Pocari sweat

The fridge in the office here is stocked with soft drinks and one of them is a gatorade-like drink called Pocari Sweat. I had one today and it tastes fine, but the name is distracting me. What is a pocari and why does it sweat? Was some small pokemon type creature mercilessly squeezed to produce my drink? Is a pocari some sort of japanese piglet? Or maybe one of Hello Kitty's many cousins? I'm picturing a forest dwelling creature with four legs and fur, small enough to sit in the palm of your hand, and kind of cute. Hope it didn't suffer.

Are you a man or a chicken?

Went to a vendor dinner last night with Kirk and a bunch a people from the materials team. The dinner was at a really nice Thai restaurant called Sukho Thai and consisted of a lot of seafood and wine. The courses, mostly in order, were a large fried oyster, fried soft shell crab, a slightly spicy broth with salmon, some other kind of steamed fish, lobster, beef curry and rice, noodles with seafood, and then fruit and a mysterious ice/milk dessert with assorted chewy things in it.

Along with all the food, there was plenty of wine and whiskey. Everyone toasts each other and drinks (and by toast I mean you toast each person separately and drink each time), and then people 'gan bei' which is kind of like saying 'cheers' except everyone has to drink everything in their glass whether it be wine or whiskey. The title of the post refers to what woman said to a guy she had gan bei'd when he tried to avoid drinking anything else.

Needless to say, people were drinking a lot and we were treated to an impromptu karaoke performance of a Bon Jovi song, a couple of people had their heads on the table, and at least one person needed some assistance walking out of the restaurant. Gotta say it was a fun night.

Gucci, Louis, and Dior, Oh My!

There are an unbelievable number of luxury stores in Taipei. The Mitsukoshi department store in our neighborhood is full of luxury brands, as are both of the SOGO department stores. Plus there are numerous luxury boutiques scattered throughout the city. I have been amazed by the number of luxury handbags I see every day on the train. Probably over 1/2 the women in their 20's or 30's here own a designer bag, with Gucci being the most popular brand, followed by Louis Vuitton. Think I'm going to need a new purse...

The apartment

Finally getting around to posting some pictures of our apartment. It's about 500 square feet between two stories - living room, kitchen and bath on the main floor with a bedroom upstairs. The bathroom has a nice deep stone tile tub, but there isn't a shower curtain so you have to be careful not the spray water all over when you try to take a "shower" with the handheld shower head. There is also a little balcony area to hang clothes to dry as there is not a dryer in the unit which is typical in Taiwan. We do have a cool door though. It's solid wood covered with patterned bronze and has 8 dead bolts controlled by one key that looks like a modernized skeleton key.

Scooter mania

Taipei has a lot of cars, but I think there may be even more scooters. No matter the time of day or the weather conditions there are thousands of people cruising through the city on their scooters. Businessman, women in heels, teenagers, people and their kids, people and their dogs - all on scooters. There are designated scooter areas at intersections, and scooter parking areas all along the sidewalks. I don't think I would want to ride one in the city, but they're probably nice to have in the summer if you want to cruise the surrounding hills.

Public Transportation - Taipei 1, Portland 0

So I haven't ridden a bus here yet, but I have to say that Taipei has a great subway system called the MRT. The trains are very clean (there is a fine for eating or drinking on the trains) and they come about every 5 minutes or less (usually less, this morning the trains into the office were about 90 seconds apart). There are also flat panel TV's along the platforms showing news or advertisements, and the time until the next train. The best part is the price though, about 50 cents a ride if you buy a rechargeable MRT card that you touch to a sensor as you enter and exit the platforms.

Unlike the MAX in Portland, people on the MRT are fairly quiet and polite, with no one coming down off a meth high and no obnoxious teenagers yelling at each other across the train. Lines are painted on the platforms to indicated waiting areas for passengers, and people line up single file to get on the escalator (the whole stand right, walk left thing is actually followed here). It's kind of funny that no one wants to walk up the escalator so there will be a long line of people waiting to stand on the right side, with the left side of the escalator totally clear.

There is also a 220 mile high speed train line, THSR, that runs south of the city to Taichung and Kaohsiung. I haven't had a chance to ride it yet, but have heard good things.

Danshui

Spent this afternoon in a city north of Taipei called Danshui. Danshui Old Street runs right along the water and is packed with food vendors, carnival type games, and a ton of people. I passed on the grilled squid and a few other food items I couldn't identify, but the fried potato spirals and candied strawberries were great. We also took a tour of Fort San Domingo which served as the British consulate in the late 19th century.

Made it to Taipei

Well, finally made it. Flight was 13 hours from Seattle on EVA Air and it all went really well until we were about an hour from Taipei. I had an aisle seat and a woman walking past me in the aisle threw up before she could make it to the restroom. As a result, some of it got on me. So gross. Luckily I had on a hoodie which took most of the hit but it was still pretty disgusting. But I landed in one piece and I guess that's the important part.

Spent today walking around the area near our apartment and Taipei 101. My first impression is that Taipei reminds me of San Jose, Costa Rica, but bigger and everyone is Asian. It's a mix of old and new surrounded by densely forested hills, but much like the US, there is a Starbucks on every corner and a lot of the same stores you'd find in any major US city. Looking forward to exploring more this weekend.

Last day in PDX

Can't believe today is my last day in Portland. Thanks to everyone who came to the party on Friday, I'll miss hanging out with you guys. Special thanks to Sunita and Mahesh for letting me staying with them these past 3 days and goodbye to my adorable kitten who now has a new home.

Officially moved...

...out my apartment on Monday. Am staying at Kirk's place until his renter comes, then staying with friends for a couple of days before I head to Taipei. Only 7 days to go.

And things were going so well...

Until this happened. And now there are ball bearings all over the floor??? I have a feeling this desk will find its way onto craigslist upon my return to Portland...

Kirk

For those of you who haven't met Kirk, here's a picture of us at my department's holiday party.

Almost there

Almost done packing and cleaning. Have been cleaning mini blinds today, ugh. I dislike mini blinds as a matter of principle anyway, but trying to clean them is a nightmare. I've settled on dumping them in the bathtub and washing them with Dawn. Luckily I have a 90 oz bottle of it from Costco - everything in this place is getting wiped down with some Dawn.