Hsinchu, Taiwan

Typhoons – 2, Typhoon days – 0. Kaemi was again a let down. When looking at the precipitation weather maps, Hsinchu County was the only spot in Taiwan that was not raining. Sitting on the stairs in front of the dorms and waiting for winds to tip a scooter to over gets is pointless if there is no tipping over to be happened.

Me, Mr. Walker and Mr. Brown have had been working out a routine recently. I hang out with John at night and then I get Guiseppe (he looks like a Guiseppe) to help me through the workday. As a part of the assimilation into the convenience store lifestyle, I have been sampling Taiwan’s fine array of cold canned coffee. Mostly they are the same, but I do have an affinity for Mr. Brown. Stuff is good, but I won’t be surprised if it is found to cause cancer. I have only encountered a couple of places that make good, tasty, so-caffeinated-you-get-a-little-loopy coffee. Yes, Starbucks is one of them.

Exploring is best done in solo or in small groups. I was wandering by myself on the other side of the tracks in downtown and ran across a temple, a really tasty night market, an artists warehouse space (with cheap beer and pizza) and a local Chinese opera. The pit of that performance had this fuzzed out organ going through a cheap amplifier that caught my ear. If you excuse the language differences, the sonic palette here has been fairly similar. The white noise of automobiles, pop music, air conditioners and other sounds of this hyper-connected world are fairly homogenized. But still, I do wish at times that I brought a field recording microphone and a mini-disc player.

I am trying to make the morning pass so I can spend seven hours on a bus to the southern most tip of Taiwan. I have been wanting to go to a beach for a minute; bottle tans just aren't cutting it.