Just beachy at Fulong

The story of my beachy weekend began on a NON-rainy Saturday with  brunch at Grandma Nitti's with M., my editing Bobbsey Twin. I was sipping from my bottomless cup of coffee and pondering my day's adventures. Taipei offers a bounty of adventure options, and when you figure in a short train trip (you can get to the south of the island in about an hour and a half by high-speed rail) the sky's the limit. Rather, the ocean is anyway. And when I mentioned the possibility of beaches, M. started to look a little green with sea envy. She started suggesting options and began to get a bit TOO tickled by the notion of sea air and sand between her toes. In the end she offered to accompany me to the beach.



Our journey began at Taipei Main Station where my trusty translator managed to sort out the many train options available. High-speed rail tickets and regular train tickets are sold at different kiosks. The automated HSR system was actually pretty simple and user-friendly. But the peanut-gallery train was a little less simple.  Aside from picking what direction you want to go in, you have to figure out whether you'll need a local, local express, or express train to get you where you're going. The local slow train is of course the cheapest. And slowest. And you'll be SURE to arrive at your destination as it stops at every two-pig town on it's way as it weaves across the island. The express train, on the contrary, will only stop at the bigger cities. While the local express would have been "just right", spontaneity isn't always rewarded by the practicalities of life, and we passed on waiting a couple of hours for an express and just took the slow train.

After about three dozen stops on a nonetheless  picturesque route, we arrived at Fulong. From the station it was a short walk past restaurants and convenience stores to the beach access gate. NT$40 (about US$1.30) gave us access to an almost private beach. I suspect that the uncertain weather kept people away. Largely we had the mountains, hermit crabs, dead puffer fish, and surf to ourselves. 

Oh. And the construction equipment erecting sand castles. You might say that's cheating, but M. suspected it was in anticipation of a sand castle building contest happening in a week or two. 

Shots like this make me marvel that I'm really here

After a few hours of the sweet surf air and soft sand between our toes, we began to head back home. The weather was turning again and rain clouds were snagged all around the mountains in the distance. But this only complemented the mysterious beauty of Fulong.

The beauty of island life

.

Since I moved here at the beginning of an unseasonably cold and wet winter, I've been grousing about one thing: dry clothes. The trouble to dry clothes is nearly insurmountable without the aid of an iron and a lot of patience. On my inaugural taxi ride from TPE to Nankang -- home of Academia Sinica and where I spent my first night -- I first heard the apparent motto of the neighborhood, "It always rains in Nankang." Within the first week of moving here, I learned the hard way that things in Taipei, and in particular Houshanpi, my barrio that shares neighboring Nankang's luck for precip, just don't get too dry. I've been shopping for a dryer, which though a bit uncommon are uncommonly cheap (around US$150), but the language barrier has been a bit much for the task. So downside.

Now the upside. Beaches. Taiwan is an ISLAND! BEAUTIFUL ISLAND if the original Portuguese were apt in their naming of Formosa. My first journey to the seashore was easy as pie -- the subway. I hopped on the subway from my apartment, made one transfer, and BAM! I was on the boardwalk, Asian-style at Tamsui. While lousy busy on the weekend, everywhere worth going is busy on the weekends as Taipeiers love getting out and enjoying their environs. Kudos to them, but a bit of crowd surfing for me.  

So the food. Because this is Taiwan, life begins, revolves, and ends around the food. And boardwalks of course have their own specialties. Of course there was cotton candy and Turkish -- no, a real Turk behind the scoop! -- ice cream, but there were also fried skewered wantons with shrimp balls inside and garnished with sweet, salty, and spicy sauce....

... and little skewered fried quail eggs that are cracked into a preheated griddle with individual wells for each egg (a bit bland next to other stuff)...

.... and the freshest fried squid eaten with skewers. A dash of the spicy -- xin la -- seasoning, and we were in business. I still kinda crave these sometimes, but it's not so hard to find in Taipei. It's just that the boardwalk atmo infinitely improves on what's already golden goodness. 

Squid was actually well represented on the boardwalk as you could also get it boiled. It was served in a plastic bag with -- you guessed it -- skewers, and people just ate it sans ceremony. 

If you follow the bank of the river past the boardwalk you come to some strange sights, including a large bust of a distinctly Western-looking gentleman. His name was George Mackay and he was a Canadian missionary who brought Western medicine and medical education to Taiwan in 1872. The streets here also show the signs of the Spanish and Dutch colonization brought to Tamsui in the 1600s.

A few hours leisurely walk from the MRT station past the boardwalk and lulling fishing boats at last brought me to the end of my road and the Lovers Bridge. I wish I could tell some story about unrequited love or star-crossed paramours pitching themselves to their deaths, but actually the lover bit only seems to manifest itself in the fact that the thing is a soft, baby PINK. Still, it has it's picturesque qualities. Especially at dusk when the pink shade sort of fades.  And here on the bank of the Tamsui River nearly to where it empties into the Taiwan Strait you can find, that's right, more FOOD! A perfectly lovely spot for a feast at one of the many stalls selling the freshest catch.  

For my part, I ventured a little way back in the direction of the MRT where a modest shop let me pick my dinner out of enormous tubs of live fish, eels, shrimp, crabs, and squid. You point to your victim, specify how you want it cooked, and in twenty minutes or so, reap the benefits of a long picturesque walk at Tamsui. 

If all the lights in the sky were wishes... Oh wait -- they ARE!!!

No good deed goes unpunished, right? Well since moving to Taipei, I've had to be a bit more optimistic about things. Optimistic that I won't get lost on the buses, three of which may have the same number but take COMPLETELY different routes. Optimistic that the strangely textured meaty thing floating in my bowl of soup is an over-cooked mushroom. Optimistic that the ghosts hiding under the floor boards of my Japanese-style apartment are nice ghosts and haven't seen The Grudge. So instead I try to go with, "No good deed goes unREWARDED." Working Chinese New Year is an example of a good deed rewarded.

The Mastermind, his wife, and the small fry

The Saturday of CNY I get a phone call from my editor colleague -- a grad student just heard back about a manuscript. It needs to be edited IMMEDIATELY to be considered for immediate publication. I'm thinking, why, oh why, did I answer my phone? But no worries -- the weather is wet and cold and not great for adventures and mayhem anyway. So what the hell. After my AWESOME lazy CNY Day with an AWESOME family who adopted me for the feasting-tea sipping-mahjongg playing holiday, I sharpened up my red pens and got cracking. Ya-da-ya-da-ya-da, said student was so overwhelming happy I could help him out of a bind, he invited me to Pingxi (Pronounced: Ping-She) with his wife, chatty 2 1/2 year old
daughter, and friends. "Friends" was

another colleague and his wife and cute, curly-haired little daughter. So the first Saturday of the Lantern Festival found me crammed into a car with two couples, two kiddos and a light-up paper dragon, everyone chattering happily in Hindi up into the mountains to the east of Taipei towards Pingxi. I didn't know it at the time, but I was in the presence of a MASTER strategist who had somehow figured out how to get five people, two babies, a stroller, AND a car into what is actually kind of a "no car zone" for the insane Lantern Festival.

Here's how it shakes down. The 15th day after the LUNAR New Year is the first full moon of the year. Tradition has it that lanterns were to be hung for people to go out and enjoy this event and chill with their neighbors -- sort of a great big block party. People descend in droves on Pingxi, a town a couple of hours east of Taipei up and down some curvy roads in the mountains, with paper lanterns and wishes. On the paper lanterns they will write the wishes and send them both up into the clouds to the gods. 

So lets say you're in Pingxi have some wishes but you forgot your lantern, you can buy one there for about US$5. 

Of course, you'll want to scribble some wishes on it, and so they also supply brushes and ink along the railroad tracks of the quaint town. And you'll also want to buy a little paper stack soaked in kerosene, which if you're lucky, someone will help you attach to the base of the lantern. The necessities obtained, the wishes cast, and our 3-foot tall pink lantern was ready to be sent aloft. After lighting the little fuse it doesn't take long for the hot air to inflate the lantern, and before I knew it, everyone drew their fingers away and sent the lantern gracefully floating upwards.

If this sounds peaceful and idyllic, then it's only because I haven't fully described the mayhem. It's like someone poured the 6 million-strong population of Taipei onto the serene mountain, handed a few of them microphones, guitars, firecrackers, and assorted noise-makers, and assigned them a holiday to have some fun and make some noise. I've heard that the Taiwanese are immune to loud noise, and the lantern festival made me believe it to the core of my soul!

A few industrious souls attached firecrackers to the bottoms of the lanterns and set them off as they began their short-lived graceful ascent.

The release of the big lantern and scores of smaller lanterns came in neatly coordinated waves. Between releases, the crowds were kept entertained by the President of Taiwan himself -- who walked within three feet of me as I was arriving at the staging area -- a Taiwan Idol winner and a rock band belting out Taiwanese and Western favorites,  firefighters putting out the constant little fires that erupted -- including one atop their little red truck -- and a couple of very polished MCs who kept people apprised of the program. At some point the lights would go out and the lanterns would slowly be lit. A hush of anticipation and the final signal. The lanterns began floating up and the moment of silence gave rise to the collective, "Ahhhhhh!" as the lanterns took flight -- wishes to the heavens for the new year. 

Adventures in Grocery Shopping (or how the Japanese and Citibank conspired to make me miss home at Xmas)

To begin with, apologies all around for not blogging all week. My internet was out the last couple of days and the rest of the days... Well, there were X-rays and blood draws and visa applications and papers to fix that just got in the way. But rather than recap the last couple of weeks, I'll just skip to today. Sunday, 18 December, and my mini-adventures around 101 and the Xinyi area.

The weekend has all-in-all been on the calm end of the spectrum. Well, as calm as I can be. Yesterday was Shilin Night Market, which, along with Raohe Night Market, is a whole other post. Today I was lured to the shade of 101 by promises of tangyuan, these pretty pastel sweet rice balls that are apparently to the Chinese winter solstice what tamales are to Christmas. So I'd heard there was some sort of festival in the parking lot of Mitsukoshi Department Store and decided that was good enough reason to take my search for breakfast to the Xinyi District. Ok, now where to begin...

So Taipei is broken down into various districts. The Xinyi (means 'honest' I'm told by Wikipedia) District was one of the last developed and has grown into the financial and shopping hotbed of the city. As such, it is also one of the most decked out for Christmas, as everybody knows evergreens keep department stores ever green ;-). This is where Taipei 101 holds court and where you'll also find Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (新光三越), a Japanese-based monolithic department store. Only, to say "department store" is like saying Taipei 101 is some building. The origins of Mitsukoshi dates to 1673 when it started selling kimonos. Yeah. Not a typo. 1673. BUILDINGS 4, 8, 9 and 11 reside in Xinyi and I think it would take a few days just to tour those four. 

Not my pic, mind you. Bored from http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2071/2126488587_b0b21e6bd5.jpg because they were just too fun to pass up!

But back to rice balls. Apparently, the Hakka -- that's the aboriginal folks of Taiwan -- tradition around the winter solstice is to gather the family a-round for a round sweet treat. And not unlike the Native Americans, the Hakka are working hard to not only keep their traditions, but also to share those traditions. By share, I of course mean it wouldn't hurt to make a few NT (think: $$) off the native wine, coffee, marmalade and hand stitched crafts. This is quite the good luck if you're in the market for marble-sized multicolored rice flour delectables or if you just won't feel complete as a human until you try mulberry vinegar or kumquat jam or nougat candies. Or if you're in the market for cute kids dressed up and singing.

While there were no children singing at the "Taiwan Hakka Glue Pudding Festival" (yeah, tang yuan IS a little more appetizing) there was plenty of indigenous flavor in the form of coffee, wine, nougat, jam, moon cakes and  kumquat juice, all produced right here on the island. I did not actually get around to the tang yuan, stupidly, I know. But I'm in luck as this week's Christmas festivities at the Institute includes a tang yuan party. I'm excited. So stay tuned.

On to Christmas. The English radio DJ this morning said that this year there was more Christmas crap than ever before. And for the last few weeks I would have been ok with it. It was really not more of a slightly commercialized hum and a few trees here and there. You probably noticed the Calvin Klein sad christmas homage and the Ferrer Rocher chocolates tree in some of my other posts. But now we're pulling out the cutesy stops.

The area around Mitsukoshi and 101 recently seems to have become littered with cheer actually. No, really. This tree is made of sporks. Where's the Grinch when you need him? 

So moving on, I had a nice cream cheese frosting cinnamon roll with raisins from one of the MANY beautiful bakeries in the basement of Mitsukoshi. In other news, I discovered where I could scratch the cupcake itch should it arise.

                          

Also in the basement -- the basement below the bakery basement, I think -- there's a killer food court (one of several in the Department Complex):

And -- drum roll, please -- a grocery store. Which brings me to next big topic of this post. What you can get and where in Taipei that smacks of good old fashioned American processed food. So Florida bakery has tortillas and salsa and tortilla chips and pretty iced sugar cookies, along with the usual Taipei bakery awesomeness. I've HEARD you can also get masa harina there, but I think you may have to ask for it.

I was amused about the salsa and filed it for later until I discovered that you can also find this at Mitsukoshi. My mother was excited that they care La Costena even, a brand familiar from my beloved H-E-B back home. They also carry AMERICAN cheddar cheese, in addition to the "good" stuff, although price-wise you're probably not much better off with the "cheap" American cheese. American cheese, for those interested, isn't terribly hard to come by. As for quality, I haven't much to say as that stuff is too far below this cheese snob. Also, I spotted Rosarita refried beans, Campbell soup, Duncan Hinz cake mix, pancake mix, and jimmies. You know, sprinkles. Like for cupcakes. Oh, and marshmallows, which for some inexplicable reason American's always seem to get gooey over and miss terribly. I always see people asking on expat boards. Also in stock was McCormick's buffalo wing spice, spaghetti mix and gravy I think. They also carry a couple of varieties of Tabasco sauce.

On top of it all, you can get all sorts of Japanese, Taiwanese, etc. tasty vittles that I couldn't even BEGIN to catalog.

A bit further down the road at a Walmart-clone, A-Mart, I was able to find the same McCormick envelopes of spice in addition to dried pinto beans, Nature Valley cookies (I noticed this because they were giving out samples, a big thing apparently on Saturdays at the grocery store ;-) ), inexpensive olives, more Tabasco sauce, pasta sauce, and Miller Lite, (in the "foreign foods" section where they put all the American, Vietnamese, and Indian foods, lol).

So what do you find in the regular supermarket? All sorts of things! First off, about a solid aisle (short though it may be) devoted to varieties of rice. The cold food section varies in size, but at minimum you'll find frozen dumplings, buns, ice cream, one or two brands of butter, cheese limited to some American-esque slices and shredded "Pizza Cheese," milk, lots of juice, a small selection of beer including several light but decent Taiwanese brands, a wide selection of tofu, and meats that are frequently sliced and ready for a hot pot. The fresh veg sections aren't as big as you'd think, but I think that's because many people do their produce shopping at open air markets. For my money, I've found the quality to be better at these markets than the supermarkets. The "hypermarkets" like Carrefour or A-Mart are a lot like a Super Target or Walmart in that they have in-house bakeries with some pretty good bread -- and free samples, too! -- and also prepared foods like chicken and lots of vegetables and tofu. There are also frequently bins of dried fruits and meats (or what I take to be meats anyway). Even the smaller grocery stores have lots of junk food like the cookies and "pepper steak flavored potato chips" I have previously mentioned. Cereal is pretty easy to come by and if I'm ever going to break my quickly-becoming-an-addiction morning bakery run habit I'm going to have to invest in some corn flakes and milk. Lots of soft drinks, but I haven't paid much attention as I prefer my drink calories to come with some alcohol. Also some low-grade coffee, lots of instant coffee and tea. In the tea section you'll find milk tea, black teas, green teas, etc. The "baking" aisle has flour, baking soda, MSG (Don't laugh -- I nearly bought that when I was shooting for baking soda!), tapioca flour, rice flour, bread crumbs, and something called "crispy" flour -- haven't gotten to the bottom of that one yet. And something like pancake batter mix, which I think may for something along the lines of okonomiyaki, the tasty japanese savory pancake.

AT ANY RATE, I think you really can find just about anything here, given the energy to look and possibly the NT$ to drop on it. I haven't really been LOOKING for American goods (except the tortillas, por supuesto), but as I haven't figured out the logic of the Taiwanese supermarket layout I have to wander around a bunch. And stare and labels to figure out whether I'm buying rat poison or MSG or pancake batter mix. So my advice is if you ever see a foreigner at a grocery store looking confused -- and chances are good if you take ten random snapshops of THIS foreigner on any give day you'll come out with at least nine VERY befuddled snuggly cactus pictures -- be nice and ask them if they'd like some help. 'Cause you just never know when you'll be staring at the can with a label that hints at corn chowder, condensed milk, or tapioca and reminding yourself not to get your little heart set on anything in particular because no matter how long you stare at, there's always the chance you'll be cracking open a can of pears in light syrup.

All the junk you can stand

So I've been here exactly one week and one day. And I am only just now discovering the fancy feast that is my cable line up! Now granted I've been eagerly and whole-heartedly exploring the other junk fest I want to address briefly here: food. I'm afraid I've given some people the impression that it's been all dumplings and Peking duck since I landed. But not so! I find nothing combats the homesick gloomies better than finding and exploring homestyle food. So I was plenty proactive and hit up the Wellcome supermarket pretty soon upon moving in. I think my first grocery list was something like: trash bags, air freshener (the Asian equiv of the snuggle bear went to the mattresses with that vague lomeiny smell on night 1!), bottled water, beer, and, you guessed it, kids, zero-kCal food reminiscent of home! The only rule is that I'm only allowed to buy ONE thing at a time and have to finish it -- regardless of how lomeiny -- before I can grab anything else. I've been lucky so far. As I said in the last post, the Taiwanese have embraced delectable French desserts like nobody's business. Well, except maybe the panaderias that I still hold so dear. But my first junk food experience was a flat French wafer cookie with a thin chocolate oreo-esque frosting. 

Also popular, and very light but tasty, are those wafer cookies. I went with a "milk" and hazelnut cream filled and wasn't disappointed. They have a thin coating of chocolate and sort of remind me of vacation bible school for some reason. Probably because they were INFAMOUS for cheap cookies LIKE the vanilla, chocolate, and "pink" flavored wafers.At any rate, a good choice. Not sure why so many cookies here have some sort of "milk" theme going, though. It's like they're trying to convince me that my junky indulgences are good for me.

My latest purchase was an Oreo knockoff. Not to say that all sorts of Oreo products aren't available -- you can even get the chocolate and mint frosting ones. But then, when in Rome one really SHOULD try the Roman oreos, right? If you've ever been a poor college student and gone the knockoff Hydrox route, then you know pretty much how these taste. So I'm gonna give Imei's the "Saturday morning toons and milk" seal of approval.

On the savory side, and I'm sorry I didn't take a pic, were Lays Potato Chips. Fried chicken flavor. Now I was torn at the time between "Spicy Pork" and "Fried Chicken," but I felt like either way I wasn't gonna lose. I just HAD to know what fried chicken potato chips tasted like. And the answer? Vaguely like fried chicken. Kinda like if you had plain chips with your KFC (which, for those of you interested, the DO actually have here). As a side note, I will say that the Taiwanese do seem to love their fried chicken in a way that the South would find endearing. It's huge! Often it's pounded out sort of thin -- not quite milanesa thin though -- and breaded with some seasoning that might include a little bit of star anise? Not quite sure there. Only to say that it's quite a nice addition to the recipe and another reason why I'll probably need a crane to help me off this island. Oh, and not to worry -- the supermarket had PLENTY of chips in stock. So yeah. Spicy Pork Lays Potato Chips review coming at you from a Snuggly Cactus near you.

Ok, so on to TV. I HAVE turned the stupid thing on, but the subtitles just remind me I'm as illiterate as I was at age 3, so I usually pop in a movie or something. But I have noticed a few familiar shows. Supernatural comes on in the morning just as it does back stateside. What's that about, anyway? People like watching demon-slaying over their morning coffee??  But my 10 p.m. review is something like this:

• Some guy and chick talking... A sign in the background says "economy". Oh. And knowledge. I guessed it was a political thing except the graphics are now showing an angel and MBA keeps popping up amongst characters I still can't read.
• Ooh CNN! Can't believe I didn't know that was there!
• Soap opera. Okay I'm gonna start the tally now. I. I know it's a s.o. as there's a girl saying passionately "Pa-pa!" and a guy saying something about NOT "Pa-pa!"
• Religious TV. Buddhist I think. I already know there are several of these .
• historical soap opera? Or comedy? Or romance??? Not sure. 
• Like creepy life-like puppets?!?! And ALSO some sort of historical theme. Really. Weird. I can't watch anymore. I'm sorry. I don't know what it is, but it will probably give me nightmares. The sacrifices I make for your edification!

Alright. So now I'm totally horrified and I'm gonna have to run through a whole bunch of TV and FAST to wash that one out, so the rest will be a quicky recap... news,news, ??, talk show with interracial couple, news, Nat Geo (! so excited), DISCOVERY(! wow oh why hadn't I done this sooner), TLC, Animal Planet (in Chinese tho), Chinese Disneytm Channel (some kind of hokey hs musical looking crap idk...), Cartoon Network, knockoff Cartoon Network, knockoff CN 2, talk show, s.o., weird country music with Asian family... oh of course it's a Ford Escape commercial, gonna go with Eastern Jay Leno with wacky sound effects in the back drop, UM totally over-the top-soft-core-oh-no-i-think-its-a-mattress-info-mercial???

Ok, enough is enough. I've gone through like 35 channels of 100. And this mattress commercial is going to require A LOT more study. It's like a home shopping network, but... What the...??!?!! Now they've put wine glasses on it and this dorky guy is jumping up and down?!!?!  Anyway, sufficed to say, a LOT of channels. In case you were worried that moving to Taiwan would ever stifle a Snuggly Cactus' access to junk, be assuaged, dear reader: I'm in stockings and gin with Imei cookies, fried chicken flavored chips, and mattress commercials.

From light-as-air breakie to light-as-air zzzz's

SO today was just too busy for Facebook and WAY too busy for my poor tootsies! Half way through the day I found myself pondering the penalty for mugging over uggs in a country that actually advertises its death for drug trafficking policy on its visa application. Where to begin....

After falling asleep early on the couch last night, I woke early and got a head start on the day by calling a few of the ones-I-love-and-actually-even-like over a cup of coffee. Deciding to take advantage of the oh-my-god-is-that-really sunlight (that's right, kids, the first bit of blue sky since I arrived), I retaped a tour of my apartment. Seems the fish were pretty upset for getting short shrift the last time and were beginning to eye me menacingly every day when I came home from work. Or maybe it was just they hadn't been fed in a few days. Regardless, I'm still not convinced that all the weird cubbies in my apartment aren't inhabited by bad-hair-day Japanese ghosts, so having little fishie friends, regardless of their inability to breathe air, could be useful if ever the ghosts tire of me.

Now on to breakie. Before coming to Taiwan, one of my greatest concerns was that they would have followed in the footsteps of their Chinese brothers and lamed out in respect to the all-important desserts and baked goods. Sorry, Mao, but bean paste does not a delectable tasty make. But on arriving I was quickly reassured that they followed in the Japanese tradition of learning the French methods of baking and then perfecting. That's right. I'm saying it. PERFECTING French baking. All week I'd been passing display cases that called to me almost as loudly as the dumplings.

So today was the day. I was going to have my way in the worst way with some baked goods. The plan was this: start on my walking way towards Taipei 101 -- I'd seen a few potential victims the day before when I'd missed my stop at Houshanpi Station -- and find some breakfast and more coffee, continue along to the shoppers mecca I'd heard the 101 area could be, then maybe up to Ikea and possibly Costco. Yeah. You heard right. You know a joint is civilized when they have not only 7-11 and Dominos BUT also Ikea and Costco!

As promised, the weather was a gorgeous 60F -- that's 16C for the rest of the world -- and the walk pleasant. Well, except for the reminders that no matter how far you go, you can't quite escape Christmas cheer:

But totally worth it in the end.This particularly lovely was absolutely AMAZING! It was a bit dense and buttery, almost cheesy, but slightly sweet. Oh. And did I mention still warm? Yeah. Heaven.

 Nibbling on my breakfast and sipping my coffee, I moved on towards 101. Unfortunately, one of the highlights of my day was a street market that I was too awed by to actually photograph. But here's a brief listing of a few sights:

• Live eels with little baby eels squirming around on a shallow pan with a group of Taiwanese women gathered around haggling. Or betting. I'm not sure which.
• Chickens with heads
• Chickens without heads
• Chicken heads
• Women plucking chickens with tweezers
• All sorts of meats that would make any Mexican grandma proud
• Fruits the like I'd never seen nor tasted. HEAVEN. Well, heaven with dead chickens everywhere.
• Socks, shoes, tights, capri pants, shoes, and more shoes
• Cold weather wear. I think the Taiwanese have somehow convinced themselves that this 60F-some-odd weather is winter like. That's the only way I can explain the knit hats and scarves. This makes me worry for summer...
• Electronics. Everything from navigation devices to wireless routers, which, although I am in the market for, I had little intention of buying from a guy standing next to a guy taking bets on eels.

This is, of course, an abbreviated list. But you get the idea. I'll try and sneak pics next time.

I did, however, get bu-ku pics of buildings I liked and thought illustrated the personality of my new hometown.

 

If you're trying to follow along on a map, these were all, I think, along Zhongxiao around Section 5. I think. Hard to keep track...

But there's a definite playfulness that's sweet. 

Well. Until they come to life of course. And override that whole "Do no harm" clause the genius bar geniuses put in after that whole HAL thing.

So now we come the gratuitous photos of 101. I apologize for the repetition but I'll start with my fave.

 So just a side note: the building was designed to model a bamboo shoot. It WAS the tallest building until the one in Dubai usurped it. But inside you'll still see a ton of stuff claiming it's the tallest GREEN building in the world.

Ok, so to keep Thelma happy, I didn't actually go UP. Well, to keep Thelma happy and because the line was a little intimidating. Especially with Ikea on my mind. But eventually I'll make it up. Anyway, the sights in and around were enough to occupy me for a few solid hours. First off, an electronics fair that was burning my cash from inside my pockets! EVERYTHING imaginable from the flyest of the fly game consoles to super duper small/slim/fast/light/awesome tablets/laptops/phones/navigation devices. It was NUTS! And soooo crowded! Mostly youngish boys and men whose eyes couldn't seem to decide on the electronics and the young scantily clad girls handing out flyers like this one:

A betel nut to anyone who can explain to me why happy schoolgirls are made sad by green monsters jumping out at them from their laptops. And are those maxipads or what?!?

The first five floors of 101 are, of course, a monument to consumerism. A mall. And not just any mall but a mall with nothing costing less than my first car. Tiffany, Coach, Swarovski, Armani, De Beers, Cartier, Versace, Louis Vuitton.. I kept waiting for them to chuck me out. But I think brown American chicks alone confuse them, so I stayed. And took pictures. I think they're going for what Will-and-Grace once termed "Sad Christmas."

But with sparks of that playfulness I mentioned above:

Now before you gripe that they took Santa out of Sad Christmas, I direct you to this:

  Made me sad. But not exactly in a classy CK way.

Outside again was another small fair, but I think this one probably more directed towards tourists. Read: No dead chickens. Or living eels. But traditional dancers. 

So FINALLY to the business of the day. Ikea. But on the way I got lost. I swear. I wasn't looking for this. I know some people will say, "Poor sad brown girl. Not a week away from the Land-of-Taco-Cabana and she HAS to find a taco!" But it didn't happen that way! I was looking for the Tourism Bureau! And then I got a little lost!! I wasn't looking for tacos!!!!

Macho Tacos. Check them out at machotacos.com if you like. You'll see. It's just the kind of place you find when LOST! But then, of course, presented with prospect of Taiwanese Mexican and pictures of Lucha Libre heros, who could really blame me?!?! Just to point out, the corn tortillas were actually homemade. And the carnitas exactly what you expect from carnitas. Corn salsa was good, if a little bland. The salsa kinda tasted like ceviche-hold-the-seafood, but alright. But if you do check out the menu, don't get all offended by the tofu burrito/chimchanga/quesadilla offerings. Ok? There are a lot of vegetarians around! I did get a lead, btw, on where to find corn masa. A Songshan bake shop. That helped make the exorbitant US$3.60 for two tacos go down a little better. Like the most expensive meal I've had in Taipei!

Now just to wrap this up so I can hit the sack already,

The reason for the day. Specifically, a pillow. And a shower solution. See, the thing is, for some unknown reason, other countries, European included, don't always see a need to separate the shower area from the rest of the bathroom. It makes for a bit of a messy shower. And while it has grown on me, I still hoped to find some way of rectifying the situation. And I thought maybe Ikea could help. But a quick amble around the marketplace surrounding Ikea led me to another useful little home solutions shop: Nitori. And here I found not only a cheaper pillow, but also a "Japanese room" kit with plastic bars that fit together meant to hold a sort of mosquito netting around a bed. Brilliantly perfectly what I need! Unfortunately, the DRILL I need to mount the screws is going to hold up this perfect little plan of mine. So. :-(. It goes back on the to-do list.

Anyhoot, to the end of the day. I managed to schlep my wares onto a very crowded MRT train, then transfer to another less-crowded train, and find my way home. WHICH I now have a handy way of finding from a distance. See, as I was coming up from the subway station, I realized I wasn't entirely sure which direction my apartment was in. And then I saw it. The boob. Or turret for the more pure-of-heart-and-mind. Whatever floats your boat. All I know is that these "turrets" are directly across from my balcony and that was how female anatomy saved my day. 

Whew. Well I'M exhausted. To bed. On my nice new cushy Japanese pillow.