First weekend - Culture Shock

After nearly 14 hours of sitting on a plane and 30 hours after getting any decent sleep, I landed in Taiwan at 11pm local time, Friday July 3. I was expecting some culture shock, but that still didnt prepare me. Coupled with jet lag and lack of sleep, I spent most of the first weekend in kind of a crabby daze. I remember making a pretty negative facebook note the night I arrived, and after re-reading it a few days later I wanted to delete it.

Anyway, we started off Saturday by going to the RT-mart to get me some necessities. RT-mart is similar to Walmart, but even more brightly lit and crowded. In the electronics section, there was a Michael Jackson concert video playing. this was just 4 days after he had died, and I was surprised at the crowd that was gathered around the screen. Its easy to forget that he was just as popular out here as he was in the states, if not more so. Little reminders throughout the week like displays at record stores, t shirts with his face for sale, or his music pouring out of a trendy shop have kept that in my mind

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After that, we walked around the shopping district, and had lunch at a place that served hot pot. This was another new experience. A bowl of seaweed soup was put on a burner on my table, and I was brought trays of meat and veggies to cook in the boiling soup. I had beef and pork and cabbage, and a side of crab cakes. It was served with tea and tiny glasses of plum vinegar, which was incredibly sweet.



Yes, the waiter brought me a fork as soon as I sat down, along with an english menu.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the trendy downtown areas, including the SOGO shopping mall.



Cate Blanchett was the first white face I saw that day. The two other girls are local celebrities.



This girl is a local tv host, she was in the mall giving a presentation for a facial cleanser.




On Sunday, I got my first experience with the MRT, Taipei's transit system. Its surprisingly cheap and efficient, I'll post more about that later.

After lunch, we went to a museum called Taiwan Storyland. It aims to recreate how the city looked a generation ago. The whole place was underground, and kind of claustrophobic. It reminded me a little of Disney world or Epcot center, in that it seemed like a sugarcoated version of history.





It was divided into rooms, each room had a theme, like the police station, dentist office, etc. We went into the classroom, and AJ thought it would be funny to write my name on the chalkboard.


I met AJ while I was in school in Seattle back in 2001. She has been a good friend for the last 8 years, and she's been a tremendous help in planning this trip. I would not be out here if it wasn't for her. I'll post more about her soon.

After we left Storyland, it started raining, and we were forced to wait it out in a shop.



After the rain stopped we went to Ximending Circle, the even trendier shopping district. The entire area was FILLED with people, while 10 story tall billboards for harry potter and transformers towered overhead.





After leaving Ximending Circle, we went back to SOGO for dinner at a Japanese-style restaurant. Their specialty was an omelette-style pie consisting of noodles, egg and meat cooked on a hot skillet at the center of the table. Side dishes included a soup with squid meat, and a salad that looked suspiciously like taco salad.



The pie was striped with mustard and garlic sauce and was delicious.




That's it for my first weekend. I apologize it took so long to get this going. I'm going to try and get caught up by this weekend, and then start posting every few days. Thanks for reading!