95 feels like 110

That was the forecast for today and it happens fairly regularly. I've grown a little accustomed to the heat and try to move slowly in order to prevent myself from breaking into a sweat. People here have this inhuman heat tolerance though. Take this guy for example. I knew I would find someone today wearing a jacket, so I tried to snap this to make my point. Bad picture, but just look at him! It's 110 freaking degrees out and he's wearing a jacket and jeans. People wear three layers in this weather. I saw numerous cardigans.

Taiwanese people are the skinniest people I've ever seen. They don't really eat that little; they don't work out; they just stay relatively fit by staying alive in this weather.

V is a native, but she burns up like crazy. I can't touch her at all while we're outside. We were walking back from the metro station when we passed mama. She later went up to talk to V all worried cuz we used to hold hands all the time. It had to be explained that I can't touch my wife because touching anything in this weather is too gross.

Anyway, we went to visit V's grandmother today. She lives here:

She's the extraordinarily strong matriarch of this family and she incidentally lives in V's old house. Not too much more to say there. We actually got there a bit before 3:00, and then had to leave because she was busy praying. Sooo busy. She was going to pray until after 4:00. That is one admirably serious prayer. We caught up with her later and as usual I sat there while everyone else bantered. V's grandma speaks native Taiwanese and Japanese, from Japanese occupation. I think she's alright with Mandarin, but for the most part I've struggled to communicate with her in Japanese.

Between 3:00 and 4:00 we had gone looking to buy V a leg massager. We both needed some relief from our constant walking and we had seen this thing earlier:

Found it at Franc Franc in Taipei, a Japanese interior design chain, and also found it at Tokyu Hands, an everything superstore in Tokyo. Tokyu Hands has a Taiwanese counterpart called Hands Tailung. Long story short: Franc Franc - no, Hands Tailung - no, City Super - yes.

When the sun starts going down I often go for a run. I usually run the Jingmei River Bike Path close to the house. It's a pretty sweet place to run. Today I bought a basketball and shot around. But I suck so bad.