QUARANTINE

So guess what? All of my fears were confirmed when we walked through the fever scan and the Taipei officials said I had a fever. I've been checking for a week, so how is it that in a matter of 14 hours I go from a completely normal temperature to 100 degrees? SO they made me where one of those masks... yes they did... and I had to fill out a form because they are probably going to watch my every move in this country. Alyssa just kept laughing and taking pictures, so nice of her. As soon as we walked away I removed the mask, but everyone in this country where's them so I would look more like a local if I did wear them. Oh wait, I forgot I am a white girl with red hair--- every single male in this country smiles at me for extended periods of time, even while motorbiking around sharp turns. How they do it is quite a feat.

Backing up the flight was horrible with HOURS of straight turbulence the guy from the Phillipines next to me who had never flown so far before saying with every bump, "Jesus, oh Jesus... Jesus... Oh, oh Jesus" making things so much better. There was also a Chinese woman, the same one who kept speaking to Alyssa in Chinese and either offering her a newspaper to read or saying she looked like the girl on the cover, who was praying really loudly. At first I thought maybe she had a bluetooth but that doesn't make sense 36000 ft in the air. Nope, just prayers... or else she was talking to some invisible person. Who knows. Also, our Chinese porridge came with this package called Tuna Flavored Floss. We were like, what the hell?! It's actually just tuna flakes and seasoning to give the porridge more flavor. The porridge itself was rather odd, with fish flakes and bones I believe... still not sure.

Yesterday was difficult to get used to the time difference. But Leslie insisted we try to stay up until 8 or 9pm. We went out to Taipei, taking a very nice bus from right outside Leslie and James' house, straight into downtown, and then rode the subway from there. Everything is very straight forward because even though people speak Chinese, the signs and announcements are all in English. Taipei is a lot easier to get around than NY, that's for sure.

Alyssa and I went to the 101 building just to do it. It was pretty boring to be honest. I mean, it's not the world's tallest building anymore so what is so exciting, huh? It was cloudy so the view wasn't great but at least the elevator ride up was entertaining, with like a rave show on the ceiling and lasting only a few seconds, climbing dozens of floors.

So far all the food has been delicious. We went and ate at the best dumplings restaurant in Taipei with Leslie's Chinese counter-part, Miyona. We had pork, shrimp, veggie, spicy pork in sauce, bamboo with a sweet mayonnaise, and endless Oolong Tea. For dinner we went over to a beer house near Leslie's house in Nhan Kan and had clam soup, eggplant and basil, lamb in a delicious sauce, and a Taipei dish called 3-cup tofu which was awesome. Right now I'm eating breakfast and it is this like, Chinese burrito I guess? Strange... rice wrapped around pickled veggies, a Chinese doughnut which isn't like a doughnut at all, and a hard-boiled egg. Not my favorite, that's for sure. The milk tea that came with it is delicious, which Marie will be happy to hear because I normally don't drink it but it is much lighter here in Taiwn. It is the international drink, anyway.

Oh, very funny TV commercials and advertisements around town, of course. At the subway stopped we watched a commercial about a sanitary napkin that literally makes you fly. Slow motion shots of the girl's butt were also involved as she jumped up and onto a bike seat. Very cute.

Although it takes 20 minutes to get into town from their house, it's a really nice area with food everywhere late into the night. And yup, you can smell that stinky tofu from blocks away. I will probably try that on Saturday once we get back from Taichung. Alyssa wants to blog a bit so hers will be up next! Oh we slept mostly the rest of the day and night. So so tired and jet lagged. Pictures will be up later today.