Getting my feet wet

Yesterday, Sarah took me on a walking tour of my new neighborhood and I am completely infatuated with it. There are no less than one frillion spillion shops, restaurants, markets, cafes, fruit and vegetable stands, clothing stores, banks, hair salons, parks, convenient stores, bars, gyms, tea houses, and one Buddhist temple all within a three minute walk of our apartment. Every street, alley, and lane is accented with tropical greenery. Imagine the hills of San Francisco, the winding alleys of Florence, the balmy weather of Miami, the communal housing of East Germany, and the vibrant pulse of Times Square and you've got where I live. It's incredible! Tomorrow I plan to explore the downtown business district where my office will be. I'm told it's less charming, but I'll write my impressions once I've seen it for myself.

01Chiang Kai-Shek Gate by Night

Oh, good news...I bought a cell phone yesterday so you can now all call me whenever you want. The bad news is that the instructions are entirely in Chinese, and I didn't realize this until I got home, so I can't use the phone at all, which means that you can't yet all call me whenever you want. But when you can, the number will be 011 886 9157-54271. I'm going to try to go by the store today and get an instruction booklet in English.

02View From My Bedroom Window

In other good news, I'm getting really good at dividing by the number 30. The exchange rate for New Taiwanese Dollars to US Dollars hovers around 30 to 1. So, for example, my lunch yesterday in a popular TianMu restaurant, a delightful meal consisting of spinach soup, a grilled and seasoned fish filet, lamb stir fry with rice, a side of unidentified greens, and a coke cost me 120 NT, or $4. See, this trip has made me smarter already!

03My neighborhood, TianMu

04My Neighborhood

05One of My New Roommates, Baz