We just got back from a very fun, but happily uneventful trip to Phuket. It was strange to see it all built up again, like nothing had ever happened. We’ll post photos in the next couple days. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
My good friend Mike. He’s done a lot to help me out around Taipei.
I have made some good friends at a camera shop downtown near the main train station. Mike and William have helped me settle into Taiwan and they have become my good friends. Today when I went down to see them I was greeted by their mother and father who also help out around the shop. Mike and William (brothers) have been in the camera business for a number of years and have very good English speaking skills.
Looking down one of the streets. From what I saw today it’s about a 10-12 square block area.
Looking down another one of the streets. There’s a Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts just to my right, an important part of every university student’s diet.
After sitting around his camera shop for a while (you know of course I enjoy every minute sitting around the camera shop 
) Mike took me to a new neighborhood nearby the main train station. He described the shop as being very popular with university aged students. The area is full food vendors, restaurants, clothing stores, Starbucks and movie theaters, all the things a university student needs. Needless to say I’ll be heading back. As soon as I find out the name of that neighborhood I’ll update this post.
Here’s the famous noodle shop where you can get a filling, warm and tasty bowl of soup for NT$55 (US$1.65). You won’t find any chairs either. It’s a buy the soup, eat the soup, and put the soup bowl in a bucket kind of place.
The only drawback to cheap, good food is the line. It moves fast though.
Here’s a gift for all of you this year. Enjoy it while you can, because you’ll probably never see anything like this again. I had the ‘privilege’ of hosting this year’s staff party as Santa. If you could see the look on my face as I write this you’ll see just how pleased I was about all of it. The party was great, but dressing up as Santa isn’t really my thing.
Ho ho…………….ho
Morgan, I know that you are especially getting a good laugh out of this one
Millie’s feet in the sun
I vowed not to make this a ‘look at our cats’ blog so the amount of entries with Pixie and Millie have been very limited, maybe too limited. These photos are by special request from someone special in the Orlando area. You know who you are.
Two of my favorite friends
We’ve had the cats for a while now and they just get funnier and funnier. It’s so nice to come home after work and see these two waiting for us. It’s been a lot of fun watching them develop from kittens to cats.
Millie, right, has her ‘why are you looking at me’ face on. Pixie, left, could care less
Millie’s happy in a box of shredded confidential papers
Getting down to Pixie’s level
Millie trying to break free
If there’s one thing they must do together, it’s sleep together
By far the most common private transportation on the streets of Taipei is a scooter. Laura and I add to those numbers by frequently making the short commute to school on our scooter. Rain or shine we know that if we need to get somewhere quickly it will have to be by scooter. Driving a car means that you have to use the 3X rule, meaning that if you spend 10 minutes on the scooter getting somewhere you can count on a 30 minute trip by car to the same place.
I can’t remember the statistics, but there are FAR more scooters than cars. With so many scooter companies and models, naming each model has become very creative. Some of the names are probably just poor translations, but they’re entertaining anyway.
Here’s a collection of scooter names that we see each day on our walk to school.
Top Boy
Freeway 125 – Let the good time roll by Freeway
Smile
Man – Enjoy yourself boy (?)
Comet
ChaCha
Herself – Go for the….. (couldn’t read the rest)
Filly – In touch with tomorrow
Fever – Go for the sun and fun
Easy – The more you like
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