Defending myself

For some reason I always have something new to say when I throw out the garbage. I throw out the garbage 3x a week and lately I haven't experienced any conflicts. I've been doing good for the past couple of weeks but today I got yelled at again and I finally fought back. There are two trucks and I was waiting to throw out the paper/cardboard that doesn't touch food since today is Monday. Mondays are the days when you can usually throw away that stuff. As I was waiting for the guy to open the bag, he looks at me and asks me a question. I couldn't hear him though because he was wearing a face mask since he probably didn't want to get sick from dealing with the trash. It's popular to wear face masks here. Anyway I didn't answer right away and then he asked me again what was in my bucket and that it was the wrong day to throw the trash and that today was the day to throw out paper/cardboard. I was frustrated since I just wanted to throw away the trash and I had paper/cardboard in my bucket so I quickly retorted angrily in Chinese (of course), "No, this is paper" since he was asking me if the things in my trash were touching food. I was so mad because he asked me although you can see that I wasn't throwing the wrong stuff. I'm glad I finally got a little snappy since when I first got here, they would always yell at me. After I left I gave a glare to the other worker lol I'm sure he just wanted to make sure I wasn't throwing things in the wrong bag but it was just annoying that he questioned me when I'm sure he didn't question other people. I also had paper and cardboard so I don't know why he would assume I mixed everything up. Okay, just had to vent a little bit :)

-Chihchat

It never gets old

During lunchtime I went to Shilin night market to buy some school supplies and do some errands. Shilin night market nevers get old. No matter how many times I've been there, I always find something new and manage to get myself lost lol Although most of the stands weren't even open yet, there are so many small hidden alleys where you can seriously just walk forever and look at everything. I walked around for 2 1/2 hours and it was awesome. I just love looking at everything and I even passed by a temple and they were playing some music.

This evening Cala and I went to my mother's cousin's daughters, Lily and Anita, (I don't know what to call our relation) clothing store. I went to check it out and it was near a lot of food stands. After shopping at the store, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant.

A little side note, I saw that in the US they had daylight savings time this weekend. Oddly enough, in Taiwan they don't do that here. All year round the time is the same. Anyway days like today where I have a day off and just travel and explore different areas and places of Taipei are when I just love Taiwan because you can always find something new, eat something different, and enjoy a whole different atmosphere.

-Chihchat

Brownie points?

For my A1 class which is the first level for the advanced classes, I assigned them an essay to write about their favorite thing. It could be about their favorite sport, movie, actor/actress, color, band, etc. One of the students who is doing really bad in the class turned in her essay and she wrote how her favorite teacher is me. She said I was beautiful and in big bold letters she colored "We heart you (yes she drew a heart)" I was really surprised. I thought she actually didn't like me because she does have an attitude in class. Sadly I thought maybe she was just trying to get brownie points since she's doing pretty bad in the class and barely passing. After reading it, I told her thank you about the essay and she just smiled. It was pretty nice of her, I just hope her English can improve so I don't have to fail her.

-Chihchat

蔥油餅 heaven

My favorite Chinese snack/food is 蔥油餅 aka scallion pancakes. It's basically fried dough with green onions in it and I made it all the time back home in the US. It can be a breakfast food although it's a snack food in Taipei and you can even add cheese, basil leaves, and egg. I usually eat it plain but lately I would add hot sauce and this type of sour pickled vegetable to it. The other day Cala and I went to a little market near our place and we went inside this building where they had more food stands. We passed a 蔥油餅 stand. Usually in Taipei they sell 葱抓饼 which I blogged before but the difference is that the bread is thinner and fluffier. This stand was selling 蔥油餅 which I've never seen here yet and the dough was super thick and they were in huge pizza slices. One piece was bigger than my own hand. It only cost 50NT (almost $1USD) and I ordered a piece this afternoon. After seeing the stand yesterday, I had to go back today to order it lol The guy cut it up for me and it had sesame seeds on it too. It was so big that when he cut it up, it added up to about 10 big pieces. It was amazing though..I probably won't eat 蔥油餅 for awhile since it's way too much but it was incredible. I never seen such a big piece of 蔥油餅 in my life lol I need to go back and take a picture of it haha

-Chihchat

Hiking up Mt. Qixing

Today Cala and I went hiking at Yangming Mountain to Mt. Qixing. It's 1120 meters high (about 3,000 ft) and it took 2.27 km (1.41 miles) to walk there. We left at 5:45am to take the first bus since we expected this trip to take 5 hours. We both had a class tonight so we wanted to get home early enough to relax before we had to work. We took the correct bus but we couldn't find the second bus to transfer. We figured it out and all the buses were filled with older Taiwanese people getting ready to hike. Hiking is a popular pasttime for the older Taiwanese generation. The age range of these people are probably about 60s-80s and they are definitely in shape.

We reached the park and we get outside to find out that it is drizzling. It's just really annoying since the past couple of days it was so nice outside and of course the day we hike, it's rainy. It took us awhile to get to the trail but we finally started the trail at 7am. The steps weren't too bad and it was warm enough to wear my tank top and not have to wear my jacket. I was wearng shorts and my shoes didn't have the best traction since they had shocks. We were walking halfway there and it wasn't too bad. The stone steps were ok until we reached a little halfway to the peak and the trail became really steep. The steps were elevated higher so it was harder to climb up each step. The path got curvier and the rain didn't help at all since it made the stone steps slippery. It was pretty intense at some times because you would just look up and all you would see were more steps. We got to a grassy area, only a couple of kilometers away from the peak and the rain really started to pick up. The wind was blowing like crazy and we both had to wear our jackets again. We finally got to the top and we were basically in a middle of a cloud. It was super foggy and you couldn't see anything. We wanted to see the beautiful view of Taipei but the weather ruined it and you couldn't see anything except whiteness. (pictures above). It only took us about 50 mins to walk it up since we took some time taking pictures.

Walking back down the mountain was a whole different story. Well right when we were starting to head back, this guy who's not wearing a shirt and just wearing shorts, runs past us down the steps, practically jumping down. He was so crazy, but sadly he definitely outbeat us in walking down a mountain. Cala and I got passed a couple of times and a lot of the Taiwanese people were worried that I would get sick since I was wearing shorts and they would talk and ask me about it lol They were surprised I would be wearing shorts but it really wasn't that cold. I'm still used to the snow and cold winters of Iowa. The funny thing was that I was afraid of walking down the steep stairs since I didn't want to fall and my shoes aren't good handling traction. I slipped a couple of times and did fall a little bit (on flat land luckily) but at one point I would always fall or stagger when I was around people and Cala was joking around and said I was doing it on purpose and wanted attention lol It was pretty embarrassing though that I was slipping and having to walk really slow. We got back to our apartment at 10am. It was awesome! We then got lunch, we both went to Starbucks, and I studied a little bit of Chinese. I had to sub a class tonight and I'm not as tired. I feel pretty good considering I got up around 5am to hike a mountain!! Cala and I are definitely going back up again when the weather gets nicer.

-Chihchat

Speaking Chinese without stopping

Today after work I ordered some dinner to go. I ordered luwei which is where you can select noodles, meat, and vegetables and they cook it in a sauce and serve it in a bag. I ordered my food and I even asked them questions like why they weren't using the vegetables I chose and the lady told me they don't use the vegetables up front because they have them in the back and it's already cleaned. Anyway so then I orderd shaved ice and the lady understood me when I told her my toppings and she didn't speak English to me. So as you may think this is just another ordinary day of ordering food, but it wasn't since no one spoke English to me. Usually they don't understand and I have to repeat myself or I can't say something smoothly and I stutter. Tonight wasn't the case at all. I actually ordered food at two different places and I spoke with my Uncle tonight about making dinner plans for next week, all in Chinese without stopping to think of what to say next. I know I've been here for almost 5 months but I don't get to practice my Chinese a lot. I'm glad that it's somewhat improving. At least now I can think of what to say and actually converse with most people lol

-Chihchat

Noisy Taiwan and unpopped popcorn once again

This morning at 8:30am I woke up from the lovely noise of jack hammering. They are tearing down a building or room of some sort near our apartment and you can hear everything. When I was skyping with my friend, I at first had no idea what the noise was. Then Kenny was having a fit and meowing so it was just a loud morning.

Cala lost her keys a couple of days ago so we went to find a key store. Her old roommate knew of a place so while we were walking there, there was a food stand selling two kinds of donuts and sesame balls. I ordered a sesame ball and it was so good I had another one lol The lady asked me where I was from and I just told her I was American but I asked her what I thought I was. She thought I was Korean. It's because of my shirt though since it was a really Korean-like haha Cala and I made a joke about it but I guess I just have my days. Some days I look Japanese, Korean, Cantonese-Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Chinese, American, or Canadian.

Cala and I found a place near the market by our apartment to copy keys. It was literally like, let's find a sign with a key on it. There were so many signs with the key symbol and a telephone number posted on it but we couldn't find the store. We finally found a place and it only took the guy 10 mins to copy them and it cost a little over $3. Plus the new set of keys are really shiny! haha

Drew and I had Korean food for lunch. We both ordered the bibimbap (picture above). It was extremely delicious and super fresh. Then we went to Coldstone to get ice cream since Drew had stickers remaining from 7-Eleven and we needed to finish it up before they expired. During my night class, I had a student give me candy. Then for my private tutoring, my student also gave me candy lol I was surprised since my Monday night awful class had a party day and didn't give me anything :( lol

Then tonight after Drew and I ran, I went to my favorite 7-Eleven store near my apartment to buy popcorn. Unfortunately they ran out of the kind I like and I even went to another convenience store (Hi-Life) but they didn't have any either. I finally had to go to this 7-Eleven that is closer to my place but I don't like them since they are unfriendly and they always mess up on something. So Drew was at another food stand so I went to the 7-Eleven to get my popcorn. It took awhile for it to pop but anyway I got my popcorn and left and was walking to meet Drew when I realized that the bag was 1/3 popped. I complained to Drew about it and we went back to 7-Eleven. I explained to the 2 guys working although my Chinese isn't the greatest so I didn't really know how to say that the popcorn bag wasn't fully popped but they understood lol They opened another popcorn bag since I told them since they were going to repop the bag in the microwave. They were looking at me like they were annoyed though. Taiwanese people seriously must not eat that much popcorn because I always have trouble when I buy it. No one seems to know how to pop it and it's really a mystery to them lol But yeah, today was definitely a food day!

-Chihchat