Miaoli Bird's Nest

Lea is taking off in a few days, and she needed to get some souvenirs before she left. We'd both heard that Miaoli was a nice place, so Sunday we jumped on a train and tried our luck.

Sadly, we forgot our copies of Lonely Planet, which was mistake number one. Mistake number two was not having checked the weather to know it would be 97 degrees with high humidity. So as we stumbled, blinded by our own sweat through the streets of Miaoli, unable to locate anything of interest, we stopped into a tiny little open-air Vietnamese restaurant for a 'refreshing' break as the strains of horribly-sung karoke loudly filtered down from upstairs. We had no idea what anything on the menu was so we took a chance and ordered whatever it was we could pronounce. Turns out it was a nice little bowl of noodle soup, complete with strnagely delicious liver-esque chunks and big fat pork knuckle, there was even some pig skin with hairs! It hit the spot (and we had a bit of fun daring each other to eat the fat!) and while we were waiting, we had noticed some beverages. Lea asked if I'd be interested in the Bird's Nest drink and I said, "Sure." (Insert Marge-esque growl here). With a name like, " Wonderfarm White Fungus Bird's Nest Drink" how could you say anything other than "Give me some of that sweet sweet nectar!" So we read the ingredients list hoping desparately for some clue as to it's contents. "Water, sugar, white fungus, and bird's nest," wasn't completely helpful. We crossed our fingers and opened the can while Lea said, "If there's duck fetus in this I'm gonna be pissed!" So we drank it and found it tasted like sugar water with jelly-like chunks. Not bad. We kept the cans as evidence of our daring-do and set back home.

Now, I've had tried things in the past just for shits and giggles only to find out I had consumed something vile later, the ubiquitous congealed pig's blood patties being first and foremost in that category, but I never really expected this. Turns out that bird's nest is the result of some chemical process by which the bird's nest is broken down leaving only bird saliva and whatnot. Ew. Just what one wants on a hot summer day: a frosty can of bird spit. Shudder. I'm not sure I should let Lea know exactly what it was she drank...

No word yet on what the white fungus is.

Scooter Fallout

My mom is currently in love with scooters. We drove along the coast while she was visiting, and when she heard how cheap the gas was (it gets 25 km to the liter) she got super excited. Now, my dad is pricing scooters on the internet, and personally I hope they get one.

It would be great to come home and be able to drive it around a little. It would really help with the reverse culture shock, and plus it would be hilarious to drive around with my "Lovely Dog Club--Forever Friend" helmet, color: bright pink.

In fact, I've had a dream for some time now to drive cross-country on Vespa, wearing only Jackie O-inspired outfits and eating only at greasy truck stops. I guess the cross-country bit will have to wait, and it probably won't be a Vespa, but still, I'll take the driving around town to pointing and giggling while driving in skirts and a long flowing scarf.

Good luck, Dad.

North to South

My parents and I managed to see a good little bit of the country in so short a time! I guess it helps that the entirety of the island can be travelled from north to south in 8 hours. :)

We started in Taipei, and shot around on the MRT to the National Palace Museum, Taipei Main Station Mall, the Nova (for electronics), and then headed back for a rest.

The next day we were off to Kenting, which is near the southern-most point of Taiwan. We rented three scooters, and in full Taiwanese style, we carried all our suitcases, bags and souvenirs between our legs, and drove the 30-minute drive to Jialeshuei, the "town"(more like a cluster of five houses and the hostel) were our surfing hostel was. It was a beautiful drive next to the ocean the entire way, up and down the hills. We could hear birds, smell the salt water, and hear the ocean waves from the hostel. We spent a couple days getting burned in the extreme summer heat, doing some sightseeing, and then headed north to Taichung.

Sadly, we were only there for one good day of sightseeing before the typhoon hit, but luckily, we still got some good stuff in. We saw the Confucious Temple and Martyr's Shrine, Taichung Temple department store, the UFO restaurant that had been in the news for catching on fire, and Mom's favorite: the Jade market. We even were lucky enough to hear some traditional Chinese music being played!

Even though we were pretty much couped up for the typhoon, we still managed a good time. Brian and Susan and Susan's parents came over for dinner, breakfast, and then another dinner. My roommate Brad and his gf Mirjana were there and so were Kristy and Matt. It was a full house! But we had plenty of coffee, wine, cheese, and all the hard to get favorites and it felt like a big party or a family reunion you are actually excited to go to!

I got my parents on the bus to the airport the next morning at 4 am and everything seemed to go smoothly from there. It was a great time!

Parents A' visitin'

I'm so happy my parents came to visit! My dad might not be so excited about it since he had a run of bad luck:

• He chipped a tooth on a piece of candy on the plane.
• He ran into a door frame in a restaurant.
• He fell off the scooter.
• His glasses broke in the middle of the movies.

This of course added to the appearance of the first typhoon of the season. Oops. Sadly, the typhoon kept us indoors for two days, but it turned out to be lots of fun. We had a super full house with Brad, Mirjana, Kristy, Matt, Brian, Susan, her parents, my parents and me. We made a bunch of delicious meals and watched some movies together. Also, we managed to avoid talking politics for nearly the entire visit!

But we still had a great time, got to see lots of the island, got some sun, and everyone managed to get their plane on time even with a super typhoon!

Asian Cassie part II

Number of people who have mistaken me for Asian: 7

Percentage of those people who are themselves Asian: 70%

I was buying some food from a vendor and she asked me : Ni shi Taiwan ren ma? (Are youTaiwanese?) She was curious, but clearly she thought was her best bet.

Also, Lea's HRT Candy thought I was Japanese when she first saw me. Huh? I'm not sure why more and more people are confusing me for Asian, but that's the deal.

It must be the hair.

KTV accidents

I love me some KTV. That much is clear. I seriously can't get enough, and everyone else I work with knows it very well. They have all noted that the karoke bar owner greeted me like an old friend, and when we happen to be at KTV together, they deliver the book of English songs right into my hands without even asking. This is true friendship---KTV style.

So when they told me that we'd be having a KTV party after graduation, they knew I'd be completely stoked. Sadly though, on the actual day, I was pretty tired and debated not going. This is the problem, because after 10 months of living here, I should have known that you have to get to KTV right away. Sure enough, being a whole 15 mintues late meant that we wouldn't be singing any of our songs for at least two hours. Possibly longer. Taiwanese folks love the KTV even more than I do, and have no problems with putting in 15 songs each, to be played in order of course. This made for sad times, with all the English speakers in this room with failing air conditioning and a couple of six-packs, listening to hours and hours of sad Chinese love songs. Doh.

I had to leave before the songs came up, because I felt that I was losing what little moisture remained in my body while sitting in that sweatbox. I returned home disheartened by the KTV buildup, and even sitting in a room at the Holiday KTV, but no actual singing. Bummer. I guess there's always next time.

Graduation Night

Phew. What a day! From 9 at night until 10 pm, it was all stress...and a fair amount of actual sweating.

We piled the kids into the buses and headed off to the hall to have one last practice. All the teachers were practicing with props when we realized that half of our props weren't even at the hall. This caused ridiculous amounts of stress for the CTs and it began to rub off on me. Luckily, it was solved when we located the props and arranged to have them taken to the school a few hours later. Because of how much it cost, the school wouldn't pay for the halls air conditioning to be used during the day, so the entire time we were all soaked through with sweat. Silently I thanked the gods that it would be cooler once the air con was on later that evening.

At 6 we rejoined after the children's nap time. Everyone was in costume, the sets were up and it was go time. Sadly, although the air con was now on, there were so many people that it felt that same as it had that afternoon. Steamy.

The Cat class performed well, except for the bit where all the cows suddenly stopped dancing and stared into the crowd with something akin to terror in their eyes. Luckily, no one cried or passed out from the heat, and the parents all thought it was cute.

Zip. Zam. Zoom. It's over. Time to take a deep breath and a cool shower.