Sunday, September 30, 2012
We interrupt this program to bring you a special news
bulletin!
Let me begin this Taffy with THANK YOU EVERYONE! We have
reached over a thousand page views! Dude! How many people are reading my blog?!
That’s so cool! Of course a thousand page views doesn’t have any significant
meaning. It just makes me smile at seeing quadruple digits! :D Xie xie ni men!
(Thank you y’all!)
Now we shall return you to your program.
SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Good lord (original meaning) I have
been waiting ALLLLLLLLLL week for today! I respect different religions but you
have to allow me to reveal my Christian self on at least Sunday. Ok ma?
(Literally Chinese for “Is it ok?”)
But before that shall we observe bright, busy, vibrant life
of Gongguan MRT station on Sunday morning? This picture proves it all…
Yeah…barely anyone… IT’S LIKE IT’S DESERTED! If you look,
there are a mere three people at the bus waiting station and ONE car lazily
coming down the road. Very few bikes and scooters line the street because those
are the nearby store employee’s method of transportation and not customers.
Think you can guess why there’s no one out and about? I’ll give you the time
period of one paragraph spacing to guess. :P
DING DING DING! It’s because most everyone is sleeping
cozily in their beds until 1:00PM. This comes from the fact that Christianity
is not a big percentage of the population and very few people get up early
Sunday for church. Everyone else is just sleeping in like my host family does.
So wittle Andrea had fun not being cramped on the MTR and actually getting to
sit and not just stand. Though much to my dismay, my beloved “Is Coffee” wasn’t
open when I arrived at 7:14. It opened at 8:00. Sadness! That’s the downside of
being an early bird (which I’m turning into). Things aren’t opened yet. More
sadness! XD
Side note: The above picture is dedicated to my biological
mother who was curious to see more pictures of Taipei’s streets and buildings.
As you can see it’s by far a more modern city. Remember this image is unusually
quite for Taipei’s normal busy style but nonetheless an unseen face to most
unless they are going to church.
Onto what happened this morning! Being disappointed my dear
“Is Coffee” wasn’t opened for another minimum forty minutes, I set off in
search of another café with Wi-Fi that might possibly open sooner or at least
kill time until 8:00. Walking around the
corner, I ventured off towards the main street thinking I would have more luck
there than on the back streets. I remembered finding a “Mr. Brown Coffee” on
Google Map near Gongguan MRT station but couldn’t quite remember where it was.
According to people I’ve asked, that particular café line provides free Wi-Fi.
I’ve also been curious to try it because I’ve seen many advertisements of the
Mr. Brown mascot smiling in a white suit and hat, giving me a thumbs up. For
crying out loud, it was posted on an ENTIRE SUBWAY TRAIN! A WHOLE TRAIN PEOPLE!
FRONT TO BACK! If they can afford to advertise on that level of exposure it HAS
to be good. That was my logic anyway. XD
Emerging onto the main street, scanning for any
cafes…BAAAAAM! MR. BROWN COFFEE AT 11:00!!! WOAH! Who expected it was THAT
close?! I had a slight skip to my step because I’ve been searching to try a Mr.
Brown Coffee for at least a week and a half. Even better, it opened at 7:30! So
I only had to wait about eight minutes for opening time, which I did not mind
at all.
To my great pleasure they had a menu book at the ordering
stand that included English, Chinese and pictures as well as letting me
physically touch it. The benefit in touching it is that my limited Chinese self
can point to what I want and say in Mandarin “I want one of this please.”
Everything looking scrumptious, I settled on a ham bagel sandwich with
raspberry jam. The last part of my order was “bing cha” (iced coffee) which I
am happy to say I can at least order drinks in Chinese without trouble.
The system of Mr. Brown Coffee is that you order at the
front desk on the first floor and receive a flat buzzer that will freak out
when the food is ready. In the mean time I was able to search for a seat either
on the second or third floor. Knowing what I was going to do very soon, I chose
in third floor in attempt to be as courteous as possible to other customers.
The buzzer summoned me downstairs with its little spaz tantrum and I carried my
tray very cautiously up two flights of stairs.
My initial reaction to my food was…“What the heck do I do
first?!” Looking at the plate I was tempted to just slap on the raspberry jam
on what I think was a blueberry bagel and eat it plain like that. But then I
remembered the picture on the menu and chose to follow its example by clumsily
putting the ingredients between the two buns. The next confusion was what to do
with the raspberry jam… was I supposed to add in it the mix? Jam with ham and
veggies? Really? ...SOLD! I tried it out and ended up enjoying it immensely.
The iced coffee was…iced coffee. Nothing spectacular but not bad at all.
Next came HAPPY FUN TIME OF LOVELY-NESS!! Very first Skype
with my parents back in Texas! WHOHOO!! My first Skype in Taiwan, period! It
was great because we started out with good, free Wi-Fi connection and I was the
only one on the third floor. But then…in came another man. I tried to be as
quiet as possible…I hope I wasn’t too loud. Then again, even whispering, my
voice could be heard in the entire room since it was small and no one else was
there. Hey, I at least wore headphones so that counts for something! ;D Following
was FRUSTRATION! My laptop boasted full Wi-Fi connection yet I kept cutting out
in audio on my parent’s side of the Skype. Grrrr. It got bad enough that we
just decided to move the Skype to “Is Coffee” and try over there. So leaving
the single man on the third floor, I hopped down the bunny trail to my beloved
“Is Coffee.”
I had breakfast and coffee already but of course have to at
least buy something, anything, when staying in a café. Remembering last week’s
visit here, I ordered a delectable iced coffee and a chocolate chip muffin.
What?! I can’t have coffee by itself otherwise my stomach will have its own
personal tornado of twisting painfulness. Yeah the muffin wasn’t healthy but
it’s chocolate people! Andrea wanted the wonderful hormones (or chemicals or
whatever) that chocolate releases to make you feel better. I’m a chica…leave me
alone. :P I’ll have you know it was a delicious muffin! XD
“Is Coffee” let me down a little bit because it didn’t have
free Wi-Fi. It cost money…grumble grumble. But it was totally worth it to get
better reception when Skyping plus it’s not like I do it every day. Though it
still had a nasty habit of randomly disconnecting me. What?! Stinkin’ “Wi-Fly.”
I don’t even know the different types of Wi-Fi but now I at least if I see a
sign for “Wi-Fly” on a café’s door…AVOID! Find sanctuary elsewhere! ;P
Wondering if my Skype session bothered the two people behind
me even though I was as quite as possible or if they could understand English,
I took the long, tedious walk of forty five seconds to get to the church from
last week. Seriously, it’s like right there. That’s one reason why I like “Is
Coffee” so much. “Mr. Brown Coffee” is approximately a short three minutes walk
but it will vary depending on how long you have to wait for the streetlight to
turn green.
WARNING! THE CHRISTIAN SIDE OF ANDREA IS TAKING OVER THE NEXT
TWO PARAGRAPHS! SKIP IF YOU WISH! ;P I’m still not sure if I want to make the
“Friendship Presbyterian Church” my Taipei home church yet but it sure is getting
there. Why? Because it has a nice message in the sermon and it’s very small and
quaint so I feel like it can potentially be my religious family. After the
service the head pastor invited new visitors to introduce themselves and where
they were from. It turned out to be more like the visitor’s friend introduced
the person while I was the lone, brave duckling who did it herself. As soon as
I said I was from Texas I heard some soft gasps. I learned later why. Quite a
few southerners were regular attendees at this church, some from Georgia,
Alabama and Texas (holla!). They all eagerly greeted me and already made me
feel part of the church. I like that close-knit-family aspect to the church. So
I still might try out some other churches but that one is definitely a
promising contender. I would like it more if they had a weekday bible study but
unfortunately they don’t. Instead they have something called “Beta Groups”
right after the Sunday. Only time will tell what will happen.
One more thing before I end my little Christian spazzing.
This entire week I’ve listened non-stop to the religious music of “Leeland” for
some needed spiritual strength. I bought two of their CDs awhile back in middle
school when they first debuted but now they apparently have five albums total
out. Desiring to find these other three CDs for some added support, I dropped
by a small Christian shop attached to a Lutheran church nearby. Curious to see
if they would have any English religious CDs I took a peek. The results? Andrea
now owns another Leeland CD! HAPPINESS! :D The store had only two Leeland
albums, the one I just bought today and the other I’ve owned and loved for many
years. That’s a direct blessing from God to find that in such a limited CD
selection. I checked the store but I’m still on the look out for purchasing a
small, compatible bible. I carry too much stuff already as it is with growing
back pain to add on a thick, heavy book. I know smaller versions are out there
somewhere so look out wherever you are cuz I’m coming to find you! ;D
Ok. End of Christian segment. Afterwards I had need of
accessing the internet for some homework. * looks at “Is Coffee” * WHYYYYY? WHY
MUST YOU COST MONEY?! T-T So I went somewhere three minutes away. Yeah…you know
what I’m talking about. ;D This time around I ordered a fairly large meal by
accident. Whoopsies! But it was only $5.30US for a sandwich kabob, soup and
juice.
A tuna sandwich kabob means two individual sandwiches
skewered together with two long toothpicks. Note that it is not uncommon in
Taipei that a single sandwich has several layers of bread as I’m sure you
noticed when I posted the infamous triangle breakfast sandwich picture. But
this sandwich…Good lord this made me HAPPY!!! Just look at it!! Wheat bread!
WHEAT BREAD PEOPLE!!! Many restaurants only serve white bread. But no! It’s
wheat bread! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! And look, look! Egg! Tomato! Cheese! Fish! Meat! A
bunch of lettuce! WO KUAI
LEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! (I AM HAPPYYYYYYYYY!!!) * cough * I mean…I’m very glad to
get a healthy sandwich for lunch…. * continues spazzing inwardly * If you
couldn’t tell by now, Andrea likes to eat healthy. ;P
Which takes me to the other part of my meal…the soup was oh
so delicious…and…HEALTHY! From what I can tell it was a corn and egg soup with
a thick, creamy texture that caressed my throat with every spoonful. And, and,
and, and, AND, AND NON-SUGAR WATER ORANGE JUICE!!! BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! Actual 100%
pure orange juice are either found at a rare juice stands that are no where
near my usual destinations or 7-Eleven at a somewhat pricey cost for a small
bottle. Now I couldn’t tell if Mr. Brown Coffee was 100% orange juice but the
little bits of pulp gave me a hint that it was at least 60% there. Duuuuuude.
So far I love Gongguan MRT station. It has “Is Coffee,” “Mr. Brown Coffee” and
my favorite/only church (as of now) all in the same area. Not to mention the
lovely university campus where we had our Rotary Tea Party event on September
22nd. But poor “Is Coffee”… “Mr. Brown Coffee” is kicking its butt
on my bias list. Can you blame me? Mr. Brown as (1) healthy food (2) well
priced healthy food and (3) free Wi-Fi.
The only improvement I would suggest for Mr. Brown is that they have
more outlet plugs because I had to sniff around for awhile and ask a man if I
may use the plug by his table in order to charge my dying laptop.
An interesting sight at the second visit to “Mr. Brown
Coffee” today were several people sleeping. Yeah. People will just put their
head down and oozy-snooze for some time. I don’t know how they do it because I
would constantly be paranoid that someone would try and steal my stuff when I’m
unconscious. There’s another thing, you don’t know how long you’ll be
unconscious and even when you are it’s not exactly the best quality of sleep. I
prefer a soft bed rather than a hard table, but that’s just me. :P Nah, y’all
know I’m kidding. I would’ve joined them happily. XD
But then again I doubt I could have fallen asleep due to a
little fact you might have noticed. Remember, I rarely ever drank coffee save
for once or twice a year in America. In one day, actually within a time period
of two hours, Andrea drank two iced coffees. At first I didn’t feel any side
effects. When I got home was a different thing. My stomach created its own
personal tornado, twisting and turning, raging on and making me sick. Note to
self, avoooooooid coffee/caffeine! I need to figure out how to read Chinese
character drink menus so I can order other stuff than just coffee. XD
Story fin! Notices begin!
I timed how long it takes to upload one picture on my blog
and it came out to be about five minutes. Ouch. That’s a little too long when I
have limited access to internet nowadays with so many pictures that would be
great to put on the blog. I’m struggling to keep up publishing frequently since
they take so long and the free internet at cafes aren’t always very fast/have
the best connection. So my compromise will be posting only pictures in dire
need of showing to the world.
On that note, the Sunday post of September 23rd
titled “Church and Zoo” is fully clothed in pictures! Feel free to go back and
view some cuddly animals and “Is Coffee” stuff. ;D
Recently, no, for this past month I’ve been really busy with
barely any free time to sit down and relax. As a result I’ve chosen to not
stress myself out with my original idea of a weekly “Supplement Sunday.” It’s a
little too frequent for me. Maybe if it was every other week or once a
month…I’m still brainstorming. I’ve written the post for my first host family’s
house which is ready for publishing but it’s the pictures that will take for
flipping ever to upload with a cut back number of 21 pictures. I originally had
a lot more, trust me. Today I uploaded pictures in snip-its and for 12 pictures
it took about two hours while writing a report on word document. Yeah...not
exactly McSpeedy-Pants. But trust me that I’m working it out and will
eventually see the light of your pupils. ;D
Educational Time! I realized from my Texan parents that I
should explain a couple things that I use in my blog.
-MTR is the term used for subway. I’m not sure what it
stands for but my father guessed “Metro Taipei Railway.” Sounds like it would
fit!
-I assume you know what “:D” and “;P” are. But do you know
what “XD” is? These are all ways for me to express my tone with typing two
symbols that represent different faces and emotions. Just to be safe, the first
face is a open-mouthed happy face, the second is a winking face with it’s
tongue playfully sticking out and the third is a laughing face. The third has
“X” for eyes as if they are being squinted together from laughing so hard. For
me “XD” usually means I’m cracking a joke or find something funny. A new face
today is “T-T.” This is a crying face as each “T” is an eye with tears pouring
down like a waterfall. And one last one I’ll mention is “O.O” similar to “O.o”
These faces show extreme surprise and shock with bulging, huge eyes. Does this
all make sense? Yes? Good! Now go forth my Taffy Tasters and read the blog with
this (to some) new found knowledge! Enjoy! ;D
No comments:
Post a Comment