safe and sound!

So I have arrived here in Taipei late last night. It is chilly (totally not the hot, sticky Taiwan I know)and rainy, but not a bit drop of gloomy - despite that I feel like a total zombie after being sedentary for 15 hours on the plane and adjusting to the 16-hour time difference, not to mention the not so appetizing vegan airplane food [I signed up for vegetarian, but everything was non-dairy/no animal-by-products]! It feels great to be back in Taipei...feels like I never left actually.

These sights, sounds, and smells are all so familiar. The aroma of fresh bread from the bakeries on every street corner, the extremely packed subways--packed to where you feel the person's hot breath on your neck, the bright lights of the city and gas-guzzling taxi's, stinky tofu "fragrance", rows and rows of motorcycles parked on the sidewalks, cloudy days--the sun hardly ever shines during this season, performing my balancing act on the bus - which I totally suck at, today I nearly toppled over a monk when the bus came to a sudden halt (umm oops!)... Oh, and crossing a busy street here is like suicide. The law of pedestrians get the right of way is a complete joke here. But I love Taipei. Not only do I lovelovelove the food here, but it's bliss being here with family, exploring the city, and most importantly learning more about myself as a Taiwanese American. I'm very glad I chose to come here to study abroad as opposed to China or anywhere else!

Taiwan is known as a gastronomic wonderland...and it truly is! There are thousands and thousands of little mom and pop diners to extravagant buffets everywhere you go, it makes you wonder how any restaurant manages to stay in business with all the competition. But Taiwanese culture revolves around food. Actually, my uncle told me that when greeting a relative, instead of saying "How are you?" they say "Have you eaten yet?" And, my relatives have managed to keep feeding me even when I'm overstuffed. So, expect me to talk PLENTY about food in the upcoming posts, especially since it is near Chinese New Year, which means feasts everyday, every minute of my life for an entire week.

And I apologize, no pictures today. This morning we left my uncle's at 8am to get to the city (he lives in Xizhi, a suburb of Taipei) so that we could extend my visa duration because I have a visitor visa that I can use til May 2012, but only with a max of 60 days. That took awhile to sort out, which I can't even apply for til sometime in April. Then I had to obtain an ID number so that I can open a bank account. That also took a long time. Anyhow, after all that my aunts and uncle took us to a street called DiHua St., which is crazy crowded before Chinese New Year. Think holiday shopping crowds times ten. This street basically is a bunch of shops selling food, kinda like a street fair I suppose, and there is free sampling of almost everything: dried squid, beef jerky, candies, dried persimmon, vacuum-dried vegetables (yumm bought 2 pounds of it!), teas, coffee, noodles, fried squid balls, calamari, etc. I didn't bring my purse/camera to this because my aunts told me that there are many thieves in that area. Although, I wish I did at least bring my camera because it definitely is a sight to see!