Why Taipei?

I'm currently sitting on a plane in Tokyo, waiting to depart for a 3.5 hour flight for Taipei. It's been a long day...or days...time zones are confusing. I flew from DC to Minneapolis early this morning, and then took the 13 hour trek to Japan. I'm set to get to my hotel in Taipei around 10pm local time on Monday, which is 13 hours ahead of my usual time zone. Let's hope this jet lag doesn't kick my butt too hard.

So, why am I going to Taipei? Although I wish it were the case, I'm not a world traveler. A few weeks before my Mexico trip, Tyler found out that he was getting sent to our Taiwan outage for the whole month of December. Then a light bulb went off in my head. My vacation days don't roll over at work, so I was already planning on taking off from 12/14-1/6 (I'm also starting a new position in January so perfect timing). Originally I was just planning to spend my time off hanging out in Maryland, sleeping a lot, and probably annoying my parents. Boring, right?! :) Fortunately everything lined up and I was able to spend the first part of my break exploring Taipei.

I'm not nearly as prepared for this trip as I was for Mexico. Ever since I got back from PDC, I've been swamped studying for a grad school final, and also trying to close out multiple projects at work. Planning for this trip has therefore taken a back seat. I've also never been to Asia, so I don't have the familiarity with the culture like I did in Mexico. That means this trip is going to be spontaneous. Other than asking a friend for recommendations and doing some light Googling about the area, I don't really know what to expect. But I think less planning and more spontaneity will be good for me.

I'll have Internet access, so stay tuned as I stroll through night markets, eat crazy food, and soak up the culture. I'll be taking in Taipei one day at a time, but please leave me any suggestions should you have any!

A few tidbits about my travel day...
-This airplane has USB charging ports. Hallelujah!
- 20 hours on an airplane is a great opportunity to catch up on movies. I watched 6:

• Meet the Millers: Hilarious movie- the one where Jennifer Aniston is a stripper. Laughed out loud a few times. Go Redbox it!
• Fruitvale Station: Wanted to see this since it was one of the 'Critic's Choice' and was highly acclaimed at the Sundance Film Festival. Ended up making me cry and sending me into a deep stage of depression.
• 2 Guns: To get out of the previously mentioned depression, I thought staring at Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington would do the trick. I love Denzel, but this movie wasn't as good as some of his others. Although it did give you the guns, drugs, and girls that you get in most Denzel flicks.
• Adore: Excuse my french, but WTF?! This movie was on the plane's list of "must watch films." Here's a short summary. These two women have lived on the beach in Australia their whole lives. They are as close as best friends can get without being lesbian. They are each married and have one son. Eventually both of the husbands fade out of the picture, and the women start having love affairs with each others' sons. The sons (also best friends) get married to other people, but the affairs continue, so they split up with their wives to be with each others' mothers. Yea...
• 500 Days of Summer: Classic movie. Just needed something easygoing and happy to fix whatever Adore did to my brain.
•  Parkland: The new movie about the JFK assassination. I love a good conspiracy theory, so I was pretty excited for this one. However, the hospital scene after the shooting was too long and too bloody. I got nauseous and had to turn it off and put my head down on the tray table.