Hey Doc

Joanna, a friend whom I met at John and Mary's house party called me yesterday from the hotel in Taipei. She and her son have just completed their ten day tour of Taiwan and is going home tomorrow. We met this morning and had breakfast together. This was their first time visit Taiwan, they had seen more places then I ever had. I was even born here. Come to think of it, I lived in San Jose area for thirty years, there are still many places I have never been. I guess the rational thinking is that since I am so close to, I can go anytime I want. Years passed before you realized that I still have not seen the place.

Mr. Brown Coffee is having the grand opening this Sunday.

I will let you in on a little secret, I got a job ! I will start working next Tuesday. Nothing fancy but lots of new stuff for me to learn. It feels a little weird that I am working again after been off for 4 years. No more playing :P

A block away from where I live, a large coffee shop is going into a building that has been sitting empty for years. It is located across the street from the University of Technology. The potential customer base here is huge, especially with a little perks like wireless Internet access and gourmet food. There are thousands of coffee shops all over the city, chain stores or private. The ones I frequent visited were all seemed busy, so they must be doing pretty well. The major chain stores like Starbucks are charging twice as much as in the US. Import tax maybe??

Things change rapidly here in Taipei. In the seven weeks I was away, a 20 story building around the corner is reduced into a pile of rebar and dirt. Not sure what will be replace by, another high rise condo ? Four new stores came in to our building, two have closed their doors (The street level of our building houses the stores and shops).

It rained last night, brought the temperature down a few degrees. Bird flu is also a top topic in the news. Whether it will develop into a pandemic like everyone is afraid of or it will just petered out in a few months, who knows.

I just want my cup of jo every morning.

The plane touched down CKS airport around 8:15 PM Saturday. This was the bumpiest flight I have ever been on. As soon as we left SFO, near Oregon boarder, the plane rocked so bad that all the flight attendants have to sit in their seats. Then in and out of Japan was like that too, the plane makes a stop at Nagoya. Jenny brought the two girls to the airport to pick me up. They were pretty excited about the gift I gave them, a Nintendo DS. Didn't take long for them to dive right into the game that normally takes me few days to find out what was going on.
A nice earthquake joited the city around 11:50 PM , welcome home ! it said.
The evening temperature has cooled off a bit since I left, there is even a rain forecasted for tomorrow. I am sitting here wide awake 3:00 in the morning. This will take a week to get over the jet-lag, another process in life that you have to go through.
Airline has dropped the weight limit of the check-in luggage to 50 lb. each. That is not much stuff you can take if you have one of those luggages weight 20 lb. empty. Time to get some cheap duffel bags. Good bye to those has build-in wheels.

Six weeks gone by in a blink of eyes, I am leaving again on 10/14. My only regret is not able to visit my friends in Colorado especially Jen. I have only talked to her on the phone since Bruce passed away suddenly in May.
I am used to take the subway (Rapid Transit) to go places in Taipei, I have decided to try out the Light Rail system in San Jose. I am surprised by the ride, the car was clean and comfortable. I did not wait long at the stations. My overall impression was very good. It costs $1.75 each way from Lake Almaden to downtown SJ.
The dryer at my sister's broke more then a week ago. The tech came out 3 times so far to repair and fail to fix it. Today the company sent out two techs to look at it again. How complicated can a dryer get ? Good thing the weather was nice, cloth dries pretty fast under the sunny days. Never thought that I will hang the cloth out to dry here in US. The Winter is coming, I am thinking of getting a dryer at the apartment in Taipei. Can't stand taking 3 days to dry my laundry.