Hello Taipei!

To update my blog quickly (or else I jut won't do it), I'm going to just paste the email I sent my family:

Hey again!

I'm at my apartment rested and semi moved in. The apartment is much bigger than I imagined. Mike and I each have our own room and there is a third empty room that a Taiwanese post doc will be moving into shortly. My room faces out to the street and right in my window is a huge mango tree! Its got all the essentials, a queen bed, lime green carpet, a closet, and yes.... air conditioning!!

The apartment is on the fourth floor of an small complex (I still need to figure out what our address is...) and is right across the street from a grocery store called Wellcome (an automated voice says ne how when you walk in) and a Seven Eleven. As far as food goes, I have found that black soybean milk is delicious and Taiwan beer is not so delicious. I haven't ventured over yet, but Dr. Shau says that its a 10 minute walk to the Botanic Gardens where TFRI is located. I'm really excited to check it out and hopefully it will be a good place to run. And we are also very close to a middle school that has a track, so at some point I will have to see if I can do some speed work there, though I may scare middle schoolers with my out of shape breathing...

Also, I was really excited to see that it is very common to bike on the streets here. Just as common as bikes are motor bikes, and together the bikes and motor bikes outnumber the cars! And the motor bikes tend to group up at lights making what would be a bike gang in the US but is just a bunch of Taiwanese going about their business here. Today I saw a woman with a medium sized dog standing on her bike while she was riding.

Anyway, thats all I have to report for now, I attached some pictures. Hope all is well in Concord/Oakland/Redmond!

Love,

Allison