Taiwan: Taoyuan Week

The first week in Taiwan flew by (I'm counting last Thursday 6/26, boarding the plane, as Day 1). Here's a recap:

Day 2: Friday, 6/27
- 6:30pm arrival in Taiwan
- Meeting the family: Two adults, two tirelessly hyper small children.
- Sleep space: a whole bedroom and bathroom...on the 23rd floor.
- Stare at breathtaking cityscape view.
- Stare some more. See the photo links (right).
- Dinner at the "Japan Cookroom" where I learn my first lesson in Taiwan life:

Food portions are reasonable. As in, there's lots of small plates of food, and there's no forced overeating involved. Also, the food's really cheap. And wicked good.

Day 3: Saturday, 6/28
- Lesson the Second: Breakfast is wholesome. The fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day means the available options include hamburgers and pasta.
- That said, I had the fried egg/Chinese carrot cake thing at a LaGuardia. Twas great.
- Spent the day at a Ceramics Museum Festival. The big highlight was a stamp-each-location map; the full collection of stamps = a mysterious prize.
- The prize was pencils.
- Bought some adorable ceramics, including chopstick holders and a bird whistler thing.

- New discoveries:
Laundry is everyday. Dirty clothes never sits around, and 2 outfits can last a long, long time.
Exchanging presents is a staple.
Gas stations are all full-service. Car washes are also fun.
Showing shoulders is too sexy.
Kids want everything. Parents oblige 90% of the time. Especially since 90% is 30-cent trinkets.
Plug adapters (grounded to not) are essential.
It's all about motorcycles.
Pig's blood is a delicacy. Take that, Spike.

Day 4: Sunday, 6/29
- Went on a bit of a country road drive.
- Saw lots of flowers and leaves.
- Learned that everyone knows every agricultural product by its flowers and leaves. ("This will grow into xkca which tastes like xkcb when you cook it with xkcc and smells really good!")
- Saw an ancient retreat rectangle house thing. Lots of doors and words and wells. (see photos)
- Went shoe-shopping. That was the foreign experience of the day. Got gold sandals.
- Saw a big bridge. Didn't get to walk it.
- Went to an ancient street with ancient street type vendors, where I ate the...
- Best things ever: fried mushrooms and purple yam pancakes.
- Dinner with grandparents at a great place that I very roughly translate as "Big Four Like" with the usual many small plates of very good food. To continue my butchering of rough translations, the "little-grain soup" was excellent.

Day 5: Monday, 6/30
- Went via MRT (mass rapid transit) to the Taipei Mall area. MRT is exactly like it sounds. There's bajillions of people and it waits for no straggler. Taiwan's all about streamlining everything down to the fast-walking. I love train-bus type things.
- The mall was full of really great deals. Shoes for $3, food for half that, trinkets under 50 cents. Suffice to say, much shopping was had. It was almost...enjoyable.
- I never use such positive terms in conjunction with shopping.
- Spaghetti for dinner.
- The diners are all really straightforward. Along the street there's the noodle soup-selling diner, the hamburgers-selling diner, the spaghetti-selling diner. Menus are simple and all have pictures of the few dishes offered. Seating areas fit just enough for a couple families at a time.

Tip: Don't try going on the Taipei gondola / Taipei zoo on a Monday. That's not a work day for them.

More important tip: Buy an umbrella over here if you ever come. Warding off the sun doesn't take sunscreen; everyone (well, the guys less so) carries umbrellas 24/7. It works wonderfully, and is also handy for all the sudden rainstorms.

Day 6: Tuesday, 7/1
- Went shopping (again!) at the "Love to Buy" mall. I really need to start using pinyin.
- Walked the kids to their English class, then to a traditional Chinese drumming class.
- I now know the basics of traditional Chinese drumming. (1 beat/pause = "jump (XO)", two quarter-note beats = "walk (XX) ", two eighth-note beats = "run (XX close together)"
- Now you know what I know.

Day 7: Wednesday, 7/2
- Went to a traditional market, with fresh fish and chickens and squid. Very fresh. They might as well have been alive. They probably just were.
- This is where the "every part of the animal is eaten" becomes a little upfront and personal. Saw all kinds of fun bits that used to make up a happy little pig.
- Took a nice walk 'round a park after a big noodle-soup dinner. Ate really cute junk food and chatted about my high school life.
- Life is a tad bit healthier now than then, I've realized.

Well, today is officially my last day alone in Taiwan, and I think in another 5 minutes I'm going with my aunt...on another shopping trip.