Wednesday - February 5, 2003
It was particularly cold and miserable today as I headed out on
my daily grind. There's still nothing happening at the lantern.
I
noticed several businesses re-opening after the holiday today. Their staff all
standing outside while they detonated fireworks for the occasion.
I
stopped at a MOS along the way for a snack of fries and a soda. Unfortunately,
the girl at the counter started out asking me a question that caught me off
guard and in that moment when I tried to assimilate what she'd said, she ran
off getting an employee who spoke English. I apologized saying that my Chinese
very good and so she made me order in Chinese.
I ate light because we
had a lunch appointment to meet Chu-Wan's former teacher for lunch. When we
were in Hualien earlier, Chu-Wan spied a woman she thought was her 5th/6th
grade teacher waiting at the train station. Sure enough, it was her and Chu-Wan
gave her her address and phone number in Taipei.
Since then it has been
a comedy of errors as her teacher calls or drops by and we keep missing her. We
finally arranged to meet at the Noble Family Steakhouse for lunch.
Obviously, I don's want to spoil a good steak with too much
breakfast.
Lunch was a couple hours long, and rather boring for me. Even
had they been speaking English, the restaurant was so noisy (college students
had descended on it) that I couldn't have heard them from where I was sitting.
Michelle did remarkably well with all the noise.
Afterwards, the women
shopped for baby stuff, while I stopped in a couple electronics store. One of
them had a Japanese toilet seat... I've very tempted to buy it, but it is
rather expensive.
We returned home where Johnny and Tiffany were.
Tiffany apparently did not have an appendicitis.
I tried to slip away
for look for a case for my new camera, but Johnny decided to follow me. I'm
still not quite sure why. We ended up at a Japanese coffee shop called
Kuroshio just down the street from Bunny Listens to the Music.
Johnny was surprised when I had tea instead of coffee. Apparently the
impression is that all Americans drink coffee. Yuck. I continued on to
Hsimenting where Sony has a store which might have the custom case for
my camera. It was packed there and I saw someone taller than me. This guy (a
foreigner) was, in fact, freakishly tall, probably over 7 foot. he was towering
over the crowd. Oh well, I can't be the tallest guy on the island every
time.
On my way back I wasn't paying attention and I got off at the
wrong stop, then I got out of the metro station at the wrong exit. I ended up
walking farther back to the house than need be, and the weather hadn't gotten
any warmer.
When I got back I was told we were going on a trip tomorrow,
to Tainan and Kaohsiung. There's nothing like lots of advanced
warning.
Johnny and Tiffany wanted to take us to a pizza restaurant
nearby (and I was all in favor of that since pizza isn't as common outside
Taipei) but it was closed, so we went to Tequilla Sunrise a Mexican food
restaurant near Tai-Da University.
I'm not going to be too harsh on
Tequilla Sunrise. I don't think they could stay in business in Arizona,
but at least they were making an honest attempt, and I'll make allowances for
location and variations of local taste. I had a beef chimichanga and I'm
absolutely positive that they bought their flour tortillas at Costco, which
were fine incidentally, and they bought the big container of "Taco Seasoning"
there, too. Taco Seasoning, ground beef, a little cheese, onions, a tortilla
and deep-fry.
If you went to a friends house for dinner and they served
to you, you wouldn't think twice. If you went to a restaurant and were served
it you'd think, "that's what I could make at home with ingredients from
Costco."
So, it wasn't bad, it was tasty, it wasn't what I expected, but
I enjoyed it.
However, the 2 teaspoonful of refried beans were served
(intentionally) almost frozen. The margarita was pretty good.
Because of
tomorrow's pending trip, I parted company with the others and went on to the
Eslite Bookstore further down the street to pick up a couple walking maps of
Tainan and Kaohsiung. I am definitely taking the GPS on this tour.
I
was told over dinner that, rather than stay in a hotel, we'll be staying in
someone's house in Tainan. The house is apparently empty. It is unclear is the
house is disused or just vacant for the holidays, which last for many people
until Monday.
I must say, I think this bodes disaster. An empty house
is not a substitute for a hotel with clean sheets, running water and local
people who might be able to help you find it if you get lost. If the house is
just empty for a few days, that's even weirder. Did they change the sheets
before they left? Did they put away their personal effects? Who knows what
we'll find.
Associated Links
Noble
Family Steakhouse - Main Page - Chinese
Noble Family Steakhouse - Picture
Menu |
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