Taiwan Storyland

Last Tuesday, Melodie, Nareesa and I spent over an hour wandering around Taipei Main Station looking for Taiwan Storyland. We had planned on going there for lunch so we were starving and eventually gave up. I mentioned this to my neighbor, Christine, and she offered to escort us there herself. WoOt!! So on Tuesday, Christine, Nareesa and I (Mel had to teach) took the bus to Taipei Main Station and walked straight to Taipei Storyland as if it were the easiest place in the world to find. It was frustratingly located in a basement, one building away from where we had stopped looking last Tuesday. *RAGE*


The inside of Storyland is made to look like you are walking down the city streets of old Taiwan. Storyland has a police office, school, dentist, shop, house, restaurant, theater and a few other places that are made to look like the 40s. It was kind of cool being there with Christine, because she remembered having some of the things that we saw on display and was able to tell us a bit more about what we were seeing.


The best part about walking down the fake streets of Taiwan Storyland? No scooters trying to run us over. Yay!


The admission price was $280NT (a little under $10CAN), which includes $150NT worth of vouchers that you can use to buy food or things at the shop. We decided to eat our lunch there, so I ordered a decent but dry-tasting plate of pork with rice and a too-sweet melon tea. Nareesa was a bit more adventurous, as she usually is, and ordered a plate of chicken feet and gizzards. She kindly offered me some, which I declined- though they looked delicious.


For desert we had decided to get shaved ice from the old-timey shaved ice store (old ice shavers seen above). Usually when I order shaved ice, I can choose whatever toppings I want on the dessert but at this place the toppings were pre-decided. They all featured vast amounts of goo and beans and the only one that looked good to me turned out to be chocolate sauce with a raw egg cracked on top of the ice. Pass! Wasn't that hungry anymore anyway.


Old fashioned KKK car.


Old fashioned copyright infringement- a proud Asian tradition- on a Mickey Mouse ice cream cart.


Old-timey racist toothpaste ad.


Outside of the hospital there were some old ads warning of the dangers of letting your child drink DDT. Who was letting their kids drink DDT?????


There were also some pleasant signs advising of the messy side-effects of being bitten by insects. Not sure what bug they are referring to, but I'm hope that thing never bites me!


Old fashioned police station.


We were able to play with puppets!


And there were stilts to play with too. Getting a photo of us both standing upright on those things was not going to happen.

The Most Popular Songs In Taiwan

Not unlike Korea, Taiwan has yet to evolve from that boy band style of music that was popular in the US and Canada in the 90s. The music is generally cheesy, poppy and gross- here are three of the biggest songs in Taiwan that are pretty much unavoidable right now (I will admit to not entirely hating any of them *pukes in mouth*):



(The trannies of) Super Junior M- Sorry Sorry

If anyone in my class says "sorry" for any reason, at least a dozen kids will start singing the chorus to this damn song. Actually, it is pretty catchy.



夜貓(Night Cat) by 丁噹(Ring)... I had no idea who sang this song until I looked up the Taiwan music charts and searched for a few of the songs on You Tube, but this song is played here a lot. The only lyrics I understand are in the chorus when she says "Mao" and "Gao" AKA cat and dog.



Wonder Girls- Nobody

This is horrible, but it when I'm out and I hear it it always gets stuck in my head. Such a stupid song!! Enjoy!

We're going out with some Taiwanese friends on Saturday night for karaoke (at a famous karaoke place where all the celebs go) and I hope we can convince them to sing one of these amazing songs!

A Little Stretch

It happens all the time in Asia. You're waiting to cross the road, you're standing at the bus stop, you're walking down the street and, sure enough, someone starts up with some random public exercise that would put Olivia Newton-John to shame. In both Korea and Taiwan, we've noticed that it's completely normal for locals to bust out some sudden jumping jacks, over-dramatic stretches and pelvic thrusts that can't possibly do anything for their health besides make them look ridiculous.

So yesterday, my fat ass was sitting at KFC when I spotted a cab driver taking an exercise break at a gas station. Unfortunately, I had a Zinger in my hand when he was first leaping around, but the footage I captured is still a good example of this phenomenon of Asian public exercise. Foolish as it is, you have to admire the spirit of the exercise. I mean, what do Canadian cabbies do on their breaks? Go to a Tim Horton's drive-thru? Smoke? This video makes me happy.

The Cost Of Living

One of the first things you notice when you go shopping in Taiwan is just how cheap a lot of things are. It's great!! After we got paid for the first time, Mel and I each had a $1000NT shopping spree. Maybe that sounds like a lot, but it's only $30CAN, and we each came home with a big bag full of new clothes. You can still spend a lot of money if you want to, but overall the cost of living here is very low compared to what we are used to in Canada. I notice this especially with restaurant prices- most people I know here never cook at home because it's just so cheap to eat out all the time. If you're thinking about spending some time in Taiwan, I hope this list helps you plan your budget (all prices roughly converted to Canadian Dollars).

A liter of gas= 75 cents CAD

A ride on the bus= 50 cents

A ride on the subway= 30 cents (short distance)-$1.30(the longest possible trip)

Taxi fare starts at= $2.30 and you'll probably pay $3.00 for a 10 minute journey


A Big Mac combo at McDonalds= $3.25

A tall latte at Starbucks= $4.00 (that shiz is overpriced wherever you go)

A bowl of noodles or a soup from a local vendor= $1.00


A can of Coke= 60 cents

A bag of Lays= 60 cents

A chocolate bar= 30 cents

A 355ml can of Taiwan Beer= 90 cents


An issue of "Sexy Nuts" magazine= $5.50

12 cubes (no rolls here) of toilet paper= $2.50

A new t-shirt= $3-$30 depending on the brand

A new pair of Converse shoes= $40


A Hello Ketty nighty= $3.00

High speed internet/monthly= $20

Cable TV/monthly= $15

A new CD= $15

A movie ticket= $7.50

Popcorn and pop combo at the theater= $1.75

Admission to the zoo or a museum= 30-60 cents

Transaction fee for using another banks' ATM= 15 cents


New Domo slippers= priceless

Airplane Restaurant!

Airplane food doesn't really have the best reputation but regardless, the A380 In-Flight Kitchen restaurant in Taipei has no problem filling its seats. After 3 Fridays in a row of trying to get reservations, we were finally able to book a table at this amazing restaurant and I'm happy to report that it was a turbulence-free ride.


The inside of the restaurant is modeled after the Airbus A380 airplane and looks just like the Airplane classroom that we taught in at the Suwon English Village in Korea. Melodie taught "airplane" class so many times she could probably still get up and show a room full of people how to use an oxygen mask. Oh, the things we do for money. But teachers aren't the only people capable of working in costume: the waiters and waitresses at the restaurant were all dressed like flight attendants. Unfortunately, none of them got up and started stripping like the staff at the hospital theme restaurant.


After a little while, the lights went down and the staff made an announcement in both Mandarin and English that the cabin crew wanted to welcome us aboard and that free drinks would be served shortly. With that, a stewardess pushed a cart through the restaurant and served us free plastic cups of beer, coffee or pop. We always order ginger ale when we fly, but sadly it was not available... so we went with the free beer.




The menu attempted to be fancy, with pumpkins full of crab and spaghetti topped with a raw egg on offer, but I went with your traditional steak and potatoes. I like my steak well-done and it was served very rare so I had to send it back... twice. Mel's steak had the same problem and Christine's medium steak was so rare it was almost purple. But, it was really, really good (when it was finally cooked the way I liked it)... it'd been a while since I'd had a good steak. Nom nom nom.


All meals were served with a shot of pomegranate liquor, a soup, salad, drink and the world's cheeriest dessert (see above). And for some reason, we also got free plates as well. Score!


Photo-op with the stewardess.

All in all, I would say that we had a fun flight this evening. I'm getting a lot of enjoyment out of these foolish theme restaurants, and I believe I've spotted one more that we have to try: there's a puppet theme restaurant somewhere in Taipei and I'm going to do some of my best googling to get us there soon! Puppets!

Herb Garden

Foodie review time! On Sunday afternoon, my landlord Christine took me and some of the other teachers to a fancy schmancy restaurant in Sinjhuang called Herb Garden. Unfortunately, Melodie was not able to join us as a result of too much Lady Gaga at 9% the previous night... but I'm sure I'll be able to take her back to try the restaurant sometime.


For a place located under an overpass, surrounded by shacks and fields of mud, Herb Garden has a great atmosphere and was rather busy considering that we were there around 2pm, when most restaurants are dead. The charm of the building comes from the fact that it was built around the trees, so there are starfruit and plum trees that grow from the ground through the floor of the restaurant and up through the roof. Also, as the name suggests, they really do grow their own herbs for cooking, which is a nice touch.


The meals cost between $15-18CAN, which I thought was expensive for Taiwan but by the time we'd finished all of the food they served us, you easily forgave the price. First out was a seafood chowder (no thank you) with some bread cooked right on top of the bowl. The bread was great!


Bottomless glass of fruit punch with little apple cubes floating in it.


Pinapple/apple/tomato salad with some leafy things, octopus and other fishy bits. The fruit was great!


Young chicken (without the head attached!) with pineapple and a tangy sauce that was really, really delicious. This dish was cooked and seasoned perfectly.


Dessert was coffee and a milk pudding with mint and red bean. I did a fairly good job of eating around the red bean... damn, I'm pickier than a 4 year old so take my comments with a grain of salt... everyone loved the food here.


The garden outside the restaurant. Although it was a cloudy day, the weather was nice and there were still flowers blooming. As a Canadian, I find it's so weird to see bright, fresh flowers outside in the month of November! There was also a fake chapel on site where weddings were sometimes held, and a peacock (the Taiwanese bird of love) strutting his stuff in the garden.

Of course, the best part about going out with my neighbor is that there is always a lot of funny and informative conversation. For example, at lunch on Sunday I learned:

- She thinks her husband is ugly (he isn't!) and she tells him all the time "YOU'RE UGLY"
- In Taiwan, if someone tells you you're cute what they really mean is that you're not good looking enough to be called handsome or beautiful.
- She once borrowed her foreign tenants' young son for a concert because she knew he would get the singers' attention. She also knows way too much information about this singer and looked like she might jump across the table when Christine-teacher mentioned that she liked him too.

I love my neighbor <3

So! If you're ever in the mud field/overpass section of Sinjhuang I highly recommend Herb Garden. It is a very delicious garden indeed.

UPDATE: By popular demand, Nareesa's entree- featuring the world's biggest shrimp with the world's most beautiful eyes:

9%

On Saturday night we went "clubbin", as requested by the lovely Nareesa, to celebrate her birthday. Before we headed into Taipei, we went to a local stir-fry restaurant with Kris, one of the Taiwanese teachers at our school. We'd walked past this restaurant a million times and it is always busy so we knew it would be good. Chris can actually read the menu (woo!), so he ordered us some chicken, veggie, pork and ostrich dishes and then decided to order something for us to try that would be unusual. We thought the ostrich was unusual enough, but then a hot pot full of pig blood arrived to win the title of strangest dish at the table.


What's your favorite animal? A lion? A giraffe? Penguins? Now imagine eating a penguin stirfry. Here's my look of guilt after eating ostrich, my very favorite animal. It just tasted like beef, but it felt like shame.


We took a cab to a bar in Taipei called 9%. The reason we chose this place? It's all-you-can-drink for approx $15CAN! It was amazing- when you finish your beer or cocktail you just hand it to the bartender and it is replaced by a new drink. Why don't we have this in Canada? The club wasn't too busy when we first arrived, but by 11:00 it was bumpin', and during the downtime when we first arrived Christine had the opportunity to make a new foreigner friend who was waiting for "a hot girl". I'm pretty sure Mel has some bruises on her legs from all the times Christine kicked her to try and save her from the conversation.


Clearly, we went to 9% on the wrong night, because December 12 is "Big Boobs Night"! Where they're going to find big boobs in Taiwan is still a mystery to me, but maybe we'll go check it out to see.

There was probably 10 guys at the bar for every 1 girl, so the girls I was with wound up being highly desirable individuals. Nobody was dancing, but we had gotten booted from our table by a group that had reservations for the table so we went to the dancefloor. The girls bobbed their heads a bit and danced slightly and by the end of the song the dance floor was packed. Ah, the power of those exotic foreigners! Over the next couple of hours the girls were shadowed by a never-ending mob of persistant admirers who couldn't take a hint. I had to tell one guy that they were lesbians so he'd leave them alone, but even that didn't seem to work!


The above photo is "illegal", apparantly. After an hour or so of dancing, some girls jumped up on the bar and did some sexy dances, and then more and more girls were brought up and fed alcohol while dancing, stripping down and making out. It was awesome! But when I took a picture a bouncer came over and gave me a pretty pissed off look and told me that it's illegal to take pictures of his trampy dancers. Jerk! Also after this, the bartenders did some sort of juggling show with bottles of alcohol that were lit on fire. I made sure not to take any pictures though, in case that was illegal too.


We'll call this the "after" photo, most likely taken at some pause between the millionth Lady Gaga song that they played.


We got back to Sinjhuang at about 4:30, and after something may or may not have happened in the bushes in front of our school...


...we stumbled home through what appeared to be some kind of newspaper-packing business that seems to be running on our street in the middle of the night. All in all, it was a classy and very fun evening filled with new friends, new foods, spilt drinks and soiled bushes.

Can't wait for Big Boobs Night!

The Week In Review

On Monday, Mel and I went to Banchio to pick up the train tickets I'd ordered online so I could go to the amusement park on Tuesday. We decided to get some supper and we'd wanted to try this one particular Thai restaurant for a while, but in the past it has always been too busy. On Monday we were able to get a table and it was so good, but on the way there I have to say we were quite tempted by another restaurant's strangey menu:


$178NT for "the pig sets the table" is a pretty good deal, if you ask me.


On Tuesday, Nareesa and I went to Leofoo Amusement Park, where I rode roller coasters until I made myself puke, and then on the way home we went to the Thai place I had been to the night before. I bought a papaya salad to bring home for Mel, and when she'd eaten about 75% of the salad she screamed and showed me the grossest black centipede, which had been floating in her salad!

On Wednesday, Mel made a new friend! When I went to Sanchong for my late afternoon class, she decided to go shopping in Ximen. This is only the second time Mel has gone anywhere by herself in Taiwan. The first time she went out alone she witnessed a bad scooter accident minutes after leaving home. On Wednesday she was followed around all afternoon by an older man who approached her on the bus. She was even wearing her headphones, which everyone knows is the universal sign for "DON'T BOTHER ME". Charles (the new BFF), is trying to learn English and wanted to follow her around while she shopped to practice his conversational skills. Although she reports that he didn't turn out to be creepy, and he even treated her to a coffee and squid soup, it still made it kind of awkward for her when she wanted to buy some pads.


On Thursday, my cold had reached it's peak and I wasn't sure how I was going to teach my classes. Wednesday night I slept for 14 hours and I woke up only feeling marginally better. Thankfully, the students I teach on Thursdays are all really good so I decided to pull out an old fool-proof game I used to play with my kids in Korea. Yes, I brought giant dice to work, and the kids went crazy. Teachers- if you need an easy day at work, bring along a giant fuzzy, novelty dice and everyone is going to be happy.

Friday afternoon at my part-time school I was assaulted by paparazzi! About 10 minutes before my class I was sitting in the office (which the school should really learn to LOCK) when about 20 teenage girls in pink and one boy marched in and surrounded me. I'd never seen any of these kids before, nor do I teach them. One girl was sheepishly pushed forward and she asked, "teacher... we take picture of you?" I was like "...okay" and the crowd squeeled. Every combination of students posed with me over what must have been dozens of photos until, thankfully, the bell rang and I was able to escape my biggest fans and go to the class of kids that I actually teach who don't give two craps about me. God, I love that class.


After work, all of the teachers went out for Mexican food at the *best* Mexican place in Taipei. Everything is so good, and last night the owner actually tipped US rather than us tipping him. He said thanks for coming and gave us some money back on our bill. Gotta love Asia! When Mel and I got home, our neighbor, Christine, came over with her dog Lucky and wanted to know if we would like to do something together this weekend. While we were talking and I was petting Lucky, I felt a warm sensation on my leg as Lucky started peeing all over me, and then walked while still peeing all over our floor!

So, we've puked, made new BFFs and been pissed on this week. How was your week?

New Favorite Food: Papaya Salad

Ingredients

• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 chilies - or as many as you like.
• ¼ cup roasted peanuts
• ½ cup tomatoes
• ½ cup green beans
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons palm sugar
• 2 tablespoons of fish sauce
• 2 cups of shredded green papaya

Cooking

• Shred green papaya
• Slice tomatoes
• Chop green beans
• Put garlic and chili peppers into mortar, smash them into small pieces
• Add peanuts, smash them into small pieces
• Add palm sugar, pound away
  
• Add lime, fish sauce, pound it until it mixes well
• Add green papaya and green beans and mix
  
• Garnish with roasted peanuts

This is a delicious hot, nutty and tangy salad that can be found for sale at numerous shops and street carts in our hood. I'm not a salad person, but this stuff is awesome!

An optional ingredient is the long black worm that Mel found in her last salad take out box. Ewww.

Dominos Delivery

I love Dominos! When we lived in Korea, there was a Dominos next to our school and I ordered a large pepperoni pizza for lunch every Monday and ate the leftovers for lunch every Tuesday. Ahhh, routine. Taiwan has quite a few Dominos restaurants too, but none are too close to our apartment. Mel was checking their website and she saw that you could place online delivery orders, so we thought we'd give it a try. Alone. *insert sound of doom here*

During the break in-between classes at my part-time school, I asked one of the students to show me how to fill out the online ordering form. The Dominos website shows their menu in English, but the section where you place your order and delivery information? That's all in Chinese. When I got home from work, Mel and I tried our best to place our order. The site wouldn't let us order anything without first choosing a combo, so that's what we did. We were able to match up the Chinese characters to the English menu so we knew we selected the right pizza- everything else? No clue. Here's what we ordered:

569四喜套餐-小比薩1個+四喜拼盤（巴掌麵包+烤雞翅+香烤薯球+轟炸雞條）+玉米濃湯2杯
小比薩
義式蕃茄四重肉
手拍 +
巴掌麵包 香蒜 1份 +
烤雞翅 BBQ 1份 +
香烤薯球 1份 +
轟炸雞條 1份 +
玉米濃湯 2杯 +

特惠副食+	$49
巴掌麵包 香蒜 1份+

※換購加價系列或加點額外起司，需另付費。

Do you understand, because I didn't!! Seconds after hitting "submit", our phone rang, Mel answered and it was Dominos. Mel just said "ok ok ok ok ok ok" to everything the lady said in Chinese, followed it up with "you come, we pay money", and about half an hour later, here's what arrived:


TWO pizzas (one was what we had ordered, the other one was a mystery), orange juice, a mouse pad, onion rings, taters, chicken wings, chicken strips and garlic bread. Hell yeah! After pigging out for ten minutes or so, our doorbell rings and we can see on the intercom that it's the delivery guy again. We open the door and he points at the mystery pizza (now missing a slice) and says "wrong pizza". OOPS! He chose the wrong house to leave the wrong pizza at, because we didn't even know what we'd ordered! He called his boss, smiled and left, letting us keep our free pizza.

We will definitely be using this amazing service again. Perhaps every Monday for lunch and Tuesday for leftovers. Dominos <3