Hooray for Taipei!

All of the Kaohsiung Fulbright crew went up to Taipei this past weekend for a little Fulbright conference. We took the high speed rail to get there, which was pretty cool. Before we left, I had put my duvet cover in the wash (I wanted to be able to hang it out to dry at a time when I wouldn't need to sleep under it), but the wash cycle took longer than I thought, so I left the apartment a lot later than everyone else. Moreover, I just barely missed the bus to the metro, so I waited around for the next bus, took the bus to the subway station, and then took the subway up to the high speed rail station. It was an economical choice, but a major time crunch. When I was about to get off the subway, I got a call saying "everybody else is on the train and it's leaving in like 3 minutes; where are you?" Hahaha. I eschewed the escalators and hustled my butt up the stairs to the ticket machine while Maya gave me tips over the phone for maximum efficiency. In a moment of great triumph, I managed to buy my ticket and get down on the platform and onto the train in the very nick of time! It was super. Also super: when we got there that night, I got to go hang out with my friend Richard a.k.a. my laogong (Chinese for husband...don't worry, it's only for pretend), who lives in Taipei these days.

We went out to this giant night market and ate intense amounts of delicious Taiwanese snacks, followed by wandering around the rest of the night market in an effort to fight off food coma. The highlight of this part was probably when we passed a restaurant called, I kid you not, Modern Toilet:


The classy display in the front window (don't worry, it's stuffed):

All of the food is served in containers shaped like various kinds of toilets. Very classy. Apparently it's actually really popular...silly Taiwan.

Laogong and I also visited the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, which is really pretty at night:


While we Fulbright ETAs arrived in August, most of the other grantees had just arrived, so a lot of the first day of the conference involved going over orientation-type information that we had already heard. We gave a little Powerpoint presentation introducing ourselves and the work we're doing in Kaohsiung, and also got to see a presentation from the Yilan ETAs. It was nice to finally meet the other group of Taiwan ETAs, and it made me wish that we weren't so inconveniently located with respect to each other, because they are pretty excellent. In fact, it was a generally excellent group of people. On Friday night, Fulbright threw a big old party with all of the Fulbright fellows and staff and representatives from the American Institute in Taiwan and some other prestigious-type people, and we dressed up fancy and schmoozed and people gave each other business cards. It was wild. There was an open bar.

On Saturday we got to hear all of the different projects that the non-ETA Fulbrights came here to work on, which took a really long time and I got kind of sleepy, but I promise that it wasn't because the presentations were boring. People are doing crazy things. There was one hilarious and adorable little man who explained to us in a highly entertaining fashion how if you take metal and stretch it into long thin hairs and make a sheet of glass filled with them, it refracts things at a totally new and crazy angle! This apparently has potential application in cloaking devices. That night we all went out to the Skyline Restaurant, which is at the top of the second tallest building in Taipei. The view was pretty sweet, and the food was delicious and delightfully buffet-style.

On Sunday, I got up bright and early and went on an adventure with Gered to see Taipei 101, the world's tallest building. On the way, we went to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial again. It is pretty in the daytime as well:

Fun fact: Chiang Kai-shek Square was renamed "Freedom Square" after the DPP (opposition party to the Kuomintang) came into power!

After that, we were at a bus stop squinting thoughtfully at the bus maps and trying to determine which one might go to Taipei 101 when a nice little man came up, started talking to us in English, and ended up riding with us on the bus for a while and giving up helpful tips. Taiwanese people are so nice. :)

Taipei 101 is 101 floors tall. Go figure. For an idea of how tall that is, comparatively: it is really really tall. We took a crazy high-speed elevator that goes up 89 floors in 37 seconds. I thought it would be like going on the Dominator at Dorney Park, but it turned out to be really smooth, plus the elevator had light-up constellations on the ceiling. Awesome.

Probably the most amusing part about Taipei 101 was their gift shop, which was centered around these cartoon characters called "Damper Babies." When I first saw the name, the thought that popped into my head was, "Who would want a damper baby? Babies are generally best when dry." It turns out that they are based off of the giant damper in Taipei 101, a huge giant ball suspended in the center of the building that helps to dampen the effects of the wind on the motion of the building. How does this work? I would suspect that there is definitely some physics involved.

Anyway, the Damper Babies have spherical heads (overall, they looks like lightbulbs), and they are plastered all over the majority of the merchandise in the gift shop. Definitely one of the sillier tie-in products that I have experienced. I wonder if people really buy them. Since this is Taiwan, I'm going to guess yes. Unrelated fun fact about Taipei 101: you can mail a postcard from the top! I sent one to Grandma, in honor of all of the time she spent telling me which places I should definitely visit in Taipei (answer: the Chiang Kai-shek memorial/museum, if my memory serves me correctly). Also it's one of the few addresses I know from memory. Sorry other relatives; I still love you!

Stop...picture time!

Taipei 101 in all its majesty:


A view from the top:

(the mountains in the picture are named after the animals that some exploring guy apparently mistook them for in the night...it's lion, tiger, elephant, and something else. I don't frequently mistake mountains for tigers, but I guess I am not everybody.)

The infamous damper...can it live up to the hype??


After Taipei 101, Gered went back to Kaohsiung and I went off on an adventure by myself. I ended up going to the Palace Museum, where they keep all the awesome little chunks of history and culture that the Kuomintang swiped from the mainland when they left. Probably a good plan, because it has stayed nice and safe in Taiwan. My favorite part was all of the gorgeous ceramic pieces that they had from different ages of Chinese history.

Brief adventure: On the train back from the museum, I made friends with a lady who was traveling with her 7-year-old son. They just returned to Taiwan from Singapore, so her English was pretty good, except that her son's English name was "Fashion." She thought it was pretty cool and unique. I definitely agree on the latter point.

So after the museum, I got back to the hotel, picked up the bag I left there, hopped back on the subway to the high speed rail station, and hightailed it back to Kaohsiung, where I took more subway and another bus and walked back to my apartment, where I was very very very tired. Good weekend. :)