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And night life.

That’s been my impression of Taipei so far. Scooters everywhere. they easily out number the cars and on some streets there are zones right behind the intersection line for them so they cue up in front of cars (and buses) at the stop lights and go racing ahead. Most of the cars in the neighborhood I’m set up in are taxi’s, lots of buses. I’ve seen a more affluent area only a couple blocks from my hostel that’s got quite a lot of privately owned cars. The subway, the MRT, is great. if it weren’t for the fact that the last train runs a bit after midnight, it would have BART beat, hands down. It’s faster, cheaper, trains come more frequently, its cleaner. It doesn’t connect far-flung cities though, that’s a downside.

The night scene is amazing. In the night markets, people line the streets with carts selling anything from stinky tofu to pins. It’s a huge, crowded bustle with vendors on loud speakers seemingly carrying on timed conversations with each other is a magnificent rhythm that keeps them from overlapping each other’s pitches. Fruit is everywhere. Yesterday I tried a fruit called fire dragon melon. Fantastic.

The alleys are different. In SF, you’d never wander down strange, random alleys and lanes. Here, that’s where you find some of the sweet stuff. Carts, people, cafes, upscale restaurants are all to be found down alleys.

Food is cheap if you’re eating off of carts. A meal from a cart is about $2 USD, an upscale restaurant can easily be $15. A good coffee is about as much as a large bottle of water, about $1.

I’ve been getting a fair amount of stares, but humorously, the most critical gaze was from another white guy in the MRT station. Guess he thought I was gonna mug him or something. Apparently there’s a community of foreigners around the Power Building. I’ve seen other white people around, but they were quite concentrated in that area. Pauline said there’s a foreign language school around there.

Every day it seems I realize more friends in Taipei. People who know people who are generous enough to show me around a bit. The people at the hostel are all cool. In addition to the guy that runs it there’s a French fellow working on this Ph.D thesis, a couple of friends from LA, and just this morning I got a roommate from Japan. Since it turns out I know so many people in TPE and most everyone is so nice, it’d be pretty easy for me to convince myself to extend my stay a bit, but there’s that other side that wonders what surprises HK has in store.

More to come (and photos soon, I hope)

Less than 48-hours now and I’ll be on the plane.

So far, still need to pack my bags and pack up my stuff. Still no finalized itinerary. No clear list of what I’m bringing. No clue how much money or where/if to get traveler’s cheques. *takes deep breath* aah…I love it.

I’ve been getting a fair amount of traveling done this last week. Rode Caltrain 6 times, BART 3 times, VTA only once, Samtrans thee times, MUNI once, hiked six hours and about twelve miles in Big Basin. Soon enough I’ll be adding one international flight to that list along with one date-line, one passport stamp, new language, currency, etc etc.

^_^ gonna rock

Oh how I love spare the air days. I was able to get up to Berkeley (with my bike) and back for the low low price of nothing. Yep…free mass transit today and Friday b/c most Californians can’t live w/o A/C. Pansies.

I’m sooo tempted to take Caltrain up to SF for the hell of it and just bike around snapping pictures. Why not? Oh…this to-do list…..right. Hehe…I’m sure I can get an International Student ID in SF ^_^.

Something about riding trains for four hours, mostly standing with my bike, that seems to have left a touch on my equilibrium; I’ve still got a swaying sensation with me. Best to get used to it, I’ll be on train far longer going through China, I’m sure.

I made a LOT of progress today. FINALLY I got my visa. Ninety-days! ^__^ I’m going to China, BABY! One week from today almost to the minute I’ll be on a plane flying west. Flying foreword about 28 hours on an almost 12 hour flight, after which I’d set my watch, if I wore a watch, foreword only four hours.

After the relief of getting my visa, I got to spend the day in SF with my dear Longman. Visited St. Mary’s Cathedral (my first time in a Cathedral). It was amazing inside; the ceiling literally challenges my sense of depth and dimension. I was grateful for the opportunity to offer a prayer. Before a journey that will introduce me to so many new people and new ways, it felt proper to take a few minutes and pray for all who would benefit from an infusion of tolerance and faith. Once outside I took some pictures of the amazing outside of the Cathedral (promise to post soon).

Afterwords, took care of some computer stuff. Had an amazing Vietnamese lunch. Met an awesome ex-marine who’s travel experience boggles the mind (and she was so kind to give me a book on East Asian art). Her collection of…things covers most of Asia (and I mean ASIA; West, South, South-East, and East) and North Africa. Found a great shoulder bag to bring with me on my travels on Height St (where I also found an AMAZING Turkish coffee). Preston was kind enough to celebrate my visa with a Lonely Planet for China. Reading through it on the train, I feel much more comfortable about the world I’ll be stepping into. I’ve got placed to stay most of the way, I’ll have a paper guide, to get me around the alien environment, I’ve got traveler’s insurance to see me through any bumps in the road, and I’ve got a fair ability to communicate that will thrive under necessity.

My enthusiasm was bolstered this evening while bowling with the fams. Mid-way through our second game, a trio started on the lane next to us. I correctly guessed that they were Israeli from the way their Hebrew sounded and was introduced to their party, who was in the Bay Area on vacation. Meeting a group of foreigners who so melded into the atmosphere and befriending them gave my already strong faith in our inter-connectedness a timely infusion.

Every thing’s going to be just fine (and even if it isn’t exactly, I’ll have great stories ^_^)

Been a fun few days leading up to graduation. Spent a night down at Chabad with Mike, Lisa, Katie, et al stuffing envelopes following the Chabad break-in and robbery. The other day Lisa, Katie, Mike, Cath and I went out to BJs for drinks and dinner.

Yesterday I got together with a bunch graduating history students for drinks at The Hut. It was a good experience； I hadn’t really had the opportunity to enjoy the company of other history students outside of the classroom relaxing at the end of the year in a cool evening made me feel more connected with my peers.

Friday was an honors ceremony for members of societies. I got a token for my participation in Phi Alpha Theta, the history honors society. More of a treat was getting to see my Uncle Mark after so long though. He flew up from So-Cal for Friday and Saturday.

The commencement ceremony on Saturday itself went well, smooth. I didn’t trip (nor did anyone else I noticed) and our valedictorian and keynote speakers did a pretty good job. It WAS sunny though, and between the heat and my exhaustion I managed to fall asleep for most of the BS degrees. Between my mortarboard and sunglasses I woke up with an awesome (and amusing) sunburn on the left side of my face.

After the ceremony we got together for an amazing vegan lunch Mom put together with her usual skill. Oh..what will I do in China?

It’s amazing - okay…maybe not that amazing - how many people can’t wait for this quarter to be over with. It’s been a pretty stressful one. I don’t know how I managed to have more work this quarter than last when I had to worry about that senior thesis. Oh…maybe the business with Mike that’s getting off the ground, CollegeConfessional, my freelance work, evening Mandarin classes, a bit of on-the-side consulting would explain away things. Yeah….that could be it.

On the horizon:

• Monday: HIST 109 final (done now, w00t for posting delays), evening Mandarin class
• Tuesday: CHIN 3 final, HIST 153 Final
• Wednesday: morning coffee and muffin to celebrate the end of the quarter ^_^, file for visa in SF, evening Mandarin class
• Thursday: History student get-together, toast the end of the year
• Friday: Honors convocation
• Saturday: Graduate, countdown until China

Got a pleasant email from JapanFiles.com’s Dave Cirone letting me know that a link to my pictures from Fanime Con 2006’s MusicFest were features on the JapanFiles Myspace blog and I got to meet one of our neighbors this afternoon.

Wheee! almost done with the quarter. Done with my papers, one more presentation,  then finals. Graduation, two weeks, then fly off. It’s a bit of a trip that I’m leaving in less than three weeks now.

CollegeConfessional’s doing well, I’d say. More than 1,000 visitors and inches from the 100-confession mark. I’m hoping traffic will increase once we’re fully indexed through Google Sitemaps.

I’m thinking about finding a travel buddy for going through China with. If anyone knows someone, put ‘em in touch, yeah?

Other than that, my biggest concern is securing a job before I leave so I don’t have to worry about it once I get there. Some time I’ll have to grab extra memory and battery for my camera, I think. I’m sure I’ll be running through both like there’s no tomorrow.

What’d I get done today? Research, makeup session, dinner, fixed computer. Makeup? Oh yeah. Took a couple hours out of my day to do research in a hotel and get well painted for a friend.

I look so pretty ^_^. I think I could get into that eye-liner .

I’ve had this idea floating around for a few months now. An online confessional aimed at college students. Let’s face it, a lot of sorted things can happen over a red-cup-weekend and the stuff we remember is usually not us at our best.

So I’ve created collegeconfessional.net to be a site to fill that need. Expect the layout to change in a week or so when I’ve got more time but I just couldn’t wait to go public with it.

At this point I’m soliciting word-of-mouth marketing and usability input from all of you wonderful people ^__^ .

thanks a bunch!!