Mike Huckabee and I Share a Tailor

Yesterday I spent a good chunk of my afternoon going to a tailor in Taipei to get fitted for a custom-made shirt, the typical gift of the state offices to their interns. Such is the randomness of my work days here. They’re long, and I stare at a computer for most of them, but I’ve fallen into a comfortable rhythm. And there’s usually at least one somewhat interesting excursion to break up the day, like the mentioned trip to the tailor.

 

The tailor had pictures of the “famous” people he’s made clothes for on the wall. The most famous customer: Mike Huckabee. Apparently he’s a regular in Taiwan and a very nice guy. I commented to the other interns that we were walking on hallowed ground (JOKES!). On the bus ride home I taught Sharon, one of the local interns, Pig Latin.

 

Today I spent two hours of my work day gorging on international food at a food trade show.  The state offices get free tickets to such events and always give us the chance to go, probably because they know the rest of the work is pretty darn boring. While I was biting into a rice slushie (sounds yummy, right?) and talking to the first tall Taiwanese women I’ve seen here (show girls), a Taiwanese news crew came up to me and asked me to take a bite on camera and tell them if I liked it.  I’m going to be star!

 

While work consumes our weeks here, we’re really working for the weekend. We’re trying to see as much of Taiwan as we can, and we started venturing outside of Taipei last weekend. Early Saturday morning we took a high speed train to Taroko Gorge National Park (or, rather, to a small town a pretty good distance away from the park entrance). We hiked on the road, took some pictures with locals (their request), and then arrived at one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

 

I still don’t really know what a gorge is, but it sure was nice to look at after only seeing concrete for two weeks. Everything was lush and green, and we were surrounded by towering peaks overhead a rocky river. And that was just at the visitor’s center.

 

After taking a rather precarious bus ride on a steep road carved out of rock we made it to the hostel, threw down our bags, and went on a hike to a waterfall. Dark tunnels which seemed not to end comprised most of the hike, and we pretty much just held hands and walked into the unknown.

 

The “Catholic Hostel” where we stayed provided me with my worst night’s sleep yet thanks to a mattress made of hard straw and 6 a.m. mass, that, from the sound of it, was well attended. But it worked just fine, and I was ready to go Sunday morning for more park exploration. We chose a pretty strenuous hike and climbed to a pavilion in the sky which straddled two peaks.  The beauty of what we saw and the feeling of accomplishment I felt is hard to put into words; pictures will be provided later to those who want them!

 

After exploring a temple and some sort of tower that had a beautiful view of the park, we returned back to Taipei on a train in which we had no seats. Sitting on the floor was fine, though, because we met some very nice people as we always seem to do here.

 

We were exhausted Monday, but it was one of the fellow’s 21^st birthday, so we went to a karaoke place in Taipei to celebrate. They had a surprisingly comprehensive English song collection, and I was able to perform my specialty, You’re So Vain. We had a really fun time, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

 

Work’s over in 12 minutes, WAHOO!

 

Random thoughts: my legs itch! (the Taipei fellows from last year did not tell us Taiwan’s nick name should be “land of killer mosquitoes”), I’m laughing about the teacher who allowed one of the local intern’s friends to chose “banana” for his English name, and curse business card scanners!