but first, you make a prayer to the city god. hoisting up incense as an offering, you tell him your name, your birthdate, and as much as you can about the person you want to meet. some people were in deep prayer, praying with wholehearted conviction, while others saw this as merely a formality to finding a girlfriend. i, having no idea what kind of person i want to find, merely prayed that those who were there with me would find the ones they are looking for.

you go from room to room finding other immaculately carved statues of gods to pray to. some for good fortune, others for good health, but it is clear by the size of the rooms which deity gets the most prayers.

at the end of your journey (and about 10 american bucks), you are presented with a red string, which you take to the incense altar and move clockwise three times. this red string is supposed to help you find true love.

it is said that we are all bound by red strings of fate. these red strings tie us together to our soul mates. the line may be tangled, but will never break. though it may not be visible to us, it surely exists.

the legend goes on to say that you are to carry the red string with you wherever you go. when you meet your true love, you are to return to the temple. many married couples return to the temple and leave cookies there for the singles. these cookies are blessed, then eaten by those seeking their true love, and aids in luck.

i think this would be an awesome place to pick up girls while simultaneously angering the gods, methinks.

more reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_string_of_fate

i'm writing this post because i've decided to challenge a question to everyone with wanderlust in the world: how does one justify staying in a faraway place for only a week or so?

surely, you can see all the tourist attractions in a smaller country within a week. however, that doesn't mean you've necessarily been there. maybe you have in the literal sense of the word, but how can you have truly appreciated being somewhere else unless you've learned to appreciate the nuances of a culture - until you've adopted the scent and attitudes of a city that makes it so special?

i've been here two weeks, and i can't even begin to tell you anything about taipei. i'll certainly try if you asked me to, but i feel like my knowledge of taipei is so superficial. as if my understanding of this place is akin to peeling an orange with sandpaper.

but i'll keep buffing away at it until my time runs out. there's no time to waste!

i haven't missed san francisco at all.

there's an area with 8 or so tellers at one end of the night market. while trying to decide on one, one of them decided to yell out something to me in japanese.

she was not chosen.

here are some highlights:

my window for a serious, serious relationship is within the next 6 years. if that doesn't pan out - or rather, i don't allow it to occur - then that window will never open again.

i am great at making rational decisions, but often i will need the advice of a woman to balance me out, and to be less hasty with them.

my mother will see some difficulty this year - don't argue with her.

my money will be made east. my personality belongs in the south. go southeast, young man. go southeast.

the next year will be a year of great partnerships, but i have to hastily use this to my advantage or i will end up working for or be a partner to someone else the rest of my life.

and he says i will be highly successful at anything i try my hand at - but i bet he tells that to everyone.

at first, i thought it was to try and lure american/european customers to the store. however, this idea was squashed when i realized that no one at the location spoke any english.

then the cynical side of me said that taiwanese people will feel better about a product if it was endorsed by americans.

then the logical side concluded it must be true.

an iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts is near ~$100 TWD (~$3USD). given that the raw materials, the labor, and leases are cheaper, what gives? local competitors are selling very similar products at about 1/3 of the price (you can get an iced coffee for $30-40 TWD), and i'd be very surprised if all the additional cost of doing business overseas ate up all of that difference. being able to pick up an entire meal for the price of a cup of coffee at starbucks, gives me a new perspective on the dispairites here in taipei.

the shopping mall at taipei 101 is a menageries of labels and brand names that are rarely found in such density in the US, except maybe at an outlet mall. the basement level is always the most crowded, mainly because that is where the food court is. the higher up you go, the more exclusive the retail shops get, and the sparser the people are. yet, with hardly any retail spaces up for lease, these shops must get a fair share of business. who are these people?

in the US, the malls are geared at the wide range of people we consider the middle class - often a shopping mall will have a combination of an old navy, the gap, or a banana republic within its confines. but with the average college graduate making only around $1000 USD per month here in Taipei, the "middle class" of taipei can only afford the simplest of choices at the large Taipei malls, save for a few select items a few times a year. very few people here own an ipod - the symbol of american disposable income. however, there is enough money floating around here for a mall that very few people would go to in America.

where is it coming from?

it appears to me people here are way more down-to-earth and less self-servient than the people back in the states. people don't expect anything when they help you, and are more able to help themselves out when they are in need. no one here blames society for their troubles.

people here are a lot more trustworthy as well. a kid got off the bus without paying. so the bus driver drives up ten feet to catch up with the boy, and through the open door yells something at the boy - kinda like your father would do if you did something you weren't supposed to. the boy boards the bus, pays his fare and gets right off. that wouldn't happen in the states.

a lot of people from places like this come to the united states and are seen as not social. but i'm starting to realize the opposite: they're not shy, they're just afraid of having their friendliness seen as weakness and exploited. at least that's part of it.

Last Halloween, a good friend of mine - Caroline Himmelman @chimmely - read my tarot. Just for fun. She told me, "you are going to soon take a trip that will change your life dramatically." This was months and months before I even contemplated going on a trip anywhere, let alone across the planet -

I've already met a bunch of the people in the building - most of them with roots in the US. One guy's an INSEAD graduate, starting a business here in Taipei; a girl with a diverse background from NY; and another girl from Sharon, Mass. Somehow, meeting people here seems to be easy, but maybe it can be chalked up to meeting English speakers in a non-English speaking society.

The apartment I'm living is pretty amazing. I'm on the 15th floor of a 18 story building - rooftop pool and an incredible view of the 4 animal mountain. The 101 is a stones throw away, and a night market is three minutes walking, tops. I've only had one proper meal, so the night market is definitely on the plate tonight.

Otherwise, I'm occupying my time by walking around in the 100+ degree heat, reading the books I've brought (currently, a book on the Alexander Technique, and Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle), and taking three showers a day. The best thing I've done so far was to learn to just accept the heat, rather than be disgusted by it.

First Saturday night out in Taipei - let's make it a good one.

PS - writing is hard, especially if you haven't done it in a while. Time to start flexing again.