Smoothie Success!

Thursday October 4, 2012

I am jealous to the tenth power. Why? It’s because of a story Akiko told me. Apparently on the way to school today she saw a birdie. Not just any birdie. A parrot. Where did she see this parrot? On a motorcycle… WHAT?! JEALOUSLY!!! The motorcycle had a transparent window-shield-thing that the birdie stood behind with a harness on its body. Before her story I was completely fine. After her story, I began to really miss birdies. Especially if it was on a motorcycle! A MOTORCYCLE PEOPLE! What kind of biker-birdie-madness is this? ….(I have to do it) This…is…SPARTAAAAAAAA!!!

For lunch a group of exchange students and I headed out to find a local place close by the University. The first thing we stumbled upon we immediately went inside because they had an English version of the menu for us to match to the Chinese version. No, we can’t read Chinese menus yet. I would love to have a pamphlet of a Mandarin menu so I can take it to my classmates and ask help learning it but unfortunately I can only find beverage menus.

Anywho, the place was small with the kitchen downstairs and the dining on the second floor, which felt kinda unstable. But we lived through it so it’s all good! ;) We had a bit of trouble with the food because it’s difficult to order as a group and sort out the food respectively. The way you order your food here is by tallying down on a paper they provide with what you want. To organize things better, the five of us created our own columns to make the tallying easier to understand. Unfortunately the workers still got some mixed up like when I ordered four pork steamed buns and got five. The fifth one ended up being Brittany’s and was easily transferred over but it’s difficult to tell what each order is when the food generally looks the same. Like how do you tell the physical difference between a pork steamed bun and a shrimp steamed bun? XD

Once the food was all sorted out it was time to eat! My order was, as mentioned, four pork steamed buns (ignore the fifth one in the picture) and sweet corn soup. The buns were yummy but the sweet corn soup oozed down into my heart. If you want a definition of “creamy soup” this would be the one. Fantastic texture, delectable taste, I want more now… After the first taste I began to stuff more and more in my mouth. My mistake. The soup was still hot and fresh. My tongue got burned in the process. It hurt but it was so worth it for that soup!

And here’s a picture just to differentiate between fried and steamed food, this being the fried. Next time I might just have to try it because this picture looks tasty, no?

With my tongue being thoroughly fried, I sought refuge for something cool to subdue the pain. The first thing that comes to mind is a smoothie. They are available for purchase at a teahouse at my high school. Anyone remember how I said I was studying the menu from a drink place? This would be the one and I particularly learned how to order different kinds of “bing sha” (smoothie). Craving to try the strawberry yogurt one, I just had to treat myself. Full of confidence I went up and spoke my order which to my great joy they understood perfectly. BOOMSHAKALAKA!  My pleasure increased when an employee called me “his hero.” This is probably because the other girl exchange students come to this teahouse often but only know the English version of the drinks so the workers have to battle around a language barrier. I don’t order these beverages often but I want to just so I can practice my Chinese drink vocabulary.

I’d heard from another exchange student that the strawberry smoothie was good. It wasn’t good. It was downright scrumptious!!! Good Lord, can I have more?! Look at this masterpiece! I would’ve been happy with the whipped cream alone because it was thicker and the deliciousness heightened by a mile. I am so going back now and then for more!

Another reason I wanted to buy a smoothie treat other than trying out my Chinese, and soothing my burnt tongue was to just have some quiet time to myself before going to class. My fantasy included me sitting in a chair, sipping a delicious beverage in my hand and just relaxing my mind and body to peace. Was I successful? No. Absolutely no. I was pounced on by an overly curious University student, which I have no problem with but was sad that my quiet time was taken away. After a bombardment with questions the student left for lunch. Only minutes later did the same woman return for more questions and comments. I’ve learned it’s very hard in Taipei to find time for relaxation. First you have to fit it in to a hectic schedule, then find a quiet place, hope it’s quiet and try not to think about the enclosing time that you MUST leave before, otherwise you’ll be late to something. My own bedroom isn’t a place I could label for relaxation because it reminds me a lot of New York, hearing cars and motorcycles roar by on the road. Even with headphones own, I can clearly hear the thunder of their engines and am unable to fully unwind. I suppose that will come eventually with adjustment since I already adapted to falling asleep during the noisiness…though it took me a while. :P

The last event of the day was not so exciting. Thursdays are indeed our club meetings, so for me it would be marital arts, but sadly only eight times a semester. So last week was the Teacher’s Day event and today was a speech given to the students. The exchange peeps didn’t attend because we have to do something called ‘Weekly Report.’ Though it seems more like a ‘Monthly Report!’ Anywho, we just write about whatever as an update to the principle, who reads these papers, with what’s happening. I think I’ve been writing too much lately between Taffy and various other reports because I had a tough time today. A contributing factor probably was that I was writing in basic English with proper grammar instead of my zany, dynamic style. Gosh I get so boring when I have to write academically! At least I got it done…but I admit it was half-heartedly. I just have not been feeling well at all today. Maybe I need to find the motorcycle parrot. XD

GOOOOOOOOOD….night. :P