Monday - February 3, 2003
Things are slowly beginning to return to normal as more stores
open each day. Tomorrow garbage collection begins again. It's about time, too.
Things are beginning to stink
Mr. Cong You Bing wasn't open this
morning, which was a shame. Hopefully tomorrow.
Of course, nothing has
been done on the lantern at CKS. Chu-Wan tells me that, according to The
Culture Express magazine published by the government, the lantern won't be
lit until February 15th. Two more weeks of me hauling myself down there every
morning. Well, at least it gets me out each day.
Today Chu-Wan's
grand-aunt came to see Michelle. The plan was to go to lunch with her, and it
was arranged to go back to Din Tai Fung. I was getting tired of eating
at home and, since pizza wasn't an option, this was a very good choice in my
book.
I think a lot of people may have felt the same way, as the group
outside was more of a mob than a line, which is testament to just how popular
this restaurant is.
Chu-Wan's grand-aunt doesn't speak any English, but
it didn't take a linguist to understand that she couldn't believe I wanted the
pork dumplings instead of the pork and crab dumplings. Or that I didn't like
tofu. Or that I wasn't crazy about the stir-fried green-stuff that tasted like
Bermuda grass, etc...
Afterwards, Chu-Wan tells me that it was all her
fault according to her aunt and that she wasn't doing her wifely duties. Her
aunt had a friend whose daughter married an American, and he didn't like
Taiwanese food either, and she broke his spirit and made him like it like a
good wife is supposed to. I'm sure she meant well, but personally, I wouldn't
want Chu-Wan any other way.
We've had plans for 1 or 2 more trips
out of Taipei, but each one seems to get dashed. We'd hoped to go to Kaohsiung
to see their lantern festival and visit Chu-Wan's friend Min-Min, but the
logistics of the trip just haven't been our friend. Then we had plans to take a
few day trip with Johnny and Tiffany to Hohuanshan, but that got changed
because the temperatures there are currently in the negative numbers. We
switched to a trip to Tainan, but then Tiffany developed something that may or
may not be an appendicitis and Johnny has a cold.
That leaves me with
the prospect of being rather stuck in Taipei for 3 more weeks without a break,
so I started searching for information on hiking the nearby trails. I found a
web site (in English) on nearby trails, but the map I have of the area is only
good for the metropolitan area, so while the family chatted, I set out to get a
new map and a third set of batteries for the new camera.
The foreigners
are still out in force, nearly 25% of the people I've seen on the streets these
last 3 days have been foreigners. They apparently have nowhere else to go. With
no family and very few business open, they've seemed to cluster around
McDonald's and wander the streets in groups.
Despite eating a LOT of
dumplings for lunch (16), I still wanted a big, iced soda. I'd ordered a cola
at lunch, but just to exemplify how different Taiwanese drinking habits are
than ours, they brought the 12 oz. can of Coke and 5 glasses, so we could all
share it.
Getting a big soda was really becoming a necessity and I
decided I was going to practice my Chinese at the McDonald's near the
bookstore, but the line was just too long and my Chinese is worse than all the
other foreigners so I decided against it.
Back at the house we decided
to take Michelle out to the new Shin Kong Mituskoshi near Taipei City Hall and
find her some warmer outfits. My goal was more selfish - to find myself a real
American-size tumbler to drink out of! There must be one in this country
somewhere! I planned to buy it and just leave it here when I go home, secure in
the knowledge that no one would ever dream of using it. They might even bring
it out and awe their visitors much like someone with a cast of a sasquatch
footprint might do.
Grandma and Grandpa decided they wanted to watch the
baby instead, so we let them.
When we got to the area, I was
disappointed. There is a building that I could see from Chili's the other day
that is lit up in a really nice way and I wanted to return at night and get a
picture. Each of the floors of the building cycles through different colors
over a period of time and it looks very interesting. Unfortunately, they floor
lights weren't on. I guess the guy who sits in the control room and toggles the
light switches on and off all night long must be visiting his family during the
holiday.
In Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, Chu-Wan found a couple outfits for
Michelle and I found a massive 12 ounce plastic tumbler. Surely it must be the
largest in the country.
I refused, however, to pay $US20 to buy the
damn thing. That's just ridiculous!
While waiting for the bus to take us
home, I got a nice picture of a Taxi that managed to beach itself on the
concrete barrier between the lanes. I didn't have a tripod and it was dark, so
the picture is a little shaky.
Chu-Wan parent's had crab planned for
dinner and she convinced them (bless her) that I could take care of my own
dinner. So, on our way back home, I hopped off the bus one stop early and
headed to MOS Burger.
This is significant because, as I've explained
earlier MOS isn't very English-friendly and they don't have what I want as a
value meal. That makes ordering a lot more difficult because I have to
enumerate everything I want. My Chinese comprehension is drastically improved
this trip (still next to useless, but drastically improved) and I wanted to
give it a test. It worked flawlessly, I am pleased to say, and I think it even
made the cheeseburgers taste better. I did have apparently a minor glitch in
that I ordered 2 cheeseburgers (they're kind of small) and I didn't get the
same cheeseburgers I get when Chu-Wan orders them. Apparently, I ordered 2
cheeseburgers, and in the past Chu-Wan has ordered "MOS Cheeseburgers" - the
different being several Taiwanese dollars and more toppings on the burger.
Still, the girl at the register understood what I ordered and I got exactly
what I ordered. I can't complain about that.
I also saved the large
paper cup to take home because come hell or high water, I am
going to have a big cup to drink out of around this place.
(If somebody
would like to FedEx me a 16 or 24 oz. tumbler, I can supply the address, just
let me know.) |
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