Category Archives: food

Weekend Disappointment

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I haven’t had a real meal in like three days. I’ve been so busy with work and stuff that I just grab a quick bite or snack on crackers. Last night was Saturday night, so I was totally expecting a real Saturday night dinner at a place with servers and stuff, but instead we ended up at Subway. The sandwich was probably the saddest-looking thing in my life. Today, I skipped lunch because I had to run errands with my aunt. Tonight, I was hoping to be redeemed but Jen ate an odd hour and is now not hungry for food. So I’m resigned to making a delicious meal for myself like I did the other day. (see below)


We saw Tropic Thunder, which was absolutely ridiculous. However, I totally thought that the little “previews” and “Booty Sweat” were actually real and was totally shocked as to what they were thinking until ten minutes into the actual movie. And Tom Cruise probably had the best performance to “Get Low”.

Fun Fact: Men carry their girlfriends’ and wives’ purses here. Not hold for the women while they pop into the fitting room, but actually carry the bags on their shoulders as they walk through the streets. And sometimes if the men walk away from their girlfriend/wife to look at something or go into another store, then it just looks like they’re just men walking around with a really cute pink patent leather bag. I’ve seen one too many guys with really cute purses and have been really tempted to just go up to them and give them a compliment. I don’t know how that would go over though.

Politics and BBQ

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We went to the Miniature Art Museum yesterday. On the bus ride there, we see a huge parade, blocking off half of the city, of people carrying banners, flags, and giant protest signs.

The flags say, “Yes! Taiwan, No! China” With my super observation skills, I deducted it was a big protest against using products from China due to the recent food scares. Here’s the real story. Apparently, some of the Taiwanese people are not happy about the current president encouraging relations between the two countries. The feud between Taiwan and China will always go on. It seems like you can’t get away from political drama wherever you go. Every country has their own problems.

As for my one and only political declaration: Go OBAMA!


I’ve already sent in my absentee ballot, so I’ve done my patriotic duty abroad. If I can do it from Taiwan, then you can go vote on November 4th if you’re in the U.S. Please make the country a place I can proudly and confidently return to next August.

After the trip to the tiny museum of tiny things with our new friend, Andrew, we had all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ which was amazing. You pay $399 for a two-hour limit of all the meat, vegetables, ice cream, and sodas you want. It’s going on the list of things to eat when we’re starving and have lots of dinner time to kill. We also met another Andrew, Andrew’s roommate; Alberto, a freshmen studying in Taiwan from El Salvador (I finally got the chance to practice/remember some of my Spanish!); and Steven, a sophomore in college from Thailand. It was totally international night last night.

Nostalgic

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Things I miss:

  • My boyfriend
  • My Friends
  • My Family
  • Real dessert, not this fake chocolate stuff, especially..
the Great Wall of Chocolate from P.F. Chang’s

the Creme Brulee from Sunset Grill

  • Americanized Chinese Food, especially the Sesame Chicken and fried rice from Oriental Lunch
  • Taco Bell
  • Good ole Southern Food – meatloaf, corn casserole, sweet potatoes, honey-baked ham, etc…
  • Current American television, and not old rejected series that never made it on air in the US
  • Driving
  • Samurai – although I have had some sushi here, but it’s hard to find a perfect new restaurant.
  • A really good hamburger and spicy fries from Fat Mo’s
  • Parthenon – I haven’t gone this long without seeing it.
  • Dr. Pepper
  • A dryer with a lint trap
  • Poker nights
  • Cold weather

To Be (Fat) or Not To Be

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We found an amazing hole-in-the-wall place called La Casita that has really good Mexican food and perfectly balanced margaritas. We went on Saturday night, and there was no one there, so we had the whole ten-table place to ourselves. I got a Mexican pizza because I’ve been craving the one from Taco Bell. This was nothing like Taco Bell’s, but it was heavenly. The owner kept talking to us throughout our meal, explaining that her food was really good, as well as everything else there, because she’s spent 20 years perfecting it. But it was really worth the experience.

We went and watched the House Bunny last night. It was incredibly cheesy, but I thought it was cute and it made me miss college a lot.

Fun Fact: All the kids’ school uniforms here have numbers on them, kind of like prison uniforms.

Not-So-Fun Fact: I’m 5’4″, 120-125 lbs, which is about the average healthy weight for women, right? The average Taiwanese girl here is about 5’2″ and weighs about 100 lbs. The girls here are ultra-thin and ultra-pale. No one exercises here so the majority of them have no toneness nor curves, just a lot of thinness.

Well, here in Taiwan compared to the other girls, apparently I’m a gigantic walrus with a tan. I’ve already gotten the fat comment one too many times, especially from my relatives. Now, all my horrible childhood memories of my mother calling me fat are resurfacing. I totally understand where she gets it now.

I got asked directions three times today by three completely different people. I don’t know where I am half the time, much less be able to give directions. If I look like such an outsider here, then why do people keep insisting on asking me these things?

Engagements & Such

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We woke up early this morning so we could get on the high speed rail to travel to Taichung for an engagement party. The bullet train t00k about 45 minutes for a normally three-hour-long car ride, and it had really comfy seats with lots of leg room. Jennifer’s boss, Sylvia, is getting married so she invited Jennifer and me to tag along.


When a guy and girl gets married here, there are two parties for them. The first is an engagement party occurring during lunchtime and thrown by the bride’s parents, and they invite all the family and friends on the bride’s side. The second party occurs a month later and is the actual wedding, this time paid for by the groom’s parents. There were about 360 guests there today, and everyone ate really well with the 10+ giant dishes of delicious seafood and other stuff. After the meal, everyone leaves with a giant box of “wedding cookies”.

the Bride and the Groom with their parents

Because it was a holiday weekend, we didn’t have reserved seats for the ride back since they were all sold out for the entire day. We had to buy non-reserved seats which literally put us on standby until there were seats open in any available cars. We got to the station around 4pm, and the line was soooo long and weaved around the entire station. It was a bit ridiculous the mass amounts of people, but fortunately the line went quickly, and we were on board half an hour later.

On the way out of the train station, we were about to cross the street to catch a bus home when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, and there were two guys smiling at me and Jen. One of them introduced them both and said that he thought I was cute, and his friend thought Jen was cute. He then proceeded to explain that he lived in California for about a year, and his friend there said that it’s ok to initiate conversations with girls if you think they’re cute. So he said that he was trying the American way by talking to us, and his English was actually pretty decent.

Here’s the thing in Taiwan, we’ve been out to a few clubs and bars, and we quickly learned that Taiwanese guys do not talk to girls here. It seems like the boys have been snubbed a few too many times over the past couple generations that they’ve just given up asking. Taiwanese girls will not give you the time of day if they are not even the least bit interested so the guys don’t really bother anymore. It’s even to the point where they’re afraid to stand in proximity with Jen at the club because she’s so “foreign”. If a boy is interested in a girl, he’ll send over a friend to let the girl know that he is interested and would like to get the girl better, but never do they ever approach the girl themselves.

Back to the story, so you can imagine our surprise when these two guys decided to come and talk to us and wanted to get our numbers so they can hang out with us more. Except Dude #1 made two fatal errors.

While asking where we’re from and how we knew each other, to which I replied that we’ve been friends for a long time since middle school, he then blurted out, half-joking yet half-serious, “Wait, are you guys a couple?” while looking a bit freaked out waiting for the answer. Very smooth, dude, imply that we’re lesbians because that’ll definitely get you hot dates. Then five minutes later, after stating that we look pretty young, to which I replied, yeah we’re 22, he then proceeded to ask us our names again because, “Sorry, I’m old. I forget things.” Old enough to forget things? Are we talking about 30s or 40s here cause neither can be a good thing while talking to 22-year-olds. (That’s another thing, you can never tell anyone’s age here cause they all look so much younger than they really are!) In the end, he wanted to get our numbers, to which I replied, Why don’t you give me yours?, also popularly known as, Don’t expect to hear from us anytime soon.

I feel a tiny bit bad for mercilessly squashing a Taiwanese boy’s first attempt to talk to us, but when they can’t do it properly, I suppose then they would be better off not doing it at all. (Not that it mattered if they did do a proper job, but I just find it all a very interesting cultural thing.)

In other news, I am a black-haired vixen again. Jen & I went to the salon to get our hair washed for a mere $150NT ($5USD), and I made the impulsive decision to dye it black. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile, but I didn’t want to do box-dye it myself and have my hair look like a fake wig. The lady did a really good job, and it matches my roots perfectly.