Taiwan

Well, I'm in Taiwan for this post.  I just wanted to jot down some observations before I left.  Maybe I'll even take some pictures.

Taiwan is the second most population dense country, next only to Bangladesh (spelling?) I was informed by my hosts.  Apparently a lot of the land on this small Island is not livable, they have about 24 million people or so.  I'm here during the winter time, so its been in the 60s, no rain so far. It cools off to about 50 or so at night. 

I'm assuming because of the high population density, most people here don't have a sense of personal space. They're also mostly short.  Every day I come into the site for work and go up the elevator. Every day I'm surrounded by people who come up to my shoulder. By surrounded I mean everyone stands WAY to close to me. I try to lean back and forth and squash people just to teach them to give me some space.  It hasn't worked so far. 

The food here is interesting. I've been out to eat at two places. One they ordered for me, and I had to eat some weird stuff which I normally wouldn't do.  Surprisingly enough, the food tasted pretty terrible.  I keep hearing from other people that I need to try new things, cause I could be missing out on so much. Apparently I'm not missing out.  Jellied pig tendons really do taste as gross as that sounds.  Seafood dumplings (what they call pot-stickers) just don't taste good.  The chicken noodle soup had some type of spice in it that added a savory 409 or Windex flavor. Their "Taiwanese hamburgers" as I was told they were called (rice tortilla with ham, some veggies and some sweet potatoes) were at least palatable.  I had two of those to show how much I liked them, and to avoid having to eat some of the other weird stuff on the table.  For dessert they brought out a bowl of jet black yummy sesame seed mush.  I was being sarcastic when I said yummy.  They're also not into cooking their meat "too much". By too much I mean cooking their meat. 

Breakfast is interesting, I eat it at the Hotel. They usually have a little row of American food, including "Intestinal meats" as they call sausage.  I do like their french toast, although their pancakes taste weird. How do you make pancakes taste weird? You got me, but they figured out how.  They also have sushi, shrimp, grilled fish, something they call "congee". I've been afraid to open that pot to see what's inside.  Never name a food congee.  Seafood lovers would love breakfast here. The mussels are to die for.

The other place I went out to eat was excellent! I ordered for myself, and got a nice salad and a "stewed beef short rib".  It had mostly fat on it, but the meat was VERY good.  The rolls were delicious as well.

Travel is by taxi here, or if one of the other folks who are stationed here gives me a ride. I'd say there are 3 scooters for every car.  People drive pretty crazy here.  The guy whose office I'm in just totaled his car, the other three guys I know here have either hit a scooter or also totaled their car.  I think the company should just pay for everyone to have drivers.  Scooters will often pass on the right or left, in all sorts of situations.  Intersections are always fun, usually it's a game of whoever goes first, wins.  Americans could learn one thing though, there is almost no road rage here. People accept getting cut off as a way of life here. 

I'm listening to some girl sing "Yesterday" by the Beatles over the loud speaker right now.  They play light music at 1pm to wake everyone up (they're allowed to sleep from 12-1pm, which many people do at their desks).

The hotel I'm staying in is very nice and posh. I was complaining to Suzy though, I saw they had ESPN on the channels and got excited, until I realized that it was in Chinese. CNN is the only English channel. 

Anyway, I've enjoyed the trip, it hasn't been as weird as I thought it'd be.  I wish Suzy were here so she could see all this stuff too.  I realized (a while ago) that traveling for me is mostly fun if I share it with someone.  Otherwise, I'm not into seeing new stuff much.