The World Needs More Ninjas

Friday, September 16, Midnight (Taipei time)

My flight from Osaka to Taipei was fine…it actually went by pretty quick. I was sitting next to two girls from Japan who were going on vacation in Taiwan. Neither of them spoke much English, so we had a fun time trying to communicate in broken English using a little translation book.

There was a car waiting for me at the Taipei airport to take me to the Grand Hyatt. The ride took about an hour and I had to struggle hard to keep my eyes open. I saw a billboard on my way in that said H.I.S. and I thought my father-in-law must have taken up advertising in Taipei. Oh yea, I learned that if you say something that’s pronounced “Ohio” in Japanese, then you’re saying “Good Morning.” Oh, also, I found out there was one other white person on the flight to Taipei because us two were the only ones that got pulled aside for an extra security check before boarding in Osaka.

Saturday, September 17

My hotel is nice. One good thing about international travel for work is I always get to stay in nice hotels (except that one place in India for those that read my India journal). I woke up and got ready in time to walk around outside for a bit. It was pretty hot and humid but I liked it because it reminded me of SC (Ed. Note: SC = South Carolina).

Taipei is beautiful! The view outside my hotel is the city against a mountain backdrop with crystal blue skies. At 11:30 I met a bunch of MBA alumni in the hotel cafe for a reunion lunch they were having. It was fun, and since the lunch was a buffet, I was brave and tried lots of weird food including squid! Oh, and I had real sushi, which was yummy!

After the lunch I headed to our MBA fair (the whole reason I’m here), and some of the alumni came along to help. Our booth was very crowded! The whole thing went by fast, and I was pleased with the turn out.

Afterwards, I went to my room to change into more comfy clothes and then two the alumni, Jason and Jackie, took me out for the evening. This weekend happens to be the Moon Festival in Taiwan which is a huge holiday like Thanksgiving in the US. It’s a time when all of the families get together for a reunion and have a BBQ. The BBQ is different because they just have little grills set-up on the sidewalk since no one really has a yard…and of course the food is much different.

My tour guides took me to Jason’s family’s house and let me participate in their Moon Festival activities. This is my favorite thing to do when traveling…getting right in with the local culture…these are the things that really teach you about a new place. Jason’s family was very nice and they all wanted to give me food, food, and more food. By the time I left I was so stuffed!

Although, I tried most things, a couple of things I wouldn’t eat…such as the duck blood rice cakes (yep, exactly what it sounds like) or the BBQ chicken feet. Blech! Everything else I ate was pretty good though…some kind of weird mushrooms, some fruit I’d never seen before, chicken leg, shrimp, fish cakes, and Taiwanese sausage (I was a little hesitate on this one, but I was brave). Oh, and I also had to partake of the traditional Moon Cake just for this holiday. And because I was there, the family broke out the extra special Chinese tea. I have a video of me drinking the tea the traditional way, which I’ll post when I get back home.

After about 3 hours we left the family’s house and headed out to the city. We went by an old, traditional style hotel to get a good outlook of the full moon and the city. It was beautiful! Then we headed to one of the famous night markets so I could buy some souvenirs. Let’s just say there were some very unusual things on the night market including huge cages filled with snakes (for eating). There was even a guy feeding hamsters to a giant yellow python right on the street. Blech!

Jason and Jackie bought me some kind of treat (kind of like buying an ice cream or something)…it was a yellow liquid with some smushy candy that you sucked up with a straw…a lot like the idea of bubble tea for those of you who’ve had that. After picking up a few goodies, we left the night market. There is also a famous Buddhist temple there, but it was already closed. Jason and Jackie took me past a couple of other historic buildings, and then we had to stop by Jackie’s house for a few minutes. It was also cool to see people’s houses…it gives good insight into how different cultures live.

My tour guides finally dropped me off around 1:00am. It was a very fun night and my tour guides were awesome!!