Damn it, is it Wednesday already??

Not sure if i can sum up my impression of Taiwan so far but here is what I'm noticing. There seem to be limitless amount of street and small store vendors. If you're amazed at how many stores there are here, you'll be equally as amazed on how many customers flood the markets. Another thing is that there must be 100,000's of scooters here. On the streets, I can honestly say I've walked by more parked scooters on the streets than I've walked by pedestrians. How is that possible? The available fruits here differs a lot from what you are used to seeing at American markets. It was my first time having guava here. I think it would be very nice in one of the smoothies I've been making in the mornings. Too bad its either very expensive or impossible to find guava in the markets in the US. I also get the sense that people are more trusting here than in the states. Like the way things are laid out in stores, or how the small places to eat are set up, you can easily get away with not paying. But I guess its something they don't concern themselves too much about.

And finally, what is the deal with their paranoia on germs, but without the willingness to do any cleaning? Like people seem deathly scared of germs you can carry on the bottom of your shoes. And yes, I agree, there is some truth to that. But most of those germs wouldn't be there if everyone just picked up a hose, mop, sponge, and some pine sol. You don't see Americans falling to their deaths because they wear their shoes in the house.

There are some weird things how now, the right side of the escalator is for people not walking up or down the escalator. you need to hail a bus, like you do a taxi. when you get on a bus, you need to read the sign that tells you whether you need to pay when you get on, or if you need to pay when you get off. its all written in chinese, so if you are a traveler, i bet it'll be very confusing indeed. also, most of the small restaurants here don't have picture menus. so its just written in text. probably about 90% of them are like that. so this place is not that accomodating to foreigners. its no surprise that i've only seen about 3 white people so far out of the tens of thousands of asians. and they were probably european.

yesterday, we went to taipei 101 for dinner, had some hot pot. it was really good. then planned out a pretty tight schedule for the few days i have left here.

Cherie is sick again. might just be the same thing she had a few days ago. bad timing i guess. she says she had never gotten sick here until the day before i arrived here. and i was worried that i was going to be the one getting really ill being out of my enviornment looking like a wuss. i guess all those years of exposing myself to germs at B and C grade resturants in LA have helped my stomach get stronger. we were supposed to go watch harry potter tonight, but we might opt out for another day. Unless she's feeling a lot better later, we'll probably just stay in and just watch more of the kdrama "Full House" and have a clean bathroom available to us.