day one, whirlwind in taipei

andrea and i arrived safe and sound in taipei yesterday, passing quickly through customs, baggage, etc. to emerge into the early morning, portland-esque weather of taiwan's capital city. andrea's uncle, doug (here 20 years now), and her brother, matt (here just over 2 months), met us at the airport. it was gray and cool, maybe 60 degrees out.

matt had a chiropractor appointment in the city, so we went there first--with a quick stop beforehand to get scallion and taro root buns for breakfast. one of the reasons i was excited to visit taiwan was to see another health care system in action--and not just any healthcare system, but one that provides insurance coverage and care to over 90% of its population, and has a notable public health infrastructure that is community-based and very preventative in its efforts. and here i was, just a few hours on taiwanese soil, visiting a clinic! matt graciously allowed us to sit in with him, so andrea and i got to marvel as the young chiropractor used two wooden sticks to manually align matt's spine, all the way from the vertebrae beneath his skull down to his tailbone.

andrea wondered if the chiropractor could maybe do something for her jaw, which has been giving her pain for a couple months now. doug contacted another friend of his, whose young son is also a practitioner, so we stopped by his home to see if he could help andrea out. since the son is an apprentice to a well-established chiropractor in the city, he doesn't charge for his services. andrea actually got adjusted in the ground floor room, which was also a hair salon. after much prodding and pressing of ani's jaw, it was decided that she must have had some trauma to the right side of her face that caused her jawbone to shift to the left, causing a lot of pain in the right joint. he correctly aligned the joint and advised andrea on how to best reduce inflammation.

lunch at a vegeterian buffet near taipei normal university, and then off to dihua market. it's in an older part of taipei, which is visible in the architecture of the buildings surrounding the market, and during most of the year, it's a relatively bustling market. before the chinese new year, however, which is in early february, the market really comes alive: it is THE place to get gifts, chinese herbs and medicinals specific to new year celebrations, and decorations for the home, with people coming from all over the country to stock up. we wandered through and tried many samples (which reminded me of trips to the portland farmers' market, or pike place market in seattle--lots of small bites of food on toothpicks)... dried persimmon, kumquat juice, candies, preserved duck egg, lots of new tastes.

after the market, we stopped by a tea shop, which also had a tea factory in the back, complete with a room for roasting and fermenting, large trays for sorting the leaves from the stems, and the most incredible gizmo that bagged the tea. we ended up staying a while up front, tasting a number of different oolong teas in various stages of fermentation--all of us got a little tea happy, with rosy cheeks and giggles after a couple of flights were served. the woman went through the traditional serving ceremony, and supplied us with lots of information about the tea-making process, the subtle tastes of different teas, and proper tea-making procedures. it was really at this time that i marveled to myself: how did i get here? just a day ago, i was tooling around portland, and here i am, sitting in a shop in taipei participating in the quiet and deliberate ritual of tea-drinking. amazing.

the day continued with another visit to a clinic, this time the family practice of dr. hu for another look at andrea's jaw. i've been very interested lately in the concept of storefront, one-stop-shopping type clinics, and this one really fit the bill. it was one of many such clinics we had passed yesterday, with an open examination room and a small pharmacy. very different from family practice clinics in the states: no separate lobby, no private rooms, and the possibility of taking your medication home with you immediately after having a physician prescribe it to you. dr. hu's discussion of treatment moved easily between western and traditional chinese medicine. i loved it.

dinner at a ramen house, and then a three-hour drive to end the day in tainan, the ancient capital city of taiwan, where doug has a small apartment that we are going to be staying in. andrea and i fell fast asleep soon after hitting the highway, and arriving in tainan, a warm shower and cozy blankets on reed mats (tatami) greeted us.

today we're off on a walking tour of tainan, after a leisurely brunch of rice, sweet potato greens, and baked tofu. it's an understatment, but i think i am going to like it here!

in case you wonder about the cost of the health care received today... matt chiropractor: $7 US dollars. ani chiropractor: $0 US dollars. ani family doctor visit, with 4 prescriptions, $1.50.