Greetings from Taipei!

It's about 8:30am here (4:30pm at home; Taiwan is 16 hours ahead of California), and I'm currently in Eifeh and Dan's Taipei apartment. Eifeh and Dan left about an hour ago for class and Matt's still sleeping. We arrived here last night after a pretty good flight. I slept about half of the 13.5 hours, which isn't bad. During the flight, I also watched the movies All About Steve (eh) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (pretty funny!) and the TV shows 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother, which I already like.

After arriving in Eifeh and Dan's neighborhood, we grabbed a quick bite in town from the local stands and had some of my favorite Taiwanese dishes, a steamed pork bun/dumpling-like dish, green onion pancake with egg and kimchi, and some warm milk tea with boba. I love Taiwanese food and don't get to eat it much in the states. It's kind of hard to find, and a lot of it is quite different from other Asian cuisines. Although, the first time Matt had Taiwanese food, he thought it was Chinese. I didn't take pictures last night, but don't worry, I'll be on top of my picture duties from here on out.

Last night, among a whole slew of other things I had packed for Eifeh (a whole suitcase full of packages and other things I had been sent with!), Eifeh and I exchanged some things we'd bought for each other that never got mailed. I was greeted with some pretty awesome goodies!

• California Roll-flavored Ruffles chips. They have all sorts of interesting-flavored chips here, and Eifeh saw this one and thought I would like it. They also have beef, chicken, etc.
• A cute 2010 planner. Eifeh understands the value of a good, well-organized planner, and this one's really cute. Last time we were here, we spent a lot of time at the stationery shops, oohing and aahing over all the cute paper, pens, and other office supplies.
• An "Elmo Loves You" Sesame Street mug. It references one of our oldest inside jokes. She's Elmo.
• Hazelnut M&Ms. Another of Asia's unique flavored snacks; I think she got this one in Korea, though, but the packaging is in Russian. They also have orange-flavored chocolate M&Ms here! Dan says they're pretty good.
• Mini camera tripod. This one is super-exciting! It has bendable legs and is really sturdy, so I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of it!

She also got me a pretty scarf that isn't pictured, but I'm sure I'll wear at some point during the trip, since it's pretty chilly here right now, in the 50s and 60s (it was so nice in California, mid-70s and sunny!). I'm so excited to be here, though. I'm doing two of the things I love and treasure most in life, traveling and being with a few of my absolute favorite people ever. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures, and I'll try to post again soon!