The first 44 hours...

Wow! I'm exhaused. The last 44 hours have been jammed packed. Hard to believe that this morning I was playing cards outside with Eliza, then had diner with my parents, then went to the airport, then flew to Taiwan (having both diner and breakfast), then arriving in Taiwan, having another breakfast, then another lunch, and now about to have another diner. (no sleep!)

Here's a bit of a summary of the day:

Upon my arrival at the airport I was happily greeted by Johan and Ali waiting for me in the arrivals area :) They drove us back to our apartment in Chingli which must have been less than 20 min away, but not before stopping off at a small breakfast cafe for some breakfast gyoza's and steamed buns ($1.50 yum!)

After eating breakfast and unpacking my computer I quickly made some calls to parents and Eliza (neither were home). Next Johan took me for a walking tour around the area. We walked around the block and up to the High Speed Rail Station (HSR). His neighborhood feels like the wild wild west. Lots of grass overgrowing parts of the road, and sparsely placed buildings.

After taking out some money from the ATM and waiting for Nikki to wake up (Ali's girlfriend), she took Johan and I to Jongli, which is a larger neighbouring city full of stereotypical asian streets lined with hundreds of colourfull billboards and signs. We parked on the side of a road and walked into one of the Telecom buildings to get my Sim card. note to self: my cell number is 0975 574 599.

After this we went further into the city and stopped off at this little cafe that makes a great cold yakisoba noodle dish (sort of a peanuty/sesame/garlic sauce). Delicous and only $1.50.

Next we went off to Nova to get me a laptop. Nova is a big 4 story building full of small technology related merchants all selling their wares. After speaking to several different vendors, Johan was able to sneak out this great deal of a laptop so I ended up buying it.

After Nova we headed back home and not after 10 minutes I was already back on the streets riding on the back of Johan's bike (standing on the rear wheel posts). He rode me to the "Metro Walk" mall which is about a 5-10 min bike ride away. The main purpose was to buy me a bike, which we found a decent one for about $60 Canadian. We also bought a manly black basket to fit on the front so that I can carry extra grocery's if I need to. After purchasing the bike Johan and I were just ready to ride back home when it started to pour with thunder and lighting. We waited undercover for about 30 min, hoping the rain would cease but it kept pouring down so we just biked back in the pouring rain. It was boiling hot still so the rain wasn't really as bad as I thought. Halfway through our ride home the rain actually stopped briefly enough for us to dry off, but then started up again about a minute away from the apartment so we got soaked as we entered the garage.

Okay! What a long post. Jam packed day and I plan on taking it much easier tomorrow now that everything is pretty much set up.