Illī Qui Vagantur

The past two days have not been that eventful, but I had fun anyway. On Thursday I ate breakfast with Vicki and then went to Hess's main office to drop off some documents. I had an appointment with a woman there to discuss my placement. I have been anxious about it because if it were to be in Taipei I want to start looking for apartments asap and I have a roommate. Well, it turned out that the lady was ill that day, so I didn't get to find out. But I did find out today that my tentative placement is Taipei. She said she was almost sure it wouldn't change, but she had to leave herself some sort of out. So, I am in Taipei.

For lunch we went to my favorite curry restaraunt. Last time I went there were video cameras (they were doing a news feature on the restaurant and I ended up on t.v.). Then we went to Ikea to look around and pretend like we actually have money to buy furniture. Minhye came with us. It was nice to hang out with her again. Last year I hung out with her nearly every day. Later that night we went to a coffee shop in gongguan that is cute and has good food. But we didn't want food, we wanted beer. We were waiting for a bar to open that we wanted to check out and had 2 hours to kill so we ended up at the coffee shop. It turns out that they have beer there, belgian beer. If the belgians knew what was being done with their beer here they would have a fit. They put ice in it and flavoring and then stick a straw in it. In Taiwan, every drink comes with a straw, including beer. I chose not to add flavor to my beer, but Vicki had a kiwi beer and Drew had a blue caracao. I tasted it and can say that I am not a fan.

Then we headed to the bar called The Jailhouse. It was listed in Drew's guidebook so we thought it must be decent. Actually, it wasn't. We were the only ones there and they ran around like crazy getting things ready and kept apologizing. It felt like they just shut everything down (music, lights, etc.) unless customers come, and it seems like they don't come all that often. The waitress sat down at our table and talked with us. She also played a drinking game with us. It was a little awkward, but it was okay. One of the rules in the game we were playing is that you have ot touch the floor when you draw a certain card and you can't be the last one or you drink. The waitress must have forgotten or not have heard that rule though, because when Vicki suddenly hurled her body sideways and put her hand to the floor the waitress actually tried to catch her and then told her that she should start drinking water instead of beer. haha. Vicki tried to explain, but I'm pretty sure that the waitress just continued to think she was wasted.

Today Drew and I wandered around Taipei. It was a lot of walking and we didn't discover anything particularly interesting. We did take pictures of some temples though. I finally was hungry enough to eat dinner so we went to NCCU (my old school) to eat at the little restaurant I like there, but I forgot that I like to eat the beef and kimchi fried rice not noodles. Oh well. Mom, if you are reading this, and Laura too, I just want to warn you that a lot of the places I like to eat at are very dirty. But, you cannot be afraid to eat at these places because they have the best food. In my experience, the more expensive, sit-down places that are sparkling and clean only have s0-so food. Anyway, I have never been sick from the food, so I think it is fine.

Tomorrow Drew and I are heading to Taichung. My friend Ruchun's family lives there and her sister was going to be our guide, but I didn't get back early enough to call her and now it is late, so I think I won't. Then at some point after that I will be going to a small island north of Taiwan called Mazu. Summer is supposed to be the best time to visit, so I am excited for that.

Well...the past two days weren't that eventful, so more next time.