In Taiwan

Man,  I made it.  I left my hotel in Houston at 4:45 a.m., and got to Taipei 28 solid hours later.  The flight wasn't terrible, although my butt fell asleep twice, and I had to stand for about an hour (out of the thirteen from San Francisco to Taipei).

I took a tour bus into downtown Taipei, which was about a 40 minute ride from the Taoyuan Airport, which is in the next county over.  Everyone getting on the bus did a double-take when they saw the meiguoren (American) in the front seat.

Things got fun, though, when I got got hostel where I'd booked a room for two weeks.  It's in the back of an alley just off the intersection of two fairly big streets in downtown, and there's a McDonald's about two hundred yards from the hostel - classic.  When I got inside (it's on the sixth floor, up a sketchy elevator), the lady at the front desk didn't have record of my reservation, which I made about two months ago.  Hmm.

I chatted with her for a while, and she said she had a slot in one of the single rooms the following night, and that I could stay there for 10 days.  I thought I'd already booked the room, but she wasn't having any of it.  So, I had to go back downstairs and try to find a place to stay for the night.  About a block away, there is a Sheraton Hotel, but when I tried to pay in cash, they told me the room fee was more the $300 for the night, yikes.  I kept going down the street, heading back toward the Taibei Main Train Station where I'd been dropped off.  

I saw a place called the Cosmos Hotel, but it was on the other side of the street, and there was no cross-walk.  While I was waiting for the elevator to go under the street, a Taiwanese woman asked my if I was from the U.S.  When I responded yes in Chinese, she began firing off questions at light speed - it seems to be a common trait here.  Here two daughters were gawking at me probably wondering both at the fact that I can speak Chinese and that I speak it so poorly.  I answered a few questions about where I was from, and slowly sauntered away, b/c I couldn't see any other way to make the break.

Finally, I booked a room for the night at the Cosmos Hotel, showered, and went to sleep.  Right now, I'm back in the Taipei Hostel, about to head out to register for classes.

(By the way, I got in trouble for taking that picture - the security guard visible in the bottom left corner though I was illicitly scoping him out.)