When you can't find a friend, you've still got the radio!

In other news, I finally got a radio/CD player two nights ago. If this sounds like no big deal, consider: I've been in town for three weeks, and in that time I've had no radio or computer in my apartment. As a fellow teacher commented last week, "Your place must be like a tomb!" Too close to the truth.
No more. I got a Lucky brand one, which I've never heard of before and, from what I can tell, with good reason. It's an economy brand, and I don't get the impression it'll be terribly durable. But it only has to last for a year, and it plays .mp3s. That was a deal-breaker for me in buying a CD player here, because I went to the trouble of burning 131 Jimmy Buffett songs to a CD and 164 doo-wop classics to another one just before I packed up my record collection back home. Hard to imagine life without those two ingredients for a year - and now I won't have to, at least as long as this cheap stereo holds up!
Another great thing about Taiwan - even in small towns like Longtan, stores stay open very late. So a guy like me who works until 9:00 every night can pick up a little something like a stereo on the walk home from work. I did just that on Tuesday, and lugged the thing all the way home down the main drag. By the time I set it down on the floor at home, I had that feeling where your arms are so tired you have to concentrate hard to even lift one to scratch your nose. Oh, and it was drizzling, too, as it has been all week here.
All totally worth it. From the moment I had the speakers hooked up and the power on and "A Pirate Looks At Forty" cued up, my humble abode was a little corner of heaven in the stormy sea. The sound quality was about what you'd expect playing .mp3s on a cheap stereo, but it didn't matter. I can't afford to be an audiophile at the moment anyway.

My paycheck said "Let there be music," and there was. And it was good. Very, very good.