Nick writes: Yesterday we went to the Taipei 101 building and shopping mall complex. Until the el-Burj building in Dubai is finished sometime in the next two years, Taipei 101 is the world's tallest building. I introduced Kristen to Japanese hotpot (known as "shabu shabu" in the local parlance) for lunch and later we explored several bookstores and walked around the various shops. In the bookstores, most of the volumes are in Chinese, though the amount and selection of English publications is quite surprising. Although the weather has improved over the last 24 hours and has gotten a [View Full Entry]

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Kristen writes: I finally arrived last night. It was the longest flight of my life. I don't think I've ever felt more out of place than I did when I arrived in Taoyuan International Airport surrounded by 300 Taiwanese people speaking Mandarin Chinese without having slept more than 2 hours. After Nick met me at the airport I felt a lot better, and we headed to our hotel. It's strange not to have a home yet, but hopefully in a week or so we will settle down in a new apartment for nine months. It's very exciting to be here! The [View Full Entry]

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Nick writes: Trying to upload pictures into the blog for the first time. Hope this works. [View Full Entry]

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Nick writes: Finally made it into Taipei! Checked into the hotel and will write more tomorrow after resting. [View Full Entry]

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