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Taiwan

It's great to be back. Things I have missed about Taiwan:
-cheap but really good and delicious food
-hustle bustle Taipei City life
-ability to watch TV programs in Japanese, Korean and of course Chinese and Taiwanese (though I don't understand most of them)
-ability to watch sports other than basketball, baseball, football and hockey on ESPN. They have things like volleyball, football (the real one played with your feet), snooker...
-being a lot taller than most people on the street
-torrential rain
-bumpy and crazy bus rides that scare the shit out of me
-super clean and super orderly subway rides and stations
-the newest tech gadgets my dad always seem to have
-stinky public restrooms
-local girls in schoolgirl uniform
-not having to pay for anything with my own money
-smell of mosquito "wen shiang"
-coffee served by the IOP secretaries
-walking around instead of driving all the time
-humidity and the "sticky" test
-electronics shops galore, sometimes really sketchy ones too
-family

There's so much more of course...but these really stand out at the moment.

My two weeks here is jam packed with activity. Here's a rough break down of this week given to me by my secretary a la bro on the car home from airport:
Mon: 2 pm tennis
Tue: 10 am tennis, 6 pm volleyball, after 10 pm no food or drink, eat pills to make you crap shitloads
Wed: full body health checkup
Thur: 7 am tennis, then down to Hsinchu to meet old teachers and colleagues
It goes on and on...then there's dinners to go to, people to show Taipei to...I feel more and more like my trips back are for business and not so much leisure. That's not to say playing tennis everyday is very taxing business hehe. Anyways, all in all, very good.

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