USA Ultimate

All is well in Taipei.

In the past 24 hours 11 of 13 players plus several family members have made it into Taipei. The last two players make it in tomorrow afternoon around the time we all catch the high speed train from Taipei to Kaohsiung.

This morning 7 of us headed up to the National Palace Museum and saw one of the largest collections of Chinese artwork in the world. When we left the museum at around noon the temperature outside was a cool 90 with a very high humidity level that I can't begin to estimate. Next we headed to Danshui, located at the north end of the red metro line.

On the metro up we all decided that the system was not designed for people of Beau's stature. In Danshui we walked along the edge of the river leading from the bay and enjoyed a lunch of steamed pork dumplings, noodles, and bubble tea. Jon, Greg, and Beau also took some time playing a few local carnival games. The verdict is that the group is semi-decent at a few of the games and terrible at the rest.

Back at the hotel we rested for a while and then headed out to the Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. We made it to the top on the high speed elevator in under 40 seconds and had a very long, clear view of the city. Next we headed up to the Shilin night market and rode the waves of people through the many city blocks of food and clothing stalls. We learned that dumplings are indeed our friends, squid on a stick is quite nice, and stinky tofu really is quite stinky.

At around 10:30pm the second wave of players started to arrive. By 11pm everyone that was supposed to make it in, was in. By midnight everyone was sleeping.

Tomorrow morning almost everyone is getting up early to head out into the city for 3-4 hours of exploring before we catch our high speed train at noon. By 2pm we'll be in Kaohsiung, in the full embrace of the World Games.