2 months done

I've now been in Taiwan for two months. My last day of work was 1 year and 3 weeks ago. Time has gone slow at times and sped by - these past 2 weeks have gone by particularly fast and I find myself behind schedule -- even with a part time student schedule. I'm hoping to catch up by tomorrow.

I've been playing a fair amount of ultimate. On Wednesday, I went to Jiantan to play pickup with some Taiwanese folks. A young woman I've met there before, Xiao Xiao, is really nice. Her friend ChiChi and ChiChi's dad, Lin, are also friendly - and FeiFei is a good amount of fun. The other folks are a bit quieter. Afterwards Tino and I checked out Shilin night market.


I met Tino earlier this year in Vietnam - a good friend of Tuyet's. He's also an ultimate player, American, and ex-pat. He just started working for a Taiwanese company and they've sent him over for a bit of training. It was nice to see him again and hear about what he's been up to - certainly an inspiration - finally someone who LOVES their job!

Thursday I enjoyed dinner at a Burmese restaurant with Geoff before track practice (I forgot to grab the card). Friday I explored the Gongguan night market with Dan. We were the last in line for some cong bing before the cops came to tell them to move on. They let them finish cooking and we ate some delicious greasy green onion fat pancakes. I also had some of those pudding/red bean filled cakes from a place that always has a long line and doesn't allow pictures. They were tasty and different from the ones you normally see around Taipei (fatter, with batter spillage). All the eating exploration made me late for Friday league - but luckily my team had a first round bye and I got to play two games despite showing up an hour late.

Saturday I went to John's to enjoy breakfast. He is as big a baker as I ever was and always has some fresh made treats for us. That morning he had fresh made waffles for us and bagels just out of the oven.

After filling up on fresh mango, bacon, coffee, papaya shakes and waffles, we headed out to Long Dong for some climbing.



I wouldn't have made it past this overhand without Geoff's help - in both advice for hand and foot placement - and the big shove that he had to give me to get over it after my forearms felt that burning sensation that made me want to stop altogether.

Once past that hurdle, the rest of the climb was much easier. I think it was better to have the most challenging part early on - otherwise I probably wouldn't have been able to make it past. The views from up top were incredible. I didn't bring my camera up, but the views of the water were gorgeous - light blue with waves crashing in over the rocks.




John and Mitch are great climbers - they tackled some pretty tough overhangs and led for us.


Afterwards, we went to the water to cool off and relax - the wind and waves were stronger than normal, so the ocean didn't look enticing enough to jump in - but I enjoyed watching 30 foot water crashes as some of the guys went for a swim.

We returned to Taipei to enjoy a filling grilled dinner at Geoff's - lots of fresh vegetables (usually lacking in Chinese food), some meat and drinks. We went to the Comedy Club at night to see a hypnotist - the most entertaining was a fellow who gave in pretty easily who forgot the number 7 and kept counting 11 fingers and being very confused about it. The hypnotist told him that I had given him an extra special finger - and any time he touched it he would feel good. He continued to subtly stroke his finger the rest of the night. Too funny!

Today I went to practice in Banciao because the YongHe fields are still not usable from Typhoon Krosa 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, I sprained my ankle while running into the endzone - hopefully I will recover before I go to Hong Kong this next weekend to play in a tourney. All is not lost though if that's not the case - two of my best college mates will be there and I hear HK has plenty of good food (in fact, I'm taking suggestions on where to go - leave a comment/email if you have any advice).