The Wind on My Helmet

You heard it here first: I officially have a scooter!! I went yesterday with Adele to her house in the mountains to pick it up. She doesn't come to Taichung often so on the way out of town she got lost and we drove for about an hour and half to get to her place. I've never spent that much time on a scooter before, and let me tell you my ass was sore! I can say that the "sight-seeing" trip was pretty cool and it was doubly exciting as my first trip to the mountains *and* knowing I was going to pick up the "hog." Driving down the mountain was a little weird, but I didn't really have to use much gas and I didn't get lost so it was great! It's a 125 CC, and it's pretty big comparatively. It rides ridiculously smoothly and the body is in great condition. It's so quiet too! Brian and Susan have labelled it a steal at 12,000 NT!

Today Susan, Brian, and I went on our first adventure! First, we went to a big temple that has a *huge* gold-painted Buddha. It was actually bigger than the temple itself! It was a special day, we don't know the name, but we found out it happens three times a year, and there were plenty of people laying out offerings for their ancestors and gods. We were a little nervous that we were intruding, but a woman who spoke some English assued us it was ok to have a look around. The oven that burns the ghost money was on overdrive and smoke was pouring from the top.

Next, we went to the Martyr's Shrine and the Confucius Temple in town. They were amazing! Tucked back in these beautiful gardens, were these amazing temples with huge red doors with lion's head knockers, orange roofs, and stunning sculptures. I love the smell of the incense they use there. And even though it's on a main street, the walls and the plants block out the city noise so you can actually hear birds chirping in the trees. We spent a lot of time near the little fish pond in the corner, looking at the fish and feeling calm.

After that, we drove around looking for a tea house, but ended up settling for a pizza joint downtown. Then we drove back across town to go to the big Japanese department store, Mitsukoshi. The grocery store in the basement had some great imported foods and we actually found a wheel of Cheddar! That's something we had yet to see until today. Unfortunately, it was the equivalent of $100 USD for the wheel, but one day in the future it might be worth it to get some people in on it together and buy the wheel! We thought about seeing a movie in the theater upstairs, but the next one didn't start for two hours, so we high-tailed it back to the apartment complex to watch the movie they were showing tonight, Van Helsing.

It was a full day and we drove completely across town! I love it! I think I might have another adventure tommorow before work, but where will I go? Anywhere that strikes my fancy, says me! Taichung has a new appeal! There are so many places to explore...

The Randomness

Sometimes it's the little things that make you happy. The internet cafe I frequent is 24 h place we like to call "Chainsaw" because of the enormous chainsaw on the sign. In any case, the second floor always has wacky folks breezing through. There's either a foreigner hanging out with a row of enormous beers in front of him or someone popping out of the mystery door.

The mystery door is a door near the bathroom that connects to some stairs. I think maybe people live upstairs and have to exit through the cafe. In any case, as I was sitting here a 20-something woman popped out of the mystery door, wearing a crazy pink top with little baby flowers on it, hair in two big braids on either side of her head, carrying Spuds Mackenzie in a doggy sweater under her arm. In the time it took to write this, she reappeared with dog still under arm, and disappeared up the staircase the lies beyond the locked door.

Man, the vignettes are out of hand in this country!

Antici....pation

Ok, so this weekend is the big Halloween weekend. I can't help but think that if I were at home I'd be gearing up for Shope's big shindig in Bowling Green. This year it's at Jamie and Marnie's, but in my head it's still Shope's party. Sorry, guys.

I'm sure it will be lots of fun as always. Here, I'm in the horns of a dilemma. I've got several options: head to Pintung in the south of Taiwan for a party there, head to Taipei area (northern Taiwan) for a party there, or stay here with Susan and Brian. There are plenty of parties around here and I've actually been invited to a few so that could be great. Then there's the final option: Head to Chunghua, site of the leaning tower of puke which was a great time, but a little extreme. I think funds will prevent my from going too far so Taipei and Pingtung are out, but I still can't decide where to go in Taichung.

I'd had this problem before and it doesn't bode well. Usually, I can't decide where I'll have more fun and then I end up missing out on everything. It's like the old story about the dog with the bone in his mouth that sees a dog with a bigger bone. Hopefully, I won't drop this big Halloween party bone into the pond in search of a fictional bigger bone.

Now, try not to get too excited folks, but tommorow, I'm supposed to pick up my new scooter! I finally found someone who's selling one at a reasonable price, and thanks to my newly acquired ability to bargain, I was able to knock $100 USD off the price! And thanks to a generous offer from my parents I'm actually able to afford this one. She's supposed to call early evening tommorow to make the switch. Oh, I can't wait and I hope it actually happens! Where will my first scooter trip take me? Stay tuned for the further adventures of this (possibly) newly mobile expat...

Routine

Yesterday I decided that I needed a change. I had fallen into a Taiwanese rut, I suppose. Since, I've been running low on cash and saving what I can for a scooter, I've been sticking pretty close to home. Internet cafe in the morning, work, home to hang out with the roommates or Susan and Brian, and a movie on Wednesday night. Given that my last two weekends have been pretty boring, I was beginning to lose my mind.

Kris and Stella, some women I work with, have been inviting me out for Pop Quiz night at Chubby's every other week. Finally, I decided to take them up on it and get out mid-week. It was wonderful! I got to play some trivia, meet some new folks, and check out a new place all at the same time. So much fun! Sadly, Kris had to leave early because she works at Kindy about 40 minutes away in the morning, but when I left we were in the lead! I'm always amazed when I'm hanging out and I look around to realize I'm sitting with a Brit, two Taiwanese folks, a chick from the Czech Republic, and a Kiwi! I love that I get to meet people from everywhere.

Susan and Brian told me an amusing story about a recent trip to the night market. They met a woman studying Chinese at one of the universities in Taichung from Venezuela. They were with a Taiwanese woman and an Australian, and between the 5 of them, they were trying to use three different languages to communicate! So much fun!

Busted Plans

It must be said, this weekend was something of a bust. I'm not sure if it's a case of having made too many plans and then in cancelling one plan, a cascade event occurs that causes all plans to be lost, but that's what happened.

My Saturday was to go a little something like this: Sleep late. Take a nice bath. Scooter adventures with Kristy. Check out a night market with Susan and Brian. Have some dinner. Drink a couple beers. Go dancing with Brad, Mariana, Kristy, Matt, Miguel, and possibly Susan and Brian.

This is what actually happened:I slept late only to wake up when Brad knocked on my door. He didn't think I was home, and normally I would have said "come in." But the night before, returning at 6 am, slightly drunk and *very* tired I'd had a problem finding my pajamas. So I gave up. Anyway, flash forward to the next morning when, while slightly groggy, someone wants to enter my room. I begin to say "Come i...uh, hold on a minute!" I still couldn't find my t-shirt so it took me a while, and when I opened the door he was gone. So after tracking him down to ask what he wanted, I figured it'd probably be best not to go back to sleep.

So I set out upon task number two: take a bath. This I did well with candles, some music, and lots of aromatherapy bubbles. My headache went away for about 15 whole minutes!

Next up: Scooter adventures. Bust number one. Kristy had done some adventuring on the way back from work and really wanted a nap. No problem, I thought. I'll just hang out for a while. She handed me the keys to the scooter and I high-tailed it over to the icafe. Sadly, I got caught up in e-mailing and lost track of time. When I got home, Kristy had called all around wondering where I was. Susan and Brian had left to go to the night market and Brad and Mariana had already eaten dinner.

Dinner: I'd figured I'd get something at the night market for dinner, but since I missed out on that, I decided to I set into a bowl of instant noodles for a quick dinner. While I was eating my ramen, Brad decided to tell me about his amazing trip to the italian restaurant! I wanted to hit him in the head with something hard, but I just looked up sweetly and asked him not to tell me about such wonderful things as wood-burning oven baked pizzas with avocado while I was trying to pretend that the little dried green bits floating in my soup were fresh vegetables.

Anyway, I wasn't too worried. After all, we still had dancing and drinks on the docet and I was excited. Then Brad mentioned that Mariana just wanted a chill evening and doesn't feel like dancing after all. This made me nervous, because Matt and Miguel had signed on specifically for dancing, but Susan and Brian would be more likely to come if dancing wasn't involved. In any case, as I was trying to eek some solid plans out of them so I could make phone calls, they disappeared into Brad's bedroom. Fine, ok, my bad. I shouldn't have believed that the lovebirds would actually make it out of the apartment that night at all. Call me a sucker, I guess. I figured I could still salvage the evening by organizing the event myself and placed the phone calls. Susan and Brian were still at the market and wouldn't be home for ages, so they were out. Matt and Miguel were nowhere to be found so I left a message. Kristy was at the icafe, so I just settled in for some reading before all the fun started!

When Kristy came back, I realized that although Matt and Miguel might still be up for coming over to at least hang out, it was pretty much just the two of us. We had a good convo, a few drinks and then I got the call. Matt and Miguel were pooped and wouldn't be coming over for any fun whatsoever. Soon afterward Kristy got an urgent phone call and locked herself in her room to discuss. So, my Saturday night had completely crumbled and I was left sitting in my room, listening to music, feeling bored out of my mind.

Oh well, they can't all be winners. Halloween weekend is coming up and I still don't have a costume!

Crackpipe?!

The conversation went something like this:

Me: I couldn't really afford it, but I bought a crockpot this weekend, which, as far as I'm concerned, has already paid for itself. (I had just made a yummy chicken stew that saved me some money and saved my intestines from another trip to Uncle Greasepots)

Brad: (looking at my quizically) You bought a crackpipe?!

I corrected him, but my straight-laced, Christian, Texan, good-old boy roommate Brad was serious. He thinks I'm a little weird which makes sense because he is one of the most 'normal' people I know, and there is, of course, the fact that I *am* a little weird. He probably wouldn't put it past me to come home with a crackpipe. Although interestingly enough he seemed to think that I would find an expensive, budget-breaking crackpipe, perhaps made of Austrian crystal. We had a good laugh, but he didn't laugh easily as if to say "Ha ha. Crackpipe, I'm so silly!" It was more of a "Oh lord, it's only a matter of time before she *does* bring home a crackpipe," kind of laugh.

I think this belief of his is tied to my excitement over a gift brought to our apartment by our friend Brian. He and his girlfriend, Susan, are expert garbage sifters and found what seemed to Brian and me like a treasure: two discarded dressforms to decorate any way we wished. Susan and Kristy were non-plussed and enjoyed ridiculing our glee. Brad, of course, looked on in disbelief, smiling gently in a way that only barely covered his befuddled amazement that one might actually want to include a dressform in one's decorating scheme. I found this to be amusing, given that his sole contribution to our decorating ideas was "Hey, I bet we could put some cool beer lights on that wall!" If one could pick up a dressform off the street and put it in your room, are you really that far away from buying a ridiculously expensive crystal crackpipe?

Maybe if it were on sale...

Not So Fast, Ms. Jones

I heard about the scooter. The other girl finally got ahold of the woman I had talked to and I lost out. Who can blame her for not passing up a free scooter? The search continues...

The TV thing didn't work out exactly as I had hoped either. We got the tv, but it's older so it doesn't have the hook ups we need to be able to watch movies at the apartment. I need to buy a DVD player. I should be able to scrape the funds together soon enough...

On the plus side, I did score a crockpot this weekend and as of yet nothing has squashed my excitement on that tip! I'm looking forward to experiencing the many pleasures a slow-cooked meal can afford.

I was reminded of something that always makes me smile today when I went into work. One of my students, Kenny, who loves to say hi to me when he sees me, ran up to me in the hallway and yelled "Cashie!" Some of the younger students have a hard time saying the "ss" sound, so it comes out "sh" which I love. I think I'm going to change the spelling of my name to "Ca$$ie." Sometimes they do the most hilarious things! Kenny, later in class, was so excited to show me his new stickyball (that looks exactly like mine) that everytime we had a break or I started to play a game with the stickyball, he pulled out his new toy and held it in the air yelling "Teacher Cashie!" Another kid, Jarod, who has got to be one of the cutest kids I've ever seen, was apparently having a problem with his twig and berries. He sits in the front row and for most of class had his hand stuck firmly down the front of his pants. I told Stella, the CT, about it and after we stopped laughing, she went over and whispered something to him. I noticed later he had removed his hand from his pants. They crack me up!

Score!!

Alright, after waiting with baited breath by the phone today, I finally broke and called Kendra about the scooter. I assumed because she hadn't called yet the girl had taken the scooter and Kendra had simply forgotten to let me know. Anyway, turns out the girl didn't show up on Saturday to check out the scooter and they haven't been to get ahold of her yesterday or today. So she's going to try to get ahold of her again but if no, then I'm meeting her to check it out Monday night! It doesn't matter what it looks like. As long as it doesn't fall apart when I touch it, it's coming home with me! Even if I have to tow it!

I also made it over to Matt's to pick up the TV he has donated to our little apartment. So, with our combined resources of Susan and Brian's cd player that also plays VCDS and our TV, we can watch movies at the pad! Yippee! Maybe we could even get cable...they play CSI on Monday nights...

It all puts a nice cap on an otherwise pretty dull weekend.

Sweet Freedom

I love the weekends! Today I met Matt and his friend who's visiting, Miguel, at the cone-shaped Starbucks up the road from our apartment. After a quick chat and a beautiful latte, I went back to meet Kristy. She went out of town this weekend, and we went to the train station on her scooter, so I could borrow it after she left!

The train station is the craziest part of town traffic-wise, because of all the travellers, taxis, buses (every bus in Taichung goes to the train station at some point) and the general hectic traffic of the city center on a Saturday. I figured if I could make it out of there, I could handle anything Taichung could throw at me. Trial by fire, you see. Anyway, I made it out alive, and it was awesome! Oh, the freedom of knowing I can go anywhere I want today! Fantastic!

Now, if I could only get my own scooter...

Shake it

Today was an interesting morning. I woke up and talked to the folks for a while and then spent some time reading. I finally got out of bed to make some lunch and figured it would be a good time to cook the mac and cheese my parents sent. As the water began to boil, Kristy asked me a question. I walked to the living room to hear her better and she asked "Don't you feel it?" Then she said "The building is moving." Then I did feel it, and saw it. The floor was shaking and the building was swaying pretty well. It was our first ever earthquake! Kristy looked a little panicked, but I told her we were on the 14th floor, there wasn't anything we could do. The buildings are built to withstand earthquakes so more than likely we'd be fine. Clearly we survived, and we chuckled when we looked outside and everyone seemed to be going about their usual business as if nothing had happened. I remembered hearing a story from one girl who said she'd lived on the 25th floor of a building and was freaked out by how much it moved during earthquakes. I remembered thinking that if the building didn't move she'd have been in a whole lot more trouble!

I'm not sure how big an earthquake it was, but nothing fell over (but our apartment doesn't really have anything that could fall over in it apart from the fridge), so it didn't seem that bad. I guess I didn't realize how much I've taken it for granted that the ground won't just start to move randomly. I do live in the "ring of fire" after all...Taiwan is *never* boring!

Absentee Ballots

I got my absentee ballot yesterday and so I'm pretty pumped. I was starting to worry that I might not receive it in time.

I was surprised to discover that politicians will still send you crap telling you to vote for them no matter where you live in the world! Not only did I get my absentee ballot yesterday, but I also got a cardboard flyer letting me know which Ohio judge was aware of my address in Taiwan, and that he'd appreciate it if I put my "X next to the Z". Oh, the lameness. :) It's my first piece of junkmail in Taiwan!

The Sickness

Hmm...I've been in a rotten mood all week long. I've been thinking pretty much incessantly about friends and family from home, and I've been spending quite a bit of time alone. I think the homesickness has struck.

I'd like to get out more, but my feet are cramped from all the walking. I've been massaging the hell out of them, but I still wake up with sore feet. I think I need better shoes, but my size is a little hard to come by in the women's section. I think I'll have to crack soon and buy a pair of men's shoes, which isn't such a big deal really, it just brings some odd looks from the Taiwanese.

I could spend more time with the roommates, but they have scooters and are having the fun scoooter adventures. They keep talking about how they feel the city has opened up to them and there are so many places to explore...I'm so jealous! :) I haven't been able to score one yet, but I did get word about one for free. Sadly, by the time my friends got me the number, it had been promised to someone else. If they pass on it though, the scooter is mine! Keep your fingers crossed. It needs some work, but it should be pretty reliable. I'll find out either way on Sunday. Until then I'll keep getting rides to work on Kristy's little 50cc scooter.

I'm still having a really good time, I just miss the comfort of knowing where things are, how to get there, and how to communicate effectively in order to get what I came for. Until that starts to come together, I've been focusing on making the apartment a little more comfortable. I'm looking for a frame store for the art I bought at the jade market this weekend, I got word about where one is, but I need a ride there and that seems a little bit harder to get.

Maybe this weekend I can make my way to the science museum I've heard so much about. I think I figured out which bus will get me over there. I'm sure it'll pass, I'm just a little down lately. I think a little KTV should clear this whole thing up! Nothing like the unbridled joy that accompanies cheesy karaoke hits!

Sleep, Why Hast Ye Abandonned Me?

This being my second night of poor sleeping, I decided to proclaim sleep to be for suckers and make my way to the icafe for some good ol' bloggin'.

On my way here at 6 am I got to see some things I hadn't been up to notice previously. The breakfast place that Brad nicknamed Aunt McDonald's was in full swing. The park next to the stadium across from Chainsaw actually gets used. There was a huge group of people practicing some sweet-looking martial arts that involved enormous swords...either that or their preparing for China's invasion.

This last weekend was a blast! Unfortunately, I don't yet have to energy to describe it. Stay tuned for random stories from a Taiwanese dance club...

Cold Drinks

Ha ha! We finally scored a refrigerator! It only took about a month, but we finally got one!

There was another teacher who came with our group from training who took over someone's apartment. She inherited a couple of things from him: a fridge, a desk, and a couple of chairs. After a couple of days in Taichung, she freaked out and left the country. In any case, the landlord was desperate to get rid of these things, so through word of mouth we found out and arranged to have them delivered to our apartment! So for the delivery cost of 800 NT (about $24 USD) we got all of it! Super cool!

I'm off to the grocery store later to pickup some things to put in our new fridge! Cold things, things like eggs, and milk, and yogurt! Yippee! I can have cereal tommorow morning without leaving the apartment to buy a little carton of milk! Ahhh, the apartment is getting homier by the minute.

Issues

Today I woke up early to make my way to the branch to meet Tina and Angel for our language exchange. What I didn't realize is that we only had an hour (12-1) to talk and have lunch and my train dropped me off 5 minutes after noon. By the time I got to the branch it was 15 after. Oops! So now I'm stuck in Da Li, in the shadiest internet cafe I've ever seen, posting to my blog. I don't teach until almost 5 pm! I think I might ask if we can meet after work from now on...

Bizarre note: Today my favorite bus driver's route (I take a different bus on Wednesdays, Jack is the driver) had changed and I didn't have to change buses. I only paid 23 NT instead of the normal 19 + 26 for two buses. I'm not sure if that's a usual thing or if it only happens in the mornings, but it frustrates me a little that I have to take two buses when sometimes one goes all the way to where I'm going.

Can anyone tell I'm a little tired?

All your base are belong to us

It turns out the Melody Hi Fi Stereo Art store we pass everyday isn't closed for all time. We finally saw inside today and it has a piano and a bunch of violins. Sadly, I think I liked it better when I could imagine what kind of muscial wonderland it contained. My favorite part of the hour long bus trip to work each day is looking at all the signs. Some of the stores have the *best* names!

This weekend is looking like a crazy one! About 13 of our friends from training are coming for a visit. We'll definitely have to pick up some mats and blankets, but we'll have enough floor space for everyone to crash on. We went to a different one month training than all those guys, so Kristy and I haven't seen most of them since August. I'm really looking forward to catching up with the group!

The Bird

A few weeks ago, when Kristy and I were in Taipei for our one month training, we spotted a pretty bizarre advertisement. It was for a clothing store called Pants Kingdom. It was a huge billboard above the store that showed the top of a pair of jeans. Inside the unzipped jeans, there was an enormous bird cage, with a huge parrot inside. The text said, "Even the biggest bird can fit inside our pants." We thought at first it must be a case of bad translation, and we were partially correct. I later found out the translation was just fine, it was the cultural meaning behind it that didn't translate so well...apparently, 'bird' is a euphemism for penis...

Oh My Chunghwa!

I hoped a train to Chunghwa this weekend for a going away party for a girl I met in Kenting. It was my first solo train trip and I felt all independant and self-sufficient. I met Jackie and her friends (most of whom I had met in Kenting too) at the restaurant and we headed to bar for some good times. There I saw some other folks I had met in Kenting and had some great times talking with new folks. We stayed there until bar close, around 2 am, and then decided to hit a KTV (Karaoke TV) for some singin'. It was just down the road at a place called The Cave (at least that's what they had named it), that looked like a cave from the outside. It was pretty shady looking, but it was 2am, we were drunk and we wanted to sing. The "cave" theme was continued inside with the black spray-painted "designs" on the cement walls. We popped some money into the karaoke machine and dominated until they kicked us out about 6am, when they were closing. I was really surprised as we left with beers in hand to realize the sun had come up. Joey said she was convinced the cave was a time warp that suddenly delivered you to the next morning. As we stood outside trying to figure out where to go next, we decided that Stuart should go grab us some breakfast and we'd meet at Jackie's place for some white russians and more good times. About 8:30 am, I had a bit of a mishap. I was drinking, laughing and made the mistake of trying to do both at the same time. Sadly, this resulted in a semi-choking Cassie being turned into a fountain of vomit as the curdled milk and breakfast sandwich shot out of my mouth. It took everyone, including me, by surprise and after they cleaned up the living room and I cleaned myself up, we laughed some more at the suddenness of it all and came to the conclusion that I really needed to chew more given that so many chunks were completely identifiable and/or intact. We woke up around 2pm the next day and I made my way home, tired as all get out. I must not have made to big an ass of myself, because Joey and Jackie were in Taichung later that day and invited me out for dinner at La Terrase, but I had to pass.

On a super cool note, the Chinese I had learned in my lesson on Thursday night paid off when I could say "I want to go to the train station" and was understood. Later someone asked me "Where are you going?" and I both understood and was able to answer "Taichung." Of course, the man said something else next but I totally didn't understand and had to just shrug and look confused. But for one shining moment, brief though it was, I had something resembling a conversation in Chinese!

The Weary Crew

My roommates Brad and Kristy, my pseudo-roommates Susan and Brian, and I are all starting to miss some things from home. Last night we had a conversation where we each answered the question: What would you knock someone down and kick them in the gut for? Kristy, after some intial hesitation, answered that she would knock someone down and kick them in the gut for macaroni and cheese, Brad answered a nice club sandwich, Brian's answer was tacos, and mine was a chicken parmesean grinder. We all had a good laugh and drooled quite a bit as we imagined forcibly stealing food from a random person on the street.

On the heels of that conversation, I received a package from my parents. I picked it up on my way out and had been carrying it around town when I got a call from Brian inviting me over to their apartment. Everyone was over and we had fun looking through the package. It was hilarious to see everyone raised to the heights of ecstasy by smelling a ziplock baggie of dryer sheets...you can imagine what happened when I broke out the Starbucks coffee! We had a great time just hanging out, drinking some really great joe, and listening to some music Susan and Brian had picked up in New Zealand. We toasted Mr. and Mrs. Jones and their gifts from the States!

Today everyone was working, but I happen to have Saturdays off. I decided that I'd wander around the neighborhood a little more, and soon enough I found myself at Carrefour (a hypermart similar to Meijer). I knew I was in dangerous territory because a) I hadn't eaten yet and b) they accept credit cards (very few places do). So I had a grand old time buying things for the apartment, little toiletries, and the like. It wasn't really a problem until I decided to walk into the wine and liquor aisle...uh-oh. There was a woman giving out samples of Yellow Tail Shiraz, Cabernet, and Merlot. It was the first wine I've had in over a month and I was in heaven. I'm sure I looked like an asshole swirling and smelling the wine in the little dixie cup before I sipped it and swished it in my mouth but it was wonderful! So I picked up a bottle of the shiraz (it was pretty pricey--but it came with a cute little tote bag) and continued to wander. I came to the milk aisle. We don't have a refrigerator yet, but I thought it would be nice to look. Then I saw the brie...we have all been craving cheese because it's pretty hard to come by. I scooped it up and ran immediately to the bakery section and bought two baguettes.

On my way home, I texted the gang about a big surprise I had in store and told them to gather at our apartment. As I came in and unloaded the bags in the kitchen, I told Brad to get ready for the bounty that awaited. He asked from the living room, "Should I sing Ave Maria?" I told him that he didn't have to, but that he might want to. So I plated up the cheese, brought out the baguette and uncorked the wine. Kristy actually jumped up and down and did a little dance, Brad said a couple "Oh my god!"s and Brian and Susan were both thrilled! We ate and drank the first wine and cheese any of us had had in quite a while! It was fantastic!!! Next time Brian and Susan are going to find some calamata olives, get some quality olive oil, and a little feta to go with the wine! So we got a little taste of home and our spirits were brightened! Good times!