September 16

I have been to Taipei twice. Both times, the island has been brushed by a typhoon. This one wasn't so bad because we weren't trying to go anywhere in particular. We already found an apartment and some furniture to go in it. Yesterday, before the rain hit, we took the train to the zoo. We didn't stay because of the impending weather so headed back after eating lunch.
We spent the rest of the afternoon watching sheets of wind driven rain obscure even the biggest landmarks. The Taipei 101 (world's tallest building) is no more than 2 miles from the hotel we are staying in. Just past the 101 are four mountains. We would watch the mountains disappear, then the 101 behind the rain and clouds. At one point we couldn't see the ground from our room on the 32nd story.
So we went down to ground level to continue watching the storm. I have decided that rain is far less gloomy at ground level. The rain seems like it is on a human scale on the ground. I cannot see those landmarks from ground level anyway so had no sense that they had been obscured. Plants, trees and things at ground level just seemed green and rinsed off.

September 14

Last night we went to a Chinese Banquet. Several of Mark’s work associates were there as well as the owner of a company that Mark’s company does business with and his engineers. I was invited as a courtesy since I was in town. Everyone treated me as an honored guest even though I was an interloper.
The banquet was held in a large private party room in one of Taipei’s largest and most luxurious hotels. It was set up with a large round table that probably could seat 15 to 20 people covered in gold colored linens. In the center was a lazy-susan turntable, also covered in gold fabric. Its purpose soon became clear to me as the dishes were placed on the turntable and passed instead of passing from person to person. It made a lot of sense to me as people could help themselves to what food they wanted without interrupting the flow of the conversation.
For more than 3 hours the delicacies flowed freely. The first set of dishes included Chinese “eggs”. Mark referred to them as 1000 year old eggs but only they only looked old. The whites of the hard boiled eggs were a translucent dark brown and the yolks were a dark olive green. They had been adorned with another dark green colored garnish. Well, it didn’t look like anything I had ever eaten or served but I was the first guest to be served food and it was the first dish put on the table. What would I do? I knew that I didn’t have to eat the food, no one would be upset but there were 12 smiling faces looking at me expectantly, so I took an egg. Mark later said that he could just see a look of determination come over my face. The hardest part was getting the slippery thing to my mouth without flinging it across the room. I succeeded, popping it into my mouth. It tasted fine, like a spicy pickled egg. It had the correct texture of a hard boiled egg. And the best part was that everyone ignored my eating habits pretty much for the rest of the evening. I only got occasional comments like, “So spicy food doesn’t bother you then.”
Most of the food was excellent. Some things I don’t eat in the US either, like duck because I don’t like the greasy taste. There were all variety of meats, beef, pork, chicken, duck, grilled fish, stewed fish, shell fish, all prepared in different dishes. Nothing except the grilled fish came unadorned. There were dumplings, pastries and noodles. There was rice available but few asked for any. I didn’t want rice because I had never eaten so much as it was. It was like a super-sized Thanksgiving but I only took a taste of each dish. Finally, came the soup and Mark told me that meant dinner was nearly over. Then came the two desserts. Neither was particularly sweet but I am not a big sweets eater anyway.
I was so full that walking to the car seemed like real work. I was sure that I would have nightmares all night because of all the different things I had eaten, well at least an upset stomach. None of that happened. I fell asleep almost immediately when we returned to the hotel and slept peacefully.
I feel like a conquered a worthy foe last night.

September 12,2006
Today we went shopping for apartments, furniture, and at Costco. We shop at Costco every week in Dallas so it only seems natural to shop there in Taipei. It is a two story building but otherwise, it just seems like a Costco. I found almost all my favorites there but significntly more expensive since the items are imported from the United States. We didn't find ziplock bags or our favorite brand of peanut butter but my favorite brand of sandwich cheese was there...go figure. There were a few things that are definately not in the Plano stores, most notably, black skinned chickens. I don't think that I would spend extra money to buy chickens that were the color of charcoal but obviously, someone would. It probably just tastes like plain old chicken when it is cooked anyway.

I know now that I can never drive in Taipei. There are obviously rules for merging and making turns because no one runs into anyone else. I don't understand them though. I would be a nervous wreck. So far we haven't taken the train or bus yet, riding only in taxis or private cars. That is a luxury that will soon change though.

Tomorrow, I hope that we will be finished enough with trying to find an apartment and appropriate furnishings so we can do some touristy things. I look out the hotel window at the Taipei 101 and have gone past it maybe 20 times. Tomorrow, I'd like to stop and go in.