i'm operating under a sleep deficit. even if i slept now, close to midnight, i can only get 7 hours of sleep before i have to wake up and get all my bathroom business done before the first employee arrives at 8:00. i spoke with the guy this morning, made some comment about how he was at work so early. he told me he had to drop off his kid at the kindergarten nearby. "you have a kid? i thought you were a college student!" i told him. "no, i'm really old, i'm 34," he says to somebody who's 5 years older (he probably didn't think i was older than him, otherwise he wouldn't have said that). anyway, i'm tired, but nowhere as tired as last night, but if i were to lie down with my eyes closed, i'd be asleep in a minute. don't. close. my. eyes.

thing is i don't know how to fix this deficit. since i have to wake up by 7:00, the only thing i can do is go to sleep earlier. but to really get a solid good 10 hours of sleep and fully recharge my body battery, i'd have to go to bed at 9:00pm. that's just not going to happen with my nightly blog work. besides, not sure if it's the heat or just have a full day from morning until night, but even though i've only been in taipei for 2 full days, it feels much longer than that. if there's nobody working on the weekend, i can sleep later, but then i'd feel guilty wasting my time with what little i have here in taiwan. it's ironic, but i don't think i'll be getting a good night sleep until i start working in china. with nothing to do but work and no place to go, there's nothing to do at nights besides sleep.

sorry, i doze off there for a second. i told myself i was just resting my eyes and fell asleep for a few seconds. i know all the tricks. don't. close. my. eyes.

continuing my streak of getting the important obligations out of the way first, i decided to visit my paternal grandmother's grave in jingmei and then visit my dagougou (my father's cousin on his mother's side) who lives nearby there. but first i worked on the weblog until 10am, since i figured i could spare a few hours. i sat outside in a corner of the long conference table adjoining the kitchen area. every time somebody came in, there was an awkward exchange of morning pleasantries.

i took the taiwanese metro train for the first time since i've been here, from dongmen station. i took that to only one stop - guting - and switched train for one xindian bound, getting off at wanlong. i navigated the rest of the way with the GPS function of my tablet PC. i had nothing to go on but a GPS coordinate of the grave site. the road can only go so far up the mountain and the rest of the way is a steep hike uphill.

(to be continued)