I'm a bum!
So, I've just had a break for 9 days.
I had dinner with my aunt (my mom's sister) and my cousin. Dimsum... Mmmm... 10 different dimsum dishes, cantonese style! yumm... (Homer drool) I gotta snap out of this food addiction. Anyways, it was great to see my aunt, catch up and just talk. I don't know my mom's family very well, but mom and auntie are pretty close, and my cousin is only 6 months older than me. They always call us the two piglets. Cousin's nickname is actually Lil Piglet (explanation: we are born in the year of pig/boar; ..1983, 1995, 2007..). Auntie wants to make this a monthly treat - I don't mind! Hehe.. it's nice to be with family - without the drama.
Need a book recommendation? The Kite Runner!! I borrowed this books from Eiren, and I just couldn't put it down. It's a story about a special friendship, loyalty, betrayal and love... Sigh, I loved it. A very nice Christmas present, trust me!
Jenny went to LA.. E went to Tokyo... Me and Jen just sat at Starbucks all day long, reading, writing, drinking coffee. The toffee nut latte is great! We were so local. Riding around on her scooter. And when it rains, we wear really sexy bright yellow ponchos and use leg covers. Life with a scooter is very convenient.
A friend of Jackie's was here, so we went to Friday's to drink mojitos and had some snacks. Crazy snack plate called Hurrican or something. Huge potato chips with lots of cheese and dressing. Sounds nice huh? My cholesterol level is probably sky-high the way I'm eating and drinking...
One boring day, Jen and I went to Page One, our favourite book store in Taipei. Located in Taipei 101 - it's big, and has a big collection of English books. Yes, yes, I'm here to learn Chinese.. will it make it better if I say that i'm reading The Little Prince in Chinese?? Anyways... Jen found this really cute puzzle of Noah's Ark, comic version. 2000 pieces... We spent maybe 8h on the first evening, then I went back to her place the day after. Addicted...
But then we looked out the window, the sun was shining, a lil bit over 20C degreees, we had to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather! So we met up with Johnny, went to Ximending and had dinner there. Omg, I think we paid 120NT for a TV-dinner. I'm not kidding. Jen ordered curry rice with chicken, Johnny had the curry rice with "wuhuarou" while I had the curry rice with beef. The meal looked like it had just gotten out of the microwave, and I tasted like a microwave made meal too. And then we kept hearing this timer going off in the kitchen... Errr.. We wanted to ask the waitress how they made their food.. but figured it was too rude. Poor waitress, it's not her fault that the place has cheap food. So we asked the manager about the store. "Is it a chain store? Is it Japanese? How many stores do you have?". Haha.. Soo. it turnes out that this is indeed a chain store, franchise coming from Japan. It's so "special" that all of their chefs were sent to Japan to learn how to cook. Umm... Yeah ok, maybe we chose the wrong meals?? But hey, how difficult is it to make good curry??? Atleast we had fun with their salt 'n pepper containers. Haha.. cute little human-looking figures hugging eachother.
Sooo... Time to go local again. So, we wanted to drink. But where? I'll tell you were... At a street restaurant - lou bian tan! Street restaurants are like garages with kitchen. They have some seatings inside, and out on the sidewalk. Usually these restaurants don't serve alcohol, but Jen knew about this one by her place. So we sat around a little table, and drank some drafted Taiwan beer. Soon Jackie joined us - me and the 3 J's. Actually, we have 6 J's amongst us. Two Jenny/Jens and two John/Johnnys. Where is the imagination huh??
Anyways--- us stupids at the loubiantan, talking crap and whatnot. Then somebody mentioned binlan - betelnut: Wikipedia Betel nut, also known as Pinang or Areca nut, is the seed of the Betel Palm (Areca catechu). Betel nuts are often chewed for their helpful effects, which are caused by the relatively high levels of alkaloids in the seed. Chewing betel nuts is an important and popular cultural activity in many Asian countries. It is also used as an offering in Hinduism.
So, it's a green lil nut. And it's usually only men chewing it, mostly workers/blue collars. It's very popular amongst drivers. It's supposed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy.. and more awake. I haven't tried betelnut, so I was curious! Johnny bought a bag of it, the "original" ones with a green leaf wrapped around it. But um, how do we do it? We asked the loubiantan's owner's son to teach us. He looked at us, and started to chuckle. So, we were supposed to bite one end off, and then put the entire thing into your mouth and them chew. This red gooey sirup will come out and always spit out the first umm.. goo. We all did that.. Except Jen. She chickened out and almost puked. The rest of us did it.. but you could see our faces turn... It tasted really bad and we all spat it out. Johnny had bought the wrong kind! The guy bought some for us. This one had flavouring so we tried again. MMmmm.. this one was actually nice. Jen still refused to try, so she put hers in her beer. Supposed to make your beer taste better.. Hmm... We chewed one, liked it, was spitting red goo like crazy, and tried another one. Charming huh? We stopped after that. I started to feel really warm and was shaking. Haha.. 3 in a row probably wasn't the smartest thing for a rookie. But the effect wore off rather quickly, and we went back to the beer. Then we got hungry. Luckily we had a night marked close by. We bought some deep fried sweet potato ball, grilled spicy (!) cuttlefish, sugar-glaced strawberries, grilled corn, luobuogao... Foooood!! Then went back to Jen's to introduce the puzzle to the new arrivals. With Vodka Rasberry and Johnnie W as good mates, we started to puzzle. Jackie went home after an hour.. pfff party-pooper hehe.. While the rest of us stayed up til 5am!! Hah.. Crazy, but we finished a lot!!! Weeeee.....
Went out to tapas with Jackie the day after. I wanted tapas sooooo bad!!! And we found a place not too far from me. We ordered a couple of dishes. And my god it tasted like crap... Sorry.. but it was bad. Last time I ate tapas was when I was in Mallorca with Phil... Pffff, so disappointed! So we left and the people who worked there: Oh, leaving so sooon? Eh yeah! We went to good ol' Mei's had our apple tea with cinnamon (real apple pieces and cinnamon stick!!) and some of Mei's nice cooking. Ummm... happy happy happy.
Then on Sunday, Jen left for Shanghai. Damn these jet-setters, leaving me alone!!
But luckily I had a couple of friends who were availble. This one friend took me all over Taipei on Sunday. Eating Thai cuisine next to 101, riding scooter up to Yangming mountain to go hiking and catch the night view of Taipei, dinner at my night marked, then we went to a cool café here. They have animals there!! 3 cats and one Golden Retriever. One of the cats jumped on me and laid on my lap the second I sat down - awww...
Monday? Oh, worked out in the weight room with the basketball team. I was sore for 2 days.
Tuesday hmm.. I went to Heather's school to have dinner with her and another exchange student. Very nice. Her school is up by the moutains, serene surroundings. Then she took me to Gongguan, just for some shopping and walking. We had dessert and bought some DVD's. Yay.
The rest of the time, I was just bumming. Sleeping, watching TV, DVDs, dl music.. lots of music. Hah...
I had dinner with my aunt (my mom's sister) and my cousin. Dimsum... Mmmm... 10 different dimsum dishes, cantonese style! yumm... (Homer drool) I gotta snap out of this food addiction. Anyways, it was great to see my aunt, catch up and just talk. I don't know my mom's family very well, but mom and auntie are pretty close, and my cousin is only 6 months older than me. They always call us the two piglets. Cousin's nickname is actually Lil Piglet (explanation: we are born in the year of pig/boar; ..1983, 1995, 2007..). Auntie wants to make this a monthly treat - I don't mind! Hehe.. it's nice to be with family - without the drama.
Need a book recommendation? The Kite Runner!! I borrowed this books from Eiren, and I just couldn't put it down. It's a story about a special friendship, loyalty, betrayal and love... Sigh, I loved it. A very nice Christmas present, trust me!
Jenny went to LA.. E went to Tokyo... Me and Jen just sat at Starbucks all day long, reading, writing, drinking coffee. The toffee nut latte is great! We were so local. Riding around on her scooter. And when it rains, we wear really sexy bright yellow ponchos and use leg covers. Life with a scooter is very convenient.
A friend of Jackie's was here, so we went to Friday's to drink mojitos and had some snacks. Crazy snack plate called Hurrican or something. Huge potato chips with lots of cheese and dressing. Sounds nice huh? My cholesterol level is probably sky-high the way I'm eating and drinking...
One boring day, Jen and I went to Page One, our favourite book store in Taipei. Located in Taipei 101 - it's big, and has a big collection of English books. Yes, yes, I'm here to learn Chinese.. will it make it better if I say that i'm reading The Little Prince in Chinese?? Anyways... Jen found this really cute puzzle of Noah's Ark, comic version. 2000 pieces... We spent maybe 8h on the first evening, then I went back to her place the day after. Addicted...
But then we looked out the window, the sun was shining, a lil bit over 20C degreees, we had to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather! So we met up with Johnny, went to Ximending and had dinner there. Omg, I think we paid 120NT for a TV-dinner. I'm not kidding. Jen ordered curry rice with chicken, Johnny had the curry rice with "wuhuarou" while I had the curry rice with beef. The meal looked like it had just gotten out of the microwave, and I tasted like a microwave made meal too. And then we kept hearing this timer going off in the kitchen... Errr.. We wanted to ask the waitress how they made their food.. but figured it was too rude. Poor waitress, it's not her fault that the place has cheap food. So we asked the manager about the store. "Is it a chain store? Is it Japanese? How many stores do you have?". Haha.. Soo. it turnes out that this is indeed a chain store, franchise coming from Japan. It's so "special" that all of their chefs were sent to Japan to learn how to cook. Umm... Yeah ok, maybe we chose the wrong meals?? But hey, how difficult is it to make good curry??? Atleast we had fun with their salt 'n pepper containers. Haha.. cute little human-looking figures hugging eachother.
Sooo... Time to go local again. So, we wanted to drink. But where? I'll tell you were... At a street restaurant - lou bian tan! Street restaurants are like garages with kitchen. They have some seatings inside, and out on the sidewalk. Usually these restaurants don't serve alcohol, but Jen knew about this one by her place. So we sat around a little table, and drank some drafted Taiwan beer. Soon Jackie joined us - me and the 3 J's. Actually, we have 6 J's amongst us. Two Jenny/Jens and two John/Johnnys. Where is the imagination huh??
Anyways--- us stupids at the loubiantan, talking crap and whatnot. Then somebody mentioned binlan - betelnut: Wikipedia Betel nut, also known as Pinang or Areca nut, is the seed of the Betel Palm (Areca catechu). Betel nuts are often chewed for their helpful effects, which are caused by the relatively high levels of alkaloids in the seed. Chewing betel nuts is an important and popular cultural activity in many Asian countries. It is also used as an offering in Hinduism.
So, it's a green lil nut. And it's usually only men chewing it, mostly workers/blue collars. It's very popular amongst drivers. It's supposed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy.. and more awake. I haven't tried betelnut, so I was curious! Johnny bought a bag of it, the "original" ones with a green leaf wrapped around it. But um, how do we do it? We asked the loubiantan's owner's son to teach us. He looked at us, and started to chuckle. So, we were supposed to bite one end off, and then put the entire thing into your mouth and them chew. This red gooey sirup will come out and always spit out the first umm.. goo. We all did that.. Except Jen. She chickened out and almost puked. The rest of us did it.. but you could see our faces turn... It tasted really bad and we all spat it out. Johnny had bought the wrong kind! The guy bought some for us. This one had flavouring so we tried again. MMmmm.. this one was actually nice. Jen still refused to try, so she put hers in her beer. Supposed to make your beer taste better.. Hmm... We chewed one, liked it, was spitting red goo like crazy, and tried another one. Charming huh? We stopped after that. I started to feel really warm and was shaking. Haha.. 3 in a row probably wasn't the smartest thing for a rookie. But the effect wore off rather quickly, and we went back to the beer. Then we got hungry. Luckily we had a night marked close by. We bought some deep fried sweet potato ball, grilled spicy (!) cuttlefish, sugar-glaced strawberries, grilled corn, luobuogao... Foooood!! Then went back to Jen's to introduce the puzzle to the new arrivals. With Vodka Rasberry and Johnnie W as good mates, we started to puzzle. Jackie went home after an hour.. pfff party-pooper hehe.. While the rest of us stayed up til 5am!! Hah.. Crazy, but we finished a lot!!! Weeeee.....
Went out to tapas with Jackie the day after. I wanted tapas sooooo bad!!! And we found a place not too far from me. We ordered a couple of dishes. And my god it tasted like crap... Sorry.. but it was bad. Last time I ate tapas was when I was in Mallorca with Phil... Pffff, so disappointed! So we left and the people who worked there: Oh, leaving so sooon? Eh yeah! We went to good ol' Mei's had our apple tea with cinnamon (real apple pieces and cinnamon stick!!) and some of Mei's nice cooking. Ummm... happy happy happy.
Then on Sunday, Jen left for Shanghai. Damn these jet-setters, leaving me alone!!
But luckily I had a couple of friends who were availble. This one friend took me all over Taipei on Sunday. Eating Thai cuisine next to 101, riding scooter up to Yangming mountain to go hiking and catch the night view of Taipei, dinner at my night marked, then we went to a cool café here. They have animals there!! 3 cats and one Golden Retriever. One of the cats jumped on me and laid on my lap the second I sat down - awww...
Monday? Oh, worked out in the weight room with the basketball team. I was sore for 2 days.
Tuesday hmm.. I went to Heather's school to have dinner with her and another exchange student. Very nice. Her school is up by the moutains, serene surroundings. Then she took me to Gongguan, just for some shopping and walking. We had dessert and bought some DVD's. Yay.
The rest of the time, I was just bumming. Sleeping, watching TV, DVDs, dl music.. lots of music. Hah...
posted by Mar at 4:37 PM
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