Taibei 101

Well, again I find myself in a foreign country with limited access to the internet, and you know what that means: time for my patented blast-o-grams of course. I was hoping to avoid them this time around, but it just seems like the most obvious thing to do. If, however, you'd prefer not to get these fun mailings, just let me know. Also, if you'd prefer that I use a different e-mail address, that would be good to know as well. Now onto the good stuff...

I've been in Taiwan for almost two days now. The flight went generally well, though the movie selection and the four hour layover in Tokyo left something to be desired. But then my friend Nick picked me up at the airport here in Taibei, and we went for an hour long taxi ride back to the dorms, where I promptly had to go buy a "mattress" for my dorm bed. It might could use a little bit more padding, but oh well. I have three roommates, all of which seem quite nice. Two of them appear to be Taiwanese and just graduated the other day with journalism degrees. The other is a Japanese student in the same language program that I am in here at the university.

As for Taibei itself, it a quite extraordinary city. Chengda (pronounced more like zhengda-the Taiwanese have had some trouble with their transliterations...), the university that I'm at, is actually a bit outside the city center and up on a hill. In fact, it's a 20/30 minute MRT ride in (don't ask me what MRT stands for, but picture an elevated version of the trains they have at DIA or SEA-TAC and you're on the right track). It means that we've got a great view of the city-center, and the feeling of being right next to a forest, but the 15-minute hike up the hill to the dorm is going to be a bitch in the midsummer heat.

Yesterday I did venture into the downtown area a bit. It reminds me a lot of Tokyo-at least the part that I toured around yesterday. Taiwan is now home to the tallest building in the world (which I just found out the other day) called 101 (pronounced yi-ling-yi in Chinese). At the base they have a crazy big mall with all the name brands you could ever want. Prada, Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Sisley, Mango, and even The North Face! I guess I'm not quite sure how the Taiwanese can afford these stores, but maybe I just have a grand misperception of the Taiwanese. Needless to say, the pink, striped, pre-wrinkled Tommy Hilfiger shirt I bought at the Bon in Pasco for around 20 bucks (or less, I don't exactly remember) was priced on sale here at around NT$1500, or roughly $45!

My favorite part of yesterday was, while walking back to the MRT station from 101, I stumbled across a Swenson's Ice Cream Shop. For all of you not "in the know," Swenson's is originally a San Francisco ice cream shop, that we used to have in Fort Collins as well. Anyway, when I was young, my parents would take me out for ice cream there, and I would get a Mr. Clown. A Mr. Clown is an ice cream cone turned upside down on a plate with a cheery put on top, a ring of whipped cream around where the cone meets the ice cream, and two gumballs jammed into the ice cream for eyes. Although they didn't have a Mr. Clown at the store in Taibei, it still brought me back.

Anyway, since this letter already seems awfully long, I'll sign off here with my contact information and by bringing back the Fun Facts-I don't care if it isn't Friday.

Kim-chee topped raw squid: the most "interesting" thing I've eaten since my arrival that I haven't liked Blood rice/octopus ink dyed sausage: the most "interesting" thing I've eaten since my arrival that I have liked (it's a tie) 101-the number of stories (I think) as well as the address and name of the tallest building in the world. 2.65 million- the population of Taibei
7-11- the most popular, or at least most abundant, store I've seen in Taibei