no long update, and i'm not going to recap every day, but here's an e-mail i sent to some friends last night.
(interesting notes from day 2: we went to the zoo and saw some monkeys, koalas and penguins among other animals, but it was gonna rain, so we left early. the taipei transit system is really simple to use with this "easycard" system where you just swipe this pass on a sensor.
during dinner, we had peking duck, and i ate the part off of the duck's ass. it was *loaded* with fat, and after that, i came very closed to puking. those of you who know me know that i love duck, but this was just too much!)
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hey people, so my first day in taiwan has passed. it's 11pm, and i'm still
wide awake. this morning, i woke up at 3am taiwan time, and i couldn't fall
back asleep. i finally got up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am and just started
smoking my brains out while everyone was still asleep.
i've been eating a lot of weird fruits, like this one mushy scaly thing that
smells funny and has big black seeds. i have no clue what it's called, but
it's actually kind of tasty despite the fact that it looks like pale green
roadkill.
at dinner tonight, i passed up eating frog, even though my brother was like,
"hey, it tastes like chicken!" yeah, i know that's what everyone says, and in
chinese, the direct translation is "sweet chicken." i still wouldn't eat it.
i did have shark's fin soup, though; the chinese have no conscience.
i went for a walk through a "night market." basically, it's like a mile-long,
hot, crowded, stinky, sweaty segment packed with vendors and people selling all
sorts of shit, from crazy chingrish t-shirts to severed duck heads to dung
beetles. i was told to eat stuff from here, but i was so stuffed from dinner
that all i could muster was some takoyaki (grilled octopus balls) and, of
course, pearl tea. it's actually better in the states, i think.
and the weird thing of all is that it's been 48 hours since i last took a dump.
i've got this gas, but no "matter." go figure. does jet lag have anything to
do with number two's? *ponder*
ok, good night.
-d
(editor's note: right after sending out this e-mail, i took a dump. the problem was, the flushing power of the toilet wasn't very strong, so i left a lot of skidmarks. how embarrassing!)