Here we are in good day Taipei. Taipei is situated in the heart of Taiwan, and they have a lot of flags along the streets to remind you of where you are. When we stepped off the plane we still spoke a lot of English, but this time no one really understood us and people stared. We handed a taxi man a piece of paper and he showed us into a cab where he pointed at a sheet that had the number "218" written on it. Although we nodded, and expected that everyone knew where that was, there are quite a few "218"s in Taipei and so we were lost. Luckily, a Uniqlo and a homosexual paper shop were nearby where I picked up a button featuring Spiderman kissing Batman.
We got in a different taxi and visited my mom's friend Warren. Our cab driver didn't understand who we were going to see, so I pointed at my cheek and told him "like me." Everyone had a good laugh, and the cab driver spotted Warren pretty easily.
Like Korea, crime is supposedly not much of a problem in Taipei, and for the most part people have been very friendly and welcoming here. The cab driver on the way back to our hotel got us some flowers off a beggar woman that smelled funny. Because I had a lot of coffee and was feeling paranoid, I thought he was trying to drug us. But he wasn't, and Vicky at the front desk of my hotel let me know that many cab drivers buy these "stoplight flowers" for ignorant passangers such as myself. Vicky takes photographs, and liked my videocamera.
At the bar I asked for a rum and coke and received a glass half full of Rum and a glass full of coke. I was pretty zonked. Today, we worked out in the gym at 4 in the morning. They had the same life fitness machines as back home.
Also, the food here is great. We ate dumplings where you let the bottom seep out broth, and the top is an "explosion of flavor" as many people like to put it. Beef is very tender here.
I'm very worried about Manila, but my mom is not. We seem to balance each other out well so far--I freak out about a new place, and my mom freaks out once we get to a hotel.
