to Taipei.

I would really like to write a little about my new home city, Hsinchu, but with our schedules filled with apartment hunting and settling in at new jobs, we haven't had much chance for exploration. And, to be fair, I guess the problem is compounded by the fact that we seem to slip up to Taipei whenever we have some time off. Which is, I guess, one of the best things about Hsinchu-- it's only a quick half an hour trip away from Taipei. This makes a day or an evening in the big city a very easy outing.

And so we embarked on such a trip yesterday, with only two things in mind: shopping and museum going. We stopped first at Eslite, a massive department store set in the shadow of 101. Though the Eslite bookstore itself is incredible, we spent more time slowly working through the other levels of design items. After a quick stop at a disappointingly small Muji, and some time spent caught in a tropical storm, we headed to the Taipei Fine Arts museum to see a show of Gaultier clothing.

Taipei is a really exciting city right now, but it's not just because it has become such an international center. It's partly because Taiwan is developing such a unique identity, and designers and artists are finding so many exciting ways to explore it. While it was awesome being able to see the Gaultier show and browse among Japanese design items, it was even more exciting to find a creative bag by a Taiwanese designer, and to see a local artist's video installation that reflected the island we're living on. So while we may, in a sense, have the world available just a short train trip away, right now I'm even more excited to have Taiwan there too.