Taipei and Hualien trip (1)

Apau Jie had already promised to bring us to some trip. Last Tuesday, we went for 3 nights trip to Taipei (1 night) and Hualian (2 nights). 

On the first night in Taipei, we went to Shilin Market to have a late dinner. That was the first time I tried the delicious Taiwanese hot dog. 

It looks like normal hot dog, but instead of using bread, it uses sticky rice. It's oily and sticky, but tastes yummy! 

We also ate some other stuffs like pork ribs. Actually I was not so sure if they were actually pork ribs, cos the shape was not like a rib. The meat was not that much and it sticked to intricate parts of the bones. So, I had to play my tongue and teeth nastily in order to get the meat. Xiao Hei kept on correcting the way I held the bone as if I was a baby who started learning to eat by myself. huff. But once, I took a bite, chewed, and swallowed  it, the sense on achievement was just... overwhelming. 

I remembered Apau Jie said that when she went for a trip, she had to sleep in a good hotel. That night, she proved it. This is where we stayed: 

The room in the hotel was very nice and equipped with jacuzzi. Sometimes, I wonder why people are willing to pay so much just to sleep for 8 hours...zzz. Btw, just for information, in this trip, I always shared one bed with A Yuin, the guy who drove the car. Sleeping with him was very enjoyable (don't think too much). The reason is he did not snore and he did not move a lot. It was like sleeping with a dead man, I like it=).

Arkhhh!!

It's been a very long time since the last time I updated the blog and now I will not be able to complete all the 60 posts of my days in Taiwan.. Now, I actually almost finish this internship! I'm so sorry to the people whom i asked to read my blog, my boss, my Dad, and myself:(. I will change the format of this blog and I will talk about the things that interest me the most, to keep me motivated.

Now,I'll tell the reasons why I didn't update the blog:

1. She is the first culprit. My life here had been peaceful and I had so much time before she came. Her name is Mas, a Thai girl with pretty and big eyes, err, that  means her eyes are pretty big, he2. Ever since she came, somehow, I haven't had much free time to blog anymore. 

2. The second culprit is Apau Jie, my boss. After Mas came, she suddenly had so much activities for us: going to pub, KTV, drink Chinese tea, cuisine trip, traveling around, trip to Hualian, etc.

The one with the "snake" around her neck is Mas, and the other one is Apau Jie. 

Although I didn't really write my experiences in the blog, we really made beautiful memories. And they are not deletable. 

DAY 15: Living in the farm

I spent my Sunday in Irene's house (my colleague). There I met her husband Ricky, and her 4 years old kid, Xiao Ling. Ricky used to work as a supervisor in a multinational company, and deal a lot with Filipinos. That's why he can speak a not-too-bad English. Now, he's not working in management level anymore. He is a... farmer. I heard my friends joke about becoming a farmer if being engineer is too difficult. Well, it's not a joke anymore, some people actually chose to be farmer than doing something too hectic or demanding. 

Ricky has 8 orange farms, some strawberry and vegetable farms, and hundreds of ducks, chickens, and gooses and he likes to brag about how he's never used the pesticide on his farm. Moreover, what unique about his business is that he does not sell the products of the farms in the market, but he let the visitors pick the fruits and the vegetables right from the farms themselves. Here's the website http://037951547.emmm.tw/

On the left is the orange farm where we can pick those sweet oranges and eat them right away. (of course pay later) 

On the right is me with er.. cabbage. I don't know why at that time I chose to take picture with the cabbage.

I also spent much time with Irene's cute little kid, Xiao Ling. Irene told me that she liked to kiss people, so I guessed she was a nice kid. There was one time when she was playing on me as if I was her big toy, she made a funny shape with her mouth. I thought she was gonna kiss me, but the strange thing was instead of making O shape, she made E-I-E-I shapes with her mouth and suddenly "Kraugg!" She bit me on my wrist! Luckily it did not hurt, it was just like bitten by small puppy, hehe. 

There you go, me and the little brat who bit me.  

Anw, playing at Irene's house was fun, moreover, Ricky is good at cooking, especially his pork, nyummy..

These foods were cooked by Ricky himself. When I asked how he could make such a tasty pork, he replied "It's secret.", and laughed so hard as if he just made a super funny joke. 

DAY 14: Mission Impossible which is possible

Okay, today, I really had a good time with the kids. The topic of the English class today was parts of the body. We began the lesson with a review of the previous week lesson. I learned that the word "sheep" should not be taught to the kids because they have the tendency to pronounce the other word. We then drew pictures and sang a song about parts of the body.

The picture was a cowboy and the drawing technique was taken from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8ZjRmq9BNU . It really is a good video to teach kid how to draw. Okay, this is the cowboy that I drew on the white board. 

Sorry, the picture is not clear enough due to the reflection on the board.  

These are the pictures that were drawn by the kids:

This is the best picture, drawn by Jasen, and he won a set of colored pencils.  Now, I have bad and good news. Bad news, that is the only picture that seems similar to my drawing. Good news, the rest were too creative that they made something else on their own. 

A witch

A ghost

A goat

A cup

A power ranger

A sissy cowboy

A goofy guy

A Martian

Well this one is good enough

Of course, I did not give any sarcastic comments to the kids. All I said was "Hen hau!". But, there was a time when I couldn't stand it and I just burst into laugh, especially when I saw the cowboy with earrings. It was just hilarious. I hoped the kid took it as compliment. 

We also sang "Head, shoulder, knees, and toes". They loved it and fortunately it was easy enough for the kids to learn. This song requires a movement and it's really a workout. I could feel the after-jump-squat sensation on my thighs after we sang this song. Hopefully it was not a sign of age. 

DAY 13: RANDOM

Okay, there's no specific topic for today's post. I wanna share some of the pictures that I've taken before..

First, these pictures were taken when I and Xiao Hei helped Ta Ge (big brother) in delivering foods to the tables at his restaurant. 

The first picture was taken at about 11.30 am. It was quite and peaceful. The restaurant is indeed a lovely one and on the wall near the entrance door, we can see the autographs of many Taiwanese actresses who have visited. I always wonder why Ta Ge did not ask me to write my autograph there... j/k.

30 minutes later, 4 buses dropped by and... 

No wonder Ta Ge asked for reinforcement, it was really hectic! Everybody had to move super fast. I wished I could just use my mouse to click the food and drag it to the table just like in the Dinner Dash. 30 minutes later...

Yes, they were quite fast in eating their foods (pork, etc.) although they are in their 50's or 60's maybe. The next day, Ta Ge gave us some money, yea.. Ta Ge! If you ever need any help, just let us know, we will be happy to help! We don't expect any bonus, but if you insists, what can we do? hehe..

The following picture is my homestay..

I lied. First, this kind of house is no longer exist (well, that's what i know). It's how the Taiwanese house look like in the past. Second, it is only a miniature model which is displayed during the last Jiangmajue. Jiangmajue is an annual festival which celebrate... ginger. I know it sounds out, but it's really all about ginger. In the last festival, they even had a dog statue covered with gingers which is 4 meters high. I'll tell about it later once I know more about this festival.

Next, it's the pig statue that I see every morning when I walk to the office.

It always brighten up my day because it's fat, yet looks so happy. Moreover, every part of its body will be chopped off and cooked. If human could be like the portrayed pig, happy for how they are created and what they are meant to be, maybe the world can be a better place... Enough with the crab. 

DAY 12: It's nice to be foreigner;p

Just the other day, one couple visited our home-stay to have some good dinner and stay for a night. 

We (I, Ali, Pi Kong, and Nancy) had just finished our dinner and Nancy was teaching me how to say "smart" when the 2 guests came and joined our conversation.  

Nancy: Cong ming (but it really sounded like Tong ming)

Marsel: Tong ming 

Nancy: Bu shi, Cong ming.. (making funny shape with her mouth)

Marsel: Tong ming (this time, few spits came out)

---Nancy really has a high standard! She didn't care the fact that I am a newbie. So the conversation above was repeated for several times until one of the guests who had been listening joined our talk.--

Guest 1: Don't put your tongue in between your teeth. Put it behind your lower front teeth. Also, use a nasal sound like ng... bla bla..

(I was surprised by her English and how she explained the pronunciation)

Marsel: Errr... Are you a teacher?

Guest 1: No, but I took pronunciation class and I'm a linguist.

No wonder she could explain it in great details. We had a good little chat with the guests that night. They were nice guys, and I hope that they enjoyed their stay here. Before they went back to their room, they asked to take picture with me ^^. Yeah, I felt like a "bule"(westerner). Here's the picture:

From left to right: Pi Kong, Nancy, Guest 2, THATS ME!, Guest 2, and Ali.

Btw, I still dunno how to say "Cong ming"!!!!

DAY 11: Nino the good friend

Today, I'll continue to write about my Taiwanese friend, his name is Nino, a very good friend of mine. We do many things together, such as:

1. Walking to the office in the morning.

2. Practicing Chinese when there are only two of us.

3. Relaxing and eating cookies in midnight.

How he looks like? Is he good-looking? Here's the picture.

Okay, it's a Labrador, a good-looking and smart one. See the board hung around his neck?

It means: "Come to Yin Dong Sien Ci (Tina's restaurant), please follow me." If only he knew that he played such a great role in marketing, he could have demanded for more bones. But really, whoever fall for this walking banner will find out that the restaurant is really a good place to eat. Not only the foods are nice, but also they look attractive because the chef really put some effort in "designing" the foods. The English name of the restaurant is Mile High. The name was given by mysterious American adventurer who came by to taste a strawberry. Ok, enough. 

Now, Nino belongs to Tina, and he always stays at homestay every night, that's how we got close to each other. He knows my smell and I know his. Just kidding, dogs smelled the same. He is trained to shake hand (both left and right), sit, lay down, guiding people to the restaurant and the coolest is to catch and bite running people. So, don't run and shout anywhere near him. Hope, I can record the video of Nino biting someone-maybe A Yuen. 

One thing that I like the most from Nino is his eyes. I dunno why the eyes look like tame puppy here, but actually they look very proud and fierce. He's like saying "Give me food or be my food." Pardon me if I showed some symptoms of autism. Maybe I ate porks too much.