September in Taiwan

I feel like I have done a lot since I last posted.  I have gone on a few hikes, played a bit of tennis, took a few cooking classes, shopped "Halloween Street", gone on many lunch dates, started yoga, found new workout buddies, went to Kenting beach resort in southern Taiwan........I am sure I can come up with a few others. 

I love going on these hikes!  It is always with a different group of gals, and always an adventure.  On the start of one hike, we encountered a pig.  It  started walking toward us on the street,  "Are you a friendly pig or a mean pig?",  we wondered.  As it turned out, it was friendly...so was the adorable puppy romping about.   The hikes usually last 2-4 hours (I prefer the shorter hikes!) and take you up (meaning many sets of stairs with no handrail) into the mountains where the air is cool and the views are gorgeous.

Tennis leagues are starting up next week.  I have had a few refresher lessons, but I have yet to play a full "real" game.  My shoulder and knee are not cooperating fully with me right now, so I hope I will be able to play.  I'm nervous, afraid I won't be good enough, or forget how to score....gotta start somewhere.

There is a community center called, The Center, that offers classes and tours.  I have just finished 2 cooking classes.  The first one was Thai cooking, and the second one was Indian paneer.  I think I died and went to heaven after tasting the dishes these ladies made.  The great part about all of this is that the dishes are very easy to make.  I have already made a Thai meal and will make the Indian meal in a few days.

I went with about 8-10 ladies to a place in downtown Taipei that is called "Halloween Street".  At other times of the year, it is Christmas Street, Easter Street, Chinese New Year Street, etc.  I think we walked 3-4 blocks in one direction, crossed the street and came back the other way.  Most of the shops were filled with Halloween costumes and decorations.  Some of it was expected, others from another place and time.  It was fun and goofy....who knew?

The weather has finally broke.  We are now in the 80's for highs, still humid though.  What a relief!  It feels awesome.

Friendly pig!

Too cute!

This part of the hike reminded me of the enchanted forest, it was beautiful!

Made it to the top!

The great gals I hiked with that day.

Thai cooking demonstration.

My version of Chicken Curry and Glass Noodle Salad.

Emma loved the Curry,  Lily ate canned soup for dinner.  I can never please everyone!

This is Indian paneer.  I just learned that this is basically ricotta cheese and if you add a little salt and cream, cottage cheese.  You can also press it and then you can cut it into cubes.  It took all of 2 ingredients (whole milk and vinegar) and a few minutes to make!  It tasted fantastic!!

The bathing caps were a requirement to swim, "3 bathing beauties, all in a row".

At least we weren't wearing the latest in chinese swim fashion, the all over monokini.    The monokini covers the entire body from ankle to wrist to the top of your head, there are cutouts for eyes nose and mouth (like a ski mask).  There is a huge aversion here to getting tan.

Walking to the beach.

Having dinner in town with a few great families!

A teeny tiny shot bar on the sidewalk.  It was about as big as a port-a-pottie.

Stinky tofu!!!!

MMMMMMMM!  I need me some of that fried squid-on-a-stick!  A new idea for the Minnesota  State Fair.

Pretty dresses that the girls bought at the street market that night.  We did not pay full price, but I am sure we were still overcharged.

Very cool sculpture at an aquarium that we visited in Kenting.

Ice cube seats in the penguin exhibit.

Ouch!

I thought it would be a pineapple brown sugar cupcake, was I horribly off  on that guess.    The bottom of the cupcake tasted "beefy" with a very strange texture, it was soooo gross!

Sidewalk outside of Starbucks, tables filled with food for loved ones who have passed away.  The fires in these metal buckets are for  burning fake money.  This set up is in front of 7-Elevens and dry cleaners, coffee shops, etc., very strange.

Negative cosmetic g body beanty paylor.....what?  No thank you.

I keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms, so how about your appetite?

Lily learned how to do nice dives off of the diving board.

Emma's first trumpet lesson, I think she enjoys it!

A "Chinese" Halloween hat, should of bought it.

Hello again, Taiwan

So, we have been back in Taiwan since August 7th (my birthday).  I spent nearly the entire day in bed, oh how I love jet lag (NOT).  We had a very nice time in the US.  It was like we never left!  Although I am sure Target's bottom line had an inkling we were gone for a bit (Emma made sure to correct that).  We spent time with friends and family, spent a week at a lake home, and flew to Texas for a few days.  And we shopped and shopped and shopped..........I have been shopped out!  August 20th, the girls started their first day back at the Taipei American School.  The girls are trying to adjust to the reality of homework again, a harsh reality!  Taipei is HOT and STEAMY,  perfect weather for absolutely nothing but hunkering down inside by the AC.   Outside the windows, all I hear is the cicadas.  It is like listening to constant automatic sprinklers in your ear......strange creatures.  And now, we have not 1, not 2, but possibly 3 typhoons headed our way.  If this was the US, I would have constant 24 hour news telling me what is going on.  If this was the Gulf coast, we would be evacuating.  As it is, there is really no place to go.  My local friends and I are trying to read some cryptic websites to get storm info, problem is, we are not meteorologists.  So as it stands, I am a bit freaked out by the possibility of 3 storms coming within the next week.  Aside from the weather news, I am just trying to reestablish friendships and get back into routines.  I have put off my Mandarin lessons for the 3rd time, if not more.  I feel so guilty, but I have more important things to do.....this time, my excuse is taking yoga with a few friends (definitely more important!).  I may not know how to ask for the nearest bathroom or I might drive the wrong way down a one way street, but I will be limber.  Last weekend, we went to an art exhibit.  This was an exhibit that CNN said was one of the top 10 shows of 2011. This gentleman uses Legos as his medium, I was intrigued.  Halfway through the exhibit, I decided I had enough of fighting the crowds and elbowing my way in, and pushing Lily up throughout he crowd so she could see. If you have been to the Mall of America and have seen the huge Lego structures at Lego World, you have seen something more exciting than this show.  It was a bit of a let down.  CNN, you steered me wrong.  We also saw a Barbie exhibit.  It was fun to see all the Barbies from the 50's to the 90's.  I think most of the Barbies on display were from the 70's and 80's.  I got a kick out of seeing the Barbie styling head that I had as a kid, I loved that head!

Local girls use eye tape to create eye lid folds, to look more European.

Its good to know where the local gun shop is,  just in case.

This is our mailman.  The motorcycle and uniform are standard mail delivery attire.

Emma, her friend Shannon, and Lily making pottery on a wheel.

Yum!  Waffles with honey, chocolate and........TUNA?

Direct and to the point.

My new car, its so cute! It is a Nissan Tiida, I think they are called Versa in the U.S.  Easy to maneuver in small alleys.

Introducing the new ex-pat Barbie!

Ex-pat Skipper!

Ex-pat Ken!

And last, but not least, ex-pat Chelsea!

Oh Barbie, I missed you!

Lily and Emma on their first day of school.

My local grocery store.

Grocery store.........Cub Foods or HEB it is not.  The store I mostly shop at is called Welcome.  Thank you very much, I do feel welcome when I shop.  The cashier must think strange of me, she sees me practically everyday, probably thinks I have a family of 10 to feed, at least she is nice.  If you can think of a small grocery store in northern Minnesota that has just the essentials to get by, that is what I can find here.  And...since I live in an area where there is a larger concentration of foreigners, the store contains more "western" items (really?  where?).   First of all, the fruit and vegetable aisle......I can get onions, sweet peppers, potatoes (small), tomatoes, cukecumbers,  lettuce (romaine or iceberg), carrots (unbelievably large), celery, broccoli and cauliflower.  I can't find zucchini, I love zucchini!  Most of the time I can't find spinach, I love spinach! All of the other vegetables are ones I don't recognize or use.  So, I guess there is enough, it covers the basics.....barely.  For fruit, we are enjoying the mangos!  We also get kiwi, apples, bananas, watermelon, pineapple.  Berries are harder to come by and very expensive. We have tried some local fruit, wax apple and lychee....both good, but not something I crave.  They also sell a fruit called durian.  If you have watched any of the food travel shows, you might know what I am talking about. It is extremely stinky and has a very soft, gooey texture.  It is a love/hate fruit......I have not built up the courage to try it yet.  One thing I can say about the produce, it tastes very good, like it was meant to, it must be locally grown.  Sadly, I leave the produce aisle....onto meats and asian sauces.  Meat....what can I say?  I think Paul wants to become a vegetarian.  It just tastes different.  Right now Taiwan government is voting wether to allow US beef to be imported (it is not allowed at the moment).  I guess they are afraid of mad cow disease and a trace chemical sometimes found in ground beef.  We did manage to find a USDA steak, it was a yummy, pan-fried hunk of meat!  Chicken looks different.  The feet are usually included in the cut up pack (along with some other unrecognizable bits).  Some chickens are black, not appetizing.  The whole chicken is cut up in a way that I don't know what all the parts are.  I usually make chicken soup out of rotisserie chicken, but the rotisserie chickens here still have the heads and feet on them.....sorry, can't do it.  One thing I can say, the weirdly cut up raw chicken with extra bits makes a surprisingly good soup!  There are trays of cut up "meat".  I say "meat" only because I can't identify its origins.....beef, pork, other?  Trays of seafood/fish too, of course they all have their heads on, unfortunately, I am not a fan.  A whole section of tofu, it has taken me 3 months to find the right kind.  And then there is the sauces.  Soy sauce as far as the eye can see.  I cannot find hoisin sauce, sriracha, and almost couldn't find fish sauce......who would have thought I would not be able to find those things.  Dairy aisle.  I was told to buy the milk that had the cow on the label, otherwise you might not be so sure what you get.  I also have no idea which one is whole milk, 2%, or skim.  There are lots of other milks that have oatmeal in them, grains, fruit, etc.....of course most of this is deduced by pictures.  Small amount of cheese and yogurt, although plain yogurt and sour cream is hard to come by.  Good representation of spaghetti and sauce, too bad I don't crave me a bowl of pasta too often.  Huge oatmeal aisle...who knew?  You should see all the flavors,  crab, ham and corn, etc ........eewwww.  The import aisle is very small.  Pickles, ketchup, refried beans, salad dressing.....every week I go and stare at the shelves thinking that "maybe they got something new!"  Hopes dashed.  I can get SunChips in every conceivable gross flavor, Diet Coke, Goldfish crackers, decent wine.  What they lack is frozen foods.  The only thing other than pork dumplings I get in the frozen food section is frozen peas/corn/carrots (I select the one without the addition of ham).  Nothing else there.  Bread does not exist within the store, some stores will have a bread outpost where you can purchase a loaf after you have already checked out.  Other times you have to walk down the block to the bakery......toast it and slather it with butter, it is quite a treat!  I supplement with trips to the local import store and a monthly trip to Costco for meats, frozen pizza, frozen waffles, frozen blueberries and Starbucks coffee.

Customers dog, waiting patiently for their owner, no leash or chain.

Vegetable aisle.

Taiwan loves corn.  A whole section dedicated to corn, no other vegetable is honored in this way.  You even find corn on pizza and in oatmeal.

Hugest carrot I have ever seen!

32 ounce Nalgene bottle....carrot tastes good too!

2 foot long dried squid.  How do you cook it?

A big vat of ?????  I am afraid to ask.

Black chicken.

This is the import shelves.  It also needs to satisfy the wants of Europeans, not only Americans.

No thank you, I like my oatmeal with fruit and nuts.

Yum!, mushy peas anyone?  I guess a bachelor is the only one who would dare eat these?

MMMMMMM... char grilled steak flavored chips.  I guess thats better than all of the seafood flavored ones.  Also, anything flavored with cheese is sweet too.

Not to be confused with low class sugar.

Look at the lit shelves on the wall to the right.  There are half loaves of bread on the very top, that is my bread selection, white or wheat.  All of the other bread is sweet and savory buns of unknown  ingredients.