Night markets snap Tsuizzie's weekend slump!

If there is one thing to remember about Taiwan, it is the night markets. There are a few night markets per big city (well I only consider Taipei and Taichung big cities since those are the only 2 I really have been to). They are open until midnight on weekdays and 2AM on weekends. You can buy almost anything you want here; there are dozens of restaurants, the streets are littered with stands selling jewelry, food, clothing and the sidewalks are lined with games, arcades and other shops.

Before we begin, I attempted to call Alice and was unsuccessful; for some reason texts would not send, and phone calls would not go through. This was the same girl I asked to call China, so I went downstairs determined to have her help me again; this time w/her own number. "I need help again, this time with a Taiwan number." "Excuse me? What was your question?" (I think she must be hard of hearing or something because I've had this problem more than once with her; I'll skip these hard of hearing responses in future convo details) "I need your help dialing a Taiwan number; it hasn't been working." "Sure, let me see what I can do. Well, it looks like this isn't a complete number, you need a 6th digit at the end." (mind you she's looking at her own phone number) "Oh really? That's odd, that's why it hasn't been working. Does the number look familiar?" "Huh? Ummm.... Oh... that's my number... hahaha"

We all laughed it out and I told her I'd tried to call her over the weekend. I asked if tonight after work was a good time and she said that tomorrow may work better, though she had to get her computer fixed after work ended at 8. I said I'll call you and set it all up. Hopefully it works out.

Back to the night market. I managed to purchase an interesting V neck buttoned shirt; it looks decent over a button down and am not sure what else. The main objective was to hit on chicks; boy is this the place to go for that. There are probably 100s of chicks walking around at all times; the university is literally a block away. My first approach was a good one; I stepped up to a cute little girl with long long hair and auburn color dangling from the ends. She helped me look at a couple business card holders and eventually I bought one for 5 USD (I saw similar ones online for 30). My coworker usually says she's my older sister and is helping translate chinese for me as I'm from America and my language skills are weak. She followed suit today and we made a decent team. I eventually commented that I liked the youngster's hair and she really was pleased w/the comment. Her coworker flashed from behind a door in a weak attempt to cockblock, but i immediately engaged her in convo and frightened her away. I then stepped back up (took a bit too long) and asked if we could be friends after wondering aloud what she did on weekends (doesn't like dancing because the music is too loud, but loves to drink and relax). I told her this was perfect because my hotel has a really lax bar we could chill at. She said ok, and I got her #. She called her phone from my number and typed in my chinese name.

Eventually I took a little bit long to leave, but got out unscathed. I'll probably call her on Wednesday to set something up for either that day or Thursday night. It'll be tough since I'll have a lot of work this week; hopefully i can get everything done and get little big Ken some action as well.

Over the next 1.5 hr, I kept swinging and missing at an assortment of offspeed and high fastballs. Really just got torn up, although I really did make a good effort, engaging many different females of all different heights, weights and tones. I learned a valuable lesson during one exchange where I asked what the girl did during weekends and she told me she played mah jong. Instead of saying, "Wow, I play, can I play with you and your friends?" I should've said, "Wow, I play... if you have enough money, I might let you get in on our games." In retrospect, both sound terrible... I'll keep thinking.

We ended the night by spending 100's (each 100 = about 3 USD) on an archery, gun and baseball stand. Man, who knew paying 3 dollars for 15 balls would be so much fun. We threw them at these strikezones made of 9 boxes, 3 across and 3 down. The most I knocked over was 5 with about 20 balls. It is really tough!!!! Shout out to Chien Ming Wang, the Taiwanese sensation who probably couldn't even hit 5 right now.

I've run out of gas; on the 8th day of Taiwan I'm now:

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