That's all

So my time in Taiwan is up, and I'm returning home today. There are a lot of pictures in my Flickr stream that I didn't link to on this journal, so you can view them at your leisure. I really enjoyed all the tropical fruit available here, especially papaya and mango and guava. And I will never forget the near chaotic dance between cars and scooters. It's too bad I didn't have a chance to explore more of the country, whether it was culture or food. But this was a business trip, and an exhausting one at that.

I got to the airport too early. EVA only allows check-in two hours before flights to Hong Kong. While onboard the plane, they play clips from a Taiwanese orchestra. Loudly. I don't know whether this serves to diffuse or encourage air rage. At Hong Kong, I was surprised to see my name on a card held up by an airline employee. The EVA counter at Taoyuan neglected to check me in for the second flight, so I was escorted through the Air Canada check-in counter and the fast lane of security and customs.

Mini movie reviews:

• Aurore: somewhat cheesy French film about a princess obsessed with dance; I didn't get to see the end of this one
  
• The Curse of the Golden Flower: visually sumptuous film about a royal family's secrets in China; not as good as House of Flying Daggers, but similarly grand and jaw-dropping
  
• Dr. No: while a classic, it just doesn't have the quirky, memorable characters of other 007 films; I mean, come on, the fight with Dr. No is 10 seconds long
  
• Prête-moi ta main: rom-com about a middle-aged man who tries to get his family off his back by pretending to get engaged to a woman he hires; I didn't see the end of this one, but suspect they actually end up getting together