Calligraphy, Coffee, Cowboys and Chicken!

Sunday November 4, 2012

Goodness, goodness, goodness me! You know how I write a Taffy post everyday on a Word Document and then post several at a time when I get Internet? Well now that’s the complete opposite for me! I love the irony! Actually I think I just like irony in general. ;) It’s funny stuff! Anyway, to show how far behind I am, Sunday’s Taffy is being written on Wednesday with Monday and Tuesday waiting in line, not to mention Wednesday. So as a way for me to catch up, I’m writing the Taffys in a journal at school. It’s not the preferred way for me since I like typing better and writing on the same day as the events took place in order to have the maximum amount of fresh feelings and thoughts. But I must compensate somehow and creating Taffys at high school is the only way. A positive outlook on it is that it’ll be harder to fall asleep! Yay! Without any further a-do, I give you the first un-typed, written-at-school Taffy :D

The first night at my new home was quite nice. The bed was comfortable, the blankets were uber soft (velvety is more like it) and the pillow was very supportive to the neck. 我喜歡! (I like!) No problem with the weather, no problem with street noise, no problem with mosquitoes. Nothing. 很 好! (Very good!)

When I went down for breakfast no one was there but food was set out on the table, which the night before I was told that I could help myself to it. On the table I found toast and peanut butter and on a nearby counter there were apples and bananas. Desiring a slice of PB toast, I went to the kitchen to find a knife and plate. Whoopsies! I wasn’t yet taught where the silverware was kept so I couldn’t find a knife, a spoon or anything. I scanned the kitchen at least three times in my search but was unsuccessful. So instead, I merely grabbed an apple and munched away.

Not long after, Yi Na, the lady at the house, came down and offered to make some breakfast for me. Gratefully I thanked her and she made a lovely meal for me, consisting of one fried egg, a thick slice of heated PB toast (so yummy) and a warm cup of soymilk. Topping it off with a banana, my stomach was full and happy!

Afterwards I went back up to my room and got dressed for the day’s trip to a place called Yilan. Uncle Eric (host father), Auntie Jenny (host mother), Allen (host brother) and I all went together for a Rotary event. It was a smaller event between a couple Rotary clubs (clubs not districts and not particularly meant for exchange students though four other students came) but they still took a tour bus for transportation. My family didn’t join in on the tour bus because we would have to drive to Yilan, go past it, find the tour bus a whiles away and then ride back to Yilan. To make things simpler, my family just took their own car and drove themselves.

The first visiting stop was at a small exhibition of one lady’s calligraphy work. Containing traditional Chinese calligraphy, cursive calligraphy and paintings of bamboo and flowers, her works were a lovely sight. A book was given to each attendant that was comprised of pictures of all the calligraphy present at the exhibition. I really like the book because not only does it have beautiful work but I can research each character and slowly learn the meaning behind each message for years to come. That’s cool! And heck, I can show y’all the book in Texas when I get back if you want! ;D

Our visit was fairly short or at least not lengthy. I wasn’t watching the time because I was having so much fun! But following the end of the exhibition, it was time for lunch. My family took their car to a different restaurant than the tour bus because we had a reservation at a Japanese sushi place. Sadly the parking lot was completely full and we couldn’t park, which didn’t allow us to make it in time for the assigned reservation. So instead we went to another restaurant where parking was available.

Taking the elevator up from the parking garage to a mall-like building, we entered a floor that had very nice restaurants. The first choice was to eat at a place where they had about five different ways to eat a duck (I think). Unfortunately a reservation was required which 我們沒有 (we didn’t have). This led us to eat at a place across the hall that was available. To me, it was a high-end restaurant with gourmet food, excellent service and a relaxing atmosphere. A little to my dismay, I didn’t take too many pictures because I was so involved with the conversation with my family and the delicious food to bother. Yes, the food was delicious!

The meal began with a small but tasty salad, followed with mushroom soup and bread. As usual, I loved the soup in Taiwan and enjoyed every spoonful. There were two types of bread that I tried. One was a nutty, grain bread of yumminess. The other contained a small sugary filling of sweetness (the filling not being liquid but not very solid). Both were so good! My father had the waitress refill our basket several times because we all liked the bread so much.

Something I’ve heard about but didn’t yet try was having a sorbet after the soup to cleanse the pallet. How interesting and tasty too! The sorbet had yellow bits of lemon that threw several brief but strong punches of flavor. I couldn’t help but think of “Princess Diaries” where Mia had similar pallet cleansing ice cream. I learned from her unpleasant experience and took small spoon-fulls instead of scarfing the frozen substance down. XD

The main course was up next! As usual, I seem to be the very last one to received their order. In the meantime when waiting, my father was kind enough to share a bit of his sizeable steak with me. It was very enjoyable to taste steak again since I can’t remember the last time I ate it. But when my own dish came out, I stared at it in confusion. I had ordered chicken and expected sliced pieces on my plate. Instead there was a hard, big ball of something. After wrestling to slice through the ball, I found out it was a smaller chicken torso, bones and all. So I had to execute an expedition in order to find all the meat because I haven’t eaten chicken this way before and was a total noob. Luckily, I played it off as if I knew exactly what I was doing well enough. ;P It was very tasty stuff!

Dessert was a slice of attractive 蛋糕 (cake) in which its taste matched its appearance. It made my inner baker very happy indeed!

Lunch was wrapped up with coffee. Mine was a caramel macchiato. I admit I don’t really know the difference between Café Americano, latte, etc. but this one sure looked so beautiful! The design on top was like eye-candy! Then the taste was tastebud-candy! ;P

Family Picture Time!

Outside of the restaurant there was a small area selling Taiwanese tea. For a short time my family and I sat down and sampled the tea. The tea was very enjoyable. Though I’m not knowledgeable in tea, I can at least say that the beverage was very satisfying.

After lunch was another Rotary trip visit to another place. I’m not sure of its name but the company is called something like ‘Golden Wagon.’ Two well-known names that are included in this company are “Mr. Brown Coffee” and “Kavalan Whiskey.” My family briefly visited both by ourselves because the Rotary tour bus group was still at lunch and wouldn’t be coming as planned.

Beginning with Kavalan, we walked through a museum display of the whiskey making process. I learned that “Kavalan” was the original aboriginal name of the city until China influence came and renamed the place “Yilan.” How cool! Even though I’m not a fan of whiskey, it was still fun to see the displays.

Following Kavalan was a trip to the Mr. Brown Coffee building. When we got there the museum was not yet opened hence preventing us from viewing it. So instead we tried a taste testing line of new beverages being released. It had a slightly lengthy line but the wait was worth it. The line had five drink samples available total. I don’t completely remember every one but this is what my memory recalls:

(1) Coffee of some sort

(2) “Kavalan Malz” thingie

(3) Cola coffee and soda coffee

(4) Coffee something-something

(5) Whiskey coffee

I think #1, #2 and #4 were pretty good. #3 was average and #5 did not sit too well with me. The whiskey flavor was way too prominent for my tastes. XP

When we found out the tour bus group wasn’t coming, we drove to the next location of a greenhouse. While waiting for them Allen and I had a small treat of Mr. Brown ice cream. He chose a whiskey and raisin flavor while I went for coffee flavor. We had a taste of each others and concluded that both were very yummy. Note: there was no alcohol in the whiskey and raisin flavor. That would be an interesting story if there was! Like:

Random person: Have you ever gotten drink before?

Me: Yes. Once.

Random person: How?

Me: I ate some ice cream in Taiwan. XD

Soon after finishing our sugar, the tour bus group came and we began the greenhouse tour. I would say there was about thirty people total, just FYI. We saw difficult plants in different stages of growth with an area to purchase souvenirs of plants. One type of plant available was little cute cacti. Reminded me of the canyons back in America. XD

If you look closely, you can see lips and googley eyes placed on the cacti. How darling! My favorite cacti are the ones at the middle bottom with their bright colors and cute shapes and flower buds.

Many of this type of flower were at the greenhouse in different colors like purple, white, yellow and more. Its name escapes me but I’m pretty sure it’s an oriental Asian flower. Quite pretty no?

Here is some of our tour group viewing the growing greenhouse plants.

Completing the Rotary trip, we all headed home. Upon arrival, dinner was already made and ready to be devoured. I can only assume that Yi Na made it while we were out. The meal was Chinese food with veggies, meat and soup. All of it was 好吃！(Tasty!) I absolutely loved the fact that we could sit down and have a family dinner together. Food, chat and family are a wonderful trio!

Even though (so far) I will stay only eleven days with my current family, giving gifts was in order to show my appreciation for their generosity. Each gift was wrapped in a cowboy bandana to throw in some Texas southern flare with American gifts. I feel there is no need to broadcast what each specific gift was but I will say this. The mother liked her gift very much because she was actually considering buying one herself. SCORE! The shirt I brought in case I needed a guy gift ended up being the correct size for Allen who could use it the next time he goes to the gym. Another win! :D

From left to right we have Yavanna, Pi Nan and Allen. Yavanna and Pi Nan are married and have an adorable baby boy called Xiao Di. I’m glad I brought some stuffed teddy bears because I was able to give even darling Xiao Di something American to remember me by. ^_^

The best parts of the gifts were the bandanas. They were a hit! The family was very curious to learning different styles of wearing the bandanas. I obliged as best as I could, happy to share a bit of Texan culture.

I LOVE this photo! Allen on the left and Pi Nan on the right, both look like they either are going though a wild west sandstorm or about to rob a bank. XD

The mother let me see a wedding photo-shoot album of their daughter’s wedding (they have two daughters but both are note currently in Taiwan). To return the kind act, I fetched my scrapbook of my life in Texas. It includes things like family, friends, pets, school, hobbies, etc. It’s a good, fun way to introduce Texas and myself in a visually appeasing way. The family was very interested in seeing it, which made me happy. ^_^ I had a blast crafting the scrapbook and it shows. ;) If you are reading this Taffy, most likely you appear somewhere in the album! Does that please you or will you scream “COPYRIGHT!” at me? XD

Last but certainly not least, the night was topped off with a quick trip to a night market with Pi Nan, Yavanna and Allen. There we bought popcorn chicken, pig’s blood, rice thingies and beverages, like bubble tea. 都好吃! (All tasty!) It was strange for me to eat so late and then go to bed soon afterwards but spending time with my family was so wonderful. How I love them so! ^_^

And that would explain why I didn’t write the Taffy on time. Once I said good night and went up to my room, it was already really late and I still had homework to do. Bu y’all can forgive me, right? ;)

So from Wednesday writing about Sunday, have a nice day! Bye-bye!