Traveloguer, I am not

Souperlindz, travel journaler extraordinaire, who kept us fed heartily with internationally flavored running commentary of her journeys through many countries and many months, should be congratulated for her work. I have been in Taiwan for almost two months and not produced a single substantial insight or quirky story.

I don't have as many pictures available as I would like, but I've discovered that the jarring sensation of stopping a moment to photograph it is becoming less and less appealing. The photos I have taken are on film (thanks, Norman!) and I am still anticipating getting back to the States to find that I have seven rolls of overexposed or poorly lit or generally awful photos. No matter, my cousin's friend Tomoo took some beautiful digital photos of our trip to Green Island that you might sink your teeth into.



A little over a week ago I went with my cousin, his girlfriend/fiancee-to-be, and his middle school friend Tomoo to Green Island (off the eastern coast of Taiwan) and Taitung (Taipei is "Tai North," Taitung is "Tai East). It was outrageously hot and I bought a correspondingly outrageous straw hat which I also wore under my scooter helmet throughout our one-day stay in Green Island.


Steve, Me, Jessica after sunrise on Green Island

This photo was taken as we left the vista from which we'd planned to photograph the sunrise on the morning we were to leave Green Island. We got up at 4:35 only to find as we arrived around 5:00 a.m. that there were already three groups of tourists there. The sunrise itself was a bit anti-climactic, as (mercifully) there were clouds off the coast, I suppose preparing the way for Mr. Bilis, who was supposed to hit Taiwan sometime in the next week.

Mr. Bilis turned out to be a fairly quiet typhoon. A little rain, a little wind, but no holiday or disaster. It's alright, we've got another one coming.

There's not much to report on the ultimate front, although I have learned much about diagonal stacks and ho stacks and catching swilly silly stuff and throwing IOs and OIs. I've been getting terrifically tan (or skin cancer, as some like to call it) and playing disc with a few more random frisbee-fetching vagabonds: a Bella Donna sophomore named Eyleen and Nancy Sun's little brother Jeff, a senior at Yale, as well as some more British, Costa Rican, and Hungarian pickups.

This trip has been bittersweet, but I have gotten used to the weather, and learned a bit about Chinese, family, boys and girls in their late 20s and early 30s, how Bob Dylan feels, Chinese medicine, stray dogs, riding buses, and choosing what to wear when it rains.

That's all from this side of the Pacific for now. My last two bits of wisdom: if you stick ginger in a cat's nose, it'll pee, and that pee can be used to drive out earwigs. Western doctors don't tell you these things!