Taipei, Taiwan (Part 1)

Japanese airline workers are some of the nicest people in the world. Every time you fly through there, they all wave to your airplane as you taxi away from the gate! I wonder if they ever feel weird about it?

The weather in Seoul around the turn of the year was pretty (bitterly) cold. So when I made plans for Taiwan and saw that the weather should be in the fifties and sixties the whole week, I got super excited about wearing shorts and t-shirts. Now, either I haven't recovered from island life (it's been two and a half years!) or I get confused about the difference between F and C temperatures, but 50's and 60's aren't as warm as I thought they were. I told Eddy that "we packed like idiots." I had one pair of pants and Jen had three, but she's always colder than I am anyway. Regardless, my jeans were in desperate need of a wash by the time I came home.

The weather ended up being pretty rainy the whole week we were there, but it ended up working out pretty well. We didn't have to use an umbrella very often. We landed on Saturday and just chilled out on Sunday. But Monday was supposed to be clear and sunny so we decided to get the good stuff in on that day. We hopped a bus and then a train to Taipei 101 which was at one point the tallest building in the world.

Its name is derived from the fact that there are 101 floors in the building (the highest habitable floor is 94, but that's pretty high). We got to go up the day before the new skyscraper in Dubai opened up to the public. There was lots of interesting information about the tower on the observation level, but I won't bore you with the details. Check out the wiki on it if you're interested.

Even though it was a clear day, this was our view from the top.

Because the building is so tall, they have created a wind damper inside that is three stories tall and weighs 660 metric tons. The damper is suspended on cables and cushioned with hydraulic shocks to limit pendulum effects. It is designed to counteract the wind's effects on the skyscraper. It was also the first damper (many skyscrapers have them) to be opened for public viewing.

So what does a skyscraper look like on the inside? Well, in Taipei it looks like a ritzy shopping mall. We found out quite quickly that if Taipei had one overpowering characteristic, it was shops. You can buy just about anything, anywhere, at anytime. They have several night markets catering to different segments of the population and food to go along with it.

Jen loved it. She was able to find some shoes that actually fit for a reasonable price as well as some other things that we (she) hasn't been able to find in Korea.

Here's a question for you all: where is Taiwan? Could you explain it to someone?

And one more: is Taiwan a country or is it governed by another country?

Korea Makes the New York Times

It's really not that exciting. I've seen articles about Korea in the New York Times quite frequently. This is, however, the first time I've seen a Korean company get openly mocked by such a high profile website. See it here. I appreciate this little bit of fun-poking! Mostly because we see crap like this all the time from large companies like Samsung and LG and I've often wondered if the same ignorance occurs in my native land. Sure enough.

Since we're bashing Korea, I'll mention something else real quick. I recently purchased a PC monitor from the local tech market. I bought it for the church to use and I wanted to see what it looked like/would it work for what we needed it for. After connecting the cables and setting it up on the desk, I ran my fingers lightly around the frame to wipe off the dust, styrofoam, etc. I noticed a quality control sticker flutter down to the desk and picked it up just to make sure it wasn't important. It read, "Warranty Void If Removed." Crap hahaha. Yep, it's probably pretty crappy. This is the quality of inexpensive merchandise here.

Jen and I recently went to Taiwan and LOVED IT. Sure we packed for 80 degree temps and found 50 degree temps, sure it rained 5 of 7 days we were there, and sure there's only two things to do there, but it was fun! We'll try to put up some pictures. The pics I took on the iPhone have been uploaded to facebook. Jen took a lot more pictures with our point-and-shoot, and those will come later. We'll only put the best on this site, so check back again.

Happy New Year!