this is hot

i'm in taipei now.

the plane ride here was mostly uneventful. in the 13 hours that i spent on the plane, i ate some pretty terrible food, watched a couple movies (hitch and robots, oh yes and i started seoul raiders, but i wasn't able to finish), slept, and tried to stop thinking about much my knees hurt. i dunno if it was sitting in the same position for so long, or something having to do with the pressure or whatever, but halfway thru the flight after i woke up for the first or second time, my left knee started hurting like it was about to pop off. i tried to get rid of it by walking up and down the aisle, but it didn't go away. using it might have just made it hurt more. eventually i got to sleep again and after i woke up, my left knee stopped hurting, but my rite knee ached. this happens sometimes on the plane, but usually it goes away after i stretch my legs. i think by the time we landed tho, the problem went away.

i ate two meals on the plane; one was a breakfast of fried noodles that was actually okay, especially compared to the other meal of chicken with rice, which was so unbearably bland that for the first time i used the salt that comes with your utensils (which were metal! weird, huh?).

midway thru the flight, it finally occurred to me that i was going to be spending 3 months in taipei. ahhh!

all in all it wasn't that bad a 13-hour trip, not just because i slept for most of it, but also cuz china airlines is equipped with a personal video screen on which you can watch movies, tv, play games, listen to music at your leisure. you can watch movies for the entire flight if you wanted to, or play blackjack or solitaire or mahjong. it was the best improvement on air travel i've seen yet.

after arriving, i didn't do much the first day. all i really accomplished was exchanging money (which was a chore, because a lot of banks didn't buy hundred dollar bills that were minted before a certain year. what the fuck, rite?) and taking a couple naps.

today, i went to the school to register. while there, i met this dork of a guy who looked at my form and saw my email address and asked me if i went to wasu. at first i couldn't understand what he was talking about cuz he called it "wah-soo" instead of "wah-zoo." when i was looking too confused for too long, he said, "the huskies, rite?" and i was like "wasu isn't huskies. huskies is u-dub." and then i stopped talking to him, to let him kno that his attempt at starting conversation was a giant failure. i also met the mother of this half-japanese girl who's from taiwan, who introduced me to her daugher. isn't it fun when your mom tries to get you to make friends? oh yes, oh yes. well, the most important thing is that there were actually a few cute guys. one of them was...

wait a sec, i'm in an internet cafe, and they just started playing that old enya song, orinoco flow (you kno, sail away, sail away, sail away). blast from the past, huh!?

anyways, like i was saying, one of them was... wait, i don't really remember what i was going to write. fuck you, enya! oh yeah, one of them was a tall white guy with brown eyes and hair, who was really dorky adorable, and would have been even better looking if he didn't smell of asian fetish... and pussy (his gf was with him). i don't think i'll have any classes with most of these people, so i'll refrain from making my usual pre-judgments on the people i saw today, and wait until i kno i'll be spending two months with them. tee hee!

after what took the whole morning, i went shopping, first on zhongxiao road (eslite at dunhua, and sogo at fuxing), and then at ximen ding. it's nice to be at these places again, but it's also kinda disappointing, cuz 80% of what i remember from four years ago is gone. but i guess they make up for it with new cool stuff i'll remember in five years, but won't be here anymore. and also the enormous underground mall that has appeared under zhongxiao road.

hopefully, i will go see initial d later this week, cuz it stars my favorite hk hotties edison chen and shawn yue, plus brooding hottie jay chou in his first starring role. hot hot hot!

hey, if you kno what's hopping in taipei these days, drop me a line! my info's like years old. it's old like the money i have from my last visit that is no longer accepted at all places of business.

okay, it's time for dinner. (and sinead o'connor's nothing compares 2 u.)