Vive La France!

The World Cup final is in a mere few hours, and I have finally resigned to the fact I am going to miss it. I signed up for a livestreaming site which I can't figure out how to operate on my laptop, mostly because all the wiring stations are in Taiwan and the directions are in Chinese. Could someone inform me of the highlights? Anyway, here's looking at you, France. I hope Zidane goes out at the top, as he absolutely deserves to. I would honestly be surprised if Italy won given that they still tied the U.S. with an extra man, but who knows, we all know how well I do on 50-50 questions.

Taipei 101 was today's destination. As is my strategy, I got off at the MRT stop for 'Taipei City Hall' and walked around aimlessly a few blocks until I eventually found where I thought I should be going. Up to this point, I have never used a map. It's mostly because I never found a bookstore to buy one, although I almost don't want to ruin my streak now and give in. I think if I want to find the more hidden gems, though, it's going to be a necessity sooner or later.

Looking up at Taipei 101. Yup, it's pretty big.

The entrance to Taipei 101 shopping. There are bunches of stores at the bottom, with everything from very high-end international designer names (skipped all those) to typical mall stores we have at home. However, even the 'typical' mall stores tended to be of higher class, i.e. Esprit and United Colors of Benneton. There were really no grunge stores here, and everything was immaculately clean.

My lunch! Now I usually don't do the McDonalds/fast food thing, but sometimes you have to make way for exceptions. This 'burger' consists of sesame rice patty buns and what I considered to be teriyaki beef with lettuce on the inside...and it was declicious. They had the normal stuff, too, but even in America I don't order that, so why would I here?

While perusing the shopping areas, I came across many World Cup ads and a few fetivities. An entire strip of stores adorned these banners, all #10 superstars on national teams sponsored by adidas. Two of my faves, Becks and Zidane, were side-by-side, so I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Giant human soccer balls...

...that mimic the motions of hamsters and try to roll their way into a giant goal.

More giant soccer balls.

Bicycle-kick man on top of a storefront entry.

A view of a typical Taipei shopping experience. Taipei 101 is in the background, with a myriad of buses and taxis and extremely large ads in the foreground.

Taipei City Hall. It actually isn't that exciting, but I thought it at least deserved a picture.

Tomorrow is back to work and learning at the lab. In the next few days, if not tomorrow, I am going to give Dr. Yu a brief powerpoint presentation on the cell culturing methods I did, explaining the methodology and reasons behind said methodology. Maybe after that I can start actually being useful.