Occasional Showers

Friday, June 1, 2007--Taipei

I wanted to explore the local neighborhood today. But just as I went outside, some rain showers began. I returned to the room and read in the novel I am currently reading. I heard the rain come off and on during the afternoon, sometimes hard, so I just continued to stay inside.

Around 16:00, I cleaned up to go out. The skies were looking better, and I had an appointment to meet a medical student who has communicated with me for dinner. We met at the metro stop near the entrance to his university--National Taiwan University, one of the most prestigious schools in the country. First, we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. It was an inexpensive student hangout. He ordered for us. I had a plate with rice, steamed cabbage, soy bean curd, and fried chicken. He had the same plate with fried pork. For dessert, a sweet, cold pea soup was served. To drink, I had milk tea with tapioca. It is served with a giant straw so that the pearls of tapioca will come up the straw along with the drink.

After dinner, we walked through the campus. It has broad walkways that are lined with tall palm trees. It is a very attractive place. About an hour and a half after we had met, I returned to the metro station and came home.

There was a surprise awaiting me at the apartment. I entered the outside door and walked up the steps to the door to the apartment which is actually a set of two doors--an inner wooden door and an outer metal door. The inner door is never supposed to be locked. Well, it was. My guess is that a friend of my flatmate Mark's who was helping him move out yesterday and wouldn't have known the house rules locked it as they left. I had to go down to the corner to a pay phone and call Karel, the manager. I wasn't sure how to use the phones here, but a nice man who really didn't speak English but understood what I wanted to do put in the coin and dialed it for me. (There are so many different versions of pay phones throughout the world with each having its own unique procedure. The ones here ended up being like the U.S. where you put in the coin and then dial only the number--no extra buttons to push, no special tones for depositing money, etc. Anyway, I got Karel and then had to wait 40 minutes for him to get here. I just wandered the streets looking in the windows of the area restaurants since they were all busy on a Friday night. There's a fantastic looking place that serves combination plates with steaks, shrimp, and/or scallops a few doors down for prices in the $10 range.

After I got inside the apartment, I decided to watch a DVD. I watched the musical The Producers. I had seen the original Mel Brooks film, but I had never seen the Broadway show nor the movie of it. I was a bit disappointed. I'm glad I didn't pay to see it.

It wasn't a very eventful day. I enjoyed the outing and meeting the student. It was a bit exciting having the door locked. (I'm so thankful that I had my guidebook with me which had Karel's number in it.) Otherwise, it was a lazy day.