sure thing, yao ming

i just got back from taipei. taipei for the weekend. during this weekend, i took a crap on the top public floor of the tallest building in the world, which must signify something big. the obeservation deck of taipei 101, as the phallic beast is called, whistles with the frequency of the winds of the whole world. i also went to the snakehandler night market, which was the same thing as ilan or lodong but with more snakes and more stalls...i also went with luke and gina to the national palace museum, which is one of the central arguments for taiwan as the true home of chinese culture. it didn't convert me, but it was cool to see. i hung out with levi at the brass monkey in the financial district and watched world cup heroes get paid to score for different colored jerseys while drinking english beer, which is the kind of experience i've had a few times before in asia and which i'm always ambivalent about, but the company was good. zach, luke, gina, and i met at the train station to go home at the very nick of time, making the most of things as usual. at longshan temple, i prayed with incense and when a lady gave me some bread i asked her what it was for (offering or edible) and she said you eat it, here, take more, and before i knew it she had given me a huge bag of sweet buns for buddha, or someone...mmmm, nirvana.