More fun in Taipei

Even though we've been working, its still been fun being here. Its great having the 2 boys here. This week at work, we started out by working at an import/export fair as representatives of the US. It was very interesting to learn that side of business and meet with such a wide variety of people. We also got the chance to meet otherAmerican State Dept interns.

On Monday night, we went out with Jeanie, the USC office assistant, to this American buffet place. It was so good eating Caesar salad and pasta!! I miss that type of food so much. After that, we accompanied her to a Buddhist temple for a traditional fortune telling ceremony. The ceremony consists of various rituals,which end with a discussion of your fate with a local monk. It is bad luck to divulge information from your conversation with the monk. However, my fortune was very good.

Then last night after work, Neal, Tony, and I went to "The Zone", which is where most of the major bars in the city are located. Many of the bars are themed after California and have names like LAPD and Malibu's. We went to one called Malibu West that had Californian food and drinks and even had a Chinese man dressed like a surfer (complete with long hair). The food was really good--I had a grilled vegetable quesadilla with guacamole and homemade salsa. I also had the strongest cocktail i've ever drank. It was supposedly a mai tai. However, it tasted more like a ton of rum mixed with a little bit of cherry flavored cough medicine.

Tonight, we are going to the Shilin night market again, since Neal has never been there. Then tomorrow, we have pub night at a local expat bar called brass monkey. Then Friday, we will be going to the Snake Market, where they have traditional Chinese medicine and snake charming (with gigantic cobras!).

Then Saturday, its off to Hong Kong.