Taiwan is a lot like a big Chinatown...

and you know how I feel about Chinatown...

I had a pretty jam-packed first day in the motherland. Thanks to the time-change, I was up by 5:30 AM, and went to registration at school at around 10 AM, where I forked over a wad of cash (literally, tuition is only accepted in cash) and got my class schedule. I had the choice between 8AM-10 AM or 2PM-4PM, and keeping with my strict UNC policy against any classes before 10 AM, I naturally chose the 2-4 PM block, which will meet Monday-Friday, starting September 3. It works out pretty well, since I can take weekend trips by leaving right after class on Fridays and coming back in time for class on Monday afternoons. I'm already planning ways to get around studying. Good sign, right?

Since my aunt went to school at the university, she showed me around, and I was very pleased to find that it's in the midst of a famous culinary district, and about one block from Din Tai Feng, which is touted as one of the top 100 restaurants in the world (famous for soup noodles and soup dumplings...eat your heart out, Grand Sich.)...I promise there will be more details and photos to follow.

After registration, we headed to Taipei 101, the tallest *completed* skyscraper in the world. It was actually kind of ugly. Leave it to the Chinese. Anyway, the best part of 101 was it's food (above).

For more visuals, check http://flickr.com/photos/magster...and yeah, Amanda, half my pictures are of food. Get used to it. xx