Taiwan - Update

I wrote this on February 13, 2008, en route to Los Angeles after my trip:
I have to admit I've been lazy in keeping this up-to-date; I'm not sure where I should start. Looking back at what I've done I realize I've seen a lot, even though throughout my trip I felt like I wasn't doing anything most of the time.
I feel awful about that. All my life I've been wanting to know, to see, what happens next. I need to appreciate the present. (Note - I'm starting to realize that I need to do this with my life in general; I suck at appreciating the present.)
The next time I travel, I need to do a few things differently.
1) Bring a travel towel. While not necessary, it would be nice to not rely on the towels of hosts.
2) Bring "real" travel clothes. A few companies make great quick-drying clothes, which would have been nice here considering no one has a clothes dryer (but everyone has a clothes washer?).
3) I need to be a little more organized with where I want to go and what I want to do. I think this caused one of my biggest frustrations.
4) Along with #3, I need to learn to communicate more effectively, and to be more patient when I get "lost in translation". Often we would go to do something and this wouldn't get communicated to me for whatever reason and I would get frustrated. Alternatively, I need to learn to be OK with not knowing what's going on.

One of my recurrent frustrations with the "tourist sites" in Taiwan, with the exception of Taipei 101, is the lack of postcards (and stuff in general) promoting the site in question. Taipei 101 and the National Palace Museum both have places to leave mail; Taipei 101 having a cute mail/postcard drop-off point and the museum having a full-fledged post office (Yet the museum didn't have "normal" postcards. What gives?). (Note - Photos are from the Taipei 101 postcard drop-off on the observation deck. There was a Chinese drop-off and an English one.)

Also, I need to petition the contact lens fluid people (Alcon at the time, now it's Clear Case or something like that. As long as it's not basketcase!) that they need to make 3 oz. containers of their products. I ended up throwing out over a half bottle when I went through security in Taipei because I guess they are on the "security theater" gel-and-liquid-bandwagon too.