The Mysterious 'Brother Elephants'

My current state of unemployment helped to deem this an exploration day!  (Cue enthusiastic 'Woo!')  I did a little research in an attempt to find a bookstore that has an English section...because that's what I do when I have nothing on my agenda.  I did find a few reviews for a large bookstore boasting a substantial English section, so I decided to make that a priority.  Since I really had a lot of time to kill I tacked on a visit to the supposedly popular hangout for the young-set, the Ximen shopping district.  I was immediately overwhelmed at the amount of other people meandering and the cute clothes.  Oh, my--the clothes!!  One day I will have 'Asian money', and I will use this 'Asian money' on these clothes.  I walked around for a little bit looking for a place to hang out and read, preferably while drinking a hot coffee-like beverage...naturally.  I wasn't having much luck with the combination of the two; lots of coffee shops without seating--lots of seating without coffee.  When I began to give up hope and search for the MRT station to head back to the small, three-block area that I'm actually familiar with I happened upon the mecca...Starbucks!  I had every intent to hold off on the 'Bucks until at least a week went by, but I was desperate and it was starting to rain!  I wasn't left with another choice.  I entered and was immediately thrown into a zone of comfort.  I sat to read for about an hour, and since I only had a tall drink I felt greedy sitting there for even that long.  I have become one of 'those people' with all of this out-of-town business.  I'm now the one that orders one beverage and sits around long after it's finished.  On the plus side though, I have begun to drink coffee slower.  It has proved difficult, but I'm pleased with my progress.

Still having books on the brain, I de-MRT-ed a few stops early at 'Taipei City Hall' station to stalk my prey.  After a little wandering around, because google.com/maps only uses Chinese characters when one is on a network based in a Chinese province--annoyingly so--I thought I found the building I was looking for.  I wandered around a little but it looked like just another shopping mall...no literature!  I was going to explore more, but my stomach began to yell at me.  I was losing strength!  I bypassed all the store fronts where I could have cheated and eaten a burger and/or McFlurry and/or sandwich and/or anything else I am familiar with--this time I actually had a genuine Taiwan restaurant in mind.  This morning when I was headed to the 7-11 to try the coffee drink that had the potential to replace the 'Eiskaffe' (or, 'juice-box coffee' drink) of Prague I happened upon a back-alley food joint that intrigued me; this place became my late-afternoon destination.  I braved the empty stomach and worked my way back to the food joint with no name.  Upon arrival though, I found that it was closed.  Blurgh!  However, I saw that it did, in fact, have a name.  'Elton John'.  Fine, don't believe me.  Tomorrow when I eat lunch there I shall take a photo to prove it.  Amused, but defeated I headed back to the hostel for a snack with a new game-plan to hit the night market and participate in some dumpling consumption.  At least I saw a nice rainbow on my walk back to the hostel, though the picture doesn't quite show it's glory:

After spending the afternoon catching up on emails and doing a bit of research on the Taipei professional baseball team, the Brother Elephants (it turns out tickets are harder to purchase than previously imagined), I was invited to join two other hostel guests on a jaunt to the night market.  I had a nice time getting to know a few other people, a woman from the Bay Area (as it happens) and a man from Poland, and of course trying a bit of new food.  Some of it was extremely spicy, some of it was a juicy explosion--but I plan on going back for seconds, either way!