Day 1: Welcome to Taipei

The plane lands. The man who has been sitting beside us (window seat) has just finished his fourth beer. We disembark the plane, go through immigration and collect our bags - the usual. Kris hired a driver (!), so there is a man in a snappy suit waiting for us. We travel through the suburbs to the city - while looking out the window, my first reaction is "I didn't pack any warm weather clothes", it's very green and lush looking, but it's only 6 in the morning, so the weather is still mild.

We arrive at our hotel/apartment and get shown around. It's small, the whole thing would fit into our living room, but it's well laid out and there is a small kitchen, office area etc. The furnishings are modern. But enough about the room. After we showered (why is it that coming out of a post-plane shower is like being reborn? Amazing.) we headed out to check out our surrounding - except most places were closed because it was about 8am at this point. We wound through some smaller alleys and found a placed called Mr. Breakfast. "How do you do, kind sir?" I thought. We pointed at this bagel thing and he nodded, and we ate. Yum. Surprise bagel sandwich of goodness. However, it became obvious at that precise moment that our total unpreparedness for the language barrier is going to have us eating some strange things.

There are street stalls all over the place, and since it was early, we saw the stall-keepers prepping the days food in back alley corners - it looked fresh, good and mysterious. I decided I am going to make flash cards with "Can I have a chicken/vegetarian dish" and "show me how much for this (pointing)". I can say "Hello" (Ni Hao) and "Thank You" (Shei Shei) but this language is tonal, and like the "Learn to speak Mandarin" podcast said the word for "pig" (Ju) can mean 4 different things, based on your tone.

Overall the city is modern, there are 7-11s and Starbucks everywhere, people are stylish and you can tell there is money here. We are staying really close to down town, so there is loads of restaurants and shopping all around. It seems like a pretty prime spot - we're close to transit and high-speed rail so we're making plans for a day trip to "Pingxi" for the lantern festival or to a hot springs. Kris has his first appointment on Monday (tomorrow, we're a day ahead) so we'll know more about our free time then.

I think I'll like it here. It's different, but somehow cities have this homogeneous property of feeling really familiar no matter where you are. It's currently 6 in the morning Taiwan-time. Kris and I just slept for 13 hours. We had to, it's the only way we could be on the same schedule as everyone else. The sun is just starting to come up, but don't worry it's not that hot here - mild is the perfect word. Comfortable in jeans and a sweater.

I think I'll take some pictures today for y'all so you can see what I'm talking about.

Love+Pancakes,

Cassie