Good morning, Future Weg. This is Past Weg getting you up to speed on what you did recently. So sit down on your hover couch with a space beer and listen up.

First of all, HOLY SHIT. You know that rain you had yesterday? It caused a heck of a landslide in that Jilong city you were at last week. One minute this car is driving past McDonalds, and then suddenly it turns into Super Taiwan Kart.

Right so, first you went to the International Candy Exhibition at Chang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, a combination of words previously unheard of by science. I hope for your sake they have not caused the universe to fold in on itself. This was really weird, as it was a bunch of art and sculptures made entirely out of candy. Also when you got really close, you could smell them. And of course it said don't touch, but I secretly did - I'm proud to report I have felt up the Statue of Liberty, and she is quite squishy.













The funny thing about chilling at the CKS Memorial - I casually mentioned the changing of the guard ceremony, and phrased it in a "Oh, you know when they do x" kind of way. However, the look on Tiffany's face showed me she had no idea what I was talking about. She sheepishly admitted she had never been to the CKS Memorial before. You know, that giant thing that's on every postcard. That thing with it's own subway station on the main line. That thing you have been to 4, 5 times in the 7 months you've been here. The ceremony dealie was starting soon so we popped on up, and I missed something I have oh so wanted to see.





At a point in the beautifully choreographed display, one consisting of M1 Garands with bayonets, a guard messed up. They all hold the guns down at a 45 degree angle, and flip them up to be standing vertically in front of their face. One of them flipped a bit too far, hit above his eyebrow with the blade, and knocked off one side of his helmet. It was standing crooked, barely holding on with the other strap when an attendant rushed out to fix it. As I learned from my pal in Taidong, that means he goes back to basic training. Sucks!

Now, why did I miss it? I got a Facebook message from - wait for this relationship - my roommate's girlfriend's roommate's boyfriend. It was a "hey, where are you?" "Oh hey, long time no see, I moved to Taipei."

"Yeah I know, which station? I'm here now"

So I had dinner with Boggs, which was quite unexpected.


And that brings us to today, where I went around the city with him on our mutual days off. Or at least, part of the city. It was raining a lot, but we went up to Maokong anyway. We went to see a new place for me, the Tea Appreciation Center. Hey. Tea. I appreciate you. <finger gun> After lunch we took a stroll through the fields and visited Zhinan Temple, where we got set with our respective gods I guess. This time the lady said we could take photos, but only of our gods. So, here's mine, as well as anyone else born in 1984. We are like, SUPER GOOD at high fives. I think I made that same joke last time but it's still a good one.

Heading on back we stopped at the Martyr's Shrine, which turns out closes an hour before I thought it did. We hiked up Jiantan Mountain to get an otherwise foggy put passable view of the city, then off to Shilin Market for food and shopping. I'm getting better at that stupid shrimp carnival game, because I caught 3 shrimp this time. I ate all of them, because the tears merely enhanced their flavor.

After that we got a giant fried chicken...

And I got a corndog shaped like a penis.