Here I am again, posting about food. But it deserves it--and, besides, the next-most exciting thing I did today was cleaning. So...onward with the food!
I'll be honest. After last night's dinner with my host family, I didn't know if I would eat again, ever. Which was slightly problematic, in that I knew that I had dinner plans tonight--so I ate next to nothing today in preparation. And, by 7pm, when Rachel and I set out, I had finally succeeded: I was hungry!
Rachel and I met up with Issac (our trainer from the gym) and his friend Juna at Foster Hewitt's, a Canadian-run restaurant in Zuoying where I had happened to go for Thanksgiving on my unsuccessful quest for turkey. Then, I settled for steak.
Today, however, was different. I ordered the BBQ beef burger, and then Rachel, Issac, Juna and I entered into a wonderful and several hours long conversation, mostly in English but with Chinese and even some Taiwanese thrown in for good measure, in which we discovered things like that "haha point" is the direct translation of "punchline"; why many Taiwanese people don't eat beef; that "all guys are alike" (from Issac), "yeah, all guys are ***holes" (from Rachel); and that Issac is a major lightweight.
Also in debate were whether or not Asian girls have butts (Issac said some do; Rachel said they don't), whether it's "study aboard" (Issac) or "study abroad" (the rest of us), and which of the many foreign guys in the busy restaurant was most attractive (question from Issac to Rachel and I).
So many other wonderful moments; far too many to tell. And the food--fabulous. Wish I had pictures to show for it. All in all a great night, and one I'm still full from now, four hours later...might necessitate another fast tomorrow.
Showing posts with label Zuoying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zuoying. Show all posts
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Lavender tea and 五月天
I don't know why I always put off posting until the last hour or so of my day, when my energy is zapped and my creativity is suffering from its daily rigor mortis. Perhaps it's for the same reason that I stay up until 1am playing Words with Friends on Facebook.
Or, perhaps it's because the highlights of my day today include such riveting entries as "getting my bank book fixed," "going to the doctor" (nothing serious, don't worry), "being sore," "calling friend after friend trying to find out how to say lavender milk tea and then asking tea store after tea store if they had it," and, well, "playing Words with Friends."
See, if I were more awake I'd go ahead and tell you the tea story, about how Karina and I combed Zuoying, Karina trying to figure out "lavender milk tea" by describing it to the vendors before we resorted to calling Fonda, Tom, Samia (none of whom picked up) and then Lucy, Karina's LET, who was finally able to tell us the name. About how the tea vendor we had just been talking to was able to write the words on a scrap of paper for us, which we then carried from place to place, covering a good ten blocks worth of tea shops and finding not a single place that sold it. About how their typical answer was "try 7-11," yet even when we got desperate enough to check there, they didn't have any. About how I still have yet to try this supposed ambrosia.
But I'm tired, and I have 五月天 (Mayday) stuck in my head, and I just realized I don't think I've ever shared my favorite of their songs on here before. So here it is. Also, it has the lyrics, translated, for those who don't speak Chinese.
Or, perhaps it's because the highlights of my day today include such riveting entries as "getting my bank book fixed," "going to the doctor" (nothing serious, don't worry), "being sore," "calling friend after friend trying to find out how to say lavender milk tea and then asking tea store after tea store if they had it," and, well, "playing Words with Friends."
See, if I were more awake I'd go ahead and tell you the tea story, about how Karina and I combed Zuoying, Karina trying to figure out "lavender milk tea" by describing it to the vendors before we resorted to calling Fonda, Tom, Samia (none of whom picked up) and then Lucy, Karina's LET, who was finally able to tell us the name. About how the tea vendor we had just been talking to was able to write the words on a scrap of paper for us, which we then carried from place to place, covering a good ten blocks worth of tea shops and finding not a single place that sold it. About how their typical answer was "try 7-11," yet even when we got desperate enough to check there, they didn't have any. About how I still have yet to try this supposed ambrosia.
But I'm tired, and I have 五月天 (Mayday) stuck in my head, and I just realized I don't think I've ever shared my favorite of their songs on here before. So here it is. Also, it has the lyrics, translated, for those who don't speak Chinese.
Monday, October 17, 2011
This is a blog post
In which I explain that Danny and Dan, friends from school back in the States, are in town, and that as a result, I haven't had time to write a proper blog post today.
So, in a nutshell, today I:
So, in a nutshell, today I:
- Hosted AIT's Storytelling event at the library, reading "Silly Sally"--and a host of other books, to somewhat disastrous results. Turns out, an hour is a freakishly long time when your only instructions are to read story books and color, youhave preschoolers and prepared for grade schoolers, and you are in an exposed area of the library being observed by a bunch of young Americans who showed up at the last minute for no apparent reason.
- Wrote my weekly report in record time;
- Met up with Karina for a milk tea/doughnut at Zuoying;
- Picked up Dan and Danny from the HSR station and took them home;
- Got delicious food with Dan, Danny, and Rachel;
- Wrote a draft of Han-Min's RT script.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Touristy Things
Given my well-documented love of mornings, especially on the weekends (please sense the sarcasm), it was just wonderful to be out of the house this morning by 9am, ready to catch a train at Zuoying by 9:55. But that's what happened! We (Rachel, Karina, and I) were in Taipei by 11:30, ready to check in at our hostel (a full 8 hours ahead of what we told them originally) and do some serious exploring.
And that's what we did. Armed with several guidebooks, Karina had put together a list of things to do in Taipei, and after a bit of conversation (including where I could go to buy shoes) we had a game plan: go to 陽明山 (YangMingShan), do a little hiking, check out the hot springs there, then come back into the city and go to 士林夜市 (Shilin Night Market), which is the most famous night market in Taiwan (and which, incidentally, sells shoes). We had lunch, got a call from Tom, who we invited to join us, and then set out for the mountain. The sky was cloudy as we descended into the Guting MRT station.
We met Tom and hopped a bus for the mountain top, but as we boarded we noticed something: raindrops. As it turns out, we seem to have a personal raincloud following us on our travels, much as you might see in an old Looney Toons production, but without all the moping. (It was our own fault, we decided, we'd jinxed it: getting of the train this morning I'd said it would be a good weekend if, just once, I got cold, and Rachel wore her bathing suit under her hiking gear) By the time we reached the place to change buses, it was really coming down. By the time we made it to the top (standing in the back of both buses for most of the time, balancing precariously on our feet as they weaved back and forth on crazy switchbacks), the mountain was also completely engulfed in fog.
So, naturally, we decided to go hiking. We'd already trashed our original idea of hiking to the hot springs, so we were instead in the volcanic region of the park, at the dormant volcano's peak--or near it. To get to it, we'd have to hike 1.6km up the side of a mountain, in the rain, in the wind, on a slippery rock path, surrounded by sulfur, with no just-in-case hiking supplies. This, naturally, is what we set out to do.
We made it about halfway before we realized that we wouldn't have time to complete the hike before the last bus left the mountain, and so turned back, still in the rain, to catch another series of buses down. But before we did, we had a momentary lapse of cloud cover, and could at least catch a glimpse of the crater across the parking lot! But, all too quickly, it was gone.
So we were back on the bus again. We'd given up on the hot spring idea for the day entirely (which saddened me to no end, given that we were now wet and cold), but soon we were warm again and roaming about the night market. After what I can only describe as the easiest, fastest, and most painless shoe shopping experience of my life, we had accomplished our only hard-and-fast objective and were just taking in the sights like the other swarms of tourists.
And then we went to dinner--at Modern Toilet. For the uninitiated, Modern Toilet sells food and ice cream--in toilet shaped bowls. I wasn't feeling great at this point, so I ordered just ice cream and orange soda (thought it was water, but oh well). The drink came out first (an oddity in Taiwan), and it was in, well, a blue urinal.
Then came the 'ice cream.' Turned out that the ice cream I thought I was ordering, the simple pile of soft serve they are famous for, was not what I had ordered. What I had ordered was this:
For a size comparison, here it is (a little depleted) next to what I meant to order, and which Rachel got after her meal:
Anyway, after that we walked around some more, did a (very little) shopping in some of the stores around the market (one of which smelled and looked like it belonged in downtown Ashland, OR--smoky, tie-died, faux-exotic, belly-dancing...), and even managed to run into Emily, Lydia, and Samia, who were doing the same. Another fun moment came when we saw a stream of illegal street vendors running away from a police officer--and by running, I mean they were quickly but precisely wheeling their entire livelihoods down the middle of a crowded walkway, while a police officer strolled after them several blocks behind. (Clearly, they're really serious about this whole endeavor...)
We were all ready at this point to call it a night. So, after a brief stop-in at one of Tom's regular places, where he ordered stinky tofu (which we all then had to watch/smell him eat), we headed back for the hostel. Here, we discovered it had been taken over by middle-aged and older Taiwanese people, which was a bit of a shock given that hostels are normally for the young and are usually dominated by out-of-country people. I'm guessing, though, that at this point all the hotels are booked, and you take what you can get!
So that's it for now. Tomorrow we're going to chase Karina's ritual of taking photobooth pictures in every Asian country she visits, then actually go to the hot springs. Undetermined after that--we might meet up with another alum from my high school, but who knows--but hopefully the weather will realize we don't live in a cartoon, and hold for whatever we end up doing.
Which will, inevitably, be touristy things.
 |
| One of the from-the-train vistas |
We met Tom and hopped a bus for the mountain top, but as we boarded we noticed something: raindrops. As it turns out, we seem to have a personal raincloud following us on our travels, much as you might see in an old Looney Toons production, but without all the moping. (It was our own fault, we decided, we'd jinxed it: getting of the train this morning I'd said it would be a good weekend if, just once, I got cold, and Rachel wore her bathing suit under her hiking gear) By the time we reached the place to change buses, it was really coming down. By the time we made it to the top (standing in the back of both buses for most of the time, balancing precariously on our feet as they weaved back and forth on crazy switchbacks), the mountain was also completely engulfed in fog.
So, naturally, we decided to go hiking. We'd already trashed our original idea of hiking to the hot springs, so we were instead in the volcanic region of the park, at the dormant volcano's peak--or near it. To get to it, we'd have to hike 1.6km up the side of a mountain, in the rain, in the wind, on a slippery rock path, surrounded by sulfur, with no just-in-case hiking supplies. This, naturally, is what we set out to do.
We made it about halfway before we realized that we wouldn't have time to complete the hike before the last bus left the mountain, and so turned back, still in the rain, to catch another series of buses down. But before we did, we had a momentary lapse of cloud cover, and could at least catch a glimpse of the crater across the parking lot! But, all too quickly, it was gone.
 |
| Quick, clarity! |
 |
| Out the bus window |
And then we went to dinner--at Modern Toilet. For the uninitiated, Modern Toilet sells food and ice cream--in toilet shaped bowls. I wasn't feeling great at this point, so I ordered just ice cream and orange soda (thought it was water, but oh well). The drink came out first (an oddity in Taiwan), and it was in, well, a blue urinal.
Then came the 'ice cream.' Turned out that the ice cream I thought I was ordering, the simple pile of soft serve they are famous for, was not what I had ordered. What I had ordered was this:
 |
| Shaved ice with kiwi sauce, chocolate soft serve, vanilla ice cream, raisins, mango pieces, and kiwi jellies, with random marshmallows etc sprinkled on it |
 |
| Aww, look, the cute little baby toilets are gathering around the mama! |
We were all ready at this point to call it a night. So, after a brief stop-in at one of Tom's regular places, where he ordered stinky tofu (which we all then had to watch/smell him eat), we headed back for the hostel. Here, we discovered it had been taken over by middle-aged and older Taiwanese people, which was a bit of a shock given that hostels are normally for the young and are usually dominated by out-of-country people. I'm guessing, though, that at this point all the hotels are booked, and you take what you can get!
So that's it for now. Tomorrow we're going to chase Karina's ritual of taking photobooth pictures in every Asian country she visits, then actually go to the hot springs. Undetermined after that--we might meet up with another alum from my high school, but who knows--but hopefully the weather will realize we don't live in a cartoon, and hold for whatever we end up doing.
Which will, inevitably, be touristy things.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Taxi!
Considering my other non-Taipei, non-USA weekends since I got here, I did a remarkable amount today. But it wasn't quite intentional.
The day began with me looking at my clock and thinking "Huh, 10 o'clock. Not a bad time to get up!" Seconds later, I looked over and saw that it was now 11 o'clock.
Once I was up, though, I immediately set into cleaning mode: our apartment decided to set up weekly cleaning people, rather than divvy up weekly chores like we did at my last house. And this was my week, and I hadn't yet completed probably the biggest and most important of my cleaning jobs: sweeping and mopping all the common areas. It wasn't pretty, and it certainly wasn't fun (take all the joy of normal cleaning, then add 15* and humidity), but it was rewarding to see the outcome: clean floors, for about 5 minutes. Se la vie, I guess.
Anyway, after that, Rachel and I set out to try to find a way to spend $2,500NT. That may sound like an easy task, but ours was actually more complicated--the reason we were trying to spend money was that the gym we're planning on joining, Fitness Factory (for the record, not the gigantic one with the rock climbing wall and pool pictured; we're going to a smaller, cheaper branch off of Sanduo), is having a promotion in which, if you spend up to $2,500NT at once at one of their partner stores, you can deduct that amount from your joining fee of $2,500NT. So, really, it's a question of "Do you want to give us $2,500 and get nothing, or spend $2,500 somewhere else and get something?"
Big surprise, we chose the latter.
But it was not an easy task! We visited Fitness Factory on Tuesday, found out about the deal, and were given a pamphlet listing all the partner stores. It was, however, written entirely in traditional characters, which neither Rachel nor I can read. (We could read "SUBWAY," but $2,500NT worth of sandwiches is a bit extreme...) So we (and by we, I mostly mean Rachel) spent the week asking various Taiwanese friends what the places on our pamphlet were, and where we should go. With the help of Chialing, as well as Rebecca and Karen (Rachel's LETs), we got some translations and narrowed down the list to a few contenders.
And this morning, we clutched our little green pamphlet, grabbed a cab across the street (and down a ways, since the guy in the cab directly across the street was sound asleep in the driver's seat), and asked him to take us to a car store. Now you may be thinking "Cars? But you don't have a car.." which is true. Our thought was that they might also sell scooter stuff, and we have both been hankering for a better scooter helmet.
Turns out, though, that your thoughts were right--nothing doing. As Rachel pointed out, we could have gotten Ferrari bumper stickers for our scooters, but I really can't say that's something I'm in the market for.
So we hailed another cab and asked him to take us to our back-up place--a jewelry store which turned out to be right around the corner from the gym. It also happened to be a tiny little section of a department store, with prices beginning at $40,000NT. Next!
We hopped another cab and asked him to take us to either of two watch stores on the list; whichever was closest. He agreed and set out, but as we looked closer at the address on the pamphlet, we realized that even the "closer" one was in Zuoying--by the HSR station, quite a ways from where we were. *sigh* One $200NT cab ride (spendy for here, but dirt cheap by US standards) later, we finally found the store, and discovered we'd finally found somewhere to spend our money. I walked away with a great watch and a pair of cheap clear glasses (for scootering at night), and Rachel walked away with a pair of cheap clear glasses and a pair of "designer" (we're not sure if they were telling the truth...ever hear of Martini?) sunglasses. I was actually a bit disappointed, though, because they gave me a discount, meaning my total was less than the $2500 allowed. Never been disappointed about a discount before! But now I have to pay a good $420NT to join, which is unfortunate.
Anyway, since we were in Zuoying and I'd promised Karina a visit today anyway--she lives in Zuoying now--we took the MRT down to meet her puppies. They are absolutely adorable! She adopted them off of Cijin Island a few weeks ago, and though she's since discovered she can't keep them--she's taking them to Taipei next weekend to become animal therapy dogs--it was so much fun to see the little pups and watch them play. Their names are MoMo and ChiChi--combined into "Mochi" their names mean "an unspoken deep understanding" in Chinese--and they were born at almost the same time that we got to Taiwan, Karina says. I do wish she could keep them if only for that reason--they have the same amount of history here as we do! In any case, though, it was lots of fun to see them, and to see where Karina and Esther live now.
We then grabbed another cab and went back to our apartment, where Brittany (who had been at a Taiwanese engagement ceremony of the friend of one of her LETs all day) was waiting for us to go to Kaohsiung Sky Tower 85--the landmark building of Kaohsiung, which we hadn't been to yet.
So we hopped in yet another cab and went to the 85, as it's usually referred to around here. At the top (or, rather, floor 74, where the observation deck is), we enjoyed some great views and an....interesting....Tokyo photographers exhibit, before grabbing dessert (caramel apple cheesecake for me; Haagen Dazs for Brittany and Rachel; Karina didn't want anything) and heading home.
For Karina and I, anyway--we walked to the MRT and went our separate ways. Brittany and Rachel grabbed another cab and went shopping.
And that was my day! Did some application work when I got home, which I should have done all day, and now I'm sitting here doing this. At least it doesn't require a taxi!
The day began with me looking at my clock and thinking "Huh, 10 o'clock. Not a bad time to get up!" Seconds later, I looked over and saw that it was now 11 o'clock.
Once I was up, though, I immediately set into cleaning mode: our apartment decided to set up weekly cleaning people, rather than divvy up weekly chores like we did at my last house. And this was my week, and I hadn't yet completed probably the biggest and most important of my cleaning jobs: sweeping and mopping all the common areas. It wasn't pretty, and it certainly wasn't fun (take all the joy of normal cleaning, then add 15* and humidity), but it was rewarding to see the outcome: clean floors, for about 5 minutes. Se la vie, I guess.
Anyway, after that, Rachel and I set out to try to find a way to spend $2,500NT. That may sound like an easy task, but ours was actually more complicated--the reason we were trying to spend money was that the gym we're planning on joining, Fitness Factory (for the record, not the gigantic one with the rock climbing wall and pool pictured; we're going to a smaller, cheaper branch off of Sanduo), is having a promotion in which, if you spend up to $2,500NT at once at one of their partner stores, you can deduct that amount from your joining fee of $2,500NT. So, really, it's a question of "Do you want to give us $2,500 and get nothing, or spend $2,500 somewhere else and get something?"
Big surprise, we chose the latter.
But it was not an easy task! We visited Fitness Factory on Tuesday, found out about the deal, and were given a pamphlet listing all the partner stores. It was, however, written entirely in traditional characters, which neither Rachel nor I can read. (We could read "SUBWAY," but $2,500NT worth of sandwiches is a bit extreme...) So we (and by we, I mostly mean Rachel) spent the week asking various Taiwanese friends what the places on our pamphlet were, and where we should go. With the help of Chialing, as well as Rebecca and Karen (Rachel's LETs), we got some translations and narrowed down the list to a few contenders.
And this morning, we clutched our little green pamphlet, grabbed a cab across the street (and down a ways, since the guy in the cab directly across the street was sound asleep in the driver's seat), and asked him to take us to a car store. Now you may be thinking "Cars? But you don't have a car.." which is true. Our thought was that they might also sell scooter stuff, and we have both been hankering for a better scooter helmet.
Turns out, though, that your thoughts were right--nothing doing. As Rachel pointed out, we could have gotten Ferrari bumper stickers for our scooters, but I really can't say that's something I'm in the market for.
So we hailed another cab and asked him to take us to our back-up place--a jewelry store which turned out to be right around the corner from the gym. It also happened to be a tiny little section of a department store, with prices beginning at $40,000NT. Next!
We hopped another cab and asked him to take us to either of two watch stores on the list; whichever was closest. He agreed and set out, but as we looked closer at the address on the pamphlet, we realized that even the "closer" one was in Zuoying--by the HSR station, quite a ways from where we were. *sigh* One $200NT cab ride (spendy for here, but dirt cheap by US standards) later, we finally found the store, and discovered we'd finally found somewhere to spend our money. I walked away with a great watch and a pair of cheap clear glasses (for scootering at night), and Rachel walked away with a pair of cheap clear glasses and a pair of "designer" (we're not sure if they were telling the truth...ever hear of Martini?) sunglasses. I was actually a bit disappointed, though, because they gave me a discount, meaning my total was less than the $2500 allowed. Never been disappointed about a discount before! But now I have to pay a good $420NT to join, which is unfortunate.
Anyway, since we were in Zuoying and I'd promised Karina a visit today anyway--she lives in Zuoying now--we took the MRT down to meet her puppies. They are absolutely adorable! She adopted them off of Cijin Island a few weeks ago, and though she's since discovered she can't keep them--she's taking them to Taipei next weekend to become animal therapy dogs--it was so much fun to see the little pups and watch them play. Their names are MoMo and ChiChi--combined into "Mochi" their names mean "an unspoken deep understanding" in Chinese--and they were born at almost the same time that we got to Taiwan, Karina says. I do wish she could keep them if only for that reason--they have the same amount of history here as we do! In any case, though, it was lots of fun to see them, and to see where Karina and Esther live now.
We then grabbed another cab and went back to our apartment, where Brittany (who had been at a Taiwanese engagement ceremony of the friend of one of her LETs all day) was waiting for us to go to Kaohsiung Sky Tower 85--the landmark building of Kaohsiung, which we hadn't been to yet.
So we hopped in yet another cab and went to the 85, as it's usually referred to around here. At the top (or, rather, floor 74, where the observation deck is), we enjoyed some great views and an....interesting....Tokyo photographers exhibit, before grabbing dessert (caramel apple cheesecake for me; Haagen Dazs for Brittany and Rachel; Karina didn't want anything) and heading home.
For Karina and I, anyway--we walked to the MRT and went our separate ways. Brittany and Rachel grabbed another cab and went shopping.
And that was my day! Did some application work when I got home, which I should have done all day, and now I'm sitting here doing this. At least it doesn't require a taxi!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Whiplash
Today I returned to the chaos that was our apartment in transition mode--Karina moved out, Analicia moved in, and I faced finishing unpacking amidst the piles of stuff I'd bought from Ikea minutes before I left for Taipei and home. And then, to top it all off, this evening our shower decided it would no longer be turned off.
So yeah, that was fun.
We kicked off the excitement today with helping Karina hurriedly shove things into whatever bags we could find--she hadn't really finished packing--and then carrying said items, in the rain, down to the waiting van. When we'd finished that, we moved on to Analicia's previous apartment, picking up her stuff and transporting it over to ours--itself a lengthy process--interspersed with determining what other items could be taken from the old apartment to ours and apartment C, and which came with it and had to stay. Then, after watching Esther and Karina drive away to their new apartment in the van--Esther was sitting in a desk chair trapped between a pile of stuff and a table in the back, since they ran out of room--we returned to our own place.
As a side note, it turns out that Esther and Karina will actually be living in the city! Hooray! They'll be in Zuoying, which is fantastic because it's on the edge of the city (so easy for them); but still inside it (so easy for us); and the biggest bonus of all is that it's RIGHT next to the HSR/train/MRT station! Which is great for them and for us--easy transport anywhere, inside or outside of the city. Makes visiting much easier. :)
But back to today--the rest of the day, Analicia was bustling back and forth between the living room where we'd set her stuff and her new room, which she was deep cleaning and rearranging. All this inspired/shamed me into finally delving into my own stuff a couple of hours later, and now, I'm proud to say, all my bags are unpacked. (Though I still have cleaning and a bit of rearranging to do, and yet another Ikea/Carrefour trip to make--partly for returns and partly for a few things I couldn't/didn't get last time I went, like a comforter and bed risers.)
So around 11pm, Analicia goes to take a shower. A few minutes later, I hear her calling my name, and then she appears in my doorway.
"So, this is kind of embarrassing, but how do you turn the shower off?"
It wouldn't turn off. Not for her, not for me, not for Brittany--the dang thing was STUCK! We called Fonda, but she didn't answer. We tried a few times, and finally got a hold of her on Facebook. Soon, our landlord, a handyman, and Samia (for protection and translation, Fonda said) showed up at our door.
Our landlord is great! We hadn't met him before tonight, but he speaks pretty good English, and he is upfront and energetic. He introduced himself: "My name is Michael; I'm the landlord--you pay me." While explaining to us that he and the handyman were speaking Taiwanese, he told us that Taiwanese is the most pure form of Chinese, and that if you read a poem from the Tang dynasty, you would be reading Taiwanese; he went on to tell us that, if we called 911, we would reach Mr. Cheng, the handyman. He's a real character.
So, while Michael regaled us with stories, advice, and a request for a list of our names and what we'd found in the apartment that needed fixing, Mr. Cheng quietly turned off the water to the shower. He and Michael showed me how to turn it off if we need to in the future, and he promised to come back tomorrow around 10am to fix it. Which is great--it means I HAVE to be up before then! Requirements help me to adjust to the jetlag whiplash I've been experiencing. (Seriously--I got in last night at 1:30ish and couldn't sleep; when I did, I slept till 2pm and was still tired. And I'm awake again now.)
So that was today! Some crazyness, some exhaustion, but also quite a bit of accomplishment. Maybe some day soon our apartment will actually look like we live in it, and aren't just in a constant state of transition...
So yeah, that was fun.
We kicked off the excitement today with helping Karina hurriedly shove things into whatever bags we could find--she hadn't really finished packing--and then carrying said items, in the rain, down to the waiting van. When we'd finished that, we moved on to Analicia's previous apartment, picking up her stuff and transporting it over to ours--itself a lengthy process--interspersed with determining what other items could be taken from the old apartment to ours and apartment C, and which came with it and had to stay. Then, after watching Esther and Karina drive away to their new apartment in the van--Esther was sitting in a desk chair trapped between a pile of stuff and a table in the back, since they ran out of room--we returned to our own place.
As a side note, it turns out that Esther and Karina will actually be living in the city! Hooray! They'll be in Zuoying, which is fantastic because it's on the edge of the city (so easy for them); but still inside it (so easy for us); and the biggest bonus of all is that it's RIGHT next to the HSR/train/MRT station! Which is great for them and for us--easy transport anywhere, inside or outside of the city. Makes visiting much easier. :)
But back to today--the rest of the day, Analicia was bustling back and forth between the living room where we'd set her stuff and her new room, which she was deep cleaning and rearranging. All this inspired/shamed me into finally delving into my own stuff a couple of hours later, and now, I'm proud to say, all my bags are unpacked. (Though I still have cleaning and a bit of rearranging to do, and yet another Ikea/Carrefour trip to make--partly for returns and partly for a few things I couldn't/didn't get last time I went, like a comforter and bed risers.)
So around 11pm, Analicia goes to take a shower. A few minutes later, I hear her calling my name, and then she appears in my doorway.
"So, this is kind of embarrassing, but how do you turn the shower off?"
It wouldn't turn off. Not for her, not for me, not for Brittany--the dang thing was STUCK! We called Fonda, but she didn't answer. We tried a few times, and finally got a hold of her on Facebook. Soon, our landlord, a handyman, and Samia (for protection and translation, Fonda said) showed up at our door.
Our landlord is great! We hadn't met him before tonight, but he speaks pretty good English, and he is upfront and energetic. He introduced himself: "My name is Michael; I'm the landlord--you pay me." While explaining to us that he and the handyman were speaking Taiwanese, he told us that Taiwanese is the most pure form of Chinese, and that if you read a poem from the Tang dynasty, you would be reading Taiwanese; he went on to tell us that, if we called 911, we would reach Mr. Cheng, the handyman. He's a real character.
So, while Michael regaled us with stories, advice, and a request for a list of our names and what we'd found in the apartment that needed fixing, Mr. Cheng quietly turned off the water to the shower. He and Michael showed me how to turn it off if we need to in the future, and he promised to come back tomorrow around 10am to fix it. Which is great--it means I HAVE to be up before then! Requirements help me to adjust to the jetlag whiplash I've been experiencing. (Seriously--I got in last night at 1:30ish and couldn't sleep; when I did, I slept till 2pm and was still tired. And I'm awake again now.)
So that was today! Some crazyness, some exhaustion, but also quite a bit of accomplishment. Maybe some day soon our apartment will actually look like we live in it, and aren't just in a constant state of transition...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)