Yesterday, the skies looked really threatening. (This is a view from my hotel room.) Having been here before during a typhoon, I wasn't quite expecting that level of rain, but I was expecting some pretty nasty weather. Ten minutes later, I looked again, and the skies were blue and clear. It was almost spooky how quickly it cleared up.
Fridays are off-days for me while I am in Taipei, and so I was able to spend some time today with Sophy Cheng, a former student of mine from Detroit who is now a faculty member in Taichung. She came up to see me, and we had an excellent lunch at a Cantonese restaurant. Sophy ordered SEVERAL things on the dim sum menu, and we certainly had our fill of excellent food, including shrimp dumplings, beef meatballs with herbs, and a special dish usually served around the time of the Dragon Boat races (which start next Friday), and finishing with a mango custard.
After lunch, Sophy was kind enough to go with me to a small version of the Jade Market that I have been to in the past. The huge Jade Market is open only on the weekends, while I am in class, and so it is hard for me to get there (though I have pulled it off before). This one is much smaller, but it was sufficient for my needs for today.
Sophy was also kind enough to give me a gift of cookies that are particularly local to Taichung. I haven't tried them yet, but suspect they'll be tasty.
I had planned to go to the Brother Elephants vs. the 7-11 Lions Chinese Professional Baseball League game tonight, but it turns out that the game is not in the stadium I thought it was in. The CPBL recently reduced from six to four teams (as a result of a game-fixing scandal), and when they did that, the reduced from seven stadiums country-wide (including two in the Taipei area) down to four. The game I went to a few years ago was in a stadium closer to here, which is more easily reachable by subway. I could have made it out to the game, but decided I would stay in and get a little reading done -- I have a couple of manuscripts to review, so I'll do those this evening.
(OK, the tv show "Bewitched" just came on, and it is dubbed into Japanese. Why?)
Tomorrow is class all day, and then one of the students from class offered to take me to C3, an area that is all about consumer electronics. I'm not sure what I need there, but I am sure that I will discover something that someone can't live without.
Sunday is another all-day class, followed by the students' typical routine of going out to grab a beer together. Then comes Monday morning, and a long flight home. I'm enjoying it here, but can't wait to get back.
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