Friday October 12, 2012
Holiday today! Holla! :D Many exchange students were not
required to go to school today because the Taiwanese students were still
testing with the big exam. So I got the day off and was able to spend it
however I pleased. That was cool but I much preferred to use the time doing
events like the past two days. Interacting with people, eating together, making
new friends…getting married. XD
With nothing scheduled, I slept in until 8:50AM, which was
oh so lovely. The full eventful past two days left me pretty exhausted and in
need of some rest. So waking up three hours later than I usually do, the day
had a good start. ;)
My host family set out the breakfast I’ve been getting this
week again of a milk box and steamed bun. This time it was a 100% authentic
Chinese steamed bun. In the past I’ve been given a bun with some traces of
butter in the dough, which isn’t the traditional version. The traditional way
is totally free of anything extra other than the dough by itself.
On the way to the library by my house, I picked up a package
of papaya from 7-Eleven to get some yummy fruit nutrition. But…but…I wanted a
banana…or pineapple. Much to my disappointment, the 7-Eleven I went to didn’t
have either. The papaya was good, don’t get me wrong, it’s just when you have a
craving…you have a craving. XD
I give you, my beloved library! Thanks to this wonderful
building, I am able to do homework requiring Internet, answer e-mails and post
my Taffy blogs. I wish I could go more often because currently I only do
absolutely necessary things when at the library for time constricting reasons. Sometime
I would like to just sit down, relax and care-freely surf the Web for things
like Chinese music or culture research. Traditional Chinese weddings are a personal
must for me to investigate. Yesterday’s exhibition was just too intriguing.
Rituals like eating symbolic husband’s eyes and the chicken bringing home the
far away spouse are fascinating to me! I want to know more! :D * cough * That’s
why I’m here on an exchange * cough *
Becoming an overly ripe time of 2:30, I decided it was time
to leave my sanctuary and grab some lunch. Or rather some linner? Dunch? I’ve
always preferred using ‘linner.’ :P For the past week I’ve had my eye on a café
less than 30 seconds away from my house. Yeah, it’s that close. XD Located in a
side street, the place championed the name ‘Corner Café.’ I’ve grown to love
anything with ‘Café’ in its name in hopes of good food, drink and Wi-Fi. A sign
outside of the door had a Wi-Fi symbol on it, which demanded me to try out the
place at least once.
A quaint, semi-modern looking restaurant, it was quite
inviting to step inside. Not knowing how this café operated, I walked to the
back of the building to ask/mime the desire of a menu. A face palm moment was
in order because in this café the employees will sit you down and give you a
cute little menu book. My foreign self just sauntered to the back of the place
because there were no waitresses waiting at the front. From what I can conclude,
you wait at the door until one waitress comes to serve you. You can’t blame me
for not knowing because there weren’t any podium stands or anything like
hostesses have in America. ;P
Overcoming the confusion, I was seated at a little table and
handed a retro-looking menu book bound by string. The paper was an
old-fashioned brown color with black font and little black drawings of the
different type of foods on each page (pasta, salad, coffee, etc.) The menu was
in Chinese and left me drawing complete blanks on what the food options were.
I’ve only been able to study drinks and not café food due to a lack of a menu
to dissect. But at least with the comprehension of a salad picture, I pointed
to a random one with my “qing wen, yi ge zhe ge” (one of this please)
technique.
The gentleman who took my order spoke to me in a little
English to express the option of paying a little extra for two out of three
choices of soup, coffee or dessert. Appreciating his effort and with a rumbling
stomach, I gladly accepted the offer.
First was brought out the soup of unknown flavor. Taiwan has
made me fall in love with soups, especially creamy ones. In America I didn’t
eat out that much and didn’t try as many foods as I am in Taiwan. It took an
Eastern country to find out I love a type of Western food. XD Now if there’s
ever an opportunity to get soup, I willingly take it. A white smooth texture,
the soup today was superb. I really can’t say what its flavor was but I believe
there were a couple bits of onions and carrots hiding in the deliciousness.
Cream of mushroom soup perhaps? I don’t know! What soups are entirely
scrumptious and a white color?
The main course of salad turned out to be a mix of lettuce
(duh), tomatoes, bell peppers, raisins and apple slices. Oh Andrea was happy!
The dish just emitted rays of health. And look how there are a significant
amount of vegetables instead of just being a bunch of lettuce and dressing. ‘Wo
xi huan!’ (I like!)
Last but not least, dessert! I should note that I didn’t
choose my soup or dessert so I had no idea what I was going to get. Actually,
it probably was good that I didn’t have to choose because I wouldn’t have
understood the Chinese characters. XD But I was brought a small 2.5 inch high
glass filled with white pudding and topped with a small amount of sauce. My
guess is it was a version of the traditional Chinese pudding. It’s not very
sweet but still no doubt tasty.
Something I’ve noticed about some restaurants in Taipei.
Some will have a rectangular basket on the table that contains eating utensils
and napkins. That’s all good and dandy but the utensils keep being SO ENTIRELY
HUGE that you can barely get your mouth around the spoon. The fork isn’t much
better either. I would love to know why the silverware has to be so overly big.
It makes me feel like a clumsy giant trying to sip soup with a shovel.
The final verdict, ‘Corner Café’ gets my approval on its
food! All very tasty, healthier and reasonably priced, I would love to come
back. And I just might! ;) What was a slight bummer was trying to get Wi-Fi.
Asking the waitress in broken Chinese for the restaurant’s password for its
network, the lady handed me a card and pointed to a telephone number. Whatever
she said in Chinese to me totally went over my head as I didn’t understand a
word of it. XD I’m guessing I need to call the number to ask about the Wi-Fi
password. The problem is I can barely get by speaking Chinese with use of body
language. Taking that asset away and replacing it with an unclear phone
call…I’m not too wild about that. It’s not that I refuse to call, I just can’t
with my currently small vocabulary. My knowledge doesn’t extend to technical Chinese
talk just yet. :P One last thing about the café, during my stay they played the
song “Bittersweet Symphony” which made me happy and gained my approval. But it
wasn’t just once. They played it THRICE! What?! I was there for less than an
hour! Three times in such a short time period? Wow, they must really like that
song. XD
Departing from the quaint café, I went on an errand to find
black pants. Several days ago, one of my classmates that is also in the martial
arts club reminded me about a parade taking place this Saturday. Our kung-fu
master invited us to this event that celebrates a type of Chinese people. I’m
not sure but it might be for people that derive from main land China that moved
to Taiwan. Anyway, I asked the guy if there was anything we needed to
specifically wear. All he told me was to wear black pants. Now, I have black
pants but they’re dress pants. I’m pretty sure he meant sweat or exercise pants
to mimic what people wear while performing kung-fu. Unfortunately my school
uniform pants don’t seem to fit the description, being a navy blue and having
bright orange stripes running down the outside leg. So off I went to find some
relatively inexpensive pants for Saturday.
The thought of finding some cheap sweatpants at Shilin night
market crossed my mind yesterday. The problem with this is that night markets
really only sell girly fashion shirts and dresses. I’m sure one shop probably
had sweatpants but I’m not exactly familiar enough with night markets to be
able to sniff them out. So instead I checked by a sports apparel store nearby
my house. If you remember from my beginning days of Taiwan, this was the same
store that had the conveyer-belt-hole-in-the-wall system and employees wearing
BRIGHT orange vests. I only knew of the shoe selection from browsing exercise
shoes but thought it wouldn’t hurt to see if they carried black pants.
Outside of the store were several little stands of workout
clothing. Immediately I spotted some black sweat pants and proceeded to examine
them. An employee assigned to the outside merchandise came by and served me.
Proudly, I explained all the necessary information of the product I was looking
for out in Chinese which the man understood. Yes! Even so, he spoke to me in a
little English to make conversation, which I tried my best to answer him in as
much Chinese as I knew.
Asking for the price of the pants I first spotted, he went
in the store to find out. On a limited monthly allowance hoping for pants
around $300NT, I quivered when told the pants cost $790NT. Not in my ballpark!
The gentleman then helped me look for other options that were a bit less
expensive. He ended up finding a thinner pair of long exercise pants that fit
my expectations as close as I knew I was going to get. At the price of $390NT
it was my best option. What made me tilt my head in confusion were pink words
on the front left pocket spelling out “Uneveno” or “Uneuea.” I can’t really
tell what it says nor know if that’s a good or bad thing. This I say because
many people in Taipei own products from bags to glasses with the playboy bunny
symbol. I’m 90% sure most of the people only get those products because it’s a
cute looking bunny with a bow instead of knowing its true significance. So now
I’m paranoid what kind of things I buy if I don’t know a symbol or character.
XD
The next obstacle of purchasing the pants was determining
the size. The gentleman brought out a size S and M. Being pretty darn sure I
wasn’t a small in Asia, I held up the M around my waist. It seemed to be
alright. Not too big but not too small, I decided on size M. Though it’s not
like I could buy size L because they didn’t have it in stock. These pants were
on sale, which meant there was a small amount of supply left. But happiness
ensued when the man asked me if I wanted to try them on. They had a dressing
room! HALLELUJAH! Then it was HALLELUJAH to the second power when the pants did
indeed fit very nicely. Paying for them at the cash register, my mission was
accomplished! I’m ready for tomorrow!
Exiting the store, I stopped by the gentleman who helped me
and merrily reported the shopping success. Unrelated business conversation then
took place with things from our names to why I’m in Taiwan. Elliot, is name,
was quite friendly and enjoyable to talk to. Yay for human interaction! I just
love that I unexpectedly found someone to meet and shortly chat with. In the
past, I’ve only met people through school and events rather than on the street.
Since Taipei is so busy, there’s not a lot of opportunity to mingle with the
locals. But because Elliot didn’t have any customers to serve when working
outside the sports store, he had the time to chat for a bit. A question of his
that surprised me was ‘Do you have any friends in Taiwan?’ He was worried that
I wasn’t being accepted, which is SO SWEET OF HIM TO BE CONCERNED WITH! This is
a guy, I just met and have only known for single digit minutes and he already
is so caring. That was when I fluttered about expressing in bad Mandarin that
Taiwanese people are super friendly. He is a prime example!
Disappointed I didn’t bring my business cards with me, I had
to bid him farewell without exchanging one. But heck, I know where he works. :P
Actually… I need to go back for shoes once I squeeze in gym time into my
schedule. Running barefoot on the treadmill is not a smart or pleasant thing.
XD Allow me to clarify, the gym at my high school doesn’t allow street shoes
inside. But you can wear exercise shoes if you bring them, hence the desire for
purchasing some. I still have to work out if I can go to the gym regularly
before making the shoe investment.
Accomplishing a wish I’ve had for the past month and a half,
I bought a little mirror. The only mirrors I encounter are the ones in the
bathrooms. The one at my house I never really use because I always sped in and
out of the room, not wanting to be a nuisance to my host family in case they
needed to use the restroom. Wednesday sealed the need for a compact mirror when
I desired to see my dolled up reflection. Thursday and today extended the need
because the curiosity of how much make-up still clung to my eyes was eating at
my mind. Finding cheapest mirror at a general merchandise store, it ended up
being roughly a 4x4” black square with a picture of a cat and the words “Make
the first move.” Meh, I’m not in love with it especially since it is already
scratched and dinged up but it does its job. I just couldn’t find a non-damaged
mirror at the store and had even more trouble finding a simple mirror at
hygiene stores I visited.
Regarding my current reflection, THERE STILL IS SOME DARN
MAKE-UP AROUND MY EYES! THIS STUFF DOESN’T WANT TO COME OFF! WHYYYYYYY?! It’s
only a bit above my eyes but nonetheless bugs me. XD Going by three hygiene
stores today I did indeed find some make-up remover but all of the bottles were
too big for my liking. I only needed a small one because I probably will rarely
use it, if at all, apart from right now. Sure the make-up party was fun but
it’s a little impractical for me to dive into the cosmetic world. Make-up is
not allowed in school (a third of my Taiwan life) and I don’t even properly
know about the stuff. Brands, techniques, uses, coloring, etc. Plus I’m still
not interested in making it a daily thing. So for now, my eyes will continue to
have some tints of blue tattooed above them. XD
Since it was such a lovely holiday, I decided to explore a
bit around my house. I walked a bit of the park behind the library seeing
people meditating, owners playing with their dogs and dudes duking some fierce
basketball out. Surprisingly, I came across an extremely small night market on
the park’s perimeter. Nearly all the stands were of food with one selling
watches. It was strange because I had never seen the tents before when I
previously walked past the street a couple times in the past. I didn’t buy
anything but at least enjoyed the sights and exercise.
The last thing to report of my Friday was dinner. Remember
how yesterday I ate stinky tofu? Weeeeeell that’s what I was given today. My
host family bought some take out stinky tofu. Now I quite liked last night’s
stinky tofu, which actually wasn’t that stinky. Tonight’s stinky
tofu…whoooooooo-we! Man it did not smell like flowers for sure! It was cut up
in bits floating in a soup with pig’s (or duck’s) blood and the tiny fish of
‘I’m watching you’ also included. On the side, we had a bit of plain steamed
bun. Normally I could eat all of it without any problems but this bowl of death
was pretty darn spicy. I had trouble eating it with a straight face because my
mouth was lit on fire. Calling the fire brigade, a bite of steamed bun
temporarily subsided the flames. But another bit of the food threw gasoline in
the mix and created a small inferno. Ending the meal with a burning mouth and
stinky tofu breath, I fled to brush my teeth and tongue. XD
Bonus stories!
Something I forgot to mention on Thursday’s Taffy was
relating to me wearing my Taiwanese flag shirt. When walking through the night
market with “wo lao gong” a local man came up to me clapping his hands, smiling
and exclaiming “celebration!” It was cute and I could tell he liked my shirt
but I didn’t know much else. So my husband translated what the man said to me.
It was along the lines of the happiness of differentiating Taiwan from China.
That and the previous day being Taiwan’s Independence Day. ;) I noticed that
Independence Day in Taiwan is not as nearly as huge as it is in America. It’s
quite a big deal in the USA as we can commemorate our freedom and have a
patriotic party. In Taiwan I didn’t experience anything remotely similar to it
apart from the government putting up Taiwanese flags on posts throughout the
city. There’s your culture difference for the day. ;)
Last but not least, this paragraph is targeted to the
younger part of my readers who know of the popular song “Call Me Maybe.” While
eating at the ‘Corner Café’ I resorted to writing random bits of text, mostly
poetry to relax with. All of a sudden, the inspiration to create a small parody
of “Call Me Maybe” hit me. Here’s the result of the main melody:
~I just married you
And this is craaaaazy
But here’s my business card
So call me maybe~
I’ll let you figure out the meaning behind that parody. ;D
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