Departure, Arrival

TYPING ON my foldable keyboard,, standing on the rooftop of my host and friend, SJs. My bare feet are standing on the astroturf that covers the surface, it is wet and cool from the rain last night and tickles my feet. Around me I see the brick apartments- a store front on the bottom, metal shutters still closed and scooters parked in front, then 4 stories of apartments, each with several small balconies. Differing styles: some of the balconies are made of metal cross bars. Some are what looks like a sturdy plasistic latticework.The varandas are topped by courregated metal or green transparent plastic roof sections. Larger brick rooftops like this one are at the top of most buildings. The balconies hold lots of things- clothes drying in the humid air, plants peeking through the bar, storage for materials like tubs and garden supplies, and airconditioning units held off to the side. It is 5:45 am and it is well lit but the light is still indirect. The sky is pale blue with pink clouds that are turning whiter by the second and moving slowly westward.

I am in the Whuhua district of Taipei. My friend SJ met me at the aiport after my flight got in last night at 6pm local time.

I left home super early on Tuesday morning, October 15th. The days before were filled with visits to family and friends, a combination of very orderly and very disorderly packing, and long gazes at Dan and Freyja, thinking about how I'll miss them. I'm only going to be gone for 3.5 weeks but it feels like a long time and especially with the election and the stae of the world, it doesn't seem right to be so sure about anything. Anyone reading this knows that feeling, so I'll just stick with telling you my travel details!

Dan took me to the airport and I checked my bag quickly. It was 47.5 lbs- a relief that it was under the 50 lb limit because I had lik 10 kg of gluten free flour in there for SJ.

As you can see I was wearing my kefiyah scarf for travel, which was very comfy and useful for travel and also was the reason this very nice lady came up to me and we had a lil moment of connecting in joy and sadness about Palestine. She runs a felafel food truck in LA and donates profits to Palestinan relief- go follow her at @mideasteats and get some! Hereś her lovely watermelon bag.

Because I am extra and have been influenced by the internet, Iḿ going to rate everything I ate on my flights out of ten. The first flight was a 5 hour completely full United flight to LAX, leaving at 630am. We got a tiny bar and drinks served to us so I brought my own food. Gluten free crackers and sliced gouda cheese from Safeway, a solid 6/1-. This is a staple for me at home and it did not dissapoint, nor did it excite.

roasted delicata squash with a maple lemon tahini dressing. i'd been eating this for like 2 days before I left so I was a little sick of it but it is objectively good. 7/10

In LAX I had a 3.5 hour layoer so I walked, stretched, relaxed and ate my packed salad- more squash, beets, feta cheese, mixed greens, balsamic dressing and this tuna packet. Flavors were great and the beets kept my digestion MOVING through the travel- 8/10

I also did a bit of paperwork while in LAX including filling out my mail in ballot....only to be told that afte 9-11 all mailboxes were removed from airports! 1/10. now I need to figure out international mailing.

The flight to Taipei was 14 hours long and much more comfortable! I had a window seat in a row of three with NO ONE in the middle! My seat mate and I were both so happy and shared my phone charger cord the whole time.

EVA Air had this fun retro theme to it,mostly with its safety video set up like a sort of James Bond-credits sequence style advertisement for how to deal with emergencies:

I may have been influenced in this interpretation by the display of retro flight attendant uniforms from the 60s and 70s. Groovy....

EVA served two meals on the flight. I had signed up for the gluten free meal option because I 'm trying to avoid wheat where I can and to sort of save it up for the really special dishes in Taiwan like soup dumplings and beef noodles.

The meal started with some sesame crackers and my request of white wine, 10/10. The main dish was chicken, zucchini and a quinoa mix. This felt like something that someone in my group house would make for Thanksgiving while tring to watch their sodium. The dish was super bland and the chicken was kind of stringy. I needed to add half the pat of butter, the entire lemon that came with the salad, and some of my side dish of yogurt to make it good....and at that point it was pretty good. Unadrned 4/10, jazzed up 6/10.

Dish came with a salad that I didn't photograph well here. The lettuce and single tomato were good, the chicken piece had the texture of something unreal, and there was no dressing outside of this solo cup of yogurt. 3/10 but don't think that I hate vegetables in general. The tray came with bread that I initially wasn't sure if it was gluten free or not, but then I saw my neighbor get served a golden, puffy roll and I knew the score. 3/10 but its hard to make GF bread anything above a 4 for me.

Midway through the "night" (the dimmed cabin lights and closed windows made it seem dark, but as you can see by the light comeing in through my cracked window shade, it was bright daylight the entire time we were flying), I got dropped off this GF sandwich made of butter and slices of zucchini and pepper, as well as a banana, and some hot water I used to make tea. This sandwich was a valiant attempt though it was horrible. Together the meall scores a 3.5/10.

Breakfast was chicken congee off the main menu.

This was plain but good! And I liked the cooked tofu salad dish- squishy and thick tofu, mushrooms, edamame and this single carrot piece. It was super good mixed into the congee. 8.5/10

The fruit unfortunately tasted like a poison chemical so I did not eat it. 1/10.

Got off the plane and got my bag and made it through customs quite quickly. As I've seen a lot in the last two days, things are very effecient here, signage is everywhere, and people are compliant and polite in public spaces.

I entered the tourism lottery, did not win, tried to set up a Taiwanese SIM card, and wass not successful. Then SJ met me and got me onto the MRT, the metro train. We took the train through Taipei Main Station, then exited at Beimen, the East gate of the old city. We caught a cab for the short distance from the train to their apartment. Our cab driver was excited that we were acupuncturists and even more excited to try and sell us gensing that he imports.

We got to Sorei's house, dropped my stuff and headed out to a night market. Stay tuned for pics and words from that!

Grateful to be safe here in a new place.