So, today, instead of doing apartment searching, I only got my cellphone set up. This afternoon I walked with my mom to the school I'm going to and through a rather nice park near our hotel. We met up with Monica and her boyfriend Steven at 1:30. First, we stopped at a transit station and I got a transit card. It's pretty cool; you can just wave it past scanners and it will automatically take money from your account.

Afterwards we hopped on the bus to Taipei 101 for lunch. For those who don't know, Taipei 101 is the tallest completed building in the world. (They're building one in Dubai which is taller but not yet finished.) My mom and I had some Hakka food (noodle dishes), which was delicious.

After lunch we left Taipei 101 and went to the subway to the cellphone store. I decided on a Sony Ericcson K510i. It's a nice phone; it has a camera and Bluetooth capability. I was thinking about getting one with music playing, but I realized how much more all the extra bells and whistles would cost and thought I'd be fine with the one I chose. Unfortunately, we need a SIM card so I can actually get a number, and the only place open on a Saturday was back at Taipei 101, and I needed my passport first. So, I headed off on the subway to my apartment, got my passport, went on the bus to Taipei 101, and got the SIM card. I couldn't call anyone until I put money on the card, but I had a phone to use. Joy!

Since we were there, we decided to go up on the observation deck. For those of you observant readers, you may have noticed that I had a camera on the phone. Well, here are some pictures!



Our first step was to get into the world's fastest elevator. This is a picture of it going down, but on going up it goes 1010 meters/min (about 37 mph).



Taipei, from 380 m up.



After the 89th floor observation deck we went outside to the 91st floor deck. Up here we watched the sunset.



Looking up from the outdoor observation deck.

Afterwards we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant inside the building. One five-course meal later and I decided that we should probably head back to the hotel. However, on the way out, I saw this:



Yes, that's a pair of Taiwanese people in leiderhosen. They were throwing a summer beer and music fest, so we stopped down and had a couple of beers. The music was pretty typical Chinese pop sung by a young woman, and the beer was some of the best I've had in weeks. After the music ended and while we were finishing our beers, another Chinese family began singing happy birthday for their daughter. My mom and I joined in, and they appreciated it, apparently. They gave us some cake and we took some pictures with them, which they may e-mail to us later.

Despite the fact that I hoped to get more done than finding a cellphone today, I had a great day. I have two things on the agenda that were bumped to tomorrow, however: finding an apartment and hanging out with Sebastian. The day after that I sign up for classes. Quite the load, but we'll see what I end up with.