08:54 am greencastle, june 26; 09:54 pm taipei, june 26

video games, hallucinations, shops, chili's. those are the things that i thought i'd have to relate. no, lies; i'd thought of more as i was out and going stuff (sic; going places and doing stuff.), but i've, of course, forgotten.

video games, though. more of them happened today with barney (aside from the swimming--oh, and i'm so out of shape, that after just a few hundred meters [<200] of fly, my back muscles [trapezius, i believe, to be exact, if i'm correct] were kind of sore--the next day that is; from the first time i went out swimming. i'm so out of shape now that my sprints suck...ugh. oh, and, of course, i'm fat.), pwnage included in every game i'd played before (including "anubis z.oe.," which is just "z.o.e., the second runner" in the states.), and only some wins in games with which i am unfamiliar. and we have some dance pads, but no ddr. there's beatmania, but it doesn't quite work. ah, well.

...but so then when i was coming back to the fourth floor, where i'm staying and fooding (mostly, when around), barney and i were talking for a bit before he headed up and each of us rinsed the pool water off in our respective bathrooms, i would have (stronger than could have) sworn that there was really loud music of some variety playing in the apartment. like, i was having trouble hearing barney and had to talk over it. i couldn't even concentrate. so then after he left, i walked in to try to find the source, and i discovered a stereo with some decent speakers (actually, apparently the same one that we have at home, above our tv, displaying approximatly 9:03 right now. approximately, for i'd be amazed if it's that accurate.). that stereo, though? it was definitely off. and there was definitely nobody else home. i have absolutely no idea what happened there, but it definitely upset(s) me.

shops, though. i saw a whole freaking lot of them today, and learned (from john, one of the guys i'm going to tutor; he's like a year older than me.) that one of the things taiwanese kids don't do...is hang out around stores like we do. you know, good-natured loitering. i...was very disappointed. and still am, i suppose. hrm. i suddenly find that i'm extremely tired, but i'll try to get some more stuff out so's that i don't forget it all. eh. ah, yes. so there are these two specific buildings about which i'm speaking, which the people call "twin towers." no "the." they're...what...like forty stories tall, really cool, and really high-class. one is a hotel, the other is partly a mall, and there are connecting parts which are also largely malls. the majority of the buildings (from just a few stories up for the mall one, and maybe significantly higher in the hotel, but that side may be no more than residence; i'm not entirely sure.) are offices. i'm at least sure that the top floor (hold on, i just realized i never explained the situation; my bad. my mom and two other pairs of her old school friends, respective married couples, got together for dinner tonight and everybody brought along all of their children. john is one of these.) of the hotel side is an open-air pool. so, walking around this mall, i saw some interesting stuff, but it was all (mostly) artsy stuff, modern art. some contemporary furniture, too. and i saw these really cool glass figurines, and i thought that they'd be perfect for zach or jane or somebody, but when i looked closer, i realized that there were about two too many digits on them...sorry. i'll find something, though, don't worry. also saw one specific clothing store with some really, really cool women's stuff--dresses, blouses, and skirts. all were silk (or some kind of really nice material), thin/cool, and cool. lime green, robin's egg blue, black, all somehow made soft colors. any of it would have looked so much more beautiful on betsy.

afterward (ate dinner beneath these twin towers, too, in a pretty fancy restaurant...in which i was wearing flip flops, my mom not having told me about this part. ugh.), driving back, we passed approximately fifty billion more stores, many of which were clothing stores that seemed relatively interesting. oh, and a chili's. that was...a relatively large surprise. i'd not've expected them to expand to taiwan, but i suppose...whatever works.

hey, funny story, i'm still tired. 'night.