S. Y. Affolee

Just a microbe in the whole scheme of things.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Went to the place that was the origin of bubble tea. It was underwhelming—nothing special. Also they attempted to charge an extra $50 NT for ice (~$1.50 USD) which was not stated anywhere on their menu, so beware.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

The Night Parade of Spirits by Kaizbow at the very unique Comics Museum in Taichung that’s located in a historical prison complex built during the Japanese occupation. (People also take wedding photos here for some reason.)

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Taiwanese postal box designs at the postal museum.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Visited Cijin Beach.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Some travel thoughts about Taiwan: the humidity here is crazy, make sure you have cash on hand—even places that take credit cards only take Taiwanese ones, not Visa, Mastercard, etc. Also many toilets are still old-fashioned squat toilets. And boba tea is way cheaper than coffee.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Also saw these flowers on Lotus Lake. Anyone know what they are?

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

It is still so insanely hot and humid over here in Taiwan that I feel perpetually sticky anywhere without AC.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Currently on a high speed train after an exhausting long haul flight.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Ugh. So annoying. They keep asking if we have some sort of an Asian passport when we have American passports right there. It’s as if the Germans think Americans can only be white. This isn’t the first time that’s happened to me in Germany. It’s absolutely frustrating.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

So they say this place doesn’t exist.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

And this was because there are no ICE trains due to rail construction, the original train got cancelled for no reason and I had to cram into a couple alternative local trains. When they said German trains were going downhill, they weren’t kidding.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Well, that was another adventure—trains packed like sardines with what seemed like 3x more than the anticipated capacity, standing room only (my legs are so tired) for 3 hours. And some flailing would-be drunk nudist crashing into 1st class and getting chased by the police.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Took a brief look around the Cologne Cathedral.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

I thought Halloween didn’t exist in Germany. Maybe this is a marketing thing, like Christmas in Japan.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Ugh. That was a first. Had to kick out police officers sitting in our reserved train seats. If this was in the US, I’d be a dead person by now.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Well, that was an annoying adventure. The hotel lost my reservation and had no more rooms available so I had to find another hotel. At least I’m getting a refund.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Back at the airport. I took a brief look at a bookstore there and the first thing I heard was some lady trying to return chocolate because she didn’t like how it tasted. Seriously?!

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

Well, I did my mail in voting today. I am very glad this is an option in my state as I’ll be traveling later and won’t be able to go to the polls in person.

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

I just saw that someone I recognize just won a Nobel. Cool! (I had seen him lecture a couple times and had done a stint in his PhD advisor’s lab before.)

[S. Y. Affolee @syaffolee]

The recent traveling really screwed up my sense of time. I swear today feels like a Tuesday.