Well certainly this post has to be more upbeat than my last.

I've made a few dents in the "not many friends" front over the past few days. There was a post on /r/taiwan from a Canadian who was coming to visit Taipei for a few weeks, and wanted some people to hang out with. Since every Redditor I have met is totally awesome, I decided to jump at the opportunity. Ting and I had a great day hanging out around Taipei Main, seeing several things I never have before... and some I have, but that's alright. We did find a totally awesome bar I will definitely be back to. They have build your own paninis, which if that isn't a win I don't know what is. Overall we had a nice day walking around the city, and seeing as how her family is Taiwanese, I got some insight into daily life. Also, her Chinese is much better than mine. Balls.







However, I also managed to meet a girl from Texas who moved here a few years ago. Her parents are also Taiwanese, which I'm beginning to think the only reason people come here is to meet their family. We had a nice trip up to Maokong, shooting the breeze and getting to know each other. On the way back she invited me to go to a bar where she was meeting some of her friends, where a salsa/rock band was playing. What a strange, but fun night indeed. This bar had kids riding around on razor skooters amongst the drunk crowd. However, they also had German beer. The singer, I swear to god, was the reincarnation of Mitch Hedberg. Long hair, always looking down, emulating his way of speaking, and even bearing a bit of resemblance to him. Honestly though, they played a fantastic set. I would buy their album. They came from Tainan, which I now want to visit based only on how awesome these guys were. In fact, one guy was so taken he brought his plate of spaghetti with him on the dance floor. So while everyone is rocking out, he is giving zero fucks and sitting there slurping spaghetti. If that were not enough, there was a pirate and London cab driver talking, and the lead singer of the second band (some Russian dude), gave me a shot of vodka that was unlike any vodka I'd had before. This was the real deal. Whew.

Right, so that brings us to today. As you may have noticed in the first photo I am holding a paper man. That is a Flat Stanley from my sister's coworker's son? At least, I think that's how the connection goes. Anywho, today's project was to go to the end of the blue line and climb the mountain near Nangang Convention Center. Now, I have been to many (in fact, almost all) of the MRT Stations so far. When I say they have "nothing", I mean nothing of note. Nangang is another level of "nothing". They don't even have infrastructure. To give you an idea of what I mean, there are no 7-11s. That's like saying there's no chili in Cincinnati. It just doesn't make godamn sense. It's just construction site after construction site, with light industry. The two paths on Google indicating the entrance to these mountains was now a factory and a factory being built. Defeated, I went back to the MRT and decided to climb a place I saw last time in Neihu.

I must've backtracked 4 times, following the signs before I found the entrance. You see these photos? That's the entrance to Kangle. You know who else knows about this place? Nobody. The entire time I was there, I was constantly breaking spiderwebs with my face on the way up. Part of the trail had been taken over by a farmer for his own use. The parts left of it that existed were covered with slippery flat leaves, and the rocks with moss. I fell several times trying to get up this thing, and it was so slick it was damn near impossible. But I prevailed, and got a few nice shots on the way.











And that's about it. I finally finished the last of my Chinese lessons on the train back home. Now I just need to brush up on the characters, and I am sans any sort of Chinese curriculum. I have a few takeout menus, my goal is to eventually learn every character on them.