Aiyo....

Up at 8am yesterday and went for a run on the track. This time there was no rain. After 15 minutes I had to quit since I was majorly overheating. I don't know how the Taiwanese do it; there were six people sprinting circles around me -- no one appeared bothered by the heat.

After lunch in the campus cafeteria (good food!), Bo and I headed to Taipei 101 to Page One books. I opted to leave my Taiwan guide books back in the states since they were too heavy to carry along with the novels and Chinese language books I packed. Bo has a good guide book, but it’s in Korean so I can only look at pictures. Not ideal, and it’s unfairly forced Bo into the tour guide role. I now have Culture Shock Taiwan and Lonely Planet.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Ximending, an insane shopping area in the center of the city that offers all the latest Taiwanese trends. Clothing prices seemed to be in the $1-$12 USD range. I tried a few things on and had to get plus sizes. I’m a giant here and practically obese by Taiwanese standards.


We met up with the Mexican/Guatemalan scholarship students in the evening for some bar hopping. We started the night at Club Roxy, then to another place -- I can’t recall the name -- and wound up the night at Spark. Drinks are really expensive and there are also cover charges. After a while we decided to go to 7/11 and buy some beer before heading back to the club in order to save cash. It felt odd/awesome to drink beer in the street… it’s perfectly legal here. We had a great time. Many of the scholarship students are also here for language and masters programs; I’m happy to be meeting interesting people that will staying in Taipei as long as I will be. We got home at 5am. I’m dragging today… and know for sure that I’m back in college.