Merry Christmas

I love my family! This is our skype call on Christmas day.

On Christmas Eve I went to church and had a lovely time with carols and candles.

Taipei 101

This morning was off to a very nice start when a parcel arrived from Australia, filled with some exciting Christmassy items, yay!

After class, my friend Rachel and I were planning on going to the Museum of Contemporary Art, but it was closed (but we didn't really mind since the exhibit at the moment was something strange about rocks... hmm). So we walked to Ximending, passing some kind of traditional temple on the way...

We stopped at the 'Red House' which is one of Taipei's oldest buildings (built in 1908). At night time it is apparently very lively with some outdoor markets and live music inside, but during the day it was quite peaceful.

I'm not sure what this creature is. The sign below it had some interesting Chinglish which did not do very much to clarify the confusion...

We went to some department stores to have a look around for a little while, and then when it got dark we made our way over to Taipei 101 (the second(?) tallest building in the world)! Rather than paying the extortionate price to go up to the observation deck, we just asked for a pass to visit Starbucks on the 35th floor, which was high enough to get an impressive view of Taipei.

We feasted on an interesting meal (pig's ears, mushrooms, intestines, pig's blood mixed with rice, noodles, vegetables, and soy bean kind of things) which was surprisingly very delicious!

What a lovely day :)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

I've had a very Christmassy weekend! On Friday evening the MTC put on a Christmas event of some kind with a talent show and some free food. I didn't really stick around for very long because it was cold and there were limited seating options.

On Saturday night I went carolling! We went to the markets and sang out some nice tunes while handing out candy canes.

Everyone's singing and I'm just grinning into people's eye balls...

I spent tonight with my cousins, chilling and watching a movie.

All in all, twas quite a relaxing and enjoyable weekend!

Confrontation

It's the early morning, and I've just taken a shower. I'm wearing my towel turban on my head (see image below). I open the bathroom door and step out into the hallway. Casually glancing down the hallway, I notice that one of the doors is slowly starting to open. A man steps out. He turns to look down the hallway and he spots me. He looks surprised.

'Hallo,' he says awkwardly.

'Hi,' I say.

He returns to his room. We meet at last, German roommate.

The time I allowed Asians to experiment on my brain

Recently when I was at the university I spotted an advertisement asking for native English speaking volunteers to take part in some kind of brain research. I didn't really look into the details, but instead signed up immediately. As a result, I spent approximately 2 hours today wearing an obscure cap over my head, with lots of wires attached and some kind of gel substance in my hair (which was horrendous to wash out...)

I had to sit at a computer and rearrange words to make sentences so that they could monitor what part of my brain was being used. They also asked me lots of questions about me being right handed, and whether I had any left handed family members? I'm still really hazy on the details, and it is possible that they actually extracted my brain during the process - but at the end they gave me NT$200 (like $5 - but enough to purchase a whole day's worth of food!) so I was pretty happy.

What an attractive image ^

After that exciting experience, I met up with a new friend Rachel! She is Taiwanese but speaks wonderful English and has also just started learning French. I think that's pretty impressive. We went to a lovely cafe and had some 巧克力起司 (Chocolate Cheese) cake and I also had some Chai tea. I'm not sure if this is the intensely Chai deprived part of my soul talking - but it was quite nice tea!

The Dry Season in Taiwan

Ode to Bubble Tea

One of the only things I knew about Taiwan before I arrived is that Bubble Tea was invented here. If you don't know what Bubble Tea is then you've clearly never left your home - it is everywhere and it is amazing. There's two different kinds, milk teas and fruit teas, and under each of these categories there are about a million different variations. Commonly, people add these little things called 'Pearls' which are actually balls of tapioca. They taste like nothing but are incredibly fun.

Trying Bubble Tea in Taiwan has been one of the highlights of my experience so far. It just tastes so much better when it is the real deal! Because of my limited skills at reading Chinese menus, I've so far only managed to order 珍珠奶茶 (Zhen zhu nai cha) which is Pearl Milk Tea. You're then given the choice of how much ice and sugar you want in the drink, to which I always answer 少冰，正常糖 (Shao bing, zheng chang tang) - Less ice, normal sugar. Yum.

According to wiki: "Concerns have arisen regarding harmful chemicals that may be used to make popular bubble tea drinks. Boba pearls, milk powder, and juice syrups may contain banned chemical additives in order to reduce costs. In May of 2011, a food scandalbroke out in Taiwan where DEHP(a chemical plasticizer and potential carcinogen used to make plastic) was found as a stabilizer in drinks and juice syrups."


To be honest, I'm okay with this. If I'm going to ingest plastic, it may as well be when I'm consuming this glorious beverage - which only costs about $1!

Taiwanese Subway

I'm a sandwich artist by trade, so when in a foreign country one of the first things I set out to do is sample some Subway and compare it with the Australian version. It is worth noting that Subway recognises Taiwan as independent of China, so you know, Subway is ahead of the UN. As I approached the restaurant, there was a sign on the door which prohibited cameras. I feel this is highly suspicious. (This is why the images are a little blurry and sneaky looking.)


The Bread
There were five options for breads: Honey Oat and Wheat (the same as in Australia), Parmesan Oregano (which we used to have), and two very strange options: Italian (actually white bread), and Hearty Wheat (I've got no idea).

The Meats
Options which are the same in Australia included: Tuna, Ham, Melt, BMT, Turkey, Roast Chicken and Chicken Teriyaki. They also had something called German Sausage (it looked a little risky). Their Steak and Cheese was completely different looking, kind of like the old shaved steak. Also, their meatballs are called 'Chicken Meatballs' which I'm not entirely sure I believe.

Cheese -  there is only one kind of cheese and it is called 'American Cheese'

They toast all hot subs, and don't really offer toasting for cold subs.

Salads 
The salads were basically the same as the Australian ones, but instead of salad onion they had normal raw brown onion which looked a bit gross really.

Sauces 
I tried the Southwest Sauce and it was actually really different to the Australian version, and I think it was so much nicer!!!

Cookies
Options include: Choc Chip, M&M, White Choc Mac, Oatmeal and Sugar.

Dear Roommate,

We haven’t met yet, which you might consider strange since we’ve been living in the same house for a week now. However, the truth is, I’ve been avoiding you. I’m sorry, but it just seems awkward to cross paths with you now. How can I make friendly introductions when you’ve secretly been ruining my life?

I don’t mean to cast the blame prematurely here, but I have reason to believe that the sink full of black whisker hairs is your doing. I put forward this accusation not only because I know you are German, and probably very hairy (at least that’s how I picture you), but also because the other person who uses our bathroom is female, and call me an optimist but I’d like to believe that she hasn’t been secretly shaving off a large beard.

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but it is horrifically gross that you don’t rinse the sink out afterwards. In the future, please consider my sensibilities as you sculpt your facial hair.

Sincerely,
Olivia

PS. Loving the German music, keep it pumping.

Class time!

When I first got my class schedule yesterday, I was slightly distressed because I thought I'd been put into the beginner's class. This (combined with the release of horrendous law results for last semester) triggered a large amount of irrational feelings towards UQ's failure to educate me. However, it turns out I'm not actually in the beginner's class, so it is okay. We are just doing the last few lessons in the beginner's book before moving onto to bigger things. 

It was really pleasant to be in a Chinese class where the teacher uses Chinese to talk to you rather than English (okay, still a little angry at UQ). My class also only has 7 people, which is nice because I had a chance to practise speaking! Lovely. I have a small mountain-load of homework developing already.

Here's some pictures of my neighbourhood...

The text on the road says something about pedestrians. I can only assume it says "If people walk on this path, please run them over with your scooter bike!" because that's what I've been experiencing.

Note the arrows on the road, perhaps meant to indicate the direction of travel (rarely followed...)