the boundaries of language i quietly cursed, and all the different names for the same things.

we made it!  our first flight left pittsburgh on thursday morning around 10 a.m.  from there, we flew to detroit and then tokyo.  that flight was by far one of the worst experiences of our lives - 12 hours on the plane.  from tokyo to taiwan was another 3 hours.  we pretty much figured we were going to die from dehydration, lack of movement, and general miserableness.  or maybe we just wished we were dead.  more than once, ashley said "we've made a huge mistake."  but we finally made it, and anna was there to meet us.  from the airport in taipei, it was an hour drive by bus and taxi to wanhua, where anna lives.  we'll be staying with her until lalay comes before memorial.  here's a picture of anna's place from the street.

we were hoping not to be jet-lagged at all, but i only slept about 2 hours friday night.  last night was a little better.  i think i woke up again at about 3 in the morning, but i fell back to sleep and didn't wake up again until 6.  at that point, i figured i should just cut my losses, get up, and work on this before we have to start getting ready for the meeting.

our first day was about as eventful and productive as we could've wanted.  we met for service at the hall and worked until around noon doing the invitations.  i came up with an uber simple presentation that i'll probably stick to through the campaign.  "ni hao.  women shi yigong.  wo song gei ni yi zhang yaoqing dan."  ("hello.  we're volunteers.  i want to give you this invitation.")  i think it's literally impossible to be more lazy than that.  unless we'd just say "qing ni kankan".  ("please read.")  ashley was gonna go with that, but i think anna pushed her in the right direction.  we were able to jump in and take our turn, talked to a few people and placed some of our invitations.

service is pretty interesting - just in how they work a section of territory.  everyone's paired in twos (i worked with jennifer, a sister from southern california, and ashley worked with anna.) and that's who you work with for the morning.  the brother taking the lead pretty much literally takes the lead, scoping out the little alleyways for houses and directing which side of the street or alley everyone's going to work.  they kind of work house over house, but it's more like door over door.  there were several places where we rang the buzzer/intercom and this random voice from 4 floors up yells down to see what we want.  and then you just yell back.  the weather yesterday couldn't have been any better for the campaign.  clear and sunny, around 70-80 degrees, with a light breeze.  nothing too crazy happened in service, except for the woman at one shop who was watching us while full-on picking her nose.  anna says you see that all the time....

after service we went to lunch at a korean barbeque.  it was pretty good, but i was glad we were with anna and jennifer because the menu was in characters only.  so you could look at it and see how cheap it was, but we had no idea what anything was.  i guess we always could've pointed at the few pictures posted and said "yi ge, ya joker." ("one, ya joker.")  after lunch, anna took us to see ximending.  she described it as like a times square kind of place, which seems like the best description.  super cute, ridiculously dressed taiwanese kids shopping and eating.  i wish i had taken a picture - because nobody else saw it - but there was one guy with a frowny face on the crotch of his jeans.  there were like dots on each side of the zipper (the eyes), and then a frown below that.  we decided that they're warning pants.  we can't think what other purpose they'd serve.

after a nap in the afternoon, we walked to qingnian gongyuan - a really beautiful park in wanhua.  there are these rock walk pathways there, which we foolishly and regrettably decided to try.  it's basically like 20 feet or something of reflexology on your feet.  the most painful, cringe-inducing reflexology i ever want to experience.  the old people doing it got a big kick out of us trying.  as we started out there were a few sitting by the path on a bench saying "hen hao." ("very good.") and "manman zou." ("go slow.")  that was a wise piece of advice because then you can draw out the torture for as long as possible.  of course, you feel amazing once you do it - like refreshed and weirdly relaxed - but i don't know if it's enough incentive to do it again.

we sat in the park for awhile, and when we went to leave, we had our first super weird experience of the evening.  when we got up to leave, these 2 guys who had been sitting on a bench nearby got up too and followed us.  we went over this little bridge and heard them saying "bye, goodbye", so we turned around and waved and said goodbye back.  we had walked a little way when one of them came up behind us and stopped us and asked anna (in chinese) if we wanted to be friends.  and he had a little post-it and a pen and wanted our phone numbers.  anna's response was amazing if only because she was so quick on her feet about it - "no, wo bu renshi ni." ("no, i don't know you.")  it was super weird and awkward, and anna said they probably did it because ashley and i are so clearly white and from america, and in wanhua, that kind of makes you a spectacle.  we're "waiguoren" - foreigners.  (anna's still asleep, so i can't check my spelling on that one.)  after that, i really noticed how much we were getting stared at, and ashley said people were constantly walking by saying "hello", "goodbye", etc. - but not to each other, just to us.  that was maybe the most unexpected thing so far - how few other foreigners there are.  we really stand out, and you feel it.

after that, we headed back to ximending to meet charlie, brett, eber, and melissa for dinner at this thai place.  we had some time beforehand though, so we walked down snake alley.  it's named after this one shop-type place where you can basically watch a snake being killed (or at least you used to be able to) and then drink the venom or bile with some type of alcohol.  they have huge pythons and boas in cases outside; i have no desire to go there at all.  but anna took us to a massage place in snake alley for a 30 minute half-body massage.  anna had said that you keep your clothes on and they just work on your back, neck, arms and shoulders basically - but it turns out that each massage "therapist" kind of does it their own way, and ashley and i ended up with our backs intermittently swathed in hot, damp towels and then oil.  and the most intense, semi-painful massage i've ever had.  it was still relaxing, but left some damage - as you can see from the picture.  ashley said she could tell it was definitely more for health than for relaxation.

after the massages and before dinner, we had the second weird experience of the evening.  we had met up with charlie and eber in ximending, and this group of about 5 or 6 young guys came up to us with pens and post-its and wanted each of us to write a message in english to the one guy's girlfriend.  well, as he said, there was the "probability" that she would soon be his girlfriend.  the kid who did the talking was shaking like a leaf, but they were incredibly intent on getting these notes written.  so we did it.  i don't know what charlie and eber wrote, but i wrote the lamest thing possible - "dear mei, hello from america!  meghan".  anna was way better - "mei, this guy really seems to like you, so go for it."

after that, the evening was pretty mild.  we sat outside and ate our thai food and drank our beer - in the gay district of ximending no less.  oh!  and we conquered the squat toilets!  it's not as bad as i expected.  definitely weird.  but not terrible.  then it was the long walk back to anna's. 


otherwise, it's pretty surreal being here.  in a lot of ways, it's exactly what we expected, but in other ways, it's better or different.  it's hard to explain.  it's bizarre walking through the street markets, with pig heads, feet, testicles, and brains hanging in stalls, all kinds of fish, shellfish, plus gooey ducks in tanks, people making candies and juice.  plus, the scooters nearly running you over every 5 minutes.  because it totally makes sense to try to drive a scooter through a mob of shoppers.  some things looking really delicious.  other things looking the opposite of delicious.

this morning, we're gonna get ready, get some breakfast, go to meeting, go in service, and then see where the day takes us.  we may go to the hot springs tomorrow since it'll be a little cooler.  we'll let you know how that goes......