we walked over to the night market by ash’s school (ntnu). it was still very dead. we ended up going to a burger king for a snack. from there we went over to ash’s department area. we ended up going on top of the building, but it was misting and started raining so we didn’t stay up there long. we left there and walked around the night market again until we found a thai place that was open.
we left there and walked to 45. i had a white russian, a b-52 shot, maybe another white russian. then ash and i got absinthe shots. one regular and one cinnamon. absinthe was mostly illegal in the u.s. until not too long ago, so i figured i should try some. i can’t say as i’m planning on getting an absinthe habit. (although i’ve always been told about using the spoon and some sugar, and we just had shot glasses.) after drinking there for awhile we headed back to the house.
it seems like every day i’ve been here it’s gotten a little colder and a little wetter. i took an umbrella out with me today and used it some. (i try to have a more british view of an umbrella, and only use it when it’s raining pretty good, not just if it’s misting or sprinkling or whatever.) i didn’t really pack for it being cold and wet. (although ash has said this is far wetter and colder than taiwan usually is, even during this season.)

today was pretty mellow. ash and i got up and talked for quite awhile about all sorts of things. eventually we walked over to the big park we had walked by with the german guy chris. it’s called da-an park. it’s a pretty nice park. we walked around in there for probably at least an hour or two. from there we walked over to a starbucks (a different one than we’ve gone to in the past…they’re all over the place here too). we sat there for an hour or two, then we went to the night market area near ash’s school (ntnu) to find something to eat. the first time i went there it was packed and really busy, but since chinese new year started it’s been almost completely dead and almost all the places are closed. we ended up finding an indian food place that was open. man, it was good. we had some naan and i had a mango juice and chicken coconut curry. on the way back to ash’s place we stopped by an electronics store and i helped him get a router/switch with built-in nat. i helped him set it up so he could have a local network for all of his systems, as well share his internet connection. as an added bonus, i can now get online without having to disconnect his ethernet cable from his desktop. i also configured my macbook air to serve up an ad-hoc wireless network and share its internet connection. that way i can use it to get my iphone online (and thus download mail, use the apps, etc.). it’s chinese new year, so pretty much everyone has left the city. the traffic is way less than the last days i’ve been here, and almost everything is closed. i’m not sure how much of this is normal for a weekend, and how much of it is specifically due to the new year holiday. oh yeah, and the holiday actually lasts for a week. due to lack of choices for this reason, we ended up eating at a familymart. which is a chain of convenience stores, evidently all over the place in asia from what i hear. i had some pork dumplings and some rice vermicelli with vegetables and small bits of meat. there were a lot of fireworks going off as it got later, but i didn’t stay up too late (for me).

today we got up way late. (surprise, surprise.) i got up around 1:30pm. when i woke up i kept hearing something playing the same short song over and over. i thought maybe it was for new year or something. i asked ash about it and he said it was the garbage trucks here. they play that so people know it is coming so they can get their trash ready. ash and i talked for quite a bit. we finally left his place around 5pm. we walked around, but almost everything was closed for chinese new year.
we ended up eating at a place called roxy jr. which is related to the roxy. it’s a pretty western-style place, sort of like a tgifridays or chili’s or whatever. there were mostly whites eating there. i got some mozzarella sticks (which they served with salsa instead of tomato sauce), a “hawaii fabulous” pizza (which i thought would be ham and pineapple, but turned out to be ham, pineapple, onion, raisin, and shrimp…hrmh), and a tom collins.
while we were there, a group of three people who seemed to be german (2 girls, 1 guy) came in and sat down. plus a table of all-male loud americans came in. i hadn’t really thought through the international implications of wearing a jacket with an iron cross on it. when i got up and put on my jacket, the germans were immediately and noticeably fixated on my jacket. they kept looking at it the whole time we were standing and paying and such. they never did say anything directly to me though.
this was a pretty short day as far as activities go.

this morning i got dressed and walked down to the 7-11 and used the atm to make sure it should work for tim (who will be here in a few days). my card worked okay. and for the record, the exchange rate through an atm is way better than at the airport. the airport gave me 26:1, while through the atm i got 32:1 (and just slightly below that even if you count the pulse international fee which was $2.81 i think.) and i bought a strawberry and banana smoothie, and another apple milk and strawberry milk tea. i drank the malt milk this morning and it was good, just milk with malt in it.
after ash got home, we went to meet the german guy chris. we went to the same market/shop area we were at yesterday. we ate at a korean place. i had beef and rice with a fried egg on top of it, plus a side plate with some rice noodles, vegetables, and some peanuts cooked in soy sauce or something with sesame seeds…i thought they tasted kind of fishy, but i ate them anyway. turns out they have sardines or something as well. my chopstick style has improved, although i’ve gone to some kind of western modified grip that i don’t think is quite a common traditional style. but it’s close…it’s not like i’m using them as spears or something.
from there we walked for awhile, went past a large park, and ended up in a more ritzy area of taipei. we went to a coffee house that serves coffee in a japanese style. it’s a little expensive, but you’re also paying for the presentation and stuff. you order your coffee, then they bring out a tray with a coffee cup, a second cup, a carafe, and a ceramic filter cup that has a paper filter with the type of ground coffee you ordered. there is also a small spoon, and two small stemware glasses with cream and natural sugar. they give you the cup with the coffee grounds for you to smell (sort of like people do with wine, i suppose). they put the ceramic cup with the paper filter and coffee over the carafe, then they come back with a metal pot full of hot water with a long, thin, angled spout and the take a couple of minutes pouring water into the grounds. they are very methodical about pouring in circles, stopping at times to let some pour through, until they’ve poured enough. they move the ceramic filter cup over the extra cup, then put some water that was in the coffee cup (not sure why the water is in it) into the grounds. after that they pour the coffee from the carafe into the coffee cup. and now it’s ready for you to drink. we spent a couple of hours there.
chris had to leave, then ash and i waited for awhile and then met the korean guy jun (sp? it’s the first part of his name, pronounced like “june”). we all walked and took the subway (mrt) to a place called kiki’s. there was a party for a guy ash knows. there were about a dozen people there, almost all of them who study ancient chinese language, taoism, etc. i.e., a bunch of academics and scholars and such. i had some hot rice wine (or something), some plum juice cider (or something), and some rice and beans with some meat and peppers and such. there was other stuff, but i wasn’t much interested in it. i felt kind of out of place there mostly. i went to the bathroom before we left, and it was…i guess it’s japanese style. it’s not western style. it was like the one i saw in the airport in japan.
jun parted ways with ash and i, and ash and i took the subway back to his place. a little later we headed over to 45 and jun met us there. i had a b-52 and a white russian, then later a grasshopper. jun parted ways with us again, then ash and i went to a club called roxy 99. ash wanted to show it to me because it’s where a lot of non-locals go to party and pick up women. on the way there a white guy and an asian guy were standing by a building and the white guy said “is that for the lucky 13 club in california?” (i have been wearing my lucky 13 “born to lose” jacket because it’s been chilly.) we talked to them a bit, but they were sorta cool partying players. once in roxy 99, it was sort of a typical kind of rock/dance club. they played a lot of current u.s. top 40 and dance songs, as well as a lot of popular older classic alt and dance songs. i’m not a big fan of rock and dance clubs, but it was kind of nice because there were quite a number of people, both local and non, and people were pretty willing to talk to other people (over the loud music). the cover price included a drink ticket, so i got a rum and coke. ash immediately saw some people he’d talked to before, so he went over and talked to them. i went, but mostly stood there. i talked to one girl for awhile, then ash introduced me to some danish guys he’d met before. they had a swedish guy with them who had a style/look similar to me (blue jeans, black tshirt, wallet chain, long goatee, very short hair. the swedish guy bought me a carlsberg beer. it turned out the danes and swedish guy were all coders for cell phones. then a drunk white chick (maybe canadian?) brought tequila shots over to the table and so i did about 1.5 shots of tequila. then later she kept trying to get me to dance. the turncoat ash tried to make me dance with her too. eventually she got me to the dance floor, but i wouldn’t dance. then a white guy came by and said she was his friend and i better be careful with her. which was funny, since i was trying to not do anything with her. she later said he was a really famous dj. later he came by and asked me what i thought of some song playing. it was some popular dance/rap song i guess, but i didn’t really know it. i said i thought it was okay and he just kind of stared at me and then turned and walked away. a little later i started talking to a white guy and it turned out he was from Texas. he’d been here about 6 years, doing s.a.t. and math tutoring. he’s from mcallen. so we talked for awhile. then he bought me a heineken. he knew the girl that had tried to get me to dance, plus he also knew the dj. evidently is a well-known dj here, and gets paid to get flown to casinos and dj parties and such. and was evidently blitzed because it was a vacation for him (due to chinese new year). i also kept having to talk to this taiwanese guy who ash had told i was divorced. he kept coming up to me and hugging me and giving me condolences and supportive advice. he said he’d been married to a white girl and lived in canada for 22 years and had two kids, but he was now divorced two years and had come back to taiwan. but everything had changed and he didn’t have access to his old job and he had no family here anymore. anyway, the guy from Texas and i talked quite a bit. most of the time ash was off hitting on chicks. we ended up staying there until about 4:30am. i guess the bars don’t close at 2am here.
i didn’t really figure i’d enjoy the place all that much, and i definitely drank more than i had planned (although i was okay), but it turned out to be kind of nice because i got to talk to a fair number of different people and met some people. although i had to talk over pretty loud music most of the time, which i generally prefer to not have to do. and there were some girls there i would have liked to meet and talk to (although i’m sure it wouldn’t have turned out good in any way), but i didn’t because i’m me.

(i’m back-dating this entry to help keep the daily order going.)
i drank the juice milk. it was pretty good. it had a picture of milk with all kinds of fruit (orange, banana, apple, kiwi, grapes, peach, strawberry, etc.) but it mostly tasted like milk and orange juice. i also tried the formosa chang plum drink. ick. it tasted like prune juice mixed with sugar and salt.
since we are 14 hours off from houston, while ash was at work in the morning i got on irc during the radio show and had groove call me on skype and put me on the air. that was kind of cool.
for some reason, the second pair of jeans i brought smelled dirty when i got them out yesterday morning. and the ones i had been wearing smelled some as well. so i had to do laundry earlier than originally planned. when ash got back from work he helped me use the machine. you see, the washing machine is a hitachi and the menu is in japanese. i played with all the buttons but i couldn’t really tell what most of them might indicate.
once the clothes were in the dryer, we went to get some lunch. we picked up some hong-kong style food (i got some sausage and i think pork, rice, tofu, and cooked vegetables) to bring back to ash’s place, and i also stopped at a bubble/pearl tea place and picked up an iced milk tea with tapioca.
after we ate, we walked down to the school ash goes to. we sat outside in an outdoor park/rest area on campus and talked and read. i got kind of depressed about the future, because that’s what i do, and i’m in a completely different culture which gives me the opportunity to feel more isolated. (i’m sure it would be insanely worse if i wasn’t with ash. i’d have a hard time finding anyone to talk to probably.) i know i’ve written on here how i feel overwhelmed by going to a mall or places where there are a lot of people, how i sort of feel like i’m getting sensory overload. well, this is like that but insanely multiplied. although things are the same, so much is different, and almost all of the speaking/writing is so completely foreign to me (literally), it’s really hard to let it keep sliding off. i’m generally a mellow person, i tend to be willing to go with things and take it in stride, but being overwhelmed with sensory data is an area i don’t handle well. and this can be that in spades.
we sat there until it got dark, then we went up to the place where ash’s department is. he/we talked to a few people there. we talked to an asian girl who thought her english was bad, which was funny because her english was great. she spoke it better and with less of an accent than many of the foreign people i’ve worked with in the u.s. at my jobs. we then went outside to meet a dutch guy ash knows (i’d spell his name, but i probably can’t even say it right much less spell it). we walked through a busy market/shop area to go eat. ash knew of a macau (sp?) place, but it was already closed for the chinese new year. so we went to a thai place.
from the thai place we went to a bar called 45. it’s actually a lot like an american bar inside, as far as dark lighting, stuff on the walls, etc. the menu had a lot of similarities too as far as drinks and bar food, although they also definitely had some items you would not see in the states. i had a mojito. candy (the girl who cooked the food yesterday) showed up later, then one of the guys we talked to at ash’s school (a korean guy, who ash is good friends with) showed up. he brought some fried tofu and…chicken feet, cooked in soy sauce or something. i think on some level it was to be funny with me, but they also like them. i couldn’t bring myself to eat one. i did have a piece of the fried tofu though. and candy bought me a whiskey on the rocks.
when we left, the temperature had dropped a fair bit, so ash, candy, and i took a cab. i guess it’s pretty common to take cabs here for short distances if you need to get somewhere faster than walking. the price is pretty cheap compared to cabs in the u.s., i think. i’ve never taken a cab in the u.s. though, because they always sound expensive to me when i hear prices other people have paid. and over here i don’t always do the conversion to u.s. dollars in my head.
speaking of the temperature…the first couple of days i was here it was in probably the 70’s during the day and the 60’s during the night. but last night the wind started blowing and the temperature dropped and now it’s in the 50’s. just looked at the forecast and it looks like 50’s and 60’s and rain for the next few days.
and completely off the subject of my trip, evidently the person who owned leifeste.org put it up for auction a few weeks ago. i just happened to have it listed at godaddy as a site i was watching, so their system auto-bid on it, and i got it. so i now own that domain as well.

right before i ventured out on my own today, ash texted me to see if i was up. i replied and said i was thinking about going out on my own. i went outside and tried to orient myself in my head to the map he’d drawn for me. but i misunderstood. i started walking down a road, but the things i was supposed to find never showed up. so i went down it a ways, then crossed over and came back to the intersection in front of ash’s place. then he called me and asked me to walk down the street to meet him. except i was still unsure of the streets, so i chose another wrong one. after awhile i decided it was probably the wrong one, so i turned a corner to try and get to the right one. ash called to see where i was and i told him the intersection i was at, and it turned out i was about a block away. we met and then went to eat lunch. i also realized part of the reason why i stopped using the razr: the battery doesn’t hold a charge. well, it holds it, it just discharges very quickly when being actively used. i may try to buy a new battery for it soon. (hopefully it’s just the battery and not a fault in the phone itself.)
we ate at formosa chang, which i guess is a fast food place. i had…some stuff. a small plate with some cabbage (?) and maybe spinach and some other plant. another small plate with some kind of sausage and a couple of sticks of…not sure what…maybe some kind of fried tofu…with hot mustard and a thick soy-based (i think) sauce. and a bowl with sticky rice, some chicken, some tofu, some fried tofu, half a hard-boiled egg, a couple of slices of the same sausage, and a piece of fish. (i gave the fish to ash.) some kind of cold, sweet, bean soup — a thick-ish, sweet clear liquid with things sort of like bright orange dried grapes, acorns or nuts of some kind, cabbage or some leafy stuff, and small asian dates or plums. i guess this is a dessert soup.
things to note: i ate all of it, other than the fish. i used chopsticks for the first time. i’ve had plenty of opportunities to use them in the u.s., but i’ve always avoided using them because i didn’t want to not know what i was doing and feel/look foolish and/or end up frustrated and/or feel pretentious, plus i found it easier to just get a fork instead of “play” using chopsticks. i didn’t really have a choice this time, although i could have used the spoon that came with the rice bowl. but i didn’t. ash left to get a drink (which i guess is fairly common here, as food places don’t always sell drinks since they consider soup to be a drink), so this was the first time i was alone and someone tried to talk to me or ask me something. i just looked at him blankly and smiled until i guess he realized i didn’t know what he was saying. they did sell a plum drink there but ash doesn’t like that, so i bought one when we were leaving so i could try it.
we came back to ash’s, then we had to go get another key made for me. on the way back i got ash to stop at the 7-11 so i could pick up some drinks. i got some milk tea, a peach and orange smoothie, juice milk, and malt milk. i drank the strawberry milk tea that i bought last night during the day today. it was good. we got back to ash’s, then he wanted to take a nap so i did too. i slept about 2 hours. i was pretty groggy when he woke me up.
ash originally wanted to go to a coffee shop, but it was going to close soon, so we ended up going to…a starbucks. yep, they’re here. the interior design was even similar to some starbucks i’ve been in before. the girls working there spoke english, but i ordered a misto and got a plain drip coffee. i didn’t see misto or cafe au lait on the menu in english, so maybe they guessed. i read some of my walking dead graphic novel (courtesy of wheresthatbeen.com), then i decided to go to the restroom. and here’s my first interesting toilet story.
ash had told me they’re weird here about flushing toilet paper down the toilet. plus i guess most people don’t have rolls of toilet paper, they use what has the consistency of toilet paper but comes in soft containers and dispenses like facial tissues. maybe it’s multi-purpose for napkins, etc. anyway, he told me not to flush more than one of these down his toilet. so, back to starbucks…i walk in and they have normal toilet paper. however, they have a sign above the toilet that says not to put tissue or paper towel in the toilet. i didn’t see any facial tissues, so i decided they were talking about toilet paper. there was a large metal waste basket next to the toilet. i looked in it to see if i could see or smell toilet paper, but all i saw was the paper towels for drying your hands. hrmh. while surveying the situation, i also noticed it appeared someone had put what appeared to be some kind of makeshift weapon against the wall almost behind the toilet…a metal shank about 1.5 to 2 feet long with some electrical tape wrapped around one end. i thought that seemed odd, so i decided maybe it was affixed to the floor or employees used it for something. to add complexity to this equation, the toilet itself looked like a toilet i’m used to, except at the bottom there was a black rubber slotted stopper (like you’d see over a garbage disposal in a sink). below that i could see a metal plate with some holes in it. so i wasn’t really sure how this thing would work. i finally decided to just go ahead with it. i did my business, and when i was done there was a nice bit of solid waste in the bowl. i hit the flush handle and…some water went in the bowl, some water drained out. but absolutely nothing happened with the crap. i sate there and tried to figure out what to do, as i didn’t really want to just leave a big log hanging out in the bowl for the next person. finally i got my phone and called ash (since i didn’t want to open the door) and asked him. he didn’t really know either, so he suggested i leave it. i decided the least i could do was…well, i could have tried to get it out and put it in the waste basket, but that seemed gross and wrong…so i decided i would get some paper towels and push it past the rubber piece. so that’s what i did. eww. then i threw the paper towels in the waste basket. i decided to try flushing it, and right after i did that i quickly realized with fear “oh great, now it’s going to stop up the metal grate and the toilet will overflow!” the water started rising, but then all of a sudden the toilet behaved differently than the previous one or two times. the grate moved and things sucked down fast and there was loud sucking noises and whooshing sounds. and with that it was all good. i washed my hands and walked out, a wiser man. i told ash about my victory, then as i was mentioning the odd homemade weapon i suddenly realized why it was most likely there…it wasn’t a weapon, it was a tool. 😐
we left starbucks and went to meet chris (a german guy in the same program at the school here with ash) and his girlfriend whose english name is vicky (who is the person who ordered the ipod touch and had it shipped to my house in the u.s.), then we all walked to the place of a friend of theirs whose english name is candy. (i must mention here i hadn’t drank much of my coffee from starbucks, so i took it with me. i felt kind of stupid being a white guy walking down the street with a starbucks cup. i wanted to tell everyone “no! i’m not a ‘typical’ american who goes overseas and only goes to places they are familiar with! i don’t even like starbucks that much!” but maybe that’s just me projecting my own issues.) she had cooked a meal for us. other than the fish which i passed on, i had sticky rice with some beef with a green vegetable, some bitter gourd or balsam pear or something, and some dish with tofu and meat i don’t know what else in a dark orange-ish sauce. (i think ash said the dish name literally translates to something like “old woman’s pock-marked face” or something odd.) chris and vicky had brought some taiwanese beer, which we had with the meal. and for dessert, fresh strawberries with a sugar cream glaze. they spoke in english some, but all of them also spoke in mandarin a lot too. chris speaks german of course, and candy also speaks spanish.
when we got back to ash’s place, we talked and watched part of the darjeeling limited (which i still hadn’t seen yet). as we were watching it, i started to realize my digestive system…well, perhaps it wasn’t too excited about my sudden change in diet. or something. my system felt unsettled, sort of like it does in the very early stages of it planning on evacuating things in one direction or the other. ash gave me a couple of pills of something, and so far i remain in an uneasy truce with my digestive track. also of note is that evidently in my consternation over the starbucks toilet i forgot to zip up my pants. it’s a good thing i tend to wear un-tucked, longer t-shirts or there may have been an international incident.
(i’ll work on making some pics available soon, hopefully. i’ve not taken many at this point though.)

ash has to work in the mornings this week, so if i manage to be awake then i’ve got some time by myself in his place. so i’m sitting here drinking my apple milk and deciding if i am going to venture out by myself for awhile before he gets back. (it’s about 11am here now.)
i decided to not sleep much the night before flying out, hoping to perhaps mess up my internal clock. i slept 3 hours, from 2:30am – 5:30am. jack came by my place as planned. he picked me up and we ate at house of pies. as we were paying, jack said “you should take ash one of these pies.” he was referring to the mini pecan pies they make. (not as small as the ones at convenience stores…about two or three times that size, but maybe 1/4 or 1/3 of a regular size pie.) i said i wasn’t sure how i’d transport it. he bought one anyway. so when we went back to my place i put it in a big ziplock bag and buried it in the middle of my clothes in the check bag.
we made it to iah without a problem. i got checked in with no problem. security was no different than it’s ever been when i’ve flown in the past, so that was no big deal. i checked in at my gate, then i went and did currency exchange to get some taiwanese money. i had been told the exchange was currently about 31:1 or so, but i got 26:1. so i didn’t get a very good deal. but it made me feel better knowing i had some ntw for when i arrived, just in case. the departure was on time. i flew in a 777, which i thought was going to be huge but it really wasn’t. (unless i missed part of the plane.) in economy it’s 9 seats wide, 3 seats in 3 columns with 2 aisles. my seat ended up being over the wing, middle seat, right side of the plane. i was a bit concerned because my row was the one right against the bathroom wall. no, not for that reason — because the seats were even a bit narrower than the rest of the economy seats, and mine couldn’t recline because of the wall. the window seat was taken when i got there, and a bit later an asian woman took the aisle seat. it was not crazy, but tight enough i was thinking “man, this is going to be an uncomfortable 14 hours.” the woman was with a guy who had a seat somewhere else, and before we left he came and got her. i guess they found an open seat where he was. which left the one by me free, so i moved into it. that helped the comfort level a lot. although when you’re in economy on a 13+ hour flight, there’s only so much comfort level possible. the food was okay. with tech updates, now you get a touch-screen right in front of you (in the headrest of the seat in front of you) and you can choose from a large selection of movies, tv shows, music, games, etc. all for free. so i watched up and gangs of new york, as well as some episodes of futurama and big bang theory. and i listened to some of their music, including about 3 hours of sleep “listening” to nirvana’s nevermind album over and over. the flight was mostly asians, although the guy next to me was hispanic. i was over the wing and the windows were closed most of the time, so i didn’t really see anything (like the ocean, or alaska, or japan, etc.). there were a few people wearing surgical masks on the flight. oh yeah, and i believe this may be the first time i ever used a bathroom on a plane. i think…can’t recall for sure. but when staring down the barrel of 13+ hours, i decided to not even consider holding out. the flight itself was uneventful, really.
we landed at narita and i got off the plane, not really knowing what to expect. but pretty much everything was in english and japanese, and you pretty much have to follow certain limited paths with fairly simple choices. plus most of the people working in those areas spoke decent enough english to help if you had questions. i had to go through a security check there, but it was also no big deal. since i wasn’t leaving the airport, i didn’t have to go through customs or anything. i had to walk a ways and then hop on a bus, which took me to another terminal. there i had to wait in line to get my boarding pass. then i had to get on a tram/rail that took me to another terminal area (it was a short, straight trip though). i had wanted to look around some, but i was worried about not knowing what i’d have to do and end up missing my flight. i had a 3 hour layover, so i ended up getting to my gate with about 2 hours left. i decided to walk around the terminal area. it really didn’t seem all that odd, other than stuff was in yen and it looked like the japanese section of the international area of grocery stores. 🙂 i didn’t ask if they took u.s., and i didn’t exchange any money for yen. i also went to the bathroom. it was just like bathrooms i’m used to, except they added a third option: a japanese style toilet. which was a ceramic ovalish hole in the ground with a half dome hood covering 1/5 or 1/4 of one end. kind of imagine if you took a urinal and shrank it to about 1/3 or 1/4 of its size and then put it in the ground. i could imagine how you might use one of these, but i decided to be friends with the kind of toilet i’m used to. i thought about taking a picture, but i didn’t really want to (a) appear too naive and foolish, and/or (b) get questioned, beat up, etc. for taking pictures in the bathroom. 🙂 other than that, it was just a couple of hours of waiting, watching a lot of asian people walk past me.
the plane from narita to taipei was a 747 (747/200 i think). it was bigger. it had 10 seats across in economy (3/4/3) and had way more wasted space as far as headroom and such. it also had a second deck, which i assume was just the bump you see on them so it is probably fairly small (compared to the rest of the plane). (you might think as a person with an aerospace engineering degree i’d know my planes. but you’d be wrong. i was way more interested in the “space” portion than the “aero” part.) up until i got on this flight, i’d been pretty awake and functional. (i had been hoping to sleep on the first leg, but that didn’t really happen.) once i got in my seat (window seat, over the wing) i ended up sleeping most of the flight. but i guess it didn’t really matter, since it was dark outside and i could mostly just see a wing anyway. i didn’t eat any of the food they offered, but i did have a cup of apple juice. of course, i’m not sure what informational stuff i might have missed while i was asleep.
we arrived at taipei. as with narita, fairly fixed paths and limited choices. i did stop at a duty-free shop and buy ash a bottle of glenlivet single malt scotch (the aged 18 years one). i was looking for disarrano but i couldn’t find any. (when we were roommates i noticed one day my bottle was almost completely empty, and when i asked ash about it he said he’d just drink a little bit. but the bunch of little bits added up.) i got in line to get a free 30-day visa. when i got to the lady helping me, she was very nice and then said “did you fill out one of these forms?” and held up a paper. i guess i did miss something because i was asleep on the flight. so i took it and went to a desk and filled it out. well, most of it. it asked the address of where i was staying and i wasn’t about to try writing the address in chinese. so i got back in line and went to her again, then she wrote the address in for me. i went down to baggage claim and got my checked bag (which appears to have made it fine). at this point i wasn’t sure about declaring stuff and all that, but i didn’t i was good and walked through the “nothing to declare” area. ash was there waiting for me.
leaving the airport was the first time things seemed too different. it seems airports are little bubbles where things are somewhat the same. the people working there and the people flying may change, but the airports work about the same and look about the same. once out of there, there was much less english (written or spoken). ash got tickets on an express bus and we went back to his place. it was probably at least a 20 or 30 minute drive, although we were in slow traffic for some time so i’m not exactly sure.
ash lives in…well, think of downtown lofts. hard not soft. he lives on the second floor in a corner room. it’s a single room, probably about 450 square feet. there are tons of mopeds driving around. he lives at an intersection, and i assume it’s a fairly busy one. when we got here last night it was midnight or 1am here, so we talked for awhile then walked to a 7-11. they’re all over the place. i got some kind of pre-packaged beef and rice, an “ice fire” brand lemon juice and vodka “malt beverage”, apple milk, and strawberry milk tea. he keeps the windows open, and there is quite a bit of street noise. fortunately, that doesn’t really bother me.
i drank the apple milk this morning while writing this post. the picture on the box is some milk being poured onto apples. and that’s about what it tastes like: apple juice mixed with milk. the only thing on the box in english says “premium flavored milk”. i hadn’t really thought of apple and milk mixed before, but it’s pretty good.
ash gave me an extra sim card he had, so i’ve got my razr with a local phone number. although ash said it’s expensive to call, so i should just text if possible. i have no idea what the rates are on any of it though. as i mentioned above, ash is working in the mornings this week, so if i’m up during that time i have the opportunity to strike out alone. i may do that this morning for a bit. ash made a map by hand of the surrounding area and some things i might care about (like coffee shops, places to eat, etc.). he also said last night he was planning on letting me deal with taking care of my own stuff while we’re out and about, so i can get more culture shock. i’m not sure if i’m excited about that or not. but it’s probably good for me.

i made it to taipei a few hours ago. it’s 3am wednesday here. i’ve done it…i’ve finally figured out how to blog from the future!