This weekend started poorly . . .� Saturday we went to a travel convention at the World Trade Center that was packed with people but not with English and proved a complete waste of time and money.� Sunday, my football team lost ignominiously, I went to church at the wrong time (an hour late), and then we road the subway/elevated train (it changed mid trip) to Danshui.� I christened this place Chinese Grand Haven, since it shares the boardwalk, junk food, junk stores,� and river meets big water geography with the Michigan resort town near my family’s cottage.� I had this vision of walking out to see the Pacfiic, but the boardwalk is not really near the estuary, but was raining, and we had only one compact umbrella.�� You will not be surprised to hear Cynthia was quickly hungry and frustrated.
Taipei has highlighted for me that Cynthia doesn’t share my same level of comfort of just setting out and seeing where things take you.� I remember first noticing this when I went with Dave to Munich years ago.�� We landed in Munich, drove into the city and parked at a hotel, then got on the subway and got off somewhere and walked around.� Soon enough we acquired beer, sausage and sauerkraut,� sat in the plaza and watched the Glockenspiel, and commented on how our wives could not appreciate this kind of spontaneity.��� Taiwan magnifies this for me because there is a lot more day to day frustration when you can’t communicate and are functionally illiterate – stuff isn’t where you think or you don’t know where it is, and you can’t ask.� This drives Cynthia’s already low tolerance over the brink.� I ignore this, get overexcited about going on some “adventure” . . . and most of the time it turns into a disappointment because of the aforementioned reasons.� So, I have resolved that going forward here (i.e. Asia), it’s just not worth it to try and survive on your own – sightseeing and adventures need to guided by someone in the know who’s not me.

In any case, the day needed turning around, so we went decided to go to our favorite Indian restaurant – Saffron.� It was closed, since it was 3:30. � However, the restaurant next door, the Spice Shop, was open� and after literally awakening the staff we were mowing on samosas and lamb kebob and chicken tikka masala and butter naan and vegetable curry and it was excellent.� This is why two Indian restaurants can be next to each other and survive, I guess, though I can’t imagine when whoever came second was location shopping, looked at the spot next door to the existing Indian restaurant and said “this is the right spot for my Indian restaurant”.� The only place this should happen is in India.

Satiated, we walked back the the main road and saw a movie theater with a poster for the Michael Jackson “This is It” movie.� The Taiwan movie experience is a bit different – you buy tickets (which are still $9) where you buy popcorn, you can’t go into the theater until the assigned time that the show starts, and you have an assigned seat. I actually like this because you get to reserve where you want and no one is holding seats, and I’m sure the theater likes it because everyone is packed in efficiently.� At the end of the movie, everyone packs up their trash and actually carries it over to the trash can.� As for the movie, we both enjoyed it, they kept it from being too corny and fawning.� MJ still had the whole dance/sing/compose/perform package like no one else this generation.

Today was a good day, I made up for effectively missing church Sunday by going to a noon All Souls Mass (in’n'out in 30 mins) and one of the guys I’d been interviewing accepted his job offer (for the position I thought would be hardest to fill).� That’s now 3 guys down, 9 to go. Plus, our mail shipment came from the US and my property taxes dropped by $200.

This week I’m going to Shanghai for work but I’m bringing Cynthia with me to celebrate our 5th anniversary.�� Pics and recap to follow.

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